As the long-awaited final season of Prime Video’s The Boys neared its premiere, showrunner and creator Eric Kripke warned us to expect our share of carnage. In an interview with SFX Magazine, he cautioned, “I wouldn’t get too attached to any single character.” After four seasons filled with outrageous deaths, his warning felt fairly dire.
Not only would we have to say goodbye to our favorite heroes and villains, but considering the show’s ultra-violent playfulness, their ends would likely be unthinkable. And Kripke did not disappoint.
From the first of eight final episodes, The Boys’ swan song has been a cavalcade of grotesque kills. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve watched the show’s US President have his head abruptly crushed in the Oval Office and a human guinea pig bled to death through his asshole, spraying blood all over his prison cell. But on a list of season five’s most horrific expirations, these don’t even crack the shocking top ten.
What sets this season’s death scenes apart is the weight of finality and a current of emotion running alongside the body horror. After all, we’ve run out of canon fodder, and most of the following kills cut deep, providing heartbreaking or cathartic closure for characters we’ve come to either loathe or love.
10) A-Train’s Final Race (Episode 1)
As promised, season five begins with an excruciating death that takes us back to where we first began. After years executing Homelander’s violent whims, A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) has finally broken with Vought and begun working with the Boys. Now going by Reggie, the world’s fastest man joins their mission to infiltrate an internment camp to free a handful of resistance fighters. As Homelander (Antony Starr) tries to prevent their escape, we watch in awe as a slow-motion sequence follows Reggie running through the chaotic scene, taking pins out of grenades and saving Hughie (Jack Quaid) from Homelander’s deadly laser vision. When the dust settles, he speeds off into the night with Homelander hot on his heels. But when a civilian steps into his path — a mirror to the grisly collision that kicked off the show’s first episode — A-Train proves that he has truly changed by moving out of the way to save her life.
Unfortunately, this sends him careening through the dense woods, smashing into large trees at the speed of light. Homelander quickly catches up and snaps his neck, but not before the fallen hero delivers a blistering critique that will become eerily prophetic as the season unfolds. As Homelander holds him by the throat, Reggie laughs in his face, saying, “Take away these powers, and what are you, huh? A pathetic, weak, snivelling fucking loser.” It’s a painful yet redemptive moment for a character who’s finally found the courage to stand up for what’s right.
9) Firecracker Freed (Episode 5)
As Homelander grows increasingly unstable, others begin to doubt their place in his army. Firecracker (Valorie Curry) has always been a loyal follower, but Homelander discovers that she’s been sharing her doubts with his father, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), in the afterglow of their secret affair. He confronts Firecracker about her faltering belief just moments after she’s publicly burned all connections to her former life. Yet even this self-destruction is not enough and Homelander asks her to pack her things and go.
Desperate to stay in her hero’s good graces, Firecracker professes her love for the caped crusader and begs to stay. But something in her sycophantic tone pushes the monster over the edge. After a gentle caress, he smashes her face into a nearby statue of a bald eagle, impaling her head with its outstretched wings. Blinking as her body collapses, Firecracker finally understands that no amount of devotion will ever fill the gaping hole in Homelander’s heart.
8) Oh Father, Where Art Thou? (Episode 8)
After five seasons, we’ve come to expect exploding heads in The Boys universe, but the disturbing death of Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) tops them all. The pastor-turned-superhero is not only known for his proselytising, but also for his forceful voice, strong enough to literally blow people away. The only downside is that his destructive screams can be quite dangerous in the throes of sexual gratification. So, to celebrate her ascension to the presidency, his wife Ashley (Colby Minifie) buys him a heavily reinforced ball gag designed to muffle the most catastrophic sounds.
When the Boys break into the White House, Oh Father attempts to stave them off and opens his mouth to pulverize Hughie. Spying Ashley’s kinky gift, Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) uses the gag to stop this deadly blast, reversing Oh Father’s power and popping his head. Once again, Hughie is covered with gore as brain matter splatters all over the room. On the other hand, perhaps it’s better that Oh Father’s life ends this way rather than his head exploding from vocal enjoyment of a sexual act.
