The final season kickstarts about a year or so after the events of season four, at the Vought International Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Homelander (Antony Starr) arrives to address everyone and is greeted by cheers from fanboys and Vought supporters.
Backstage, a group of women dressed like Firecracker get ready to perform, but one of them breaks off, and we see that it’s Annie (Erin Moriarty) in disguise. She breaks into a security room with some help, but Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) spots her from the rafters. In his speech, Homelander says Starlighters are terrorists and starts to brag about Vought’s achievements before sharing his scary vision for America. The crowd eats it up.
Black Noir II confronts Starlight, and the two fight while her friend manages to hack into the main feed. Then, in the main hall, while Homelander is speaking, the Flight 37 footage begins to play, finally exposing Homelander to the public. The crowd stays silent and looks genuinely stunned. Homelander gets angry and his eyes get red, but Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) manages to calm him down. Vought and their team of influencers spin the video as an AI deepfake to make Homelander look bad.
Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), who is the new Vice President of the United States, doubles down on the deepfake lie. We also learn that she now has psychic powers and can read minds. During her address, she’s asked about the “freedom camps,” but she deflects, calling those reports clickbait.
Homelander and Sage discuss the stockholders, and she tells him the damage from the video is minimal. Homelander is still upset that people think of him as a murderer and that some even think he did something horrible to Ryan, but Sage assures him all the cover stories are holding up. He asks her about how Starlight managed to infiltrate the building and is also very upset about the memes about him. He really wants both Billy Butcher and Starlight dead, but to lure them out, they need bait, so he tells Sage to let it leak that they’re going to execute Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso), and Frenchie (Tomer Capone) in three days.
Cut to the freedom camp, where Hughie, MM, and Frenchie are being held prisoner. The facility is guarded by snipers everywhere. Frenchie is running an operation and is nearly stabbed by a mole, but Hughie saves him. Frenchie then delivers a message to Hughie about Annie leaking the video. MM is now part of a fight club and is kicking all kinds of ass. Frenchie gives him the news too, but he has a more disinterested response. He seems down. There’s some commotion and they look out the window to see Love Sausage (Derek Johns) torturing a prisoner.
Then, we catch up with Butcher (Karl Urban), who pays his dad (John Noble) a visit. They talk about his mom and Lenny, and it’s clear Butcher is still angry with him. His dad is sick now and asks Butcher to let bygones be bygones, but Butcher doesn’t care nor does he want to change. They embrace and it’s heavily implied that Butcher kills his dad.
Homelander gears up for an interview with Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and is getting increasingly annoyed by everyone around him being scared of him. Firecracker arrives to prep with him, but he gets disgusted when he hears her heartbeat, which is all messed up after everything she’s done to herself to appease him. Firecracker interviews him and they both review the Flight 37 video, once again calling it an AI deepfake. They’ve even altered the footage to make it look even faker.
Cut to Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), who fights off an intruder in her home before realizing it’s Butcher, which makes her angrier. He fills her in on Homelander’s plan to kill The Boys and tells her he needs her help.
In the camp, Hughie talks to Ivy (Jessica B. Hill), whom we last saw in season three. She’s lost hope, but Hughie’s still optimistic they can turn this thing around. He recounts almost every horrible thing that’s happened to him since the beginning but says he still has hope. Suddenly, someone tries to escape and gets exploded by Cindy (Ess Hödlmoser), who’s also guarding the camp. Hughie implores Ivy not to give up.
The Deep (Chace Crawford) is now hosting a podcast, with Black Noir II providing the sound effects. It’s influencer nonsense. Annie watches the podcast from her hideout when she gets a visit from Butcher and Kimiko. She’s relieved to see them and is surprised to learn that Kimiko can talk. We learn that Kimiko had been deported to Manila and that Starlight has lost a lot of people in the resistance. She asks Butcher about his health, and he claims to be healthy again.
Butcher congratulates her for releasing the Flight 37 video, but she’s discouraged since it didn’t make the noise she wanted; however, he tells her it succeeded in pissing Homelander off. He tells her the Boys are in trouble and it’s time to save them, especially now because Butcher needs Frenchie’s help with the virus. Kimiko says the virus could kill all three of them as well, but Butcher retorts that it would also kill Homelander.
Hughie sneaks into the bathroom, where he, Frenchie, and MM have dug themselves an underground hideout and have been stockpiling Molotov cocktails in order to mount an escape. MM tells him how they’re all about to be executed. Butcher, Annie, and Kimiko work on a rescue plan, with Annie revealing she’s known where the Boys have been this entire time but decided against saving them because they’ve been safer there. She tells Butcher she knows someone who can help them infiltrate the camp.
Homelander rewatches the Flight 37 video and threatens The Deep and Black Noir II. He berates them for letting Starlight into the building and asks whether they still support him. They both stay loyal, and he tells them to get back to doing their jobs. He wants to weed out all the potential traitors. He then steps into his bedroom, where we learn he’s been keeping Soldier Boy’s (Jensen Ackles) frozen body.
Firecracker interviews Ashley and her husband Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) about cutting DEI before they’re interrupted by Sage, who wants to talk to Ashley. Sage tells her that Homelander wants even more Starlighters arrested. They’ve spent the past year purging every government agency and arresting any naysayers they can find. Butcher pays a visit to The Worm (Ely Henry), a screenwriter who is in the midst of writing a Reacher spec. He needs his help digging a tunnel.
