The Boys Season 5 Review

Review 81 — The Boys Season 5. Showrunner Eric Kripke.

Well, after 7 glorious years, lots of gore, violence, nudity and absolute diabolical things, The Boys has ended.

This is a really conflicting season because while I don’t hate the ending, I feel it could have been made better.

Either way, Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

1. **The Boys Season 5 Review**
2. **Prelude**
3. **Season 5**
4. **The Plot ** • What Made The Boys Work • A Lack of Urgency • Marketing The Finale • Missing Pieces • Final Thoughts On The Plot
5. **Butcher**
6. **Hughie**
7. **The Gen V Disaster**
8. **Homelander ** • Antony Starr • The Making of a Monster • Fear, Validation and Love • Solider Boy • The Fall of a “God”
9. **Ryan**
10. **Marvin Milk**
11. **Sage**
12. **Annie & A-Train ** • Annie
13. **Frenchie & Kimiko**
14. **Firecracker**
15. **Oh Father & Ashley**
16. **The Deep**
17. **Soldier Boy**
18. **Beyond Season 5 ** • Maeve • Madelyn Stillwell • Stan Edgar • Victoria Neuman • Becca and Joe Kessler • Black Noir • Stormfront • Herogasm • Homelander’s Breakdowns • Moments i’ll remember
19. **Final Thoughts**

Prelude

This season wrapped up most of its storylines quite decently. There are some open endings here and there, but nothing too drastic and nothing that will leave people debating for years about what happened next.

Before we start though, a little bit of history.

I started watching The Boys when the second season released back in 2020. During COVID I used to spend a lot of time watching Twitch, and one day a streamer partnered with Amazon and showed the first episode of the first season. I was curious, so I stayed and watched. By the end of that episode I was completely hooked. I immediately went and binged the entirety of Season 1 before jumping straight into Season 2, and the rest is history.

What I always liked about the show was its objectivity. It knew exactly what it was trying to be. It wasn’t trying to mock superhero media while also refusing to deny how ridiculous some of the genre’s concepts are. It found a balance between the two and somehow made it work.

It was raw, bloody and genuinely refreshing. More importantly, it changed the superhero genre in a way very few shows ever manage to do, and that is something I will always appreciate.

The hype for Season 3 was unreal. When I saw the announcement of Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy and saw him standing there in costume for the first time, my jaw genuinely dropped. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

As it all comes to an end, let me take you on a journey. We’ll talk about the small stuff, the big stuff, the weird stuff and the frustrating stuff.

Season 5

The Plot

The overall plot of the season has a sound foundation because it is exactly what The Boys has been building towards from the very beginning. This was always going to be the season where everything finally comes crashing down and everybody is forced to deal with the consequences of years of decisions.

But despite that, the ending ends up creating a feeling that is hard to describe. It is satisfying on one level because things do get resolved, but at the same time it becomes a moment of “thank god it’s over” and “holy shit that was incredible.”

Based purely on everything that happens within Season 5 itself, the ending works. The Boys doesn’t exist in isolation. It exists alongside the previous four seasons and two seasons of Gen V, and when you start looking at the wider picture, suddenly a lot of the decisions stop making as much sense.

When we talk about the core of the show — Butcher, Hughie, MM, Frenchie, Kimiko and Annie it often feels like only some characters are actually allowed to evolve while others are trapped repeating the same lessons over and over again. There seems to be this strange fatigue hanging over the season where everyone wants to stop and have lengthy emotional discussions, philosophical debates and existential crises while the world is literally ending around them.

What Made The Boys Work

One of the reasons The Boys was so good in the beginning was because it treated everything as if it was real. The violence felt real, The consequences felt real, The fear felt real and The stakes felt real. If superheroes actually existed, it genuinely felt like this is how the world would respond to them.

One of the things The Boys always did brilliantly was take real-world ideas and push them into absurd situations that somehow felt believable. Art is always going to be political because people are political. Identity, expression and perspective are all part of what makes us human. Even disagreeing with something is an expression of that humanity.

After a while, the show stopped feeling like fiction and started feeling like a prediction. Sometimes it felt less like a superhero story and more like a documentary with laser eyes and exploding people.

A Lack of Urgency

Where the season struggles is urgency.

This is the final season. You have to conclude years worth of storylines while also paying off countless character arcs, and somehow the show still finds time to set up future projects like Vought Rising. I have no issue with setting up future shows, but if you are sacrificing the stories of one of the most influential television series of the last decade to do it, then you are making the wrong choice.

Season 4 spent so much time putting pieces into position because Season 5 was supposed to be the payoff. I accepted that because the show itself created those expectations. Season 5, however, often feels like a rush job. There are moments where it genuinely feels like they couldn’t be bothered fully justifying certain decisions, so they simply moved characters where they needed them to be and expected the audience to fill in the blanks.

It feels less like being told that if you don’t understand something, then clearly you missed the hidden meanings and subtle hints buried beneath sixty-seven layers of subtext.

That doesn’t mean nothing happens. Major characters die and the world fundamentally changes. On paper, the stakes are enormous. Yet the season rarely feels as chaotic or desperate as it should. When people describe a scorched-earth ending, you imagine a world spiralling completely out of control. You imagine characters being pushed beyond their limits and storylines crashing into each other with no time left to think.

Marketing The Finale

Part of the disappointment also comes from the marketing. The posters for the season showed Homelander flying over a burning world. The promotional material constantly pushed the idea that this was the end of everything. Even the iconic imagery from the comics, with Butcher facing off against Homelander while the remaining supes stood around the White House, seemed to suggest a complete collapse of the world order that we had spent five seasons building towards.

The Boys promotional poster referencing the comic book panel from the graphic novel Over the hill with the Swords of a Thousand Men. Image via The Boys on X.

That isn’t what we got. And I am not saying the show needed to copy the comics or even have an all out war. Adaptations should be allowed to do their own thing. The issue is that the marketing sold one type of ending while the actual season delivered another.

Don’t spend months selling me a burning world and then act surprised when I’m expecting a burning world.

The frustrating part is that the season isn’t bad because of this. In fact, I think the ending reached is largely the correct one for the story being told. What we were promised was an apocalypse. What we got was a controlled conclusion.

Now, the finale itself I am going to talk about extensively when I discuss the individual characters, but looking at it purely from a plot perspective, I actually think it does a decent job. It isn’t a bad ending. In fact, I think most of the conclusions reached by the story feel right.

Missing Pieces

The destination was never really the issue. Most people could see where the story was heading and, on paper, the final conflict makes sense.

The journey often feels distracted. Instead of spending more time on character development, relationships and the moments that actually matter, the season frequently chooses to focus on things that add very little to the overall story.

