This review contains spoilers for The Boys season 5 episode 3.
After Ryan kills a military team in Russia who uncover his whereabouts, Vought’s latest propaganda video introduces Soldier Boy as America’s friend in Russia, rooting out “sneaky traitors” in Ukraine. “Turns out Russia isn’t our enemy,” The Deep says. “They’re a strong, family-first nation, who don’t put up with trans bathrooms.” The Boys never misses. If we saw a video like this one posted today, we wouldn’t even be surprised.
We then find out why Soldier Boy survived the virus. He was originally shot up with V1, Vought’s first version of Compound V. The boys have a new mission, and they choose to accept it: obtain any remaining supply of V1, or destroy it before Homelander gets his hands on it and becomes immortal. He’s already felt pretty damn immortal to date, so it doesn’t feel as threatening as it should, even with this new V1 wrinkle. There are still a bunch of episodes left in this final season. Does anyone think the plan to give Homelander the virus will go swiftly and smoothly?
Soldier Boy seems utterly nonplussed by the situation, aside from being annoyed that he was used as a pawn in a game he barely understands. I love that he’s the only one who can truly stand up to Homelander. He looks utterly crestfallen when his biological father mocks him, and there are so few moments where we see someone get under his skin. Still, it’s hard to root for Soldier Boy. He seems like a douchebag in most respects, but when the names of his OG supe team are dropped, we understand we’ll be meeting them all soon, thanks to his upcoming ’50s-set spinoff series. Perhaps they’re even worse.
We look to the past for the future, even as this episode looks to the past for the present. It pulls on familial events from past seasons: the killing of Victoria Newman affects the behavior of her daughter, Zoe. The killing of Translucent in season 1 affects the behavior of his son, Maverick. Ryan’s father figures’ betrayals affect him, too. He’s reckless and has no stability left.
As the younger generations continue to be manipulated by the older ones in their insidious chess games, Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) returns to bask in the glorious boomer capitalism of it all. He dances around it smugly, like Gary Oldman’s Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, knowing the money will roll in when the dust has settled and needs to be swept up.
As always, Hughie is the only one who wants to end the cycle of violence. And what does he accomplish? More blood. More death. More despair. This show may be heading toward its endgame, but it’s a grim path that we walk with these characters, and it’s hard to see how any of them can really get a happy ending after all this. In the land of The Boys, hurt people keep hurting people. It’s a worthwhile theme, but we’ve been here before because the cycle of violence and bad parenting never ends.
Meanwhile, the lack of any genuine parental love has turned Homelander into the absolute psychopath we love to hate. In his unraveling, he experiences a vision of the nearest person he had to a mother: Madelyn Stillwell (Elizabeth Shue.) Seeing Antony Starr on his knees grizzling like a toddler in front of her would be hilarious if it didn’t have a “become God and skin parents in front of their children” chaser. The inevitable progression of Homelander’s god complex might seem even more ludicrous if the current president hadn’t just posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, then tried to walk it back. There will be no walking it back in this show, I fear.
This season is shaping up to be the darkest. There’s hardly any air left in the room for the jokes to properly land. Ryan’s climactic battle with a chipper Homelander, bolstered by the idea that he’s going to become a deity, is still tense. It’s great to see Homelander take a few hits, but we know in our hearts Ryan will lose, and the beating he gets is savage and distressing. Any jokes in the preceding scenes fade quickly.
Though we revisited some daddy and mommy issues in this episode, and they’re as grim as they’ve ever been, the boys were looking for a new plot device here in the V1, and they didn’t find it. We didn’t really get anywhere, and the episode feels a bit worn thematically; there’s a hint of ‘filler’ here. That feels a touch annoying in the show’s final season. Honestly, I’d probably skip this one if I were rewatching it.
Lingering Thoughts
The pillow talk between Firecracker and Soldier Boy is so funny. I’ll admit I laughed out loud when he compared Homelander’s weirdness to a threesome with Gary Busey. Jensen Ackles tries to take on the bulk of this episode’s levity, and he’s damn good at it, though we understand it’s a touch on the manipulative side since he’ll soon be the main face of this franchise.
Of course The Deep drives a Cybertruck. Of course. His out-of-touch “no cap, on God bro” after revealing who really killed Translucent is fantastic. Chace Crawford has smashed every scene he’s ever been in, and I really hope when The Boys is done, he picks up another spectacular role like this.
I want Kimiko and Frenchie to have lots of kids. They would be so beautiful and dangerous. But I sense it is not to be. They’re already realizing they want different futures, and they’ve only been a couple for about five minutes.
Hughie’s “love and kindness” approach still seems woefully misjudged. Yet, perhaps beating the bad guys by rising above it all and being good to each other only seems misjudged because it doesn’t seem to be working in the real world. Kindness isn’t a weakness, but if the person working against you only cares about ‘winning,’ they’ll always see it that way.
New episodes of The Boys season 5 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.
