The episode starts with Firecracker (Valorie Curry) paying Homelander (Antony Starr) a visit. He can smell Soldier Boy’s scent on her. She lies to him and says they were prepping for their interview earlier. Homelander then tells her he was visited by an angel and now knows he’s the messiah. He wants Firecracker to spread the word of his coming. She congratulates him, but is clearly disturbed.
Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) finally wakes up. He’s in pretty rough shape, but alive. Butcher (Karl Urban) compares Ryan’s journey to Luke Skywalker, spoiling Empire Strikes Back in the process. Butcher tells Ryan that he’s their best weapon against Homelander, but he can’t die. Ryan doesn’t think Butcher actually cares about him. Butcher gets up to get him some water, but when he returns, Ryan’s gone.
MM (Laz Alonso) is back to his old self, we see him suiting up. Frenchie (Tomer Capone) starts work on the new virus. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) is seen comforting Hughie (Jack Quaid) after Annie left. Butcher drops by the lab to ask Frenchie for an update, but there’s no timetable. The virus is going to take time, it may take weeks to complete. Hughie suggests going to Fort Harmony while they wait on the latest results. They have to find the V1 before Homelander does.
Annie (Erin Moriarty) goes to her dad’s house. He’s surprised to see her and wonders how she found him after twenty years. He introduces her to her half-brother Mason.
Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) pays Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) a visit. She tells him Homelander is heading to Fort Harmony, which is where Soldier Boy was initially injected with V1. She suggests he go with Homelander because there may actually be some remaining V1 there.
The Boys are walking through the woods on the way to Fort Harmony. They find a few dead bodies and it seems like there could be something horrible waiting for them at the base.
At the Vought podcast studio, The Deep (Chace Crawford) enjoys a meal while Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) watches him angrily. He knocks Deep’s food out of his hand and confronts him about what he did in the last episode. Noir explains his recent behavior, telling Deep that he’s been going method to play the part for the past few months. He tells Deep that everyone thinks he’s stupid and that his powers are dumb, which hurts Deep’s feelings. Deep retorts that he’s happy to be in Homelander’s good graces, and Noir asks him how long he thinks that’s going to last.
Ashley (Colby Minifie) and Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) engage in freaky activity and she reads his mind, discovering that the church is bankrupt. Before they can argue any further, Firecracker stops by, seeking their help.
The Boys reach Fort Harmony. Hughie is mad at Annie for leaving and how she always makes her near-death experiences about herself. He calls her a bitch, which surprises both Kimiko and Frenchie. Hughie’s acting off… There are a ton of dead rat bodies everywhere. Something sinister is in the area. They still head inside.
Annie observes her dad’s new family. Mason is not excited to learn Annie is his sister. Annie looks at photos and questions her dad. He asks about her mom, she tells him that she’s in hiding. Her dad tells her he’s a deputy. Mason calls Starlighters terrorists, but both parents tell him to shut up. Annie’s stepmom offers her a shower.
Firecracker, Ashley, Oh Father, Courtenay Fortney (Jackie Tohn), and The Worm (Ely Henry) begin to brainstorm on how to properly introduce Homelander as the new messiah. Oh Father thinks this development could help save the church. Firecracker suddenly has an idea, she says Jesus is outdated and they need to sell America as God’s country and Homelander as the new American hero. They need to start the Democratic Church of America.
Homelander and Soldier Boy walk through the woods toward Fort Liberty because Soldier Boy didn’t want to be carried. Homelander seems happy to be spending time with his dad. Homelander asks him about his past with Clara Vought. Soldier Boy plays it down, saying they hooked up once or twice. Homelander admits to also hooking up with her. Soldier Boy asks about her whereabouts and Homelander tells him she’s dead by suicide. Soldier Boy doesn’t believe it and wants to know if he saw a body. Homelander doesn’t answer, but last we saw her, she was pretty dead.
The Boys begin to search Fort Liberty. They find blueprints for an underground lab and continue to investigate. Hughie calls out Butcher and MM. Kimiko starts to yell at Frenchie too. Everyone is acting more aggressive, there’s something strange in the air.
Annie gets out of the shower and talks to her dad about the Homelander sign in his yard. He tells her that every cop has them out, but assures her that he doesn’t go out rounding up Starlighters. He knows about Vought’s lies, but can’t say anything because anyone that’s spoken out has disappeared. She wants answers about her past and whether her dad didn’t want her. He takes out a shoe box and hands it to her. It’s full of pictures and news clippings of her career. He’d always been proud of her, and was even prouder when she quit the Seven.
She finally asks him why he left and he tells her about how her mother was so convinced that injecting Annie with Compound V was the right choice. But, when her mother started telling Annie that she was the chosen one and Annie started believing it, he got uncomfortable and decided to leave because he didn’t want to shatter her dreams. She tells him she needed him and he apologizes to her. He wishes he could’ve changed things and stood up for her. She tells him about Hughie and he tells her that the people they love aren’t a weakness, they’re the reason they fight. The heartfelt moment is interrupted by Mason playing loud music. She goes to talk to her brother.
The Boys head further down into Fort Liberty and find a couple more bodies. Frenchie realizes the hunters killed one another and that toxoplasmosis is causing all of them to react violently with one another. He theorizes that if the V1 spilled, it could’ve affected the plants and created a toxic environment that is giving everyone a rage virus. Frenchie concludes that his brain chemistry isn’t affected because of all the drugs he’s consumed in his life, making him effectively immune.
Butcher spots Homelander and Soldier Boy approaching. He and MM get ready to face them, they’re enraged and itching for a fight. Frenchie manages to talk them down and says they have to hurry before they all kill one another. Frenchie grabs a bottle from the dead hunters and sprays them all. It’s deer urine, it’ll help mask their scent from Homelander. MM refuses, he has another idea.