And to be clear, this isn’t me contradicting my earlier point about characters spending time in emotional conversations, philosophical debates and existential crises. The Boys has always done that, and some of the show’s best moments come from characters simply talking to one another. But there is a difference between a scene that develops a character and a scene that merely occupies time. That is where Season 5 occasionally stumbles.

Many of these conversations feel like they are revisiting ground that has already been covered rather than pushing the characters forward. Instead of revealing something new, changing a relationship or forcing a difficult decision, they often end with everyone arriving at conclusions we already understood several episodes ago. I use the word “filler” very carefully because it is often thrown around whenever a story slows down, but there are moments throughout Season 5 where that is genuinely how some scenes feel.

The issue is that when it does slow down, it isn’t always using that time effectively. In a final season where every minute should matter, those moments become much more noticeable. When you know there are character arcs still waiting for resolution and storylines still waiting for payoff, it becomes harder to ignore scenes that feel like they are treading water rather than moving the story forward.

Episode 7 is probably the funniest example of this. Dogknott and Sheline somehow get more screentime sniffing each other’s asses than the entire Gen V cast gets across the season.

The scene itself isn’t the problem. If you want to include weird, absurd and uncomfortable moments, that’s part of The Boys’ identity and always has been. It’s a matter of priorities. The major story beats are all present, The emotional moments are there, The character arcs are there. When characters and storylines that have been developed over multiple seasons are being pushed aside or rushed through before the audience has a chance to fully process them.

Frenchie’s death is another good example of this.

During the final battle, he traps Homelander inside the radiation chamber, fully aware that the radiation exposure will eventually kill him. It’s a genuinely heroic moment and exactly the kind of sacrifice that should have emotional weight. However, when Homelander finally escapes, Frenchie is suddenly lying on the floor bleeding out, and the show never properly explains why.

If you only watch the episode, it feels abrupt and confusing.

Later, behind-the-scenes images revealed that Homelander had cut open Frenchie’s stomach, which is why he was bleeding.

My question is simple. Why was that removed?

That isn’t some insignificant detail tucked away in the background. That is literally the cause of a major character’s death. It provides context, clarity and emotional impact. Instead, audiences were left piecing together information from behind-the-scenes footage online to understand what actually happened.

Final Thoughts On The Plot

It doesn’t feel like the writers didn’t know where to go. Instead it feels like they forget how to connect the pieces together

The final puzzle is complete enough that you can see the picture, but there are just enough missing pieces scattered throughout that you constantly notice the gaps.

Season 5 is not bad, It is just so close to being great.

Butcher

When we look at Butcher’s arc this season, it is undeniably a tragic one. He has lost almost everything and continues losing throughout the story, but that relentless desire for revenge is exactly what makes him resonate with people. There is something fascinating about a character who is willing to do the thing nobody else is willing to do. Someone who ignores the morals, crosses every line and accepts the consequences because they genuinely believe the outcome justifies the cost.

Most people cannot operate that way. You have to be at a very dark point in your life to justify those decisions, which is why Butcher remains such a compelling character even after all these years. The thing about him is that despite all the terrible things he has done, he often ends up being the only person willing to acknowledge the true cost of doing nothing. He understands consequences better than almost anyone else in the show, which is why I both understand and don’t understand his ending.

During the climax, Butcher brings the supe virus to Vought and is moments away from ending supes once and for all. Hughie stops him, they argue, Hughie shoots him because Butcher hesitates because he sees Lenny in Hughie.

If Butcher truly cared about Hughie as much as he regretted failing Lenny, why would he stop?

There should be absolutely no doubt in my mind that Butcher would scorch the earth if it meant protecting Hughie. He puts on a rough exterior and acts like he doesn’t care, but underneath all that anger he knows exactly who he is fighting for. He knew it when he went after Homelander because of Becca. He knew it every single time he chose the people around him over his own well-being. He understands loss better than anyone else in the show, which is exactly why this decision feels so strange.

Butcher understands that reality and I genuinely think he was prepared for whatever came next. Sure, he was dying, but Butcher has always been willing to do whatever it takes to protect the people he loves, even if they hate him for it. That’s what makes him such an interesting character. You don’t want to call him good because he absolutely isn’t. At the same time, calling him evil doesn’t feel entirely correct either. He exists in this morally grey area where every decision feels understandable even when it is horrifying.

Ironically, that is what makes him feel human. Most people live somewhere in that grey area, but they don’t like admitting it because black-and-white choices are easier to process. Butcher stands out because he was willing to go further than everyone else and accept being hated for it.

Despite all of that, Butcher remains one of my favourite characters of all time. Whether it’s the unintelligible British accent, the face he makes when he’s about to destroy everything around him or the sheer force of personality Karl Urban brings to the role, Butcher is simply impossible to ignore whenever he is on screen. Beneath all the violence, swearing and questionable decision-making is a deeply broken man trying to do the right thing in the worst possible way. He is funny, terrifying, charismatic and frustrating all at once. Every time you think he has finally crossed a line he can’t come back from, he somehow finds a way to make you understand why he did it, even if you don’t agree with him.

Karl Urban deserves an enormous amount of credit because he played Butcher with such conviction that there were moments where I genuinely forgot I was watching a fictional character. It really has been a pleasure.

RIP William Butcher, You diabolical cunt.

Hughie

Now Hughie is where I start getting a little pissed off.

He has been the heart of the group from day one and there is no denying that. He wants to lead, he fails, but he keeps getting back up. He understands his own worth, stands his ground and consistently refuses to let people walk all over him. The fact that he stood up to Homelander multiple times and lived to tell the tale is equal parts courage and insanity, and Jack Quaid deserves a lot of credit for making him feel believable through all of it.

In the finale to distract Oh Father he mimics Butcher’s accent and that was absolutely crazy, Igenuinely thought it was a Butcher voice over. That was a really funny moment.

Hughie has had an awful life. His girlfriend was ripped apart in front of him, he has killed people, been covered in blood more times than I can count, endured trauma after trauma and somehow still chooses to believe in people. That optimism is one of the reasons he is so endearing. Even when people are at their absolute worst, Hughie wants to believe they can be better. Sometimes he is so innocent that you almost want to laugh at him for it.

But when the moment comes, he usually stands his ground. Which is why I genuinely do not understand his decision to stop Butcher from releasing the virus. I rewatched the first few seasons and Hughie was much better than I remember. He was willing to get revenge and after a while he accepted the price it came with. Despite not being the strongest in any situation, he always held his head up high and was ready to fight. Suddenly he feels like he would just lay back and listen to Billy Joel for the rest of his life irrespective of the world around him.

