The Winners and Losers of ‘The Boys’ Season 5

Warning: spoilers abound!

After seven years, The Boys has released its final episode.

Now, as far as series finales go, this one definitely isn’t the worst. It’s not on the same level as Game of Thrones or Stranger Things, both of which ended disastrously and upset a majority of their fanbases. However, this doesn’t mean that fans aren’t upset. Since The Boys Season 5 dropped its first episode on Amazon Prime Video earlier this April, fans have been more than vocal about how it felt like showrunner Eric Kripke and his writers’ room were rushing to finish all their character arcs. After only five seasons of watching the Boys try to put an end to Homelander and his reign of political, man-child terror (sound familiar?), there seemed to be too much to cover in just eight episodes. How do you kill the strongest superhero on Earth? How do we use the other Supes to make this happen? What happens after you kill him? How do the kids of Gen V tie into all of this? And does anyone really win after all this is over?

The finale answers some of these questions and disregards others completely (or at the very least, gives very silly answers). But no ending is perfect, and while I, like many viewers, may be upset about how things ended for some of these characters (justice for Soldier Boy!), I also know that some of these character arcs also paid off in the end. In honor of The Boys wrapping things up, here are the winners and losers of the series.

Again, spoiler alert.

Loser: Homelander

Although I would have wanted a half-hour long, “Scorched Earth” final battle between the Boys and Homelander (Antony Starr), I won’t deny that his death scene was very fitting for him, especially after he lost his powers. “Please,” he whined while Butcher (Karl Urban) stepped closer and closer with a crowbar. “I’ll fucking suck your dick! I’ll do anything. You want me to eat shit? I’ll eat fucking shit on live TV!” Homelander was giving major loser energy in his final moments, and it was a sight to see.

Winner: Most of the Boys

For the Boys who made it out alive, the show blesses them all with very clean (arguably, a little too clean) happy endings. M.M. (Laz Alonso) goes back home to his wife and daughter, even adopting Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) in the process. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) finally gets her Bernadoodle. Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) start a family, along with an AV shop and a Supe side gig. To be fair, they all deserve some peace and quiet, especially after all the guts, blood, and cum Vought threw at them — it just all feels a little out of place given the tone of the rest of the show. Anyway, cue “Piano Man.”

Loser: The Deep

Justice for Ambrosius! After a quick fight with Starlight, The Deep (Chace Crawford) gets himself catapulted into the ocean — where a swarm of angry sharks and giant squids are waiting for him. None of them are ready to forgive the Supe for playing a part in the “Fish Holocaust” (and for murdering several octopi friends), and so they proceed to tear him apart. Did The Deep (a.k.a. Kevin) deserve a better ending? No, this checks out. But he did deserve a better character arc. I’m sure the writers felt the same, at least back in Season 1 when they sent him on a journey of self-reflection in Sandusky, Ohio. Alas, he got lost in the sauce, and by the end of the series, The Deep’s pretty much just a manosphere bro.

Winner: Ashley

Out of all the character arcs in this final season, Ashley’s (Colby Minifie) was the one that made the most sense. After years of hiding behind Vought, and then the White House, she finally grew a backbone when it came to helping the Boys take down Homelander. To quote Bashley, the telekinetic second face that grows out of the back of Ashley’s head, “Proud of you, girl!” (In other news, Ashley definitely deserved her impeachment after almost helping Homelander ascend to god status. Sorry, Ashley.)

Loser: Soldier Boy

I know Kripke and the rest of the team behind The Boys are setting things up for their upcoming prequel series, Vought Rising, but they really did Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) dirty this season. Right before the Supe can take a step back from Vought, his weirdo of a son, Homelander, decides to knock him unconscious and put him back to sleep in his cryochamber. Soldier Boy doesn’t even make an appearance in the finale. Yes, he already had his whole arc about how true love can make you do crazy things (he was in love with a Nazi, after all), but a lot of it felt shaky especially since none of the previous seasons ever dived deep into Soldier Boy’s personal life. 

Winner/Loser: Butcher

Butcher really could have walked away a winner after killing Homelander. But instead, his big kill left him feeling hollow, and after his sort-of son Ryan calls him a bad person and his beloved dog Terror passes in his sleep, Butcher immediately tries to start another rampage. In the finale’s biggest twist, Butcher heads to Vought Tower to release his Supe-killing virus. Fortunately, Hughie’s there to talk some sense into him — or, at least, try to. Their last encounter ends with Hughie pulling the trigger on his mentor, and we cut to the surviving Boys burying Butcher right by his Becca. He would’ve wanted that. 

Loser: Sister Sage

So are we all supposed to believe that the smartest woman on Earth is supposed to live out the rest of her life as an idiot? The answer is yes. After getting hit by a radioactive blast from Kimiko, Sage (Susan Heyward) loses all her powers, including her superintelligence. Before the Boys head to their final showdown, Sage immediately peaces out and heads to Harry Potter World in Orlando. Part of me wants to feel happy about Sage’s character arc, especially since she’s hated her powers since she joined the show in Season 4 (no one likes a smartypants, after all). But because her ending comes so early into the finale, and because we never see her again, I can’t help but wonder if Kripke was planning a bigger ending for Sage that got cut for time.

Loser: Gen V

Even if you’ve never seen an episode of The Boys’ spin-off series, Gen V, there were lots of references to it in this finale. The spin-off had been gearing up to pit Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) as a major contender in defeating Homelander; however, it was recently announced that Gen V would not be renewed for a third season. This meant that The Boys’ last season also had to do the extra work of wrapping up some of the Gen V storylines, or at the very least acknowledging that the characters exist. But even though some of the Gen V players make an appearance, they’re mainly there to just complain about how they’re not allowed to help in the real fight. 

Winner: Stan Edgar (and Vought)

It was almost inevitable that former Vought devotee Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) would worm his way back to the top of the Supe-making conglomerate. In a quick news clip, Edgar can be seen announcing his return as Vought’s interim CEO to “start the process of rebuilding.” Does this mean that all of the Boys’ efforts were for naught? Probably. But that’s a story for another show.

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