It’s Homelander’s (Antony Starr) way or the highway. This mantra is very much the proverbial rock on which America pivots on in The Boys’ fifth and final season. In the first two episodes so far, Starr continues to layer the villain with vulnerability and a contrasting sense of ruthless aggression. He’s insecure, needy and craving public approval. This creates a powder keg — and an unpredictable maniac.
Well, Homelander kicks it up a notch in Episode 3, “Every One of You Sons of Bitches.” As he becomes more assertive and authoritative, there are dire repercussions. And, at the heart of it all, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher is slowly realizing what his peers have understood all along: They will lose their humanity if they fight the war the way Butcher wants them to.
Let’s recap the episode, and why it feels like combatting Homelander’s empire is a lost cause.
Spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 3 “Every One Of You Sons Of Bitches” past this point.
The Boys Season 5 Resurrects Soldier Boy – And Reveals The Truth About Compound V
In The Boys Season 5, Episode 2, Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy was thawed out and sent by Homelander into the field. Homelander wanted his father to join the Seven and rule America with him. But he also hoped Soldier Boy would become a guinea pig for Butcher’s Supe-virus. This episode confirms Soldier Boy survived the infection at the Teenage Kix mansion.
Soldier Boy knows, though, of the deception. It doesn’t matter that Homelander is cozying up to Soldier Boy in the present and sanitizing the latter’s treason with the Russians decades ago. Soldier Boy can tell Vought International and the Oval Office are plastering over the cracks. It’s evident in how nonplussed he is over the Vought-run government bestowing the Democratic Medal of Patriotic Freedom on him. Soldier Boy sees right through the PR circuit and hype that deems him “reborn” from the “ashes of injustice.” And the Starlight movement is blamed for his near-death experience, as usual.
Despite this media propaganda campaign, Soldier Boy doesn’t want to bond with Homelander. He’s even repulsed that his son let the media know about their family connection. Soldier Boy can sense the envy and how much his son views him as an asset and tool. Homelander doesn’t hide the facade well. He tries to shamelessly lie about how he told Soldier Boy not to engage Butcher’s posse. Still, Homelander can’t reckon with how he wants to manipulate what’s inside his father.
Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) discovers the truth from her lab the same time Butcher’s crew does. Soldier Boy was infused with the original Compound V (aka V1), created by Frederick Vought. Only five test subjects, including Frederick’s beloved Klara (aka Liberty/Stormfront), were successfully injected with this more potent, albeit unstable, substance decades ago.
Homelander becomes obsessed with finding the formula. His embryo was merged with V, not the original, so he isn’t like his father. V1 makes Soldier Boy immune to the virus and functionally immortal. Homelander hopes to inject himself and become a similar god that doesn’t age. This is bolstered by visions of Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue). It’s uncertain if he’s having these hallucinations due to Oh-Father’s (Daveed Diggs) sermons and sonic blasts, or if it’s the guilt of killing Stillwell that begins a downward spiral where he pushes everyone away and/or kills them due to his toxicity.
Either way, the Oedipus complex unfolds. This Stillwell “angel” tells him he’s meant to be a divine being. He has to rule America by thinning the nation out and forging a flock of his faithful. In the wake of this “prophecy” from the woman who once kinkily breast fed him, he tells Soldier Boy he wants his father as part of this higher calling. Homelander has his mega church and youth camps for recruitment. But that doesn’t mean he can’t find a use for Soldier Boy as one of the faces of his cult.
As it stands, Homelander thinks Soldier Boy is wasting his “gift” of immortality, but it can be rectified by following the de facto US president. With or without Soldier Boy’s allegiance, Homelander will continue expanding his empire while lapping up the pomp and circumstance. If Soldier Boy joins him on the holy quest, they can fortify and conquer even more efficiently.
Homelander thinks he is destined to ascend and become bigger than Jesus. Since he saves more people in reality, they should bow to him. If he has to do so by force, he will baptize the unfaithful in their own blood and rid the world of the wicked nonbelievers. Yep, he has gall as he aims to have disciples by his side. He ambitiously threatens and assumes his father will be one of these acolytes. A bold notion, indeed.
