How Family Has Influenced MM's Character Arc On The Boys, According To Laz Alonso
The third season of the hit Prime Video series "The Boys" has a heavy focus on how parents pass their trauma onto their children, following Homelander (Antony Starr) and Butcher (Karl Urban) as they both try and reconcile their horrific childhoods with their desire to properly raise young Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). They aren't the only ones dealing with familial concerns, however, as Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) has realized that his split focus between The Boys and his family could potentially put them in danger from surprising sources.
In an interview with Collider, Alonso shared some insight into how MM managed to survive his biggest challenges yet, including facing off against the supe that killed his grandfather, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), and watching out for a new threat within his own family. Whether he's trying to deal with the original Vought super-jerk or trying to keep his daughter Janine safe from the hateful rhetoric of her mom's Homelander-loving boyfriend, Todd (Matthew Gorman), he really has his hands full.
Things were a little bit better on the Soldier Boy front after the third season finale, but Alonso knows that his character is going to have to really watch out for Todd, lest his baby girl fall prey to the cult of Homelander. Season 4 of the series is still quite a ways off, but I can pretty much guarantee that poor MM will still have family issues when the show returns.
Passing down the right things
In the interview, Alonso explained that the only way for Mother's Milk to really handle the trauma inflicted on him by Soldier Boy was to finally be open and honest with his daughter:
"MM, the only way that he was dealing with Soldier Boy being back is by... His entire life, he's hidden [it] from his daughter. He's suppressed it, and now he can't hide it anymore. It's something that he has to face — and not only face, but also teach her about. So in the efforts of not passing on generational trauma, sometimes you have to talk about it. I think that's the lesson that he learned this season."
Throughout the season, MM struggled to keep his daughter safe in every way, though sometimes his fear of losing her made him lash out. He eventually realized that he had to share his pain and fear with her so that she could understand some of the anger, and it helped them grow closer. Things may never be fixed between MM and his ex-wife Monique (Alvina August), but for now at least he has a great relationship with his daughter. There's just the Todd problem...
Watch out for Todd
MM and Janine may have a good relationship, but that isn't going to stop Monique's boyfriend Todd from impacting the impressionable Janine. She's already fascinated by and obsessed with the Seven and all of the various Vought media, because they're colorful superheroes and she's just a kid, and that provides Todd an easy way to indoctrinate her with his xenophobic Homelander nonsense. Alonso revealed that even Monique might have concerns about Todd's effect on Janine as the family tries to move forward:
"I think that Monique, MM's ex-wife, she's going to now have to become more vigilant of Todd as well. Because apparently, she wasn't aware of how deep his involvement in this Homelander cult is, and now she is. But I think that it was a very big lesson in grooming, and grooming can happen so many different ways. What we saw here in the scene with Todd is normalization of bad behavior, and that's what Todd was doing. Todd was rationalizing Homelander's behavior. He was explaining bad behavior, 'Oh, well, it's Starlight. She's doing this to kids,' and all this and that. The truth is right there in front of [him], and he's finding every excuse in the book not to acknowledge it."
At the end of the season, Todd was clearly enamored with Homelander and everything he preaches, and if he grows even more extremist in his beliefs, the battle between him and MM may end up coming to a head. We'll have to wait and see, but my money's on MM.
The first three seasons of "The Boys" are available to stream on Prime Video.