This article contains spoilers for The Boys Season 2 episode 4.
It’s been a while since we last saw Dan Darin-Zanco’s Doppelganger pop up in Amazon’s relentlessly brutal comic book smash hit series, The Boys, but he was back in Season 2’s fourth episode, ‘Nothing Like It In the World’ and hoo boy, there was a lot to unpack about his reemergence by the time the credits rolled.
We last saw Doppelganger in the Season 1 episode ‘Cherry’ where we were just starting to get a handle on how Vought International was manipulating political figures for its own gain. When a Senator informed Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue) during a fundraiser that the government would oppose putting supes into national defense, she put Doppelganger ‘in the field’ by having the supe seduce the Senator. The two had sex, only for the wily shapeshifter to take incriminating photographs of the liaison, which Stillwell used to blackmail the Senator.
In ‘Nothing Like It In the World’, Doppelganger returns in what seems to be another ‘escort for hire’ situation, transforming into Stillwell to appease Homelander’s ongoing mommy issues. You’d be forgiven for feeling utterly confused by their first meeting, as we’d forgotten Doppelganger’s presence on the show, having not seen him since that second episode in season one! We wondered how Stillwell could still be alive after getting properly bloody lasered through the face in last season’s finale. Yes, we were briefly fooled by Doppelganger, so don’t feel bad. The rest of you? Good memories! Carry on.
As Stillwell, Doppelganger approaches Homelander (Antony Starr) inside a secluded cabin complete with all the romantic trimmings and offers him a glass of milk, assuring him that he’s still very much wearing his Big Boy Pants with The Seven after Stormfront’s intrusive addition to the team. As Homelander snuggles up to Doppelganger’s ample bosom, he feels comforted by his mother figure’s temporary kindness, and it’s clear that he misses it deeply after violently murdering her. So deeply, in fact, that he’s set up these deranged meetings with Doppelganger to slap a Band-Aid on his emotional problems.
Unfortunately, in his attempts to soothe Homelander, Doppelganger ultimately angers the homicidal supe, as so many poor souls have unwittingly done before. By shifting into Homelander’s image, and attempting to seduce him so that Homelander can finally reach some kind of apex of kinky narcissism, Doppelganger makes the wrong call, and Homelander snaps his neck after deciding he doesn’t need anyone else telling him how to connect with others – he only needs himself. Props to Antony Starr for giving this scene so much weird energy and tension!
We’ve dug up a clip of Homelander and Doppelganger’s final rendezvous from YouTube if you feel physically and spiritually prepared to watch it again:
RIP Doppelganger. Horrible way to go, and the only way you could have possibly improved your demise would be throw out a Hedwig quote right in Homelander’s face: “from this milkless tit, you sucked the very business we call show!”
Antony Starr is clearly having a whale of a time (sorry, Lucy) playing Homelander on The Boys, and his character somehow manages to level up in madness every week. What does the second half of Season 2 have in store? We can’t wait to find out.