The Boys Season 5 Premiere Recap: Is Soldier Boy Dead?

After dilly dallying throughout the fourth season, Amazon Prime’s premiere superhero deconstruction, “The Boys” is back to finish its final lap and by the looks of the two-episode premiere, is no longer willing to pull the punches. Previously, Butcher gave in to his inner darkness while dealing with double dose of brain tumor caused by Temp V overdose and Ryan’s turn to villainy, and killed Victoria Neuman before nabbing the supe killing virus from Frenchie. Homelander assumed complete control over the government after anti-supe Presidential candidate Singer got detained and Vought stooge, Calhoun was made POTUS. Except for Butcher, rest of the members of the Boys were arrested by Homelander’s followers and God U students, while Annie aka Starlight continued leading the resistance against the Homelander and his tyrannical regime. The premiere of the fifth season sets stage for the final conflict between the Boys and Homelander, as Butcher’s diabolical to ultimate solution through global supe genocide comes to surface.

Spoilers Ahead

Starlight Exposes Homelander’s Most Horrible Act

As the fifth season begins, it is of no surprise that the Brave New World shaped by Homelander mimics the current situation of the United States, topicality has always been the series’ forte anyway. Starlighters, or anyone opposing Homelander’s vision of America are sent to ‘freedom camp’, fancy word for Vought enforcers-controlled Gulag/ internment camps – where Hughie, Frenchie and Mother’s Milk are imprisoned as well. While Homelander enjoys his supreme seat at the top of the world, Sage finds delight in having her ego boosted as Homelander’s second in command. Ashley, who has mind reading powers and a second face in speaking from her bald head after taking Compound V, is Vice President. Like Annie, Butcher has managed to evade capture and A-Train is on the run with his family. 

During Vought’s annual shareholders meeting, Annie manages to sneak into the control room and telecast video recording of the infamous crash of transoceanic flight 37, exposing Homelander while he is in the midst of his grand speech about ushering the nation to a new era. Black Noir was able to catch Annie in the middle of the act but he failed to stop her in time or even capture her later on. Sage and Vought International are as usual quick to make arrangements for damage control, and even though they have managed to hush the growing chatter by flooding the net with the  narrative that video was AI generated nonsense, Homelander is losing his marbles over the incident. Not only was he publicly humiliated, it also reminded him of the sense the veneration he receives from the mass is sheerly out of fear, not out of genuine love or respect. Well, after all he himself wanted to make the nation a god-fearing one to begin with.

Sage tries to comfort Homelander and even the smartest supes in the world struggle to keep a narcissistic, neurotic man-child in control. At one point, with Homelander’s permission, she straight up says that he will not be able to feel content even if he finds him at the zenith of power. Homelander is more interested in instant gratification, and he asks for what he has been craving for since a long time – Butcher and Starlight’s head on a plate. Their survival is proof enough that Homelander is yet to exert complete dominance, and the despotic supes plan to spread the news that MM, Frenchie and Hughie are about to get executed within three days to lure them right into his hands. It should be mentioned, while going about his daily routine of asserting superiority, Homelander feels desperate to have someone connect to him as his equal, and in those moments, he watches over the cryochamber where veteran supes/ technically his father, Soldier Boy is in a slumber since last two years.

A-Train’s Sacrifice Delivers a Full Circle Moment

The news reaches Butcher in no time, who is in the middle of sorting out a family affair as he visits his abusive father, Sam, who is suffering from cancer and is spending his last days in his dingy apartment in London, all alone. Butcher blames his father for his dear brother Lenny’s decision of taking his own life, and decides to bury the hatchet by using his powers to kill his old man. Sam is partially the reason Butcher is who he is today, and he doesn’t forget to mention his gratitude for that before killing him. 

While being transferred to Vought’s facility in Manilla, Kimiko was able to escape and start a life in peace – while keeping his old friends, especially Frenchie in her mind all the while. Butcher reaches her with the help of his still active CIA contacts, and following a brief scuffle, Kimiko, who has become quite the chatterbox after finding her voice, agrees to help him in freeing Frenchie after learning about their impending execution. Butcher and Kimiko track down Annie at her apartment, who is surprisingly more welcoming towards Butcher’s offer of joining hands to free their friends. A guilt-ridden Annie blames herself for the sordid predicament of all the Starlighters, and she feels that in her misguided quest for justice, she led them to their ruin by asking them to follow. To survive, and to keep the resistance alive, Annie had to partake in actions she was not proud of, and Butcher, without Annie even sharing anything with him, can realize that. Butcher’s motive to free his former comrades is also strengthened by his need to seek Frenchie’s help perfecting the supe-killing virus even further. In the meantime, the captive trio – MM, Frenchie and Hughie, who have been secretly keeping tabs on what Annie and her resistance is up to, learn about the execution ploy. Knowing full well that their rescue operation is going to be a suicide mission, they plan to escape together before anything such takes place. Homelander, already aware of their planning, taunts Hughie by killing off his fellow captives and shares his bewilderment with why Butcher and Annie are spending their breath to rescue a nobody like him. Quite obviously, an egotistical megalomaniac like Homelander knows nothing about friendship, loyalty and camaraderie, which is why Hughie’s simple answer, that because he’d have done the same for them, baffles him even more. 

Butcher recruits one of his former associates, a supe named Worm with the powers to dig through soil like his namesake, and Annie meets with A-Train to seek his help in infiltration and escape. A-Train refuses to assist, as much as he wants to help Annie and co., he has a family to look after and can’t jeopardize their safety by drawing Homelander’s attention. Deep, having turned into Andrew Tate like manosphere douchebag, tracks down A-Train’s recent staying place at France after getting chastised by Homelander for his failure. However, A-Train has already relocated his family elsewhere, and calls out Deep for his cowardice and denial before leaving the scene. 