It’s fair to assume that Butcher wouldn’t stop after that. But neither would Vought. A few years later there would simply be another Homelander. Maybe stronger. Maybe more controlled. Maybe even worse because emotions would no longer be the thing driving decisions.

Which is why I genuinely hate his decision. Not because I dislike Hughie but because I think the logic behind it completely falls apart the moment you spend more than thirty seconds thinking about it. Claiming the moral high ground or refusing to make a difficult decision does not automatically make you righteous better person.

Does Hughie genuinely believe everything is suddenly going to be sunshine and rainbows now? His entire life proved the exact opposite. At a certain point it stops feeling like character growth and starts feeling like the writers desperately wanting him to remain the lovable good guy who gets a happy ending.

Even after everything, the new president offers him leadership of the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs and he declines. That decision frustrated me almost as much as the virus situation because as long as supes exist problems will exist. As long as powerful factions exist, people will suffer. Hughie’s decision wasn’t ending oppression. It was preserving the system that created it while convincing himself that things would somehow work out differently this time.

I love you Hughie but WAKE UP.

The Gen V Disaster

And if only there happened to be a group of young supes who could help lead the Bureau of Superhuman Affairs. A group that genuinely wants to help people and has spent two seasons learning how to responsibly use their powers.

The biggest disappointment of Season 5 is Gen V.

What makes it so annoying isn’t that the characters are handled badly. It’s that they are barely handled at all.

Season 2 takes place immediately before Season 5 and spends almost its entire runtime building towards what feels like a larger role in the final conflict. Every storyline, every piece of development and every relationship feels like it is moving towards the moment where these characters finally become important to the wider universe. The show spends a ridiculous amount of time telling us that Marie matters, that Jordan matters, that Cate matters, that this new generation is going to play a role in the future of this world.

Then Season 5 arrives and seemingly forgets all of it.

The entire cast feels like an afterthought. They appear briefly, remind the audience that they still exist and then disappear again. It is genuinely baffling because it would almost have been better if they had been completely absent. At least then there would have been no expectations. Instead, the show acknowledges them just enough to remind you how little they actually matter to the story being told.

What makes this even more annoying is that the show actively ignores development that already happened. Annie criticizes Marie for not controlling her powers despite Gen V Season 2 ending with Marie finally mastering them. That wasn’t some minor detail tucked away in the background. That was the entire point of her character arc. The whole season 2 revolved around her understanding her powers, accepting them and learning how to use them properly. Then suddenly none of that matters anymore.

Marie was part of the same project as Homelander. On a DNA level they were practically equals. Was she ever going to kill Homelander? No. But why spend time building that connection if you are not even going to acknowledge it? Nobody expected her to land the final blow, but surely there was room for her to contribute in some meaningful way. Maybe she weakens him. Maybe she creates an opening. Maybe she becomes part of the solution instead she barely feels relevant to the story at all.

The rest of the cast fares no better. Cate is reduced to appearing in a photograph. Jordan mostly exists in the background. Emma feels like she wandered into a completely different show and forgot to come back. These are characters that spent two seasons building their own identities and relationships, only to be treated like extras when the finale arrives.

We were told that Marie would play a key role, and technically that statement wasn’t a lie. She uses the key to start a truck carrying survivors to Canada. That’s it, That’s the payoff to years of setup.

Now that Gen V has been cancelled, I genuinely don’t know where this universe goes from here. Part of me thinks the writers realised that many of these characters were simply too powerful and would completely disrupt the plot if they were allowed to participate fully. Rather than finding a clever solution, they quietly pushed them to the side and hoped nobody would notice.

I understand not wanting to make a spin-off mandatory viewing. Not everyone wants to watch another show just to understand the main one. That is completely fair but there is a huge difference between making a spin-off optional and making it irrelevant. Give these characters recurring roles, Let them contribute, Show me why I spent two seasons watching them and why any of it mattered.

Because if you aren’t advertising your own spin-off, aren’t making its characters important and aren’t giving audiences a reason to care about them, then of course people are going to lose interest leading to the show being cancelled. That’s basic fucking supply and demand.

Homelander

Now he is not just a man.

He is not just a super man.

He is Homelander.

I genuinely have no bad things to say about his character arc. As he himself would say, it was perfect. Perfect. Everything down to the last minute details.

Antony Starr

Before I even talk about Homelander, Antony Starr deserves an enormous amount of praise. Across all five seasons, his performance never dipped in quality. If anything, it somehow kept getting better every year. The level of consistency he maintained while portraying such a complicated, unstable and terrifying character is genuinely incredible. There are very few performances where you can immediately tell who a character is just from a facial expression, and Antony Starr managed to do that for five straight seasons. I still genuinely cannot believe the man is 50 years old. You could have told me he was in his early thirties and I probably would have believed you.

More importantly, he made Homelander feel real. Not real in the sense that laser eyes and flying superheroes exist, but real in the sense that every emotion felt authentic. The rage, the insecurity, the narcissism, the loneliness and even the moments where you almost felt sorry for him all came through because of how good Starr’s performance was. Homelander would not be remembered the way he is without Antony Starr behind him.

The Making of a Monster

What makes Homelander such an interesting character study is that there isn’t a simple answer for why he became who he is. It isn’t one traumatic event or one bad decision that suddenly turned him into a monster. The reality is much messier than that. Was it the environment he was raised in? Was it being treated like a product instead of a person? Was it spending his childhood in laboratories instead of with a family? Was it becoming the leader of The Seven while still being controlled by people behind closed doors? Was it Ryan rejecting him when all he wanted was someone to love him?

The answer is all of it and more.

None of this excuses what Homelander became, but it does explain why he is so fascinating to watch. Homelander is a bad person. There is no discussion to be had there. He has raped, abused and murdered people without a second thought. There is nothing redeemable about him in the traditional sense. Yet despite all of that, he remains one of the most compelling characters on television because we understand how he got here.

The tragedy of Homelander is that he was never allowed to be a person. He was raised to be a product, marketed as a hero and treated as a god long before he understood what any of those things actually meant. Imagine spending your entire life being told you are superior to everyone around you while simultaneously being manipulated by the people who claim to love you. That would break anybody.

What emerged was a man who genuinely believes he is above humanity while desperately wanting to be accepted by it. A man who views himself as a god but constantly seeks approval like a child. That contradiction is what makes Homelander so compelling. Physically he is the most powerful being on the planet, but emotionally he is an absolute train wreck held together by validation and ego.

Fear, Validation and Love

The thing that fascinates me most about Homelander is that I don’t think he understands the difference between fear, love and validation anymore. In his mind they have all become the same thing.

He wants people to love him, but he only knows how to achieve that through power. He wants loyalty, but he obtains it through fear. He wants genuine human connection, but every relationship he has is built on fear, manipulation and control. As a result, he constantly mistakes dependence for affection and obedience for love.