7) Adam Bourke Takes a Bow (Episode 5)
Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne) has long been a heel in The Boys’ universe. We first meet the problematic and foulmouthed director on the set of Dawn of the Seven, an in-world film designed to smooth over Homelander’s disastrous romance. But Bourke has finally left Vought Studios behind and is now helming an off-broadway play about the Bee Gees that just happens to star Justin (Nathan Mitchell), a.k.a. Black Noir II. Unfortunately, The Deep (Chace Crawford) discovers Noir’s secret gig and jealously sabotages his chance at fame.
While Bourke “drops a deuce,” Deep sends an eel through the toilet bowl to burrow itself into the director’s rear end. Coming to his rescue, Black Noir extracts the bloody creature, but rips out Bourke’s intestines as well. He dies a fittingly undignified death, bleeding on a dirty bathroom floor while quipping about how his asshole hurts. This grisly vignette not only allows Mitchell to pull off his mask and show his face for the first time in Boys history, but combines the series’ trademark irreverent humor with shockingly violent special effects.
6) Karma Catches The Deep (Episode 8)
Thankfully, Deep does not get away with his atrocious acts. After five seasons of bro-ing his way around and blaming others for his own mistakes, the cowardly hero has finally run out of places to hide. In retaliation for Bourke’s death, Noir damages the oil pipeline Deep has just endorsed, creating a horrific oil spill that kills millions of fish. The so-called Lord of the Seven Seas is unceremoniously warned by a shark named Xander — hilariously voiced by Samuel L. Jackson — that if he dips a toe into any body of water, the fish will immediately rip him apart. Word has spread, and every aquatic animal now blames him for what they call the Pipeline Genocide as well as the death of Ambrosius (Tilda Swinton), Deep’s octopus lover, whom he betrayed to curry favor with Homelander.
Unfortunately, Deep finds himself far offshore after a grueling fight with Annie (Erin Moriarty). As cries of “justice for Ambrosious” ring in the air, a massive sea creature rises from the murky depths. Sharks close in while one giant tentacle encircles Deep’s waist and another juts out of his open mouth, paralleling the sexual assault he perpetrated in episode one. It’s a moment of long-awaited karmic retribution for a pathetic, yet all-too-familiar character.
5) Strangled by a Love Sausage (Episode 1)
Throughout the Boys’ audacious run, we’ve seen a variety of unusual powers, from a man burrowing through the earth by blowing the dirt out of his butt to a “hero” capable of duplicating himself to create a human centipede. But perhaps the strangest is Love Sausage (Derek Johns), whose abilities stem from a monstrous penis he controls like an octopus’ tentacle. Long tormented by this depraved supervillain, Mother’s Milk now finds himself held prisoner in a Vought camp where Love Sausage serves as a prison guard. But when Butcher and his crew infiltrate the bunker, M.M. sees his chance for revenge.
Warning, “I’m gonna chop that thing up like a party sub,” he tries to evade the lunging man who uses his elongated dick as a whip. M.M. is finally able to grasp the appendage, repeatedly stabbing the tip with a jagged stake. Finally subdued, he wraps the shaft around Love Sausage’s neck and slowly pulls it tight, marking the first time in mainstream television history that a man has been strangled to death by his own genitalia.
4) Synapse Snapped (Episode 7)
As Homelander nears his strange announcement, the insecure supe begins wondering if the masses will actually accept him as their God. To weed out everyone but true believers, he’s assembled a team of devious psychics to read minds and identify any doubt. Synapse (Steven Yaffee) is a deranged psychic who receives a pardon for multiple crimes in exchange for running interference for Homelander. Holding Hughie and Butcher (Karl Urban) hostage, he digs into their subconscious thoughts and disguises himself as Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a painful figure from Butcher’s past. But Hughie turns the tables on this sinister man, recounting his knowledge of the villain’s first kill.
