The Boys' Chace Crawford On Why The Deep Gets Swept Up In The Church Of The Collective - Exclusive
Things have gotten deeper than fans ever wanted when it comes to The Deep's Season 3 arc on "The Boys." Is anyone else repressing the existence of Ambrosia? It's become abundantly clear that The Deep is an absolute mess without someone pulling the strings. Sure, he's still a predatory disaster when other people micromanage his life, but at least it's somewhat controlled chaos.
It's only natural that when Vought ships him off to the middle of nowhere, Deep looks for a new group that can control his every action. The Church of the Collective was there to pounce. What else are cults for if not taking advantage of people when they're most vulnerable?
During an exclusive interview with Looper, Chace Crawford dove into why The Deep gets swindled by the Church of the Collective, why people are drawn to culty rhetoric, and expressed his continued confusion over the show's Fresca bit.
The Deep gets deeper (into a cult)
On why The Deep was so vulnerable to get deep into the Church of the Collective, Crawford said, "Yeah, he was such an easy sell. ... He's like, 'Perfect. Religious acceptance.' I mean, he was obviously in a bad place there, too, in prison for yelling at kids drunkenly at a water park. But, yeah I think he was so desperate." Is The Deep ever not desperate?
"He didn't know anyone in Sandusky, and he sort of did notice this kind of D-list old superhero who stuck his hand out and was like, 'Want a Fresca?' Which [I] still don't understand, but it was good," Crawford continued on the Deep's seclusion. "It was an obvious play on other religious organizations, but it was a funny and interesting way to show his own journey. And they gave him the mushroom tea, which was so much fun to shoot. ... What was the question again?"
Two ends of the narcissist spectrum
Claudia Doumit piped in with, "How you get sucked into a cult?" As it turns out, when you put a bunch of people with powers on a pedestal and coerce the entire world into hero-worshipping them, you just might develop an insatiable need to be liked and accepted. Taking that away is a dangerous thing. Egomaniacal Supers like Homelander are drawn to world domination, whereas The Deep is happier being dictated to rather than calling the shots on his own.
Crawford explained, "I do think you only turn to that kind of stuff when you're like totally broken. So he was really needing some type of guidance to make sense of it all, to make some meaning and then also sort of try and use that as a springboard to get back at The Seven, which he wasn't really intelligent enough to do himself." Even when it comes to his personal life, The Deep isn't great at making his own choices. Crawford pointed out, "He needed his arranged marriage wife to strategize and put that together for him." Hopefully, Ambrosia doesn't drive her away.
New episodes of "The Boys" Season 3 stream Fridays on Prime Video.