That is why even the smallest hint of disloyalty sends him into a spiral. He kills because betrayal hurts him on a level that physical threats never could. Homelander has never really feared being punched, shot or killed. What he fears is rejection and abandonment which are the feelings vought induced him throughout his childhood.

The funny thing is that some of the people he lets live are the very people who oppose him. Stan Edgar is the perfect example. Homelander had countless opportunities to kill him and never did. The Boys themselves survived far longer than they realistically should have. The reason I think is because in Homelander’s twisted worldview, attention itself has value. If someone spends all their time thinking about him, fighting him and trying to stop him, they still care about him in some way. Their hatred becomes another form of validation.

Fear works differently.

When people like Madelyn, Noir or Firecracker fear him, that relationship eventually becomes disposable. Their entire existence revolves around serving him, surviving him or avoiding his wrath. Once fear becomes the foundation of a relationship, Homelander eventually destroys it because deep down he knows it isn’t real. It isn’t love or respect, It is fear. The irony is that the people who challenge him often survive longer than the people who worship him.

He has killed more of The Seven members at this point more than The Boys have, Black Noir I, A Train, Firecracker and so many other supes because there was a sense of disloyalty.

His conversation with The Legend was one of the most interesting moments in the season because it touched on something uncomfortable. The Legend isn’t a good person and neither is Homelander, but he understands something that most people don’t. Homelander did not emerge from a vacuum. The world helped create him. That doesn’t excuse his actions, but it does explain them.

Homelander finally had someone talk to him like a person. There was fear involved, but it wasn’t the blind terror that usually defines his relationships. The Legend understood exactly what Homelander was capable of, yet still chose to engage with him as a human being rather than a god, a product or a weapon.

That is what makes the scene so fascinating. Homelander spends his entire life chasing validation, but very few people ever attempt to understand him. The Legend does, and in doing so he gives Homelander something that is arguably rarer than love in his life: empathy. Not sympathy, not forgiveness and certainly not approval, but genuine understanding. For a man who has spent his entire life feeling isolated from humanity, that kind of connection is incredibly powerful, even if it only lasts for a moment.

Society has a habit of creating powerful people and then acting surprised when they become monsters. We elevate them, worship them, remove consequences from their lives and then wonder why they stop behaving like everyone else. Homelander is obviously an extreme fictional example, but the idea behind him resonates because there is a grain of truth buried underneath all the lasers and superhero stuff.

That is also why A-Train’s death feels like such an important turning point. For perhaps the first time, Homelander encounters someone who genuinely isn’t afraid of him anymore. Not someone pretending to be brave. Not someone hiding their fear. Someone who understands the consequences and chooses to do the right thing anyway.

Homelander genuinely doesn’t know how to operate in that situation. When A-Train removes fear from the equation, Homelander is left facing something he cannot manipulate, and that terrifies him far more than any physical threat ever could.

Solider Boy

Soldier Boy is a fascinating part of Homelander’s story because he represents the one thing Homelander has wanted his entire life: a parent. But when Homelander finally gets that opportunity, reality doesn’t match the fantasy he built up in his head. Soldier Boy cared just enough to acknowledge him, but never enough to truly see him as a son. To Soldier Boy, Homelander wasn’t his child.

For someone like Homelander, that is probably the most painful thing he could ever hear.

This is a man whose entire life has been defined by abandonment. He never had a mother. He never had a father. He spent decades desperately searching for approval, validation and affection from anyone willing to give it to him. Then, for the first time, he finds the person who should have loved him unconditionally, only to discover that Soldier Boy sees him as little more than wasted sperm.

I don’t think Homelander froze Soldier Boy because he stopped caring about him. If anything, I think he cared too much. Killing Soldier Boy would have been easy. Homelander has killed countless people for far less. Freezing him instead feels like the decision of someone who cannot bring himself to completely let go, even after hearing the worst possible thing a son could hear from his father.

It is twisted, dysfunctional and completely broken, but then again so is every meaningful relationship in Homelander’s life.

The Fall of a “God”

His death was brutal but fitting. As A-Train said, “Take away the powers and what are you? Pathetic, Weak and a snivelling fucking loser” Homelander spent his entire life believing he was untouchable. He believed consequences were things that happened to other people. He believed power would always protect him.

Watching him lose everything wasn’t just satisfying because the villain lost. It was satisfying because the illusion finally shattered.

Homelander losing is more than just the defeat of a bad guy. It is the destruction of the belief that you can spend your entire life avoiding accountability and somehow escape the consequences forever. It is fiction, which is why it can feel idealistic at times, but if human history has taught us anything, it is that consequences eventually arrive. Sometimes it takes years. Sometimes it takes decades. But eventually the bill comes due.

When Homelander was finally depowered, we got to see something unique. We saw the man underneath it all. For the first time in his life he was vulnerable. He couldn’t intimidate people with laser eyes, couldn’t fly away from danger and couldn’t rely on raw power to solve his problems. Every insecurity that had been buried beneath years of worship and fear suddenly came rushing to the surface in the form of a pathetic loser who begged on his knees willing to do anything to save his life.

Thank you for the memes and funny moments, but rot in hell.

Ryan

Ryan is undoubtedly one of the most important characters in the entire series. In many ways, he is the reason most of the conflict exists in the first place. Butcher fights for him, Homelander fights for him, and countless decisions throughout the show revolve around what kind of person Ryan will eventually become. The strange thing about Season 5 is that despite his importance, he actually has very little screentime. Most of his interactions are limited to Butcher, Homelander and Zoe, yet his presence still hangs over almost every major storyline.

One scene that stands out is Homelander beating him. It is genuinely difficult to watch and should have been one of the most memorable moments of the season. Oddly enough, I barely remember it. That isn’t because the scene itself was bad, but because Season 5 often struggles to make its big moments stick. I can remember tiny interactions and throwaway scenes from earlier seasons, yet so many supposedly major moments from this season already feel blurry.

Despite that, Ryan’s overall arc is still a decent one. He spends most of the season caught between different people trying to decide his future for him, but by the end he finally gets the chance to live for himself. Kimiko blasting him leaves his powers in question. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing a Ryan spin-off. A coming of age story mixed with superhero elements could be a lot of fun.

The ending where Ryan ends up living with the Milks is surprisingly wholesome. After years of being treated like a weapon, a symbol or a bargaining chip, he finally gets something resembling a family.