As grisly crime scene photos flash before our eyes, we learn that a young Synapse mentally forced his seven-year-old brother to eviscerate himself with their mother’s corkscrew. This bloody anecdote proves to be an effective distraction, and Butcher is able to free himself, impaling the psychic with two of his waspish tentacles. As he pulls them apart, Synapse’s body is ripped in half, his entrails spilling all over the floor. This peek into the mind of a murderous man reminds us just how devastating superpowers can be.
3) Jetstreak, Rock Hard, and Soldier Boy (Episode 2)
As the Boys search for Homelander’s Achilles heel, they replicate an experimental virus engineered to kill all supes while leaving humans essentially unharmed. Hoping to test the concoction’s strength, they plan to inject it into an indestructible hero known as Rock Hard (Andrew Iles) and observe the results. But when they arrive at his Vought-arranged home, they discover that the man has severely let himself go. Rather than a muscle-bound hero made of stone, he’s now a rocky head sitting atop a massive pile of molten lava created by untold hours of pleasuring himself to volcano porn.
Wearing a protective mask, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) opens the vial in the sealed basement alongside a teen supe called Jetstreak (Dylan Colton) and Soldier Boy, who’s been sent to retrieve the unstable substance. The Boys watch in horror as the infected heroes vomit black goo, their skin beginning to bubble and blister. Rock Hard’s face cracks open and crumbles, revealing brains and viscera underneath. They are the first victims of this dangerous plague, yet only two will remain dead.
2) That Was a Crazy Game of Poker (Episode 5)
The moment Jensen Ackles first appeared as Soldier Boy in season three, fans of Kripke’s long-running series Supernatural began clamoring for a larger reunion. Season five delivered in spades with a hilarious gore-fest also featuring several of Hollywood’s funniest stars. Searching for the elusive V1, Soldier Boy, and Homelander travel to the home of Mr. Marathon, a former member of the Seven, played by Ackles’ onscreen Supernatural brother Jared Padalecki. With Misha Collins in tow as Malchemical, the two have devised a plot to kill Homelander via Soldier Boy’s power-removing blast. This leads to a fantastic meta conversation in which Ackles, Collins, and Padalecki contemplate abandoning Kripke’s new characters and retreating to the comfort of old times. But Soldier Boy demures, setting up a chase-turned blood bath in the Hollywood mansion.
As Soldier Boy crushes Malchemical’s throat, the famous men sitting at a nearby poker table panic and try to flee. First, the lightning-fast Mr. Marathon collides with Will Forte, splattering his body all over the washed-up athlete’s designer track suit. Next, Soldier Boy slows down his attacker by throwing Kumail Nanjiani, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Craig Robinson in Mr. Marathon’s way. Finally, he hurls Seth Rogen at the hero, his speed shearing the comedian’s body in half. Upstairs, Mr. Marathon slips on his own baby oil, giving Soldier Boy the upper hand. Demanding answers, he shatters both of the hero’s feet before Homelander stomps on his upturned head. By far one of The Boys’ most gory scenes, this gleeful vignette revives some of Supernatural’s most beloved tricks in delightfully wacky fan-service fun.
1) Homelander Powers Down (Series Finale)
As the show’s final season barrelled toward its jaw-dropping conclusion, there was only one question on everyone’s lips: can anyone stop Homelander? Butcher has dedicated his life to this quest after the psychotic Superman raped and impregnated his wife, eventually leading to her accidental death at the hands of their superhuman son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). Now that Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) possesses Soldier Boy’s blast, Butcher and Ryan brawl with the monstrous hero, destroying the Oval Office along the way. As they hold Homelander in place, Kimiko unloads the full force of her power, knocking everyone to the floor.
Homelander arises and tries to fly, only to find out that he has lost his superhuman abilities. Butcher wades in and begins pummeling the now-fragile villain again and again as blood sprays from his fracturing face. Brutalized and bleeding, the sniveling hero begs for his life, echoing A-Train’s prophetic final words. With the world watching on live TV, Butcher drives a crowbar into Homelander’s forehead then pulls up, cracking off the top of his skull. The audience watches in horror as their would-be saviour is revealed to be human after all.
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