Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Boys Season 4, Episode 4.
The Big Picture
Sister Sage’s self-lobotomy scene in
The Boys
Season 4 breaks the norm by being gruesome without surprise or excessive blood.
Sister Sage’s frequent self-lobotomies hint at a potential vulnerability for her character, which could be exploited by enemies like The Boys.
Sage’s lobotomy reveals a surprising aspect of her character that could also foreshadow a certain fate for her in Season 4.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve watched The Boys or not — its reputation for having some of the most audaciously lewd and gory scenes put on screen precedes itself. From heads exploding to the more recent Vought on Ice bloodbath, the series has cracked the code on the formula designed to make its audience squirm in discomfort. As a result, it takes something quite disarming to stand out amid the onslaught – but the latest episode of The Boys Season 4, “Wisdom of the Ages,” has just that in the form of a lobotomy — something viewers themselves might want after watching the scene.
The Boys
A group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers.
Release Date July 26, 2019
Creator Eric Kripke
Seasons 4
Studio Amazon Studios
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Why Does Sister Sage Lobotomize Herself in ‘The Boys’ Season 4?
Every Supe’s power comes with a burden, and for Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), it turns out that being the smartest person in the world can become incredibly exhausting. As teased at the tail end of Episode 3, there is a way for Sage to turn off her brain and relinquish her responsibilities so she can watch Transformers 2 and eat a Bloomin’ Onion — but it’s a little more strenuous than just flicking on the TV.
After Sister Sage summons The Deep (Chace Crawford), he confronts her about her mercurial attitude towards him, but she explains what she has to do to unwind and how Compound V affects her anatomy. Sage explains that while most adults’ brains grow until they’re around 25, her brain is irregular and continues to regenerate, constantly increasing in capacity. This explains how she can speed read, as we saw in Episode 1 when Homelander visited her book-filled apartment. Sage states that if she were stabbed through the heart, she’d die like anyone else, but stab her in the brain, and, “the little fucking bitch grows back.” Of course, The Deep likely wasn’t listening at all because he assumes the orbitoclast tool that Sage uses to lobotomize herself is a sex toy. While the exchange between them starts humorously enough, it quickly takes a more disturbing turn.
Sister Sage’s Lobotomy Is an Attack on the Senses in ‘The Boys’
The gory scenes in The Boys grab the audience’s attention through various methods: surprise, shock, and, more often than not, visually demonstrating how much blood is in the human body. But Sister Sage’s lobotomy scene breaks all those rules. There’s no surprise, like Annika (Ana Sani) being lasered to death by Homelander (Antony Starr) after he swears on his son’s life, and there isn’t much blood either. We’re told point-blank by Sage what to expect as she breaks it down for The Deep, but it’s still impossible to refrain from cringing as Deep leans in with the orbitoclast, and an extreme close-up shows the tool slowly encroaching on her eye.
If the idea of The Deep performing a lobotomy isn’t already terrifying enough, it gets worse once Sage instructs him to “use the hammer” and scrape her brains out. That’s when the sounds kick in, meaning not even the safety of your eyelids can save you from the horror. As squelches and squishes ensue, perhaps the worst bit is the chisel-like sounds of the rod burrowing itself in Sage’s brain as The Deep decimates her frontal lobe. Following what feels like an eternity (a mere three minutes), The Deep extracts the orbitoclast. Despite a small streak of blood from the impromptu operation, Sage is fine, and, in her lobotomized state, she can rationalize going to Pound Town with The Deep as she promised in exchange for the assist.
Is Sister Sage’s Lobotomy Foreshadowing Her Defeat in ‘The Boys’ Season 4?
Although Sage may be the calmest and most collected character on the show (besides the equally dangerous supe Victoria Neuman), the need to escape her brain is a tell that she’s carrying a little more serious of a burden than she’s letting on. It appears Sage lobotomizes herself rather frequently as the “operation” seemed more cathartic and even pleasurable than painful for her. Whether it’s an end-of-day ritual or a cheat day once a week, the idea that Homelander’s new right-hand and smartest woman in the world is purposefully dumbing herself down means there are times when she — and by extension, Vought — is vulnerable.
The Boys (and likely most of Vought and The Seven) don’t know that Sage lobotomizes herself to unwind, but, once they find out, it could be a game-changer in their fight against Homelander. We’re still unaware of how long it takes for Sage’s frontal lobe to grow back, but what we do know is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen clocks in at exactly two and a half hours long, meaning Butcher (Karl Urban) and company have more than enough time to do some serious damage without Sage intervening. While this presents a potential problem for Sage, perhaps the bigger issue concerns The Deep. How is his octopus lover Ambrosious (Tilda Swinton) going to feel when she discovers the real reason he’s been neglecting to clean her tank of all those algae blooms?
The Boys Season 4 premieres new episodes weekly on Prime Video in the U.S.
Watch on Prime Video