The Boys season three returned with unexpected plot twists, stomach-churning kills, and stupendous performances. Vought has continued its position as the face of the superheroes and the individual responsible for carrying on with the task of polishing the Company’s image is none other than Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), the Senior Vice President of Hero Management in Vought International who later became the CEO of the Company.
In the final episode, Ashley was shown going completely bald and in the previous as well as the current season, she was shown losing thick patches of hair. The scenes had a slightly comic undertone to them and they aligned with her hyper-paranoid personality that was depicted in a humorous light.
Before replacing her predecessor Madelyn (Elizabeth Shue), Ashley was the Director of Trade Relations and was an enthusiastic participant in numerous lies and cover-ups eventually leading to her getting fired by her boss Madelyn following Starlight’s confession.
One of the possible reasons for the hair loss is acute stress owing to her position as the mediator between a group of superheroes shaped by Vought and the world out there. Ashley is believed to suffer from Trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by pulling out one’s hair due to stress. In view of the same, let’s throw some light on the reasons that might have caused and exacerbated this condition.
She was constantly bullied and threatened by Homelander
It is of course a unanimous opinion that Ashley is a cold-hearted, ambitious, shrewd, and calculative Vought employee who will leave absolutely no stones unturned in adhering to the company’s primary agenda in representing the superheroes as the saviors of humanity.
This includes consciously sacrificing moral and ethical values in the process of achieving her aim. Despite these deceptive personality traits, we discover her inability to attract the same degree of respect as Madelyn or Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito).
On the very first day of her new role as the vice president (recommended by Homelander), she was reminded of her subordination to the malignant ‘superhero’ who subtly threatened her to be loyal to him and keep him informed of all significant decisions related to Vought, be it appointing a new member of the Seven or fulfilling the PR responsibilities.
Consequently, we do not see her enjoying her position of power or privileges that came with her promotions to the designation of CEO or creating a formidable aura around herself like Edgar. Overall, Ashley’s position did not see any significant transformation since her role as Madelyn’s assistant.
Only this time, we see her constantly petrified and stressed about the slightest mistake which can pretty much cost her her life. Throughout the second and the third season, Ashley struggles to acquaint herself with the hidden realities of Vought, combined with ceaseless torments by Homelander, who she started addressing as ‘Sir’.
As it is already known and proven more than once in the show, empty threats are not something anyone can associate with Homelander by now and Ashley’s closest proximity to him (as she is required to report everything related to hero management and Vought to him) places her in a very vulnerable state in terms of meeting a similar fate as Madelyn.
Her complete subservience to Homelander, dictated by fear — contrary to her predecessors, Stan Edgar and Madelyn Stillwell— does not let her question her subjugation and as a result, we see her lacking the tact and skills in dealing with major crises faced by Vought.
In fact, none of the major decisions, such as appointing a new Supe for Seven and ousting A-Train were made by her as these were mostly shaped by Homelander’s egotistical attitude and his penchant to be treated as the favorite one and not particularly out of the Company’s interests – something Ashley is very good at.
A majority of her screentime portrays her as Homelander’s and Vought’s puppet and the hair loss she encounters leading to her baldness is the very consequence of this fear, bewilderment, and a lack of power in the truest sense.
She was in charge of covering up many lies and scandals
Ashley’s stress caused by Homelander’s torments is related to her accurately fulfilling her professional responsibilities and a chunk of that includes covering up Vought’s dirty secrets. In season two, she was entrusted with the responsibility to cover up the leakage of Compound V’s role in creating the Supes.
The exposure of the true purpose of Compound V is one of the major lies that the Corporation had hidden from the public, feeding them with false delusional information about the gifted nature of the Supes’ abilities. It became very clear that this knowledge is essential to Vought’s overall interests and the sustenance of the positive image of the superheroes.
It was also explicitly pointed out that anyone with the knowledge of the real purpose of Compound V would end up meeting a brutal fate. Ashley was not only in possession of the knowledge of Compound V but was under the responsibility to modify and reshape the revelation to suit the Company’s interests. One can immediately relate to her condition and fathom the amount of stress she must have undergone in exercising her duty.
There were various other incidents where her PR skills were required to be meticulously applied, a failure in doing so would subject her to an unfathomably gruesome fate. This includes publicizing Maeve’s (Dominique McElligott) newly-discovered identity as a lesbian — based on her and Elena’s relationship — that was disclosed by Homelander in a public interview.
As Ashley proceeded with the plan to represent Vought’s tolerance toward inclusivity (and what adds to a better story than the sexuality of a prominent member of the Seven?), she showed no signs of empathy toward Maeve losing Elena until the former chided her to be a “f****** human being”.
Her reactions to the comment fill the audience with hope regarding the character’s inherent redeeming traits and also makes them question the degree to which she was being controlled by Vought and Homelander to repress her feelings.
Other incidents, such as covering up Homelander’s unapologetically brutal act of killing a civilian — and not taking an iota of responsibility for it — hiding Stormfront’s (Aya Cash) identity as a Nazi, and in season three constructing the story about Starlight being a traitor and kidnapper — after her coming clean about Vought and Homelander — constitute some of the most challenging goals, especially when the possible consequence of not passing them is a hideous death.
However, the final episode of season three showed an unexpected compassionate side of Ashley when she deleted the footage of Maeve being alive from the Vought archive. This action might be propelled by her fear of Homelander’s actions if he finds out that Maeve is alive.
There is also a probability of her taking a stand against him. This sympathetic side of Ashley is even more horrifying as it proves the amount of trauma and anxiety that she was forced to undergo without any space for complaint partially because she did not have a promising alternative option to turn to. Thus, the act of pulling her hair out is a coping mechanism in this respect.
She witnessed a couple of terrifying deaths
The heinous atrocities that the supes were engaged in are common in the show. In the world of The Boys — where the superheroes with tremendous, unchecked powers co-exist with humans — unwanted clashes are bound to happen and the series has not shied away from depicting such horrifying violence (remember Robin’s death?).
Ashley was a witness to quite a few of them. It is one thing to try and thrive under the threat and pressure of getting slaughtered in the most hideous way possible if you do not do your job properly, and an entirely different experience to actually see that very possible consequence materializing.
As a human with no supernatural ability (except maybe skills in not angering the supes), the fear of seeing your kind ripped apart can lead to severe emotional trauma and acute anxiety and stress.
That is exactly what happened to Ashley, who has been a first-hand witness to the death of Blindfold, the courtroom massacre, as well as a civilian dropped dead and charred to ashes (the chilling scene of Homelander’s savior stunt going wrong), followed by a raw Octopus being eaten by The Deep (Chace Crawford) after being threatened by Homelander.
Although Ashley’s presence was never accorded any centrality in these events, one can well imagine a plethora of conflicting emotions, including a sense of fear that she must have confronted at the moment. As her stress is believed to have caused her excessive hair loss and balding, this experience of hers perfectly fits the frame of a noteworthy reason.