'The Boys' Season 5 Episode 1 Recap: Is A-Train Dead?

Episode 1 of The Boys Season 5 opens with Homelander attending an event titled Vought International Annual Meeting of Shareholders, where he goes on another one of his mind-numbing rants about Starlight and the rebels being the scum of the earth. While he’s doing that, Starlight and two of her associates (they look like fans with some basic computer knowledge) infiltrate the control room of the venue with the intention of hacking into the system. That doesn’t go as smoothly as they must’ve expected it, because Black Noir spots them; he kills one of the Starlighters standing guard at the door of the control room, and as he’s about to go for the other one, Annie steps in and orders the hacker-Starlighter to complete his task. After a hard-fought battle (which Homelander seemingly can’t hear even though he has super-hearing), Annie subdues Noir, and the Starlighter manages to upload the video of the plane crash from Season 1 (the one where he refused to save anyone while Maeve pleaded with him) into the computer system and then projects it onto the massive display panel on the stage where Homelander is sermonizing. Everyone, including Homelander, is stunned, and it seems like he’s about to kill everyone attending the event, because if there are no witnesses, then the truth of what was shown at the shareholders’ meeting will never come out. However, Sister Sage stops Homelander from doing that and lets the PR team handle it. They call the whole video AI-generated slop and try to move on. Given the low attention span of the general public, there’s a good chance that this tactic is going to work, and they will forget about it. But what about Homelander? Can he move on from this disaster? Let’s find out. 

Spoiler Alert

Homelander is evidently disturbed by the whole event, and he is afraid that the PR spin isn’t going to hold, because this exposé is just another brick in the shaky Jenga tower of lies that he is standing upon. One of those “bricks” involves Ryan’s sudden disappearance after he killed Grace. The lie that Vought has peddled to cover that incident up is that he is in a boarding school in Svalbard, and as per Sage, that story is totally working. But Homelander doesn’t seem to care how successfully they are manipulating people; he’s wondering if they themselves are still okay on the inside, or if they have started to believe the lies that they are spreading. He brings up Godolkin breaking up with Sage (it’s a Gen V Season 2 reference) and asks her how it has affected her, because if it did, that’d explain why she didn’t anticipate Starlight and her allies breaking into the venue and leaking that video. Since Sage makes the mistake of saying that she is unaffected by the breakup, she finds herself in the difficult position of clarifying why she messed up so royally. Surprisingly enough, Sage is unable to come up with a reason for that major fumble, which only angers Homelander even more because he feels that he’s losing the popularity game against Starlight. He thinks that the polls show that he is loved by the people because they are too afraid to say the truth, and the truth is that they are tired of being afraid of Homelander, and they want to break free of his clutches. Which is why Homelander wants a blanket ban on anyone being critical of him on the internet or in real life. Sage advises against that. 

So, Homelander comes up with another plan: executing Hughie, Milk, and Frenchie. That’ll draw out Butcher and Annie, thereby giving Homelander the opportunity to kill her and bring an end to her rebellious movement. Before getting to do that, he is forced to do a segment with Firecracker regarding the plane video fiasco, where he senses that everyone in the studio, except for Firecracker, of course, is scared of him. For a second, it feels like Homelander is about to realize that his actions will never garner him the devotion that he wants, but as soon as he starts talking about all those scared crew members secretly being Starlighters, it becomes clear that the man has truly and totally lost it. However, Firecracker manages to keep Homelander focused and work with her to brush the flight video as well as the footage of the massacre at God U under the “generative-AI, pro-Starlighter propaganda” rug. With that out of the way, Homelander meets up with Deep and Noir and reminds them that if they make another mistake, like the one at the shareholders’ event, then he will personally kill them. Meanwhile, Sage interrupts a televised meeting between Firecracker, VP Ashley, and Oh-Father (Ezekiel’s successor at Samaritan’s Embrace, and Ashley’s PR-mandated love interest) to tell Ashley to ramp up the crackdown on potential Starlighters. Ashley says that the crackdown is already extensive, and it’ll be pointless to ignore every human rights law just because Homelander is feeling too insecure, but Sage implores Ashley to do what’s expected of her if she doesn’t want to be fired (read: killed), and as always, Ashley buckles under the pressure. Yeah, I know the parallels with real-life politics that the show is trying to draw, but that’s all I will say about that.

Butcher visits his dad, Sam, in London, and instantly underscores the fact that he has outlived both Lenny and Connie. Sam would have outlived Butcher too if it wouldn’t have been for his radical transformation into a Supe. And what’s surprising is that Sam has achieved this feat despite having “ass cancer,” which just goes to show that “karma” isn’t a real thing, or else an abusive waste of space like him would have died first. Yeah, you can say that his pain (caused by the cancer) is the punishment that he deserves, but what’s the point of this punishment if the people he has wronged aren’t around to watch him suffer? What’s worse is that Butcher puts Sam out of his misery by seemingly killing him (instead of, you know, making him suffer more than he already has). Yeah, we don’t get to see Sam die, but it’s strongly implied that he has killed his dad. Next, Butcher goes to Manila and reunites with Kimiko (she was deported there after being captured by Homelander’s task force), which is where we learn that Butcher intends to break out Frenchie, Hughie, and Milk from the prison they are being kept in. And after that, Butcher and Kimiko head to Annie’s secret lair to rope her into their plan to rescue the boys. During their conversation, Butcher makes it seem like the only reason why he wants to rescue them is because he needs Frenchie to help him with the Supe-killing serum, but we all know that he has a soft spot for his friends, and he does want to save them because that’s what they would have done for him had he been in a pickle. 

