Mirroring and Shattering in THE BOYS

"Herogasm" Shows Us Who Homelander [Thinks He] Is

The Boys 4.03 “We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here” has a great shot showing Homelander facing his many psyches, continuing a series-long motif.

3.06 “Herogasm” shows Homelander and his mirrored alter-ego in conversation, covering the scene with fairly simple shots, where small shifts and great attention to detail convey greater meanings.

The Setup

We get the first shot of Homelander and his alter-self at the finish of a camera move revealing the mirror.

In a handy bit of technicality and creative freedom working hand in hand, replacing the whole mirror in post so Antony Starr can act across from himself also means the camera is freer to move, because with a real mirror there’s a lot of digital erasure and replacement required, whereas this is simply full replacement of a rectangular area.

Throughout the first part of their conversation, the scene uses ‘clean’ shots of Homelander, and ‘dirty’ or Over The Shoulder shots of his alter-self in the mirror. Within their ‘two-shot’ one character is in focus while the other is out.

All this works within general conventions of keeping characters Frame Left / Frame Right when switching angles. It’s quite important because both characters are the same person and dressed identically; using basic film grammar means the audience can keep track of who is who, saying what.

The Next Step

The scene is well into its flow before it moves into its first closeup of alter-ego [1:15].

Even without the mirror frame, we know who he is because he’s Frame Right looking left, same as he’s been all along.

The switch to closeup is timed with alter-ego’s emotional outburst; we’re moving closer even as the conversation intensifies.

Another small detail which help differentiate who is who: though the paintings behind Homelander are reflected in the mirror behind alter-ego (as logic requires), alter-ego’s closeup (above) is framed so his background is mostly blue, whereas Homelander’s same-sized shot (below) is more full of gold.

The Switch

And then!

Having taught us how to read the scene, the scene changes.

(This section is from 1:39-2:07 in the video above.)

It starts with a J-cut, so we hear alter-ego speaking over a shot of Homelander, then it cuts from Homelander closeup to alter-ego closeup . . .

but now the backgrounds have ‘met in the middle’ in terms of blue-and-gold, while and both characters are framed ‘on top’ of each other facing square.

Homelander glances directly at the camera/mirror but mostly tries to avoid looking at his alter-ego, while alter-ego is constantly barrelling.

We can still tell who is who by the slight tilt and their emotional state, but if you hadn’t been following along with the scene and just saw these shots, you’d not be able to tell the difference.

Homelander himself can’t tell where reality begins and ends: his alter-ego is subsuming him.

When it breaks back into ‘typical’ coverage with the line “we gotta cut that part of you out like a cancer” it shows Homelander attempting to regain control, but overall the scene shows the truth: he’s getting more and more confused, losing what little control and sense of self he may have ever had.

Takeaways

Whether they’re twins, alter-egos, mirror reflections, clones, etc., you don’t need every shot to differentiate your same-same-looking characters, you can play with them in the exact same outfits, shot sizes, framing, background, and more.

But if you don’t want to confuse the audience, and/or if you want to say something really specific (for example demonstrating your character is losing his goddamn everloving mind), it helps to carefully set the stage, consider what your film grammar is saying, and methodically edit into and out of any symbolic and tricksy shots.