The Boys Season 2: How is Madelyn Stillwell still alive?

Explaining Madelyn Stillwell’s appearance on The Boys Season 2, Episode 4

Caution: There are spoilers for The Boys Season 2, Episode 4 in this post.

The Boys Season 2, Episode 4 surprised everyone with the return of Madelyn Stillwell. Considering she was killed off in the Season 1 finale, it made everyone question what the hell was going on.

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Supernatural fans will know that Eric Kripke has a general rule of dead doesn’t stay dead—although they really probably should. Was this what was going on here? Had the showrunner decided to bring a character back somehow? Does a Supe have the ability to bring the dead back to life?

Well, it turns out that Madelyn Stillwell is still dead. The Madelyn we saw during the episode is not the character we’d come to know and love to hate.

Madelyn Stillwell is…

It didn’t take long for The Boys Season 2, Episode 4 to reveal the details. Homelander had Doppelganger pretend to be the former manager of The Seven.

Considering Homelander’s kink for his former “boss,” that’s not all too surprising. And yes, things were as crazy as you’d expect. Homelander seemed to fully believe that Doppelganger was Madelyn, except for the brief moment Doppelganger turned back to himself explaining that it was too painful to keep the other form for so long.

Homelander believed he needed Madelyn in his life. It was in these scenes that he realized that he didn’t need her around after all. He only needed himself.

RIP Doppelganger

Thinking that he knew what Homelander needed, Doppelganger transformed into the Superman of The Seven. That’s not what Homelander wanted at all.

Homelander has realized that the only person he needs is him. He doesn’t a copy of himself. He’ll just rely on himself. And so, he kills the copied version.

Yes, Doppelganger is dead. Which will mean no more Madelyn Stillwell…unless she does somehow come back from the dead, of course. But dead seems to mean dead on The Boys.

What did you think when you first saw Madelyn on The Boys Season 2, Episode 4? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Boys Season 2 airs Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.