A lot of that emotional weight comes from Cameron Crovetti, who has become one of the strongest actors in the cast. He sells Ryan’s confusion, anger and vulnerability incredibly well, and it is easy to forget how much of the character’s growth relies on his performance. Also, I would be lying if I didn’t mention how funny it was watching him be chronically online during production. Every time he posted a reel, the comments were filled with people telling him to get back to work on Season 5 as if he was personally responsible for the production schedule.

Marvin Milk

MM is one of the most interesting characters in the show because, unlike almost everyone else, his story has never really been about revenge. Revenge is what started the journey, but family is what kept him going. Everything traces back to Soldier Boy killing his family and watching his father spend years unable to find justice, but somewhere along the way MM became the person holding everyone else together.

Season 5 feels like the first time we really see him exhausted. There is a sense that he has reached the point where whatever happens will happen, and honestly, after everything he has been through, I can’t blame him. Yet despite that fatigue, he never stops caring. He saves Raven. He continues looking out for the people around him. He remains the smartest person in the room more often than not. The fight might not be in him the way it once was, but when the moment calls for it, MM still shows up.

What makes his ending satisfying is how simple it is. He gets back together with Monique. He gets peace. Ryan ends up living with him. While everyone else is trying to save or destroy the world, MM is trying to build a family.

Laz Alonso deserves a lot of credit here because MM could have easily become the boring, responsible character that exists purely to move the plot forward. Instead, he feels like one of the most human people in the entire show. Also, his T-shirts deserve a special mention. The album covers, the obscure references and the random designs have always stood out. I appreciate them because I also enjoy wearing slightly odd shirts.

Sage

Sister Sage is probably the most divisive character in the season, and I understand why.

Back when I reviewed Gen V Season 2, I made the point that the intelligence of a super-genius character is ultimately limited by the intelligence of the writers and the audience. You can tell people a character is smart, but making them actually feel smart is much harder. In Gen V, Sage worked because she always seemed to have contingencies. If Plan A failed, she had Plan B. If emotions got in the way, she had already accounted for that possibility. Even when things went wrong, it still felt like she was operating three steps ahead of everyone else.

Season 5 changes that.

Suddenly Sage starts explaining away failures by saying she couldn’t account for love or emotions, and I think that’s complete bullshit. For somebody who is supposedly the smartest person alive, emotions are not some mystical force beyond comprehension. They are variables and patterns. They are things that should be predictable to someone operating at her level. The thing is that previous appearances already established this. In Gen V, she explicitly accounted for emotional changes and changes of heart.

The issue isn’t that Sage became less intelligent. The issue is that the rules surrounding her intelligence suddenly changed.

I still think she is a fascinating character. The ending works well enough, and the fact she knew exactly what would push Kimiko’s buttons shows there is still some of that strategic brilliance left. I just can’t shake the feeling that the show threw away a genuinely interesting character because it became inconvenient for someone that intelligent to exist within the plot.

Susan Heyward still does fantastic work with the material she is given. Even when I disagreed with the writing, I never stopped believing in the character because her performance remained consistently strong throughout the season.

Enjoy Orlando Sage.

Annie & A-Train

The reason I mention Annie and A-Train together is because, despite taking completely different paths, they ultimately wanted the same thing. Both of them wanted to do good. Both of them understood the importance of family, responsibility and protecting the people around them. The difference was that Annie started from a place of wanting to help people, while A-Train had to claw his way back after years of making selfish decisions.

A-Train’s arc is honestly one of the best in the entire show. It is a genuine full-circle moment when you think about where he started. The first time we see him, he is covered in Robin’s blood after running straight through her. That single moment sets the entire series in motion, and for years A-Train exists as a symbol of things wrong with superheroes. He is selfish, arrogant, reckless and constantly looking out for himself.

Season 5 finally pays off years of development. In the very first episode, we see an A-Train who is no longer acting out of fear. That courage to laugh in Homelander’s face while facing his final moments makes A-Train more human than Homelander would ever be. The chase sequence between him and Homelander was one of the most entertaining parts of the season and felt like something straight out of a classic superhero story. What makes it even better is how it ends.

The moment A-Train loses control, it happens because he chooses not to run through another innocent person. Years earlier he would not have made that choice. We know he wouldn’t have because he already didn’t. The difference is that now he values people’s lives more than his own survival.

That is why his death works so well. When Homelander finally catches him, A-Train isn’t devastated. He isn’t begging for his life. He is proud of the person he became and proud of the choices he made. He came, he ran, he spat in Homelander’s face and he died. For such a complicated character, it is a genuinely perfect ending.

Jessie T. Usher deserves a huge amount of credit as well. A redemption arc only works if the audience eventually believes the person has changed, and somehow he managed to take one of the most hated characters in the entire series and turn him into somebody people actively rooted for. That is not an easy thing to do.

Annie

Annie, on the other hand, has always been driven by doing what she believes is right. Sometimes that has helped her and sometimes it has hurt her, but she has remained remarkably consistent throughout the series. The problem with Season 5 isn’t Annie herself. It is that the season rarely gives her meaningful agency. She often feels like a side character in her own story.

Her attitude and frustration throughout the season make complete sense. She has spent years trying to help people only to constantly watch things get worse. Her interactions with her father were nice enough, but they never felt like they had any lasting impact. The entire storyline felt more like an acknowledgement of her daddy issues than something that fundamentally changed her character.

What frustrates me most is her powers. For multiple seasons the show has hinted that Annie is becoming stronger and stronger. She can fly now, which is cool, but beyond that it feels like her abilities have actually become less interesting. Gone are the huge displays of power and creative uses of electricity. Instead we mostly get glowing eyes and occasional bursts of energy. You are telling me somebody who can manipulate electricity can’t find more interesting applications for those powers? At a certain point it starts feeling less like a character limitation and more like a lack of imagination.

Erin Moriarty still gives a strong performance and remains one of the emotional anchors of the show, but I can’t help feeling like Annie never reached her full potential. For a character who spent five seasons representing hope, the final season doesn’t give her nearly enough opportunities to shine.

Frenchie & Kimiko

Frenchie and Kimiko have always felt like the emotional heart of The Boys. They are two damaged people in a group where damage is normal, yet somehow they are also the ones who understand each other the best.

Both characters have done terrible things. Both carry enormous amounts of guilt. Both have spent years trying to find some form of redemption. What makes them interesting is that unlike Butcher or Homelander, they genuinely want to become better people. They aren’t trying to justify their actions. They aren’t pretending their past doesn’t exist. They simply want to move forward.

Frenchie remains one of the most entertaining characters in the series. His intelligence, humour and bizarre way of speaking make him impossible to dislike. Whether he is building something ridiculous or casually dropping French phrases into conversations, he always brings a unique energy to the show. I still have no idea what the point of the Season 4 romance subplot was, but honestly I think most people have collectively forgotten about it and moved on.