Whatever the real reason may be, getting in and out of that prison won’t be a cakewalk. So, while Butcher goes to recruit Worm, Annie and Kimiko meet up with A-Train. Worm agrees to help Butcher with whatever he needs, as long as his demand of rebelling against Vought is met, but A-Train doesn’t accept the invitation to go on this mission, because he knows that he can’t outrun Homelander. He takes off and reaches Brittany, a region in France, which is where his brother, Nathan, and the rest of his family live in order to avoid Vought’s ire. While they’re having a chat, Desean (one of Franklin’s sons) warns them about some unusual activity out at sea. A-Train immediately realizes that it’s Deep, because he has been keeping track of his and his family’s movements for quite a while. Therefore, before Deep gets to the temporary Franklin household, A-Train moves them out to another secure location and then confronts Deep. A-Train tries to bring Deep to the realization that, right now, he is doing whatever Homelander wants him to. A day will come when he’ll want to leave Vought. Then he’ll be in A-Train’s place, and maybe Noir will be in his place. Hence, it’s important to bring this toxic cycle of blind servitude to an end. None of that gets through Deep’s thick skull, and he keeps spewing “toxic masculinity” talking points until A-Train gets annoyed and leaves. This interaction with Deep does make A-Train think about Annie’s words who had earlier told him he couldn’t keep running forever. When Deep tells him that he will keep looking for his family until they’re dead, A-Train understands that the only way to save his loved ones from Homelander’s wrath is by answering Annie’s call.

It’s revealed that all the rebels, which include Hughie, Milk, and Frenchie, are being kept in a Vought-controlled concentration camp, which has its perimeter secured by human guards and two Supes (Love Sausage and Cindy). Frenchie has managed to create a network where he gets information and supplies from outside, but that has turned him into a target, because the other prisoners want what he has. Hughie, Milk, and Frenchie are obviously looking out for one another in that hellscape, but things seem to be getting direr by the second. Hughie is also keeping an eye on Ivy, his colleague from the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, because with each passing second, she’s becoming more and more demotivated about her chances of ever tasting freedom. And every time he seems to be making some kind of progress, someone or the other is killed before their eyes for trying to escape the concentration camp, thereby bringing Hughie back to square one. Hughie goes over to the secret chamber underneath the toilet for a meeting with Milk and Frenchie where they discuss their escape plan. Yes, they know their execution has been scheduled in order to trap Starlight, which is why Hughie intends to get out of the camp before the trap is sprung on her. Sadly, Homelander is one or two steps ahead of Hughie, and he shows up at the camp, massacres all the inmates (there’s a pretty good split-diopter shot in this scene), and lays the groundwork for the execution trap. While that’s going on, Butcher, Annie, Kimiko, and Worm reach the periphery of the concentration camp, and this is where Worm’s powers are revealed. He is like a human vacuum cleaner that eats dirt and poops it out of his rear end; also, he doesn’t have a male reproductive organ (I don’t know what to do with that info, so I am passing it to you, reader). Well, let’s not judge Worm, because he gets the job done by digging a hole from the fence around the camp to the building where Hughie, Milk, and Frenchie are housed. Starlight stays back, while Butcher and Kimiko enter the building, only to find the three of them tied up. Homelander lasers Kimiko in half and then starts yapping about Butcher’s newfound superpowers. That’s when Annie flashbangs the whole camp with her superpowers, thereby giving the protagonists the opportunity to run out. Chaos ensues, and bodies start dropping. Milk kills Love Sausage, while Homelander kills Ivy. When Homelander is about to put a hole in Hughie’s head, A-Train arrives (there’s an homage to Quicksilver’s “Time in a Bottle” scene) and saves him. It’s a full-circle moment because A-Train running into Hughie’s girlfriend is what brought him into this mess in the first place, and now, here he is, saving Hughie from getting lasered. 

In episode 1’s ending, A-Train makes a run for it, and Homelander goes after him, thereby giving Butcher and the rest the chance to escape from the concentration camp. While trying to get away from Homelander, A-Train almost crashes into a woman, mirroring the moment he killed Robin; except this time he doesn’t kill anyone, thereby redeeming him in his own eyes. But dodging that woman who was crossing the street causes A-Train to crash into a forest. Homelander corners him, and probably expects A-Train to beg for his life. However, A-Train surprises Homelander by mocking him to his face. Unable to tolerate the humiliation, Homelander snaps A-Train’s neck, and he dies laughing at how pathetic the “most powerful Supe in the world” actually is. Yeah, I know that A-Train has recovered from quite a few gnarly injuries, but this time, I think he’s gone for good. I don’t know if this is a fitting end for him or not, but I applaud the fact that he went out whilst making a mockery out of Homelander. He knew that it’s going to further Homelander’s unraveling and that’ll cause him to make mistakes, and if the Boys can exploit those moments of weakness, they might just be able to kill Homelander. In addition to that, A-Train imparts an important message about fear and fascism: even if you are afraid of your resident dictator, don’t show it; laugh at them as loudly as you can.