Deep hosts another episode of his podcast, Noir’s still mad at him.
Annie walks into Mason’s room. He has posters of almost every female supe on his wall and he assures her he’s never had her poster up. She tells him that none of what he’s heard about her is true, but he’s already bought into the lies and doesn’t want to hear anything. She manages to connect with him over Dunkin.
The Boys continue their search and are getting increasingly irritated. MM finally manages to find a few broken vials in a broken case and realizes someone may have already beaten them to the base since it would require someone super strong to break through eighty years of rust. Frenchie finds some heroin on the ground and Butcher realizes the only person that strong who is also a heroin addict is Bombsight.
The sheriff drops by Annie’s dad’s house. Mason called him earlier to tell him Starlight was there. Annie’s dad tries to protect her and says Mason was just making a prank call. When the sheriff pushes, Mr. January tells him that she’s his daughter and that she’s not a serial killer. The sheriff pulls his gun and Annie steps out and tells him to walk away. Annie’s dad de-escalates the situation and tries to reason with his friend. He tells him that he loves Annie and that she’s a good person. The sheriff manages to see reason and tells him that she has to be gone within the hour or he’ll have to come back with Livewire.
Homelander and Soldier Boy enter the base, bickering with one another. They walk around and set off a hidden motion sensor that MM planted earlier, which alerts the Boys.
The Boys have to roll out and MM accidentally lets it slip that since Bombsight already took the V1, then they don’t have to torch the place. Hughie then realizes that Butcher and MM were always going to destroy the V1, not retrieve it to save Annie and Kimiko. They all start arguing. Frenchie tries to calm everyone down. Hughie offers to kill Butcher and they start to fight, but Kimiko saves Hughie. The Boys then start to fight, while Hughie tries to stop them. Hughie runs away with Butcher and MM in pursuit. Kimiko turns her anger on Frenchie.
Homelander tells Soldier Boy he doesn’t think he’s as tough as he acts and we get to learn a little bit more about his past and how Soldier Boy ended up being injected with V1 in the first place. He was a rich kid that wanted to get back at his brother. They keep searching and Homelander enters another room, but Soldier Boy stops at the door and locks Homelander inside, before breaking the handle. He’s still mad about being used before. We learn that it’s a room full of enriched uranium that the scientists used to test whether supes could survive an atomic bomb. Homelander’s skin begins to peel and his powers begin to fail. Soldier Boy wishes him luck and tells him he’s going to destroy any V1 he finds.
Frenchie follows the vines around the base and heads down a corridor, where he finds something terrifying.
Butcher continues to hunt Hughie, but stumbles upon Homelander in the uranium prison instead. Butcher starts taunting him and laughs at him when he realizes it was Soldier Boy that locked him inside. He tells him he knows what he did to Ryan. Homelander calls himself God. Butcher tells him he’s going to get the virus to kill him with now, but Homelander calls out his bluff and tells him he’s going to kill everyone once he gets the V1. Butcher retorts that he’s going to kill him before he dies.
Hughie is still running from MM, but manages to get the upper hand and shoots MM in the shoulder. MM gets tackled by Kimiko and Hughie starts to shoot at her. She hits him and the three of them fight one another. Kimiko overpowers them easily, forcing MM to run and Hughie to hide. Kimiko goes after Hughie first.
Frenchie runs into Soldier Boy and starts to annoy him, forcing the supe to chase after him. He leads him into the room where he made his discovery earlier and we see that there’s someone fused into the wall, attached to all of the vines. Soldier Boy recognizes him as someone named Quinn, who was in the original trials with Soldier Boy. Quinn hated him for being a rich entitled asshole. Frenchie tells him that Quinn is now nothing but hate, making all of them hateful. Frenchie tells Soldier Boy that he’s the only one that can kill him, but Soldier Boy isn’t interested. He wants Quinn to suffer. Frenchie keeps trying and starts to annoy Soldier Boy, which ultimately results in Soldier Boy unleashing his beam on Quinn, killing him.
Shortly after Quinn dies, everyone returns to normal and the Boys apologize to one another. They’re all a little embarrassed. Soldier Boy looks at Quinn’s dead and apologizes for everything he went through.
Cut to the Boys driving home in silence. Butcher turns on the radio and Mambo No. 5 starts playing, which finally breaks the tension. The Boys are going to be okay.
Starlight leaves her dad’s house on good terms with him and his family, including Mason, who apologizes to her. Her dad tells her not to give up on the people she loves.
Homelander is still locked up and continues trying to break out. He finally manages to do so and is in bad shape, but quickly starts to heal. He finds Soldier Boy and goes to confront him, only to find his dad looking a little down. Soldier Boy tells him the V1 wasn’t there. He’s emotional and tells Homelander to go ahead and kill him. Homelander doesn’t and just leaves.
Back at their base, Kimiko thanks Frenchie for saving them and apologizes for what she said in her aggressive state. She tells him she doesn’t want to change him. Annie returns and reunites with Hughie. They make amends and she apologizes for leaving, but Hughie tells her he’s glad she wasn’t there for what happened today. Butcher and MM also bury the hatchet, they’re back to being cool. They then start to watch footage of Soldier Boy being injected with V1.
The hour ends with Oh Father launching the Democratic Church of America, calling it the greatest day in history. Backstage, Ashley asks Firecracker whether she still believes in Jesus and she says that she now believes in Homelander. However, Back Ashley knows she’s lying. Then, Oh Father introduces Homelander as the Prophet of the Lord. Homelander walks in and raises his arms. The people rejoice.
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Plus, check out our The Boys season five interviews:
The Boys Season 5 will premiere the first two episodes on Wednesday, April 8th, followed by weekly episodes, leading up to the epic series finale on Wednesday, May 20th.
In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.