For most of ‘The Boys’ season 5, Sister Sage has operated as someone completely untouchable. Each word, each betrayal, each political maneuver was carefully planned by the world’s cleverest mind.
That’s why her recent downward trend has been one of the most interesting aspects of the show. For the first time, Sage is outmatched because she doesn’t fully understand people.
Sister Sage’s Crisis In ‘The Boys’ Goes Much Deeper Than A Failed Plan
Sage briefly seemed to be on the path to redemption when she joined ‘The Boys’ in an attempt to end Homelander’s growing chaos. However, Susan Heyward says that’s not the case. “A-Train has his redemption arc; he has this change of heart, but we don’t necessarily see that from Sage. We see a change of tactics, maybe, but not necessarily a change of heart. And I was excited to have that difference,“ she told SR.
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Sage is changing tactics, but under all of that, she’s still the same self-serving, self-pitying, self-absorbed person. Sage’s story is much more complicated. She’s not just turning “good,” she’s feeling uncertain. When Soldier Boy completely shatters Sage’s expectations, her downfall starts.
She knew that his selfishness and sense of self would overpower any feeling he had for Stormfront or Homelander. Instead, his actions demonstrated that people can act irrationally for reasons like love, grief, or sacrifice, which Sage cannot calculate.
That is a blow to her that is worse than any physical loss ever could be. Susan Heyward said that Sage had a “glitch in the matrix,” which feels like the best way to put it. “I think she kind of gets stuck in a moment of, if this one thing didn’t work, where do I go from here? Who am I? What’s my purpose? What’s my value to anyone? I think she goes into a huge identity crisis that she’s going to need help getting out of.”
Frenchie’s Death Alters Sage’s Perception Of Humanity
Her whole life is based on being the smartest person in the room. When that certainty is taken away, she finds herself not knowing who she is anymore. It’s an unexpectedly human trait for a character that is frequently emotionally removed from those around her. Arrogance aside, Sage appears to be afraid that her intelligence is the only thing that is giving her value.
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Frenchie’s sacrifice for Kimiko only exacerbates that emotional crisis. The sight of a man willingly dying for love forces Sage to face an idea that has long been considered a weakness for her. More importantly, Frenchie treated her as a real person and not as a weapon or a genius machine.
It’s a big deal to her. Not because it makes her heroic, but because it opens a door she’s kept closed all her life. ‘The Boys’ doesn’t make Sage easy to understand, which is what makes her fascinating. She is not becoming a hero, and she’s not quite coming back to villainy, either.
Season 5, however, is unraveling the layers of a person who has come to understand that nothing can be gained from a purely intellectual understanding of human behavior, which may be the most dangerous lesson she’s ever learned.
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