The Boys Loses Sameer After Butcher’s Lie Is Exposed
Butcher’s squad is irate over Soldier Boy being immune. Sameer (Omid Abtahi) admits his experiments never accounted for V1. It hasn’t been in circulation since Vought’s arms race with the Russians in the ’50s. Plus, no one could have predicted Soldier Boy entering the fray. To perfect the bio-weapon, Butcher’s team needs the original serum applied to the servicemen. Once attained, Sameer and Tomer Capone’s Frenchie can recreate a formula to kill Soldier Boy, too.
Butcher’s main concern is if Homelander will find the formula first. Vought, as a corporation, does have extensive global resources. Butcher thinks if they can infect Homelander now, it’ll be a worthwhile endeavour. But the tyrant isn’t coming out in public, knowing he’s a target.
Butcher’s team comes up with a Plan B: visiting Stan Edgar’s (Giancarlo Esposito) luxury billionaire bunker. Edgar has been working with Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and the Gen V youngsters. He has the teens, Zoe (his granddaughter, played by Olivia Morandin) and Maverick (Translucent’s son), under his wing. He collaborates with Mother’s Milk/Marvin (Laz Alonso), Hughie (Jack Quaid) and the dissidents to find out where V1 might be located.
Zoe, however, wants Butcher dead. She thinks — semi-correctly — he made her an orphan. Zoe suffered tremendously at the Red River facility in the aftermath, so it’s hard to knock her fury. The deranged leader isn’t present at the bunker, due to how he killed her mother, Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), at the end of The Boys Season 4. Butcher’s absence also eases the tension in the alliance with Edgar.
Zoe eventually meets with Ryan to plot Butcher’s death in secret. Ryan has been hiding out in Russia, to the point he kills soldiers to shield his location. He doesn’t care if they have families. He lies about this to keep Zoe from thinking he’s a monster, too. It cultivates a cute interaction forged from the fires of agony.
These lost souls seeking purpose are crushing on each other. But when Ryan hesitates about killing Butcher, a former father figure to him, a frustrated Zoe departs. She eventually sneaks off in Frenchie’s van back to Butcher’s lair. Her plan is to slaughter Butcher using her mouth-tentacles, only she ends up locating Sameer. The scientist is elated because Butcher told him that Homelander killed Zoe and her mother.
It was all a lie to coax Sameer into making the virus in the name of revenge. Zoe was told her father was dead, too. Hughie was part of this lie, which now shapes a cathartic, endearing family reunion. That is, until Frenchie finds them and pulls a gun. He threatens to kill Sameer. He doesn’t want to lose the genius.
Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), however, advises him to have a heart and let them go. A young girl such as Zoe shouldn’t grow up like this. Despite an enraged Sameer destroying the virus, he was a prisoner. They need to right this wrong. It stems from Kimiko admitting to Frenchie that someday, she wants something he isn’t keen on: a family.
Kimiko never had this experience as a child. She was trained to be a killer from the time she was young. Thus, part of her will live vicariously through a grateful Zoe. And so, the father-daughter duo go free, robbing Butcher of what he needs to assassinate Homelander. It’s up to Frenchie now to recreate the virus using both iterations of V: the classic, and the modern.
The Boys Kills Off Cindy and Maverick
The hypocrisy of Butcher’s team cannot be denied in The Boys Season 5, as Hughie has been lying to Maverick, as well. In Season 1, Hughie killed the vile Translucent by blowing him up in the wake of his girlfriend Robin’s death. One less member of the Seven, the better. Hughie plays up another big lie: Homelander’s team killed Translucent. The truth is exposed when Homelander’s lackeys track down Edgar’s base.
Chace Crawford’s The Deep is joined by Black Noir 2.0, the telekinetic Cindy and the Wolverine-like tracker Dogknott. When they raid the facility, Maverick plans a sneak attack using his power of invisibility. Dogknott sniffs him out, though, and wrangles him for Deep to reveal to the former Godolkin University student how Translucent really died.
A furious Maverick switches sides. He punches in door codes, allowing the villains to attack. Maverick batters Hughie in a room with a gold club in the fracas while Starlight and Marvin knock Dogknott out cold. Cindy rushes in and uses her power squeeze to crush Hughie. However, she mistimes her strike and turns Maverick into bloody goop. Starlight then rushes behind Cindy to snap her neck, thinking Hughie was killed.
Starlight is scarred, so much so, she flies off at the end of the episode. The stakes are too high. She can’t cope with losing Hughie. The Boys must soldier on, despite everything. Luckily, they have a trail to visit: Fort Harmony. This was Frederick’s testing site; the only place where V1 can be stored.
