As The Boys‘ fifth and final season rallies on, the egomaniacal Homelander (Antony Starr) thinks his empire has no real cracks. Such is the mindset of a narcissistic, evil Superman with a dislike for humanity. Admittedly, he has gained massive wins under his belt in the three episodes so far. Homelander killed A-Train (Jesse T. Usher) while bolstering his far-right movement. He views the world as a tenuous place to conquer, so he relies on a corporate think-tank to assist. It includes the likes of Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Vice President Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie).
They’re luring more fascist Americans to the cause through media discourse and religious propaganda. As this drama unravels, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his heroic rebels assumed they had a secret weapon in the Supe virus, only for Homelander to sniff out and counter that, too. On top of that, after unthawing Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy and gaslighting him to Vought’s side, Homelander knows the value of the V1 serum running through Soldier Boy’s (Jensen Ackles) veins. The despot wants the V1 to make him immune to the virus and immortal, too.
Things got even worse for Butcher’s team when they tried to work with Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) at his bunker. They were left beaten and bruised at the hand’s of Homelander’s goons. To rub salt in the wounds, The Deep (Chace Crawford) kidnapped Edgar for Homelander, while Starlight (Erin Moriarty) fled in panic after the heroes barely escaped with their lives. This left Butcher as desperate and as furious ever, especially with Episode 3 having Homelander beat Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) to a bloody pulp after the boy tried to attack the dictator.
Well, Season 5, Episode 4 “King Of Hell,” focuses on both sides pursuing V1, with Butcher’s crew hoping it can supercharge a new virus to take the Vought leader out. Read on to see which side has made strides.
Spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 “King Of Hell” past this point.
The Boys Changes the Dynamic Between Homelander and Soldier Boy
Homelander undoubtedly has a messiah complex. A lot hinges on his visions of past lover, Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue). In his delirium, his “angel” has him thinking he’s the next Jesus. Seeking V1 and to manifest his destiny, Homelander and Soldier Boy head to Fort Harmony to find the original compound. This location is where Soldier Boy and the first corporate-cum-military Supes were made by Frederick Vought in the ’50s to fight wars for America.
Throughout their dialogue, interestingly enough, Homelander is jealous. The reason being is he lost his biggest fan just hours prior. Using his keen nose in Vought Tower, literally, Homelander senses Firecracker and his father are embroiled in a steamy affair. As a result, Homelander is petty. Still, he understands business. He wants Firecracker to accelerate plans to paint him as Jesus, something she is uncomfortable with.
Homelander insists she use the Vought media apparatus and market the image of him as the Second Coming to enhance his grip on power. Firecracker is a religious nationalist, but she doesn’t want to be a zealot. Intimidated by the orders, she abides by this blasphemy because she fears death.
Homelander later proceeds to harness this conversation and cast aspersions as he and Soldier Boy stalk the fort. Homelander can tell Soldier Boy had a thing with Klara/Stormfront (Aya Cash), so he lets dear ol’ dad know he used to sleep with Klara, too. The boys club, right?
While Homelander didn’t want to have sex with Firecracker, he has been a volatile powder-keg over her not producing breast milk for him again. So he steadfastly believes he’s hurting Soldier Boy via this trolling. The ensuing friction prove how these toxic males objectify women. The barbs get quite sharp, hinting maybe they’ll throw hands before they find the V1. In time, fans will see there is a root cause to all the sass. It’s not just bully versus bully or insults from pent-up resentment. A mysterious force is influencing the duo.
The Boys Remixes Civil War And The Last of Us
Butcher’s crew, though, finds the fort first. Butcher is distracted after Ryan recovered from his beating and ran away. The boy sees Butcher the same way he sees his father in Homelander: selfish and maniacal. Butcher tries to ignore this debacle.
As the rebels explore the fort, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) remains worried over Butcher’s methods. The virus needs weeks to self-cultivate. But Butcher insists all will be well. Trust the science, he says. He really means to shut up and march to the beat of his crude drum. Amid this flawed leadership strategy, Frenchie is adamant this search is a Hail Mary. He operates on logic during these tumultuous times, so he doesn’t want to lull everyone into Butcher’s false sense of security.
Being this keen, assured observer, Frenchie notices how tempestuous things are getting with his cabal as well. Butcher, Mother’s Milk/Marvin (Laz Alonso), Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and Hughie (Jack Quaid) begin holding each other in contempt. They berate one another in the most scathing fashion. Everyone’s anger just won’t subside.
When Homelander and Soldier Boy are spotted from afar, the heroes want to go out to fight them in what would be certain death. Frenchie gets them to back down, all while extrapolating that there is some infection in the air creating this turbulent atmosphere. He doesn’t want hazardous work conditions.
Frenchie surmises that there isn’t some wild creature around producing these corpses, as they initially thought. His new inference is spot on. He discerns there are indeed spores affecting everyone. It ties into all the bodies they find around the location. Everyone seems to have died fighting each other.