Tomer Capone deserves a lot of praise because Frenchie could have easily become a caricature. Instead, he feels surprisingly grounded despite often being one of the weirdest people on screen.

Kimiko’s journey is perhaps even more satisfying. She has been through unimaginable amounts of pain and trauma since the beginning of the show, yet somehow she keeps moving forward. One of the most shocking moments this season was hearing her actually speak. It shouldn’t have been surprising because Karen Fukuhara obviously talks in real life, but after years of communicating through expressions and sign language, hearing Kimiko speak felt genuinely surreal.

Karen Fukuhara deserves enormous credit for that. She spent years building a character without relying on dialogue and somehow managed to make Kimiko one of the most expressive people in the entire cast.

The ending for these two is bittersweet. Frenchie dies, but Kimiko survives. It isn’t a perfect ending but life isn’t perfect.

Firecracker

Firecracker is genuinely one of the most fascinating characters introduced in the later seasons because she represents something far more grounded than laser eyes or superpowers.

She represents blind faith. Not faith itself, but the danger of surrendering your ability to think critically and placing your entire identity in another person.

Episode 5 is the best showcase of her character. Throughout the episode she is forced to confront both her past and her relationship with Homelander. There are moments where it genuinely feels like she understands what is happening. She sees the contradictions, She sees the manipulation and she sees the warning signs.

Her confrontation with her former pastor is a perfect example. Despite whatever affection remains, she ultimately destroys him because her loyalty has shifted elsewhere. She has placed all of her faith into Homelander, and once that happens everything else becomes secondary.

The tragedy is that even after abandoning everything for him, Homelander still rejects her. When she finally chooses Homelander over Jesus, Homelander cannot accept that devotion and kills her anyway. That is what makes the storyline work so well. Firecracker’s downfall isn’t caused by a lack of intelligence. It is caused by her willingness to ignore the truth in favour of what she wants to believe.

Firecracker is not a good person. She has done horrific things. She spreads hate, fuels violence and manipulates people for personal gain. Her death is not some great injustice.

What makes her death interesting is not only whether she deserved it. It is watching how she arrived there in the first place.

Valorie Curry does a fantastic job portraying that conflict. Beneath all the confidence and outrage is somebody constantly trying to convince herself that she has made the right choices, and that uncertainty is what makes Firecracker feel so believable.

Oh Father & Ashley

Despite the name, Oh Father rarely ends up being about faith. Instead, he becomes one of Homelander’s biggest cheerleaders, constantly reinforcing the mythology surrounding him and treating him less like a person and more like a divine figure.

What makes the character interesting is how willing he is to surrender himself to power. Every conversation, every speech and every action revolves around elevating Homelander. It is honestly fascinating to watch because it shows how easily people can become consumed by someone they admire.

Even in death he manages to leave an impression. “Raise Him Up” has absolutely no right being as catchy as it is. Daveed Diggs has an incredible voice and somehow managed to make that song live rent-free in my head.

Ashley, meanwhile, continues her streak of being the single most resilient cockroach in television history. She also got powers this season which is crazy. Her powers are essentially being Voldemort. The back of her head has a face and it’s own conciousness and has the ability to read other people’s minds which overall is really cool.

At this point Homelander has killed, threatened or destroyed almost everyone around him, yet Ashley somehow survives all of it. The reason is surprisingly simple. She is selfish. Ashley understands how to survive. She spots opportunities, adapts to changing situations and knows exactly when to run. It isn’t always admirable, but it is effective.

Colby Minifie deserves enormous credit because Ashley could have easily become a one-note joke character. Instead she evolved into somebody who is constantly balancing fear, ambition and self-preservation. She remains deeply flawed, but after everything she has survived, I almost have to respect it.

The Deep

He’s dead. Let’s fucking go.

Out of everybody who dies in Season 5, The Deep’s death brought me the most satisfaction.

The Deep is one of the few characters in the show who somehow manages to remain pathetic no matter how much power he gains. He is selfish, abusive, insecure and so desperate for validation that he would rather destroy himself than stand on his own two feet.

What makes him fascinating is that he spends the entire series looking for somebody else to tell him who he should be. First it was Vought. Then it was the Church. Then it was Homelander. By the end, he has completely lost whatever sense of self he once had.

Honestly, if when Homelander had lost his powers and told The Deep to suck Butcher’s dick in exchange for survival, I genuinely believe he would have done it. Not because he wanted to, but because his need for approval is so overwhelming that he cannot function without somebody above him telling him what to do.

Even when Homelander told him to suck A-Train’s dick as a joke he was ready. He was so pathetic.

That is why Homelander was never entirely wrong about him. Cruel? Absolutely. Wrong? Not really. The Deep has no spine. He betrays everyone including himself.

Which is why I love the way he dies. In the end, it isn’t Homelander, Annie or Butcher that brings him down, It’s the sea. The very thing that defined his entire identity ultimately rejects him.

Chace Crawford deserves credit because making somebody this pathetic for five straight seasons without becoming unbearable is genuinely impressive.

Rest in pieces at the bottom of the ocean, sucker.

Soldier Boy

A key character in everything that happened this season, despite barely being in it.

He had the V1. He survived the virus. He gave the V1 to Homelander, which remains one of the most baffling decisions in the entire season. And after all of that, after everything that happened, he ends up right back where he started — frozen, once again.

That ending is part of why I find Soldier Boy’s role this season so awkward. Not because he was badly acted or because he lacked screen presence, but because his character feels noticeably different from the version we last saw in Season 3.

Characters should change. Time should affect them. The issue is that the change doesn’t feel earned. It feels abrupt.

The biggest example is Clara, a.k.a. Stormfront. Suddenly, Soldier Boy becomes deeply concerned with what Clara would have wanted. Her influence becomes the driving force behind several major decisions he makes throughout the season. The thing is that this doesn’t line up with what we previously knew about him.

When Soldier Boy was released in Season 3, he had every opportunity to look for her. He was free. He had time. He had motivation. Yet he never seemed particularly interested in finding out what happened to her. Years later, after all of that has passed, she suddenly becomes central to his worldview and the justification for his actions.

Maybe this was done to help set up Vought Rising. Maybe there is context that will arrive later.

At this point, I genuinely do not care. The shift is so sudden that it feels less like natural character development and more like the writers moving pieces around to support future stories. Instead of asking what Soldier Boy would do, it often feels like the show is asking what the plot needs Soldier Boy to do.

That ultimately leaves his entire arc feeling strangely circular. He influences some of the biggest events of the season, helps push the story toward its conclusion, and yet ends up exactly where he started: back on ice. The destination is the same, but the journey there never fully convinced me.