The Boys Experience a Vintage Stan Edgar Betrayal
Homelander has a counter-move for every move, even if it’s sometimes due to sheer luck. During the assault on Edgar’s home, the former Vought executive has crucial decisions to make. Edgar isn’t totally a friend to Team Butcher. He lets Marvin know that while he respected Marvin’s father, he didn’t beat himself up about the man dying at the hands of Soldier Boy in a crime-stopping accident gone bad.
Edgar confesses that even if they defeat Homelander, evil corporations will always continue to perpetuate vicious cycles of torture, consumerism and exploitation. They are unbeatable machines. Edgar doesn’t mind being a part of that. War is like a hydra. One slaver dies, another is born, so why not play for the winning team? Marvin vows, when that day comes, to kill Edgar. Sure, they may share a cigar and common goal now, but they will feud again in the future.
That day comes way too soon. Edgar ends up locking the heroes in the bunker so he can escape. It’s traitorous but right up his alley. Admittedly, with Zoe missing, it’s understandable why he’d blame the Boys and want to focus on getting her back into hiding. But viewers can tell he wouldn’t mind sacrificing them just to ensure they never come after him if they win.
Instant karma occurs when Noir grabs Edgar and takes him to a Vought Cybertruck. The Deep pulls a fast one of his own. He gasses both of them unconscious and then drags Noir out the vehicle. The Aquaman pastiche delivers Edgar to Homelander at Vought Tower to prove he isn’t useless. Here, Homelander has access to probe Edgar and get the V1 he requires to become immortal. As he told Sage earlier in the episode, all their scientists will be assiduously working on the serum and using human trials so he can achieve his dream ASAP.
Homelander Almost Kills Ryan in The Boys Season 5
Fortune is indeed favoring Homelander. All of his enemies are making mistakes, Butcher and Ryan included. After Zoe leaves Ryan at Edgar’s bunker, Butcher comes out of the woods, divulging the truth about the virus over lunch. He asks Ryan to be the delivery mechanism. Butcher knows Homelander trusts Ryan, to an extent. If diligent, Ryan can manipulate the man’s ego and need to be a good father.
Once Ryan gets close and administers the virus, Homelander will die. The boy does get freaked out when he learns he will die, too. It’s a small price to pay, according to Butcher. The man is adamant Supes are a curse. But Ryan can be a martyr who literally saves the world. Ryan is worried about becoming a blight like Homelander, but Butcher keeps pushing him as a savior. Eventually, Ryan agrees.
But things go awry when Butcher realizes he’s lost Sameer. He berates Ryan as weak and ineffective now that the virus is gone. Ryan, as staunch and dogged as ever, persists and goes to a Vought facility after baiting his father. The bullish lad chews Homelander out for raping Becca (Ryan’s mother). He knows Homelander’s racing heartbeat means it wasn’t consensual.
A confident, emotional Ryan thinks this confrontation is his duty. A lot of this hatred comes from the cruelty Butcher taught him about the evil Superman. In addition, Ryan lashed at at Mallory and accidentally killed her in The Boys Season 4 when she tried to tell him about the rape. Not to mention, when a younger Ryan tried to fry Stormfront, he accidentally killed his mother.
This builds pent-up aggression in Ryan. He thinks murdering Homelander can absolve him of his sins and ease his pain. This cocky demeanor annoys the villain. Homelander gets the upper hand and pummels the boy for thinking he’s a man. He leaves the kid in a bloody mess. Later, Butcher finds Ryan almost dead. It’s a clear message: Ryan means nothing to the dictator. The guilt is now on Butcher’s shoulders.
Hours prior, Ryan tried to rough Butcher up outside the bunker, only to learn Butcher took V and became a Supe to fight the right-wing empire. Thus, Ryan felt that power and might were the solutions to undoing his fascist father. If Butcher wanted muscle for the job, then an equal and opposite Superboy should have been an apt response. Wrong. Ryan learns the hard way.
You still need brains for that brawn. Trying to ambush Homelander alone wasn’t smart. Butcher rues the decision he made to involve the kid. He even introduced Ryan to his bulldog, Terror, which made it seem like Butcher was embracing his old, human side again. Alas, all Butcher did was enable the boy to proceed down a path where he gets hammer-fisted to a bloody pulp.