These spores are essentially a mutated rage virus stemming from V1 seeping out into the plants around. They infect human and animal life, which then die, allowing the plants to prey and feed on them. It’s a predator trap that evokes comparisons to The Last of Us, or as Frenchie says, The Walking Dead.
Thankfully, Frenchie is impervious due to his many years of taking drugs. The heroes knock him for how being a junkie actually works out this time around. Luckily, Frenchie doesn’t care for their scorn. He is level-headed and focused. That said, while he remains patient, no one listens to him. It comes to a head when Butcher’s team erupts into full-blown chaos. As the heroes fight each other, Frenchie scurries off to find the source. Of course, he doesn’t want to die at the hands of his friends, particularly his beloved Kimiko. She switches her gaze, targetting Hughie for the kill.
The Boys Finally Breaks Soldier Boy With a Brutal Kill
When Homelander and Soldier Boy enter the bunker, their verbal jousting increases. Soldier Boy, however, doesn’t escalate it into blows. Instead, he dupes Homelander into walking into a Supe-proof cell. Soldier Boy locks it and flips a switch that unleashes enriched uranium on his son. Soldier Boy scoffs, calling Homelander imperfect.
The radiation weakens Homelander to the point he can’t use his heat vision or super-strength to punch his way out.This proverbial kryptonite will buy Soldier Boy time to find the V1, destroy it and let Homelander rot. Soldier Boy quickly falls into a temporary alliance with Frenchie as they discover the source: a soldier named Quinn (Kris Hagen). He’s stuck to the wall as this plant-human hybrid — an experiment gone awry. Soldier Boy curses out Quinn for thinking the former was a rich, entitled and privileged brat who didn’t deserve to be in the army. It’s true, though, and humanizes Soldier Boy a lot more than usual.
When Frenchie senses Soldier Boy’s hesitance for the kill-shot, however, he uses this insecurity to anger the Supe. Frenchie chides and baits the “rich boy” into firing his chest beam at him. The hero moves away, enabling the blast to incinerate Quinn and put him out of his misery.
Once this happens, the spores die, so Kimiko doesn’t pulverize Hughie. Sweet victory for the heroes. In a rare sequence of heart and soul for Soldier Boy, the hot-head feels crushed once the pain subsides. Clearly, Quinn was dear to Soldier Boy. This mercy kill just won’t heal the pain. When Homelander escapes, he finds his father in tears and begging for a swift end.
But rather than kill his dad, the tyrant walks off. Part of Homelander is shocked to see such vulnerability. Part may well be thinking he can utilize this human side in due time. Homelander may be prideful, but he knows his son is still a potent ally. It’s not that hard to forgive such an asset. Homelander has to play the game.
A lot of his tactics hinge on what transpired minutes earlier in captivity. Butcher stumbled across the weakened, fascist monster. Their exchange was tense, as usual, but it allowed the Vought leader to realize Butcher doesn’t have the virus. Homelander doesn’t know Sameer (Omid Abtahi) fled Butcher’s lab in Episode 3, but he knows if Butcher had it, he’d use it.
As Homelander leaves Soldier Boy, it is obvious Vought has the advantage. Homelander can tell that once he maintains unity and secures the V1, Butcher will have no response. After that, Homelander can deal with his Vought haters, internally and on the streets. This is the kind of chess match Sage would play, affirming Homelander understands Vought’s politics and the nature of the beast.
Starlight Bails to Heal One Massive Life Trauma
Starlight has her own story cooking in this chapter after bailing on the Boys. It’s quite personal and one not found in the comics. She flies to meet her estranged father, Rick (Tim Daly). He left her and her mother, Donna (Ann Cusack), years ago when Donna pumped V into Starlight. Donna wanted to make the child’s life better, but instead, the celebrity life harmed Starlight physically and mentally. The comics, conversely, focused on Starlight going through this celebrity torment with adoptive parents.
In this Prime Video series, things have been subverted. Starlight patched her rift with Donna after Vought tried to weaponize her mother before Season 5 began. Donna went into hiding, giving Starlight some closure. Here, Starlight tries to reason with Rick as to why he left her. She wants to truly solve the riddle of her past and why she was unworthy of his love. The father, now a cop, confesses it was cowardice.
As much as he strove to, he couldn’t be around Donna’s machinations and a naive Starlight lapping it up. Since then, he remained guilty over how he couldn’t prevent the child being doped up. Starlight works to mend bridges with Rick and her step-mother, Kathy (Deborah Drakeford). Alas, her step-brother, Mason (Callum Shoniker), has fallen into the Vought manosphere at school and on TikTok.
He snitches on Starlight, who’s wanted for being a terrorist and child trafficker. Ed (Ben Carlson), one of Rick’s colleagues, comes over and a haunting standoff occurs. However, Rick bargains with everyone. Rick dispels the idea of his kin being a criminal, so Ed gives them one hour or else Rick will pay for lying to the police force during indoctrination.
