The Boys Final Season Review
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: the biggest show in the entire world is in its final season, and fan expectations are so high that disappointment is inevitable. It’s been happening to
a lot of big shows in recent years. The final season of Game of Thrones was a letdown for tons of people (including my Mom and me!) I was never into Stranger Things, but I heard its finale has gotten flak. And now judgment day has come for Amazon Prime’s hit satire on superheroes, The Boys. With the final season now wrapped, fans are divided over whether it was good or not, especially when it comes to dealing with Homelander! But after seeing the finale for myself, listening to other people’s reviews, and a large amount of bad fanfiction, I’ve realized something: The Boys was never going to satisfy everyone. So it didn’t bother trying.
Homelander. Ruining America Since 2024
When we pick up with the fifth and final season of The Boys, it’s been a year since Homelander seized power, and things couldn’t be worse. Hughie, MM, and Frenchie are locked in an internment camp. Kimiko’s been thrown out of the country. Butcher is on that “kill all Supes” grind. And Starlight is leading a rebellion to topple Homelander that is losing. Badly. Case in point, the season starts with Starlight deciding to leak the Flight 37 footage that fans were convinced could damn the villain. Homelander and Sage’s response? Say it’s AI-generated and start a disinformation campaign.
I know; it sounds like such a letdown to know that something we were told could be the key to turning people against Homelander en masse gets reduced to a TikTok dance. Though I don’t recall AI videos being as prevalent seven years ago, so I think it’s a good commentary on how misinformation pervades society. More than that, though, it’s meant to show just how deep into the flavor-aid (not Kool-Aid) America has gotten itself into. And that was the opening part of the first episode! The second half is all about rescuing the Boys from being executed by Homelander.
This is all over the Place
A big complaint about this final season of The Boys is that it is largely all over the place when it comes to the plot. One minute, they’re focused on perfecting the Supe-Killing Virus while also debating the ethics of using it to wipe out all Supes. The next, they are on this scavenger hunt for the original iteration of Compound V, a drug so potent that it could make Homelander immortal. And that’s not even getting into the sideplots involving the characters relationships and whatnot. It’s all over the place; it’s chaos, even by the show’s standards.
Plus, there’s also another major issue that needs addressing: the cast of Gen V barely does anything.
Why did they add Gen V to begin with?
It was announced that after the second season of The Boys spin-off, Gen V, finished airing, the show had been canceled. Granted, I didn’t think too much about that. The show was set at Vought’s college for Supes, and with the main cast now on the run, they had joined Starlight’s rebellion. One would think that this would mean we would see Marie Moreau kicking ass with her bloodbending powers and give Homelander the run for his money, as it was speculated she could. But no; none of that actually pays off, with Marie barely getting any screentime, while the rest of her friends are a non-factor.
Word is that the third season of Gen V would’ve seen the cast become heroes in Canada and deal with the fallout of the show. However, I dont think that would have been as interesting as seeing Marie and her friends actually fighting in the resistance. We were told that Marie’s bloodbending could potentially bring Homelander to heel. But unless we get some fanfiction of it, I guess we’ll never know, and I think that’s a shame.
And Marie and the Gen V group isn’t the only thing that I feel like wasn’t living up to its full potential. I think Ryan could’ve done more.
Ryan Butcher: from potential hero to barely doing anything
Ryan Butcher is the biggest wild card of the entire show, and that’s because he was largely the show’s own creation. Yes, he did exist in the comics, but he burst out of Becca’s stomach as a fetus before Billy beat him to death in self-defense. The fact that Homelander has a son who could be even stronger than him meant that everyone wanted him on their side. For the longest time, fans didn’t know if he would turn out like his dad or be the hero that the world needed. And then, he decided to be neither. He chose to walk away and not get involved in any of it.
Now, I think that he did the right thing for himself. I love the idea of a young hero facing the sins of their evil elders and proving them wrong. It’s one of the reasons why I think so highly of characters like Naruto Uzumaki or Luke Skywalker. However, I also understand that they were just teens and young adults who had the weight of the world thrust on them without entirely asking for it. And wanting someone that young to be a weapon is pretty messed up, and that they should be allowed to decide who they want to be. That being said, when your dad is the closest thing to the Devil and you could potentially stop him…great power, great responsibility, remember?
I was a little disappointed that Ryan didn’t have a bigger role in the fight against his father. He knows Homelander is trash and needs to go down, but he also wants to live his own life and not turn out like his dad. But still, he’s barely involved in the final fight against Homelander or the whole season. If the show is going to have him be this potential key to stopping Homelander, then it should have that in play more! And the same goes for that Supe-killing virus!
Just pick how to kill Homelander!
And here is where we get to the biggest issue of the final season: it didn’t know how to bring down Homelander.
For the past seven years, we have watched as Homelander has become one of the biggest villains in TV history, and I fully intend to write about why he was so good at it. However, that was also the problem: he was too good a villain. Everyone and their mother wanted to see him get what he deserved, but after years of watching him commit these horrific acts, how do you make that happen? I dont think the show writers themselves knew, and therein lies the problem.
