The Boys Just Set Up Homelander’s Next Enemy Inside the Seven — and It Isn’t Soldier Boy

Sister Sage might finally be done babysitting Homelander. The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 plants a quiet but very pointed seed that the smartest person in the room is ready to flip the board — and no, I don’t mean Soldier Boy.

Fair warning: spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 and Gen V Season 2 ahead.

The Seven’s worst-kept secret: Homelander will turn on you

The Seven have always run on fear and self-interest. Everyone plays nice because they know how fast Homelander can decide you’re expendable. Ask Black Noir. You can also see why The Deep and Firecracker bend over backward to keep him happy. Not everyone fawns, though. Sister Sage doesn’t — but she’s under no illusion about how unstable he is, and she absolutely plans for the day he points those eyes at her.

Sage’s Episode 4 move: a tiny scene with huge implications

Sister Sage has spent a lot of time building Homelander’s power structure — his Season 4 coup was basically her TED Talk come to life — but Episode 4 shows where her loyalty actually stops: right before he gets something that makes her irrelevant. V1, the immortality ticket he’s chasing, sets off every alarm bell for her. An unkillable Homelander doesn’t need a strategist. He barely needs anyone.

• She tips Soldier Boy about Homelander’s trip to Fort Harmony, clearly angling to block him from finding V1.
• She twists the knife by framing it as father and son living forever together — which, given how much Soldier Boy hates his kid, is an instant provocation.
• Only Soldier Boy realistically stands a chance at stopping or at least stalling Homelander, either by force or by dragging him off the scent.
• It doesn’t end up mattering in the moment — Bombsight gets to the serum first — but her read is right: put those two in each other’s way and they’ll slow-roll the whole thing.

It’s a small, surgical betrayal that costs her nothing and sets the stage for a much bigger one later.

Why Sage is wired to betray: see Gen V Season 2

If you watched Gen V Season 2, none of this should shock you. Sage is romantically involved with Thomas Godolkin — a relationship she hides from Homelander — then turns around and sells Godolkin out the second his plan threatens her positioning. She frees Polarity and lines things up so he and Marie can take Godolkin down. Feelings or not, she chooses survival and leverage every time. That’s the pattern.

Don’t expect her to help the heroes

Here’s the rub: even if Sage kneecaps Homelander, she’s not doing it to fix the world. She’s doing it to run the world that already exists. Her interests do not line up with Butcher and the gang in any meaningful way. If she makes a move, it’s to preserve the machinery he thrives on, just with someone she can manage better. Honestly, I could see her backing Stan Edgar’s comeback bid or propping up Soldier Boy if he’s the more convenient cudgel. Episode 4 tees up both options.

The inevitable breakup

However the board shifts, the mutual toleration between Sage and Homelander feels like a countdown now. When a brain built like hers finally collides with brute force like his, it won’t be subtle — and it definitely won’t be friendly.