Homelander remains prepared for Butcher arrival, but Annie’s timely ambush manages to catch him off guard as the captives are freed. An all out chaos breaks out in the freedom camp, MM takes his revenge by killing Love Sausage, and Hughie nearly gets decimated by Homelander’s lasers. Right at that moment, A-Train makes a heroic entry, and his immense speed makes the surrounding feel slowed down in the veins of Quicksilver’s iconic slo-mo rescues in “X-Men” movies. A-Train saves Hughie and helps the team to escape by drawing Homelander’s attention towards him. In a moment which feels like poetic justice, A-Train trips and falls while trying to avoid hitting a woman in his route, thereby getting captured by Homelander. The series began with A-Train’s collision with Hughie’s girlfriend, Robin, showing the speedster’s absolute recklessness, and in his final moments, he truly shows how much he has grown since then. However, even with his death imminent, A-Train laughs on Homelander’s face, he is no longer afraid of him and calls the despot out for what he is – a snivelling, insecure crybaby. Homelander takes him down, but he no longer feels the sense of superiority he was feeling mere moments ago. 

Homelander Brings Soldier Boy Back to the Fray

Hughie, always the idealistic and morally upright guy in the team, can sense something is tearing up Annie from inside, and his suspicion increases when Butcher reveals his masterplan of committing supe genocide with the team. For Butcher, who has nothing to lose and has completely given up on his humanity, such a statement is understandable, but Hughie didn’t expect Annie to agree to his nihilistic, absolutist ideals as well. Annie is so deeply wounded by the predicament of her followers, that her guilt has convinced her to agree to such suicidal proposal of exterminating all the supes at one go. Also, it turns out Butcher has sought help from Sameer, to perfect the anti-supe virus, convincing him by lying that Homelander had killed Neuman whereas it was Butcher himself who did that. Even though the Boys keep their mouth shut for the moment, Sameer is going to learn about the truth sooner or later, presumably from her own daughter, Zoe, and is going to mess up the situation. Kimiko, like Hughie, can’t believe that the rest of the team is agreeing to Butcher’s plan, and Frenchie assures her that he will look for a way to find a cure for the virus. Butcher and co. plan to test the virus on Rock Hard, a member of youngster heroes, Teenage Kix, who is seemingly as durable as Homelander himself. If he gets taken down by the virus, it can be said for certain that it will kill the big blue as well. 

Sulking alone during A-Train’s memorial after the rest of the attendees have left, Homelander goes through another of his neurotic episodes to justify his actions to himself, and in the heat of the moment, he finally decides to bring Soldier Boy back from cryosleep. Aside from his daddy issues and crippling existential crisis, Homelander needs someone to rely upon as his lackeys have been making an absolute mockery of his authority. Offering Soldier Boy a seat at the Seven, and the chance to take revenge against Butcher, Homelander is able to convince him to join hands rather easily and sets him after the Boys. Sister Sage is not at all pleased upon seeing Soldier Boy running about in the Vought HQ, as his presence jeopardizes the meticulous plans she had formulated for Homelander to keep things under his grip. As she confronts Homelander, it turns out quite obviously, he didn’t think through his decision and didn’t even inform him about Butcher’s supe killing virus. While Annie, Frenchie and MM infiltrate Teenage Kix’s lair and try to find a way to let the virus enter the system of the mountainous hero, Rock Hard, Butcher, Hughie and Kimiko bring the vial of supe killing virus from Sameer. Soldier Boy tracks them down and stops them right in their tracks, resulting in a confrontation with Butcher while Hughie and Kimiko rush to warn their teammates. 

Is Soldier Boy Dead?

Butcher tries to manipulate Soldier Boy by mentioning Homelander sent him as fodder, as he sent him despite knowing about the supe killing virus. While chasing Butcher, Soldier Boy commands a couple of delinquent Teenage Kix heroes to engage with remaining members, and a prolonged fight between them reaches the Teenage Kix’s lair. Frenchie unleashes the virus with Soldier Boy, Rock Hard and Jetstream locked inside the lair, and escapes with Hughie. All of them die miserably, and the footage is recorded in the camera which was set inside the lair by the Boys. MM protects one of the teenage heroes, Countess Crow, from getting a similar treatment, and speaks sense to her to make her return back to her family and free herself from Vought’s exploitation. Fortunately, contrary to Sameer’s initial speculation, the virus turns out to be non-lethal for humans, and the Boys breathe a sigh of relief upon realizing they have a weapon to take down Homelander. Frenchie plans to escape somewhere far with Kimiko after everything is said and done, as he knows he can not make a cure to the virus, but something tells me the couple won’t be able to live their dream life. 

As the second episode reaches its concluding moments, Butcher is seen present with Terror, his pet bulldog, and possibly the only being right now whom he cares about. It’s nice to see the makers are paying homage to the comics counterpart of the character, and suddenly, even fans who didn’t feel attached to the characters, are stricken with fear about Terror’s fate. Homelander, absolutely crestfallen, visits the lair to see Soldier Boy’s lifeless remains getting taken away, but shockingly enough, in the final seconds, Soldier Boy sits upright from his lying position, almost in a horror movie scene. This indicates he survived the virus, which means Homelander might be immune to it as well as he shares the same DNA as the veteran supes. The Boys are blissfully unaware of this, which sets the stage for Marie Moreau and Stan Edgar to use Project Odessa’s findings to fashion an alternative killing mechanism. At the same time, the viral load might have caused Soldier Boy to experience side effects like getting depowered, full extent of which will be shown in the upcoming episodes. 

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