For a good part of the season, Homelander is obsessed with achieving so-called divinity. He wants to rule the world forever as a god emperor, hence why he wants V1 to become immortal. And much to everyone’s surprise, he gets what he wanted. He actually gets to become immortal! And what does he do with it? Does he drop all pretenses and start burning cities and killing all the non-believers? Well, he was going to! But for whatever reason, the show doesn’t let him get around to it before the end. Maybe Amazon was trying to play it safe, or subvert everyone’s expectations for the final battle and keep it closer to the comics. But the part of me that loves epic finales feels disappointed that Amazon didn’t go all the way. It would have been fitting to have Homelander go so far off the rails that it would make the people of that world swear off superheroes forever, or stop blindly worshipping. But because of the potential of spin-offs, that never happens. A missed opportunity, if you ask me.
But you know what? I think The Boys still stuck the landing. And now that I’m done going over everything I (or the fans) didn’t like, let’s look at what I did like, because there is still a decent amount.
The cast came so far over the years
Now, I’ve been folliwng The Boys on a casual basis for the last seven years. As a superhero fan, I’ve never been that big on the whole “F superheroes” angle the show has going for it. If anything, this makes me appreciate them even more. Even gives me a few ideas for a story. But what I really love most about The Boys has been the actors and how well they’ve played their roles. So let’s go over each of them, how they’ve grown over the series, and sing their actor’s praises.
Petit Hughie to Big Hughie
Hughie Campbell, the audience surrogate. When he first met him, he was this timid guy too afraid to stand up for himself, only to lose his girlfriend thanks to Supe carelessness. And even though he was initially motivated by rage and got blood on his hands, he ultimately never lost sight of who he was. If anything, the Season Five premiere, with him facing down Homelander, solidified how he was the most mentally resilient of all the Boys. And Jack Quaid? He knocked it out of the park with his breakout role, and I hope he has a good career from here on out. And for extra irony, now he’s voicing Superman himself in an animated series.
I forgive you, A-Train
A-Train, our resident speedster. When we first met him, he was a selfish piece of trash who cared only about himself. But over the course of the show, he had one of the satisfiying redemption arcs I’ve seen on TV, going from a corporate shill to a genuine hero. And while he could never fully make up for what he did, I think the fans have largely forgiven him, given how everyone reacted to his death in the first episode. He not only died mocking Homelander, but the only reason he died is because he avoided running into another civilian, showing how much he had grown as a person. Respect to him and his actor, Jessie T Usher.
The Deep. He died like a chump.
On the opposite end, though, we have the Deep. And while Homelander is one of the best villains in TV history, I think we can all agree that the Deep is in the running for “the biggest d**** in the universe.” He’s a disappointment not for his powers, but for how he acts as a person. He had plenty of chances to be a better person like A-Train, but instead he just doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on his worst traits. Season Five saw him at his worst by making him this vapid, toxic caricature of a frat bro, and he was just…the worst. It takes a great actor to make a character so hateable, and I gotta give props to the Deep’s actor.
Annie is a hero, no matter what she thinks
Annie January, our Starlight. When we first met her, she was this naive newcomer who genuinely wanted to do good in the world, only to get woken up to the cruelty of Vought in the most degrading way possible. Granted, last season revealed that she wasn’t entirely innocent of what the business was like, what with how her mom made her spread those rumors about Firecracker. And the year of fighting Homelander had started to turn her into the same cynical person Queen Maeve was. But in those last two episodes, she got that pep-talk she needed from MM about why she needs to keep saving people, even if they’ll never be grateful for it. She may not see herself as one, but I see her as a real hero. Hats off to Erin Moriarty for her performance.
The Boys came so far
The rest of the Boys also did well. Well, okay, Kimiko now being able to talk got on my nerves at times. But that alone is a testament to how far she’s come. And yes, I was devastated when Frenchie died in her arms, as were we all. But she didn’t let that rage consume her and was able to move on with her life. As a matter of fact, that’s another important thing: besides Frenchie, the rest of the Boys all lived. In the comics, Butcher killed off all of them besides Hughie, and the title of the seventh episode made it seem like the same thing was going to happen in the show. Some might call it a cop-out. Me? I call it giving them a happy ending.
Billy Butcher might be Karl Urban’s best role ever
And, of course, we can’t forget Billy Butcher. I mostly know Karl Urban from his role as Dr. McCoy in the Star Trek Abrams’ films. But I think that this final season really cemented Butcher as the role that Urban will be best known for? Now, was Butcher a good person or a hero? Of course not! He was a terrible person, likely a sociopath, and wanted to kill all Supes, regardless of their potential to be better people. Now, it might seem like a waste of time to have him waffling on whether or not to use that Supe-killing virus en masse. We knew he was gonna do it because he’s the kind of guy who won’t let things go. And, let’s face it, we knew that he was likely going to die before the final curtain dropped. But I think it was important that The Boys showed us that he tried. He really tried! At least he didn’t kill off his friends first.
And now, we need to talk about that big finale.
