This review contains spoilers for The Boys season 5 episode 4.
I understand what the writers behind The Boys are trying to tell us. It’s tough to create a satisfying final season of a popular show. Using TV writer The Worm as an occasionally amusing self-insert, we’re told it’s not easy to wrap up years of storytelling or to service multiple character arcs while weaving in crossovers. But I gotta be real about this episode: it’s kind of a soapy drag and, not for nothing, as a Lost finale enjoyer, they’re preaching to a much more easily pleased reviewer than their fictional AV Club guy here.
As Homelander takes further steps toward becoming America’s new god, he provokes shaky smiles from the bootlickers around him. The way Firecracker’s face falls when she discovers his new mission is incredible. Choosing her to spread his word, she sells out the last remaining vestige of her soul. If she’s ever heard a warning from history, she forgot it.
Hughie then tells us what’s happening in the show, in case we’re also prone to forgetting or looking at our phones. “Homelander has Stan Edgar,” he reminds us. “If we get the V1 first, we save Annie, we save Kimiko, we save Butcher. If Homelander gets it, he’s immortal, the virus is useless, and we’re fucked sideways, so who wants to go to [place] where [plot device] is?” Thanks for the update, Hughie. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
For what it’s worth, Soldier Boy seems a little rattled about anyone trying to hunt potential doses of V1 at Fort Harmony, and we get to find out why when he confronts his difficult past during this episode. Jensen Ackles has been an entirely worthy addition to this season, despite being yet another spinoff for the writers to entwine, adding his reliably charming presence but also his ability to show cogs turning without talking, which is good because a big chunk of Soldier Boy’s standard “I haven’t done X since Y!” dialogue would usually lead straight into a Peter Griffin flashback on Family Guy.
Fort Harmony, and a familiar mind-altering trope, is indeed where most of the gang head this episode. Whether it’s the darkness inside being amplified by a location like the Overlook Hotel in The Shining or a vengeful spirit turning brothers Sam and Dean Winchester against each other at an abandoned hospital in Eric Kripke’s other iconic TV show, Supernatural, we’ve seen this kinda thing before and know what will happen: our crew will grow meaner and more out of character until someone points it out and a solution is found, and that will happen just in the nick of time before they beat each other to death.
Speaking of being beaten to death, Ryan’s fine, by the way. If you’re a fan of his exciting adventures of hiding, trying to bond with people, or running away, congratulations. If you’re more inclined to think the show hasn’t really known what to do with the OP kid since he accidentally took out Becca, this news might be less well received. There’s a bit of the usual back and forth between him and Butcher before he fucks off again, sure to reemerge at some point in the future lest Butcher have no ties to Becca left to lose.
There’s a lot more tension and peril in Annie’s visit to her estranged father and his new family. These are compelling conversations for her to have with people in the field who are being told she’s the enemy, especially as she wrestles with whether it’s worth keeping her heart open. “People we love aren’t our weakness,” her father says. “They’re the reason we fight.” It hits harder than anything Hughie has said to her this season, and it worked on me as well.
The juice of Annie reconnecting with her dad is worth the squeeze, since the Homelander plot is spinning its wheels in the background. Annie has been feeling so hopeless and unsure this season, but she fights on with love in her heart. It’s at least vaguely meaningful, and the writers refrain from adding too many dismissive lines to undermine it, which is a nice change of pace.
Still, no one got hold of that pesky V1 in this episode. Maybe they’ll find it in the next. It would be cool if they got somewhere instead of fighting among themselves, but what else can they do when there are still a handful of episodes left until the final showdown? Just ask The Worm.
New episodes of The Boys season 5 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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