Doppelganger

―Doppelganger revealing their true form to the Senator.[src]

**Doppelganger** is a minor character in Seasons 1 and 2 of the Amazon series *The Boys*.

## *The Boys* Series

### Season One

When Senator Calhoun rejects the idea of integrating Supes into national defense, Madelyn Stillwell hires Doppelganger to pose as a middle-age, but attractive woman named "Rhonda" and sleep with the Senator. After restraining and blindfolding him, Doppelganger shifts back into their true form and takes pictures of themself having intercourse with the unsuspecting Calhoun to blackmail him into sponsoring a bill to militarize Supes.

Doppelganger later appears disguised as Stillwell and shows Calhoun the photos. When Calhoun denies the photographic evidence, Doppelganger reveals their true form as the same person in the photo before Stillwell dismisses them.

### Season Two

After Madelyn Stillwell's death, Doppelganger starts a perverse agreement with Homelander to use their powers to transform into Stillwell and satisfy his sexual fantasies. One night, when Homelander comments that people think he "only loves himself," Doppelganger transforms into Homelander and tries to perform oral sex on him, but Homelander realizes he doesn't "need anyone" to love him, and snaps their neck with a single hand.

## Personality

Doppelganger, like most supes, is extremely smug and borderline sociopathic. They took a great deal of pleasure in revealing their true form to Senator Calhoun after they had seduced and slept with him, as he believed he had slept with Rhonda, an attractive woman.

They are also great at holding a certain personality. During their time as Rhonda, the bartender, they kept a servant like attitude, and behaved like an experienced bartender. Even during the sex sequence, they are shown to be comically uttering "sir" after their phrases.

Doppelganger is skilled at seducing others. Not only did they seduce Senator Calhoun, but they also acted as Madelyn Stillwell for Homelander's pleasure and knew exactly how to play along with his twisted fantasy.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Shapeshifting**: Doppelganger has the ability to turn into anyone, without the need for physical contact, and can transform from memory
* **Voice Changing**: Doppelganger can mimic anyone's voice. While having sex with Calhoun, they were able to speak with Rhonda's voice even after reverting to their true form.

### Abilities

* **Acting**: Doppelganger is able to accurately mimic the behavior of the person they shapeshift into. Whether this is a byproduct of their powers or simply a skill is unknown, but they were shown acting exactly like the original Madelyn Stillwell and Homelander after taking their forms, and even acted like an experienced bartender as Rhonda.

## Weaknesses

* **Limited Shapeshifting**: Doppelganger can only change their physical body, and is unable to change their current clothing/accessories. When revealing their true form to Calhoun, Doppelganger still retained Stillwell's earrings, neckless, dress and heels.
* **Limited Duration:** Holding another's form for too long causes them intense pain and forces them to revert to their original form. With effort, however, they seem able to recover and transform again within seconds.
* **Conventional Human Weakness:** Unlike most supes, Doppelganger seems to lack any heightened strength, resilience or recuperative abilities. They apparently cannot circumvent this by duplicating the powers of a supe target, such as Homelander's durability. Because of this, Homelander was able to effortlessly snap Doppelganger's neck, despite the latter assuming the formers appearance.
* **Superficial Shapeshifting**: While in a different form, particularly a supes form, Doppelganger possesses none of their powers or special abilities, like Homelander's durability. Therefore, they couldn't survive Homelander breaking their neck, despite assuming their form. It's unclear if Doppleganger would possess abilities upon changing into a non-supe, like gaining enhanced strength from a bodybuilder.

## Trivia

* Doppelganger is a parody of Mystique from Marvel Comics and Elongated Man from DC Comics. Doppelganger's portrayal as a middle-aged, heavyset bald person seems to subvert Mystique's sultry *femme fatale* appearance. Their inability to stay transformed indefinitely without extreme pain is a weakness they share with Elongated Man.
* Amazon trivia reveals that Doppelganger is genderfluid and uses 'they/them' pronouns, though they are never referred to this way in the show.
* It is possible that Doppleganger has a heavyset appearance due to them being able to change into other forms, and therefore not keeping their actual body healthy.
* Despite being a genderfluid character, in their true form they are played by a male actor.