A little misleading, Amazon
I’m going to talk more about the final fight in my look back on Homelander, but for now, let’s break down that final battle against Homelander. Now, I do think that Amazon did us dirty with misleading advertising, because we never got that iconic moment where Billy’s walking on the front lawn of the White House. I do think that the show should have had Homelander just start burning cities after he became immortal. Not to mention how this should’ve been at least twice as long as what we ended up getting so that we could get a real fight. And I think they could’ve done a lot better at wrecking the Oval Office than what we got. But as far as final battles go, it was actually pretty decent.
I think the main issue is that the show was trying too hard to follow what happened in the comics in that final fight. It should’ve gone all out demolished most of the White House. By all accounts, Homelander fighting Kimiko, Butcher, and eventually Ryan should’ve ended like that. But maybe it was supposed to be anti-climatic on purpose. And in the end, we still got what we wanted.
YES! F*** YOU HOMELANDER!!
Full disclosure: I couldn’t wait for the finale to air on Amazon Prime, so I spoiled myself by watching footage from the film premiere on Twitter. And the second I saw how Homelander had lost his powers, I had the biggest grin on my face because we all knew what was about to happen. I’m actually hoping to remix the clip with the music from God of War III where Kratos is beating Zeus to death. And that moment where Homelander is just begging for his life! Chef’s kiss! Antony Starr really can act and deserves an Emmy for that.
Now, maybe it’s because I spoiled myself, or if the show was meant to make us feel that way, but seeing Homelander get what’s coming to him felt oddly hollow. I have seen my fair share of jerks get what’s coming to them in fiction, and I should’ve been on cloud nine. But it also felt a little underwhelming. Then again, it would feel like when I saw Death Battle! have Omni-Man feed Homelander his own heart. There is no topping that kind of death!
Here’s the thing, though: I still liked the finale.
This was nowhere near as bad as Game of Thrones. Here’s Why
Remember what I said at the start about how Game of Thrones ended, and how bummed everyone was? Well, I know that people are going to be bummed about The Boys ending and say it should’ve been better. But as the show itself acknowledges, it’s almost impossible to write a finale that will make everyone happy. But here’s why I think The Boys did it better than Game of Thrones.
A hate on satisfied
Firstly, it gave the villain and hate sinks satisfying deaths. What I hated about the last season of GOT is how the Night King and Cersei went out. We didn’t get to see Jon slay the Night King in an epic sword duel, and Cersei got crushed to death underneath the Red Keep. As awesome as it was seeing Arya kill the Night King, I wanted Jon to do it because that was what the series had been setting us for for years. And Cersei’s death? I felt robbed! I had even wished on what I thought was a shooting star for her death! In contrast, we have the deaths of Homelander and the Deep. Billy did get his ultimate revenge on Homelander, and the Deep was killed by the sea creatures who now hated him. Both of their deaths were well-deserved.
Butcher had a better-planned death
Secondly, compare why Danaerys died to why Butcher died. Many fans see Danaerys as a victim of bad writing, and hated how she snapped and became just as crazy as half her family. Now, they had been building it up for the past two seasons, and the potential had always been there, but having it happen in the penultimate episode? That’s just bad writing. In contrast, we all knew that Billy’s story was likely going to end one way and one way alone: dead. The thing is, he pretty much wanted to die at that point. He had gotten what he wanted, but with no one left in his life to care for, he had no reason to keep living, and he knew that he would be as bad as Homelander. If anything, Hughie showed him mercy by ending his life. And unlike Homelander, he accepts his death with dignity. I don’t know if there’s an afterlife in that universe, but I hope that God would show mercy on him, eventually. Then again, he might be happier in Hell since he could spend eternity punishing Homelander and the other jerks down there.
All the survivors got a happy ending
Lastly, all the remaining protagonists got their happy endings, whereas Jon got screwed over in the end. I know he’d be happy past the Wall with the Freefolk, but he didn’t deserve exile. In contrast, MM got to reunite with his family and remarry his wife, with Ryan joining them as their adoptive son. As for Ryan, he proved that he was nothing like Homelander or Butcher, and is now free to live his best life, unburdened by his powers. Kimiko got to live in France in honor of Frenchie. And Hughie and Annie? They own their own electronics store, Annie continues to be a hero on the side, and they’re expecting a child. They even named them Robin! And unlike Homelander, they’ll grow up in a loving environment, so if they get powers, they’ll be better with them.
The one downside to all of this is that Vought is, somehow, still intact. And somehow, Stan Edgar is still in charge. You would think that Vought would be forcibly shut down for their crimes against humanity. But you know what? Something tells me they won’t have it any easier. Now there are real heroes who can and will stop them or take away their Supe’s powers. Not to mention how Vought is going to be flooded with more lawsuits than they can handle, especially once the full extent of Homelander’s crimes goes public. Or maybe someone else will show up to replace him. But it’s not our problem anymore!
Yeah, this was a good finale
So, yeah, I did like the final season of The Boys. It had its flaws, but it was still an absolute banger to watch, and I’m glad that I followed it for the last seven years. At the very least, the show’s going to live on for years to come in memedom, thanks to the dark lord of the memes, Homelander. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go read some Boys fanfics.