The same inconsistency extends to his powers. Back in Season 3, Soldier Boy’s chest blast felt dangerous because it was unpredictable. It was raw, unstable and destructive. People died because of it. Buildings were levelled because of it. When it successfully removed one supe’s powers, it felt less like a deliberate ability and more like a side effect of an incredibly volatile weapon. ySeason 5 seems to change the rules whenever it is convenient. Sometimes Soldier Boy appears to have complete control over the blast. Other times it behaves exactly like it did before. Sometimes it kills. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it removes powers. Sometimes it barely seems to do anything at all.

The inconsistency becomes distracting because the ability is so important to the plot. When one of the central mechanics of the season keeps changing depending on what the story needs, it becomes harder to understand the stakes.

Despite all of that, Soldier Boy remains an incredibly entertaining character.

Jensen Ackles once again walks into the show and immediately steals every scene he is in. The charisma is still there. The humour is still there. The presence is still there. We even got a reunion of sorts with Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins, making it a fun moment for longtime Supernatural fans.

Even when I was frustrated by the writing, I was never frustrated by the performance.

Beyond Season 5

Looking back, The Boys still holds a very special place in my heart. I will absolutely rewatch it. I will laugh at the absurd moments, be disgusted by the disgusting moments and still find myself shocked when certain reveals happen despite already knowing they are coming. My love for the show hasn’t disappeared. Far from it. It remains one of the most unique television experiences I have ever watched and it is still a show I would happily recommend to people.

My perspective is probably going to be different from a lot of others. I viewed the final season through the lens of everything that came before it, which is why I feel it could have been better. That doesn’t make it underwhelming. Not even close. What it does make it is underperforming. The ingredients for something truly special were all there, and that is what makes some of the missed opportunities sting a little more.

Before we move on to discussing the legacy of the show, I want to take a moment to look back at some of the characters and moments that helped make The Boys what it is. Think of this as an in memoriam section. Some of these characters are dead, Some are still alive but all of them left their mark.

Maeve

Maeve’s story is one of the few in The Boys that actually ends on a hopeful note.

She spent years trapped in a world she hated, forced to play a role she no longer believed in while constantly living under Homelander’s shadow. What made Maeve so compelling was that she never pretended things were okay. She saw the corruption, the lies and the hypocrisy long before most people did. For a long time she wasn’t bothered to do anything about it but when the time came refused to tolerate the bullshit anymore.

Dominique McElligott chose not to return for Season 5 which is fine. I also think here was nothing left to prove with Maeve. We had seen her journey from start to finish, and allowing her to stay gone made her ending feel complete.

Madelyn Stillwell

Madelyn Stillwell is one of the most important characters in the entire show, even if people don’t always realize it.

On the surface she appears powerful. She controled The Seven, commands respect and sits near the top of the Vought hierarchy. The reality is much more tragic. Madelyn was ultimately just another pawn in a system that was larger than her.

Her relationship with Homelander remains one of the most fascinating dynamics in the show. She kept him close enough to feel important, but never close enough to truly satisfy what he wanted. Looking back, I think her death marks a turning point for Homelander. His life was already completely fucked up long before that moment, but killing Madelyn became a catalytic movement. It removed one of the last people capable of exerting any kind of dominance over him.

Elisabeth Shue deserves enormous credit for making Madelyn feel simultaneously powerful, vulnerable and manipulative. It is not an easy balance to strike, but she managed it effortlessly.

Stan Edgar

One of my favourite characters in the entire series.

The fact that Stan Edgar can walk into a room with Homelander and somehow be the most intimidating person there is honestly impressive. He never needed powers. He never needed violence. He simply understood people better than almost anyone else.

Giancarlo Esposito absolutely crushed this role.

Whether it was telling Homelander that he wasn’t Vought’s most valuable asset or later dismissing him as nothing more than a bad product, Edgar always knew exactly where to strike. He understood that Homelander’s greatest weakness was not physical vulnerability but emotional insecurity.

Every scene he appeared in felt important. Every line felt deliberate. The charm, confidence and authority Giancarlo brought to the character made Stan Edgar one of the most memorable figures in the entire show.

Victoria Neuman

She is as beautiful as the day we lost her.

As the show evolved and her character received more development, I found myself liking her more and more. Victoria Neuman is not a good person. She spent years casually exploding people’s heads and manipulating those around her. Morally speaking, she is an absolute disaster.

And yet she remains incredibly compelling.

What makes Neuman so interesting is that she represents something we rarely see in this universe: a supe trying to survive in a human world rather than dominate it. Her political career, secret identity and attempts to balance power with responsibility created one of the most unique storylines in the series.

The reveal that she was essentially Stan Edgar’s adopted daughter made perfect sense in hindsight. Once you know it, you can see it everywhere. The mannerisms, the calculated decision making and the willingness to play the long game all feel incredibly similar.

Claudia Doumit was phenomenal throughout the series. She brought charisma, intelligence and just enough vulnerability to make Neuman feel human despite the horrifying things she was capable of.

I was genuinely sad when she died. Rest in two pieces.

Becca and Joe Kessler

In many ways, Becca is at the centre of everything that happens in The Boys. The entire story begins because of her. Butcher’s war against supes. It sounds strange to say considering how little screentime she has compared to some of the major players, but The Boys is arguably Becca’s story as much as it is anyone else’s.

What I really appreciated about her appearances in Butcher’s mind was that she never felt like a fantasy. It would have been easy to portray her as an idealised version of what Butcher wanted to hear, constantly validating his decisions and reassuring him that he was doing the right thing. Instead, she felt like an actual continuation of the person we knew. She challenged him, questioned him and often stood in direct opposition to the choices he was making. Even though she only existed within his head, it still felt like Becca.

Shantel VanSanten was absolutely fantastic throughout the series. She brought warmth, compassion and humanity to a show often filled with some of the worst people imaginable. Every time Becca appeared she reminded us what Butcher had lost and why he kept fighting even when the reasons became increasingly difficult to justify.

Joe Kessler, on the other hand, was one of the most entertaining additions to the later seasons.

Where Becca represented Butcher’s conscience, Joe represented his darkest impulses. If Becca was the angel on his shoulder, Joe was the devil whispering in his ear. He encouraged the ruthless decisions, the violent solutions and the belief that the ends always justify the means. Through Joe, we got to see a side of Butcher that had always existed beneath the surface but was now becoming impossible to ignore.

Season 5 uses him particularly well. The sequence where the shapeshifter enters Butcher’s mind and takes the form of Joe Kessler is one of the most interesting psychological moments in the season. Suddenly we are not just seeing Butcher argue with his conscience we are seeing his own thoughts turned against him. The entire conversation feels tense, uncomfortable and deeply personal because it forces Butcher to confront ideas he already knows are buried somewhere inside him.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan absolutely kills it in the role. He brings an effortless charisma to Joe that makes him impossible to dislike despite the fact that he is often advocating for objectively terrible decisions. There is a confidence and swagger to the character that perfectly complements Karl Urban’s performance.

