Review: The Boys Season 5, Episode 8: “Blood and Bone”

Written by Judalina Neira & David Reed Directed by Phil Sgriccia

The final season of The Boys has been an interesting ride. As much as I’ve enjoyed it, I can’t entirely disagree with the sentiment that the series might have worn out its welcome. As I’ve mentioned before, at times, it feels like two or three episodes worth of story stretched across eight episodes that somehow also feel overstuffed and even rushed.

Take this series finale, for example. The main action is pretty straightforward. The Boys make their final, desperate move against Homelander just when the fascist Supe is giving a speech to announce his godhood and purge the country of non-believers. They manage to get into the Oval Office (where Homelander is giving his speech, of course) with the help of Ashley, but even so, it seems all too easy for them to get into the White House.

There is an extended fight scene that in interrupted when Kimiko lets loose with the blast that depowers Homelander (along with Billy and Ryan, who have been trying to take Homelander down while Kimiko tapped into her new power). It’s satisfying to see the much-weakened Homelander grovel before Billy on national TV, before his equally satisfying demise.

It just takes both too much time and too little effort to get to that point. And some of the preamble is a bit dissatisfying. While I did appreciate the funeral scene for Frenchie, including his version of a final will and testament, the bit with Sister Sage was disappointing, to say the least. I get that they had to show that Kimiko gained her new ability, but it capstoned an arc for Sister Sage that just didn’t work for me. I get that it’s hard to portray the world’s smartest person without actually being the world’s smartest person, but her choices never felt like they matched her supposed ability.

The infiltration into the White House is all too easy. They explain it away reasonably enough, I suppose, but it doesn’t feel like they should have been able to get into the White House with so little resistance, especially if they were more or less expected. Ashley’s intervention feels sloppy in execution. So even when the moments feel a bit triumphant, there’s a sense that bits are glossed over and rushed.

Once Homelander is out of the picture, the question is: what will the world be like in his wake? Billy is convinced that using the virus to wipe out the rest of the Supes is still the right move. As one would expect, Hughie disagrees. It culminates in one last brutal fistfight that ends with Hughie actually shooting Billy in the gut. Hughie, long the moral compass of the Boys and the show, comes out on top.

It feels fitting, but at the same time, it raises a serious question. Billy asks it pretty bluntly: what’s to stop some other Supe from picking up where Homelander left off? Vought still exists. The Supes, many of whom were happy enough to follow Homelander’s lead, are still around. We get mostly happy endings for the surviving Boys, but they are still living in a world that needs to figure out how to handle Supes. In a way, what the Boys set out to resolve doesn’t really get resolved.

Another puzzling aspect of the finale: many of the characters from Gen V show up in minor roles. While it’s great to see them, I wish they could have gotten a bit more to do. I get why the writers wanted to keep the big finale for the main characters and give the victory to our Boys, but why set the Gen V characters up to be important and then do so little with them?

I’ve been a bit negative, but there are some solid moments. It’s hard not to feel a cheer when Homelander is finally taken down and the whole world gets to see how pathetic he really was. Annie gets a final showdown with The Deep, and it’s satisfying to hear her tear his ego apart before sending him into the waters to get eviscerated. And seeing Hughie and Annie happy together (and expecting!) is a nice touch.

The ending is a bit lessened by the knowledge that a prequel is coming (and the season was at least partially devoted to setting that up with Soldier Boy) and perhaps even a further spinoff set after the series. Will this ending stick for everyone? It’s not entirely clear. But for now, The Boys itself has come to its much-anticipated conclusion.