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This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 5 episodes 1 and 2.
When we last saw The Boys at the end of season 4, things were a real mess. Hughie, Frenchie, and Mother’s Milk had been marched off to a “Freedom Camp,” Butcher’s health was deteriorating after taking a concoction of Temp-V and Compound-V, and Homelander had taken over the United States. In the opening two episodes of season 5, things are still a real mess.
As the final season kicks off, a light at the end of the tunnel is quickly extinguished. Annie’s resistance manages to hijack one of Homelander’s events to broadcast footage of his botched Flight 37 rescue mission, only for Vought to spin the horrifying scene as an AI-generated hoax. Homelander, humiliated by the attempted smear, insists on stamping out any ill feeling toward him by convincing Sister Sage that posting derogatory memes about him should be a crime.
Scenes from the Freedom Camp are also grim, as some struggle to keep hope alive under the watchful eye of Supe guards (including the OP Cindy,) along with the frequent beatings they dish out.
Luckily, Butcher formulates a plan to rescue them that includes pulling Kimiko out of Manila and using a tunnel-digging Supe to get them into the camp, but former Seven member A-Train, now a trusted ally, meets his maker in the rescue attempt, hunted down by Homelander after saving Hughie from certain death. RIP to a real one. At least he died mocking Homelander and making him feel like a total waste of space, which is pretty much all we can ask for in a situation like this.
Homelander’s ego takes such a knock that he unthaws Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) in a desperate attempt to get some fatherly validation, and a clear softening of the character follows ahead of his upcoming spinoff series, Vought Rising. The camera often lingers on Ackles’s expressive face, showing his inner turmoil rather than focusing solely on his typically crass, dismissive nature.
Homelander then sends him out like a canary in a coal mine to confront Butcher’s Supe-killing virus, which doesn’t work for reasons that will hopefully become clear in the next episode, but also plants a seed of doubt in our minds that it will work on Homelander. Nonetheless, the introduction of Rock Hard during the virus dry run is utterly hilarious, and it’s satisfying to see the lava-jizzing Supe get his comeuppance, even if the virus turns out to be less effective than Butcher hoped.
Since The Boys isn’t setting up a fresh story for the season and is still stitching together season 4 threads as it heads toward its endgame, any new characters will have to make a serious impact. Hamilton star Daveed Diggs is a wise casting choice, adding an immediate presence as Oh-Father, a megachurch preacher in a marriage of political convenience with Vice President Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie). Ashley is now a mindreader after injecting Compound-V to stay in Vought’s circle of trust, with a whole other version of herself trying to reason with her on the back of her head. It certainly adds to the frantic anxiety we usually associate with Ashley. Her inner struggle is now a physical presence onscreen.
Hubby Oh-Father is also a pedophile in the comics that the show is adapting. There’s no sign of that element of the character here (yet) but he spews all-too-familiar rhetoric against Starlight: her followers are Satanic and they eat babies, he says, immediately linking these lies to their support of transgender surgery. It’s painful to watch because we see it every day on TV and across social media, fuelling discrimination and demonizing marginalized groups. Oh-Father selects lines from the Bible out of context to back up his tirades while his congregation swells with misplaced rage. A spiraling Homelander is even triggered by Oh-Father’s performance, seeing a bright light and hearing a motherly voice calling to him.
It all seems to be teasing a distinctly religious aspect to Vought’s machinations this season, going hand in hand with the company’s unflinching fascism and propaganda. The Boys continues to hold a mirror up to American politics, but its satire feels slightly behind in these first two episodes, rather than one step ahead, which is actually fucking terrifying. A moment where an accused Starlighter is hauled off to a camp in front of their distressed child is chilling.
So far, the dark satire of season 5 is pitch black, perhaps too dark at times to elicit the usual chuckles the show gets from us. As absolute power corrupts the already corrupt, absolutely, the show asks us not to look away, but it’s so close to the bone it saws straight through it.
Lingering Thoughts
Dr. Sameer Shah (Omid Abtahi) is helping the boys with their Supe-slaying virus. Though Butcher has blamed his lover’s death on Homelander, it feels like only a matter of time before Sameer discovers the truth and Butcher’s plan goes tits up.
It’s nice to hear Kimiko speak, but after four seasons without hearing her, it’s a little jarring at the moment. No doubt we’ll get used to it. Kimiko and Frenchie’s long-awaited romantic relationship seems utterly doomed, however, as does Hughie and Annie’s.
Annie has come around to Butcher’s way of thinking, and Hughie’s “Polymorph Rimmer,” major leaflet campaign, give-peace-a-chance witterings have become a bit grating. He probably thought Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi peace offering was heartwarming! Get a grip, Hughie, for fuck’s sake.
Chace Crawford really gives everything to his role as The Deep. His toe-curling, bootlicking brand of cringe never fails to bring a little levity to the show, and his combative working relationship with imposter Black Noir is intriguing.
Not enough is said about how great Valorie Curry is as Firecracker. Her desperation to be Homelander’s trusted confidant is increasing by the second, and Curry is so good at playing the super-religious, people-pleaser type we’ve seen embraced by the administration before being publicly punted by them.
New episodes of The Boys season 5 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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