One of my favourite moments involving both characters is when they are screaming at Butcher from opposite sides of his conscience and Joe suddenly turns to Becca and tells her to shut up. I don’t know why that moment worked as well as it did, but it genuinely gave me goosebumps. It was funny, intimidating and bizarrely intense all at once.

The reveal surrounding Joe remains one of the most memorable twists in the entire series. It completely reframed how we viewed Butcher’s mental state and added an entirely new dimension to his character.

For a character as complicated as Butcher, there was no better way to show the war happening inside his head.

Black Noir

The original Black Noir remains one of the most memorable characters in the show despite barely speaking a word.

From the moment he appeared, there was something unsettling about him. Whether it was stalking Butcher in Season 1 or casually eliminating threats with terrifying efficiency, Noir always felt dangerous. He didn’t need long speeches or dramatic monologues. His presence alone was enough.

Season 3 elevated the character significantly. Learning about his history with Soldier Boy and understanding how he became the person he did added a surprising amount of depth. The animated hallucinations remain some of the most creative storytelling the show has ever attempted. They were bizarre, heartbreaking and strangely beautiful all at once.

Nathan Mitchell deserves enormous praise for making a mostly silent character so memorable.

Black Noir II was also surprisingly entertaining. The idea that this version of Noir spends his spare time doing theatre is genuinely hilarious. Watching him go from mysterious assassin to awkward actor created some of the funniest moments in the later seasons.

Cheers to Nathan Mitchell for somehow managing to play both a terrifying assassin and a lovable weirdo.

Stormfront

She was absolutely insane.

For a character who only appeared prominently for a single season, Stormfront’s impact on the series was enormous. The fact that her influence can still be felt years later speaks volumes about how effective the character was.

The reveal that Stormfront was actually Liberty, Dr. Vought’s wife and had spent decades reinventing herself was one of the show’s strongest twists. It perfectly captured the idea that some evils don’t disappear. They simply rebrand themselves.

Watching her eventually get the absolute shit beaten out of her was incredibly satisfying.

Aya Cash delivered an outstanding performance and made Stormfront one of the most memorable villains the show ever produced. Excited to see her in Vought Rising.

Herogasm

The episode was nowhere near as insane as the hype made it sound.

It was absolutely ridiculous and disturbing. It was it one of the most absurd things ever put on television.

But what I actually remember isn’t the nudity or the shock value. What I remember is the fight. Soldier Boy arriving. Butcher and Hughie standing their ground with powers and all of them fighting Homelander was super fun to watch.

For all the marketing surrounding Herogasm, the most memorable part ended up being the character moments rather than the insanity.

Homelander’s Breakdowns

Some of the best scenes in the entire show came from watching Homelander slowly unravel.

His return to the laboratory where he was raised was especially powerful. It added another layer to the character and reinforced just how much of his behaviour stems from insecurity rather than confidence. His interactions with Marty and Barbara perfectly highlighted two completely different types of fear.

Marty feared Homelander because he knew what he was capable of. Barbara didn’t. She didn’t let that fear control her.

When she explained how they deliberately designed him to crave validation and approval, she wasn’t talking to a god. She was talking to an insecure child trapped inside a god’s body. The fact she survived that conversation says everything.

The “I am better than everyone” breakdown was another fantastic moment. Years of insecurity, resentment and aggravation finally exploded all at once.

Then there is the mirror scene. Still one of the best scenes in the entire show.

The different angles, the conflicting personalities and the internal arguments all combined to create something genuinely unsettling. It wasn’t just entertaining television. It deepened our understanding of who Homelander really is.

Moments I’ll Remember

• The Congressional hearing and the exploding heads.
• The Deep eating Timothy.
• A-Train dragging Blue Hawk across the road.
• The super baby scene.

Before I wrap up, I also want to give a quick shoutout to a few characters and actors that helped shape the show even if I don’t have enough to say to justify their own sections.

Grace Mallory, played by Laila Robins. Susan Raynor, played by Jennifer Esposito. Hugh Campbell Sr. played by Simon Pegg.

All three were fantastic in their respective roles and each left a lasting impact on the story. Whether it was Mallory’s influence on The Boys, Raynor’s brief but memorable presence, or Hugh Sr.’s relationship with Hughie, they helped make the world feel richer and more believable.

I don’t have pages of analysis for them, but that shouldn’t take away from how important they were to the show or how strong the performances were.

Final Thoughts

When I think about the legacy of The Boys, I don’t think I will remember it purely as a television show. I think I will remember it as a cultural moment. It changed the game.

Whether people loved it or hated it, everyone knew what The Boys was. It carved out its own identity in a genre that was becoming increasingly crowded and managed to remain relevant for seven years. Even now, long after the final episode has aired, Homelander memes will continue to haunt the internet, clips, memes and countless moments from the show will continue to live on in popular culture.

That is not something every series gets to achieve.

Overall, Season 5 is still a good season of television. I was invested. I was entertained. There were moments where I was genuinely on the edge of my seat. When Soldier Boy woke up after surviving the super virus, I was shocked. When certain characters died, I cared. When Homelander finally fell, it felt satisfying.

There is enough here to make the season work. The Boys set an incredibly high standard for itself over the years. When you compare Season 5 to most television, it holds up remarkably well. When you compare it to the best seasons of The Boys, however, the cracks become much easier to see. The missing moments, the strange priorities and the occasional lack of payoff all prevent it from reaching the heights it probably should have reached.

And despite everything, despite the criticisms, despite the irritations and the missed opportunities, hearing Piano Man play as the dust settled and the world entered a new chapter genuinely got to me. For a moment, all the complaints disappeared and I was simply reminded of how much time I had spent with these characters and this universe. Whatever issues I may have with the journey, that final feeling is one I’ll remember for a long time.

It really did feel like the end of an era.

Thank you to Eric Kripke and everyone involved in bringing this insane universe to life. From exploding heads and invisible superheroes to flying psychopaths and many penises, it has been one hell of a ride.

To the cast, thank you. Whether your role lasted five seasons or five seconds, you helped shape what this show became. To the writers, directors, cinematographers, editors, composers, stunt performers and everyone working behind the scenes, the technical quality of The Boys never wavered. Even when I disagreed with story decisions, I never felt like the craftsmanship behind the show had declined.

The Boys comfortably sits in my personal hall of fame.

Thank you for the memories.

7/10 — It’s what Clara would’ve wanted.