Starlight eventually has dinner with the family and bonds with Mason, too. Absolution and harmony are on the menu. This dovetails into clarity and an integral epiphany. She realizes that she can’t run from The Boys.
She ditched, thinking she wouldn’t be able to cope if Hughie died in battle. The near-death encounter with Cindy at Edgar’s lair in Episode 3 took its toll on her. But now, she understands she can’t do what Rick did. She, of all people, knows abandoning loved ones in their time of need is wrong. Starlight has to stay and fight. She reunites with Hughie in the final act, emboldened to see the job through.
And make no mistake, The Boys need her. There is massive distrust after the real truth was exposed at Fort Harmony. It turns out Marvin and Butcher didn’t want to preserve the V1 to make a new virus. They wanted to destroy it so Homelander could remain “normal” for the old virus Frenchie has distilling. Hughie is left perturbed because he still anticipates this virus will kill good Supes like Starlight and Kimiko.
Starlight has to nudge the crew into a middle ground. Even if it means coercing Hughie and Frenchie to accept that she, Kimiko and other heroes must be collateral damage to save the world. Even if they agree with Ryan about Butcher embarking down a seedy road, Butcher’s profane-laced regimen may well be the only option they have left.
The Boys Makes Bombsight a Major Target
Before the Boys fought each other in the bunker, Butcher and Marvin use their sleuthing skills and deduce a mysterious entity broke into the lab and stole the V1 way before. The candidates are limited. They finger Bombsight, one of the early Vought military experiments, as the perpetrator. Only he has the mythical power to break the containment in this smash-and-grab.
This sets up both sides to clash with the fabled Bombsight in future episodes. They have no idea how strong he really is. If he is as timeless and intense as Soldier Boy, expect an intimidating, explosive brawl. Fans will recall Mason Dye was cast as Bombsight for the Vought Rising prequel series on how Soldier Boy’s origin unfolded.
Thus it appears audiences could be getting a modern scrap between Bombsight and Soldier Boy. That is, if Homelander tracks this old-timer down and puts his son on a former comrade’s case like a hungry hound. He will surely be coaxing Soldier Boy to make this sacrifice if they want to keep Vought’s Supe-supremacy intact.
Homelander Still Has Corporate Vought Issues to Fix
Outside of the Soldier Boy predicament, Homelander’s religious institution isn’t optimal yet. Ashley has been lashing out at her husband, Oh-Father (Daveed Diggs), over how the Vought megachurch has been squandering tithes.
Ashley doesn’t want to face ethics committees and be subpoenaed for $150 million going missing. She can’t stand the idea of being a Tammy Faye Messner to Homelander. To top it off, attendance is scarce. Hence, donations are low. It limits the vision Homelander has for being seen as god, and not just an emissary.
With Ashley and her secret persona realizing the ship is sinking, “they” could go to Sage to switch sides or tank the corporation from the inside. Vought does, after all, have a habit of turning people such as A-Train into moles.
Additionally, Black Noir 2.0 (Nathan Mitchell) is angry at the Deep for duping Homelander. Noir nabbed Edgar in Episode 3, but the Deep knocked both men out with gas. The feckless Deep left Noir at the side of the road and made it seem like he grabbed Edgar for Homelander to exploit. The Deep thinks it’s a competitive, healthy rivalry.
But in this episode, Noir is incandescent with derision. He insults the Deep on their podcast, suggesting the bromance is going to turn violent soon. Noir, as a thespian, can’t stand folks stealing his credit. This squabble will reinforce to Homelander that he can’t rely on his churlish minions. The problem is, once Homelander enters the field, he will expose himself to Frenchie’s virus, should it be deemed viable and ready. He needs pawns and expendable subordinates. But these lackeys create a conundrum fueled by instability and incompetence.
Be that as it may, as all this drama plays out, Homelander is embracing the throne he has built. The adulation may not be peak, but the hype is real. Oh-Father is deifying him on their televangelical broadcasts for America to adore. This is done under a new banner: the Democratic Church of America. Homelander’s marketing team came up with this earlier on to boost their ratings.
This ideation scene is very uncomfortable, as it plays on the USA-Israel coalition, and the Gaza attacks. They constantly bicker, but remain dedicated and obsessed to doing whatever it takes, even if it means enacting genocide.
The episode’s final shot during the devotion service highlights an assertive Homelander basking in the glow. Viewers can’t deny the irony between how he wants to use religion and how the man he parodies, Donald Trump, has been comparing himself to a healing Pope. Ultimately, this is satire and a sharp assessment that feels too real. But that’s the mirror to society which The Boys has always been… Particularly in an America that anchors around white supremacy and Christian fanaticism at present.
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, “King of Hell”
- Wednesday, April 29, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 5, “One-Shots”
- Wednesday, May 6, 2026: The Boys Season 5, Episode 6, “Though The Heavens Fall”
- 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*
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You just can’t leave your own political bias out of these articles, can you? Your hate for Trump skews all your other-wise good observations.
Other than you simping for politicians who couldn’t care less about your existence, what’d you think of the episode?