Becca would be disappointed in how he goaded her son. While Butcher stews in regret and wallows in self-pity, a bloody Homelander is in his chamber gloating. He goes as far as to hug Edgar. It petrifies The Deep, who can sense he is still an expendable minion. Homelander, as cutthroat and as ruthless as ever, gives the impression he is truly a king.
Soldier Boy and Firecracker’s Affair Could Hurt Homelander’s Reign
Despite his seeming ascendance, it just wouldn’t be The Boys without some sort of kryptonite turning up for Homelander. Soldier Boy and Valorie Curry’s Firecracker are attracted to each other. They love guns, flirting and the unseen proposition of getting frisky. They consummate their bond, climaxing with Soldier Boy making sordid jokes.
He thinks Firecracker slept with his father, so this was a bit of revenge. But when he learns she didn’t hook up with the fascist, the idea of something real developing subtly arises. Of course, Soldier Boy is crass and takes this opportunity to learn more about his boy. He thinks Homelander is weird.
Homelander verbally accosting his father while in a bathtub of milk from a NICU in Mount Sinai doesn’t help Homelander’s image. A loyal Firecracker vouches for Homelander’s character, even though he is ignoring her for not being able to produce breast milk to snack on. This could pave the way for Soldier Boy to convince her to help kill Homelander. Soldier Boy is very much the alpha in the Seven; the apex his son strives to be.
With Sage and politicians like Vice President Ashley (Colby Minifie) worried about Homelander’s arrogance, they could hedge bets. The madman is turning out to be a narcissistic gamble. He keeps harping on Soldier Boy calling him the “softest, wettest boy,” as well as “disappointing.” Homelander also killed A-Train for bashing him as “weak.” Other adjectives like “pathetic” and “being a nothing” continue to corrode his mind.
In short, Homelander has become a liability who will end up trying to purge too many citizens. He doesn’t have a barometer for genocide, short of his outlandish, infantile outbursts. It opens the door for a coup. While Hughie thinks the odds of succeeding against him with a fragile vial of the virus is astronomical, it would be higher if the assassin was someone he couldn’t see coming: an insider. A person Homelander wouldn’t think of flying into space to hide from.
If the psychopath keeps castigating, alienating and belittling his cabal, that insurrection will be likely. It’s up to his cabal to determine when. The longer they take, the more lives are being lost. Homelander has made it clear a reckoning is due. He is still enduring a mental breakdown. And Soldier Boy joking about Homelander’s “bushel of grey pubes” will exacerbate the situation, hastening America’s demise.
As this plot from showrunner, Erick Kripke, unravels, The Boys inadvertently continues to mimic the real world events between America and Iran (coincidentally as the season was written before the election in 2024). The American population is worried about a trigger-happy despot, while others seek a revolution amid this crackdown on their civil liberties.
With such leaders, pride will come before the fall. Their judgements are usually clouded. It results in Homelander’s reign being on tenterhooks right now. Hughie and the insurgents are considering injecting V1 into Starlight and Kimiko, hoping they’d become immune for the virus Frenchie makes.
It’s up to the heroes to find what’s at Fort Harmony. It won’t be easy due to strange killings occuring there, teasing another villainous Supe on the horizon. If their V1 plan works, Homelander will have major problems to tend to, the kind he has whenever he underestimates his enemies.
Ultimately, the clock is ticking and Team Butcher can’t afford to rely on a Judas in the Vought camp. Not yet, anyway. This will surely leave audiences eager to see how the search for V1 goes, who gets to it first and the ensuing applications — and chaos.
The Boys Season 5 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The Boys Season 5 will officially premiere on Prime Video on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. The season will be eight episodes long, with two dropping on premiere day.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Boys Season 5, with premiere dates:
- Wednesday, April 8, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 1, “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite”
- Wednesday, April 8, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 2, “Teenage Kix”
- Wednesday, April 15, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 3, “Every One of You Sons of Bitches”
- Wednesday, April 22, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 4, “Through the Heavens Fall”
- Wednesday, April 29, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 5, “One-Shots”
- Wednesday, May 6, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 6, “King of Hell”
- Wednesday, May 13, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 7, “The Frenchman, The Female, and the Man Called Mother’s Milk”
- Wednesday, May 20, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 8, “Blood and Bone” *Series Finale*
Where To Watch The Boys:
Listen to Let’s Hear It For The Boys:
Share this:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.