Annie and Kimiko talk when they’re visited by A-Train (Jessie T. Usher). He’s the one who has been helping Annie, which surprises Kimiko. Annie asks A-Train for his help, but he turns her down. He says he’s not scared but has to think about his family, so he leaves and Annie goes to Plan B.
MM, Frenchie, and Hughie work on their own escape plan. MM is really down in the dumps, and Hughie tries to cheer him up, asking him if he doesn’t want to see his family again. MM tells him he’s happy knowing they’re safer without him. MM doesn’t think any of them are surviving this war and continues to drink his bootleg alcohol. Frenchie tells them they need more resin for the Molotovs, so Hughie heads back to his barracks to get some.
Hughie gets to his barracks and finds everyone dead. Homelander is there waiting for him, reading his diary and all of his notes to Annie. Hughie stands up to Homelander and tells him to kill him already, but Homelander tells him not yet. He tells him he knows Butcher and Annie are coming for him and remembers his first time meeting Hughie. He couldn’t understand then, nor does he understand now, what Annie saw in him or why Butcher would risk everything to save him. Hughie tells him, “Because I’d do it for them.”
We head to France, where A-Train links up with his brother Nathan (Christian Keyes). He’s been moving them around the world, keeping them hidden from Homelander. His brother tells him how much he’s changed since leaving The Seven and how he’s actually saving people now. A-Train saved him and his family, and he seems proud. There’s some activity in the water, so A-Train rushes his brother to safety before confronting The Deep. He tries to get The Deep to bail on Homelander, but The Deep is too afraid and stays loyal. The Deep threatens A-Train’s family and tells him he’ll keep hunting them. A-Train shakes his head and leaves.
Butcher is upset with Annie that A-Train was her plan. She says she can just fly everyone out instead, and he insists on Frenchie being first. He’s the only one who can help them finish the virus. Butcher, Annie, Kimiko, and The Worm are in the woods. Butcher tells Annie he knows why she left the Boys in the camp—because she was ashamed to let Hughie see what she’s done over the past year. They arrive at a spot, and Butcher tells the The Worm to dig them a hole into the camp. The Worm takes off his pants and starts sucking the ground, with the dirt and leaves coming out his ass. Butcher and Kimiko head into the tunnel and sneak into the barracks.
Inside, they find themselves ambushed by Homelander, who has Hughie, Frenchie, and MM all tied up on the ground. Homelander has also just learned that MM stands for “Mother’s Milk” and is pleased with that revelation. Then, he starts to taunt Butcher about his plan and the fact that he already knows about the virus. Kimiko tells him to suck her fat dick, so he lasers her in two. She’s still alive, though. He then demands to know where Starlight is. Butcher says nothing. Homelander looks into him and sees the viper’s nest, and says he’s touched that Butcher became a supe for him. He also says Butcher is the only person to have ever challenged him.
Butcher makes a subtle signal to alert the Boys, and they all duck just as Starlight makes a grand entrance in the common area outside, temporarily blinding everyone, including Homelander, with her lights. The Boys escape, with Frenchie carrying the top half of Kimiko. MM spots Love Sausage and goes after him to get his revenge. Hughie and Annie reunite, but Hughie sees Ivy and others begin to run, so he runs to help them. Cindy starts to kill escapees, forcing Butcher to lead Frenchie and Kimiko to a hiding spot. Frenchie and Kimiko kiss. Annie manages to catch up with Hughie and Ivy but sees that a guard has found Frenchie and Kimiko, so she knocks out the guard and flies the two of them to safety.
MM confronts Love Sausage, and they engage in a brutal fight. MM really doesn’t hold back and manages to stab Sausage repeatedly in the tip of his elongated penis before strangling him with his own dick, which finally puts an end to one of his most hated enemies and gives him a much-needed win. The old MM is back!
Elsewhere, Butcher knocks Cindy off her guard stand and squares off with her. He goes to strangle her, but before he can finish her off, Homelander stops him. Ivy is freaking out about Starlight leaving, so Hughie tries to calm her down, but she makes a break for it. She immediately gets killed by Homelander, who uses Hughie as bait to lure out Butcher. Homelander charges up, and Hughie prepares to die, just as Butcher comes out and rushes to save him.
Suddenly, everything becomes slow motion, very similar to X-Men: Days of Future Past, as A-Train arrives! He assesses the chaos and puts on his shades before running to save MM from a guard who has fired shots at him. He runs past Butcher and straight to Hughie. He pulls him from Homelander’s grasp and gets hit on the shoulder. Homelander is clearly stunned to see him. A-Train takes a beat and makes a run for it, with Homelander in pursuit. Starlight returns, and Hughie is upset about Ivy’s death. He asks her why she chose to leave instead of helping. She has no answer.
Homelander hunts A-Train, but the speedster is too fast for him. A-Train runs through a nearby town and sees a young woman in his path, but unlike the series premiere, he manages to slow down enough to dodge her. It’s a full-circle moment for him, but it also forces him to crash-land in the woods.
Then, before he can get back on his feet, Homelander finds him. It looks like it’s the end of the road. A-Train laughs at him and tells Homelander that he’s not afraid of him anymore. He taunts him and calls him nothing, forcing Homelander to start choking him. A-Train calls him a pathetic, weak, sniveling f---ing loser and keeps laughing in his face. Homelander snaps his neck, killing him.
RIP A-Train.
Read our next recap at the following link:
Episode 2: "Teenage Kix" Recap
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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.