The Boys: Why Laz Alonso Looks So Different As Mother's Milk In Season 4

The Boys on "The Boys" have been through a lot over four seasons, enduring battles with long-lost frozen superheroes, the horrors of Homelander (Antony Starr), and now a potential supe virus. But for the most part, they've kept their appearances the same. Annie (Erin Moriarty) doesn't wear her Starlight costume as often, of course, and Butcher (Karl Urban) looks a little more grizzled, but generally, the brutality of their existence hasn't impacted their looks. Except for Mother's Milk, played by Laz Alonso, whose looks have changed quite a bit, especially with the most recent season.

In fact, MM's appearance changed so much between seasons 3 and 4 that some fans actually thought that the character had been recast, though in actuality Alonso had simply undergone a major transformation. In an interview with Men's Health, Alonso explained some of the real-life reasons behind that drastic change and how it reflects the character's state of mind in season 4. 

While speaking with Men's Health, Alonso revealed that he really wanted to look like the comic book version of the character for the first two seasons, and in order to do that he was "heavy on caloric surplus" and bulking up, but that in season 3 he took that a little too far for his comfort due to a combination of COVID lockdowns and the convenience of food delivery. He describes a diet of pizza and burgers that increased his weight by nearly 40 pounds, turning him into, in his own words, "a very inflated version of the comic." It got to a point where he didn't really recognize himself and he realized something had to change, so he channeled that change into his character as well, explaining: 

"It wasn't healthy. Before season 4 came around, I wanted to do something real different. I always meet with [ showrunner Erik] Kripke at the top of the season and he told me, 'This season, Mother's Milk is gonna go through a big transition' so I wanted to, in his OCD fashion, to depict that and show that visibly. I went into an extreme calorie reduction. I shaved because now he reports directly to the White House."

Season 4 of "The Boys" is a pretty dour time that goes to the darkest places the show has gone yet, and like many of the other characters in the season, Mother's Milk has to battle his own demons as readily as he fights the bad guys. He's still struggling with his obsessive compulsive disorder but he's at least managed to turn some of those habits into something productive, getting himself into fighting shape even if he can't get the rest of The Boys there with him. 

Alonso went on to say that Mother's Milk is "back into his regimented, military way of running things," and throughout the season we see him starting to take more of a leadership position within The Boys, although that gets shaken up by the season's end and he's off on his own once more. It will be interesting to see how his more militarized outlook helps him in season 5 because things looked positively grim at the end of season 4. The Boys have gone their separate ways and Mother's Milk will have to face his greatest nemesis once more because Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is back out of stasis and ready to wreak havoc. 

It's great that Alonso took his health into consideration and took care of himself, and that he was able to mirror that with his character, but I kind of miss the goatee. Maybe in season 5, he'll grow it back and we'll get the best of both worlds before "The Boys" comes to its end.