‘The Boys’ Season 5 Ending Explained

After 7 years and 5 seasons totaling 40 episodes, The Boys has come to an end—here are the details and the ending explained and what it might mean for the future of the franchise.

Spoilers ahead for the Boys Season 5 Episode 8

The Boys vs Homelander

The series finale for The Boys opens with a clear purpose, one that has been fueling these characters from the very beginning and is only inflamed by Frenchie’s death: kill Homelander.

Frenchie’s experiments on Kimiko have worked, and she now has the same power as Soldier Boy and can now strip Homelander of his powers. The final piece of the puzzle has been unlocked for The Boys to defeat Homelander once and for all.

Homelander is in the White House ready to address the nation on Easter as The Boys are there to infiltrate. They’re able to get in with the help of Ashley, who helps them escape the traps that were set for them. While getting to Homelander, The Deep and Oh Father separately try to stop them. Starlight proceeds to fight Deep near the ocean while Hughie and MM take on Oh Father as Butcher and Kimiko go straight to Homelander, who is giving his speech.

The speech turns sinister as Homelander’s psyche and ego are hurt by Ryan earlier in the episode. Starlight is able to overpower The Deep and uses her powers to send him into the ocean, where he is killed by the sea creatures who are mad at him. Oh Father is killed as he’s using his sonic scream as MM uses a ball gag to stop it, which makes Oh Father’s head explode as the power backfires.

Butcher and Kimiko vs. Homelander is going as you would expect. They are doing damage but not close to enough to beat him as Homelander evades most of their attacks. Luckily Ryan, who was watching the broadcast, shows up ready to fight. Him and Butcher are able to distract Homelander and they give kimiko a chance to use her blast but she’s unable to, which is when Frenchie shows up in a vision of sorts where he tells her, “Rage is not what makes you strong. It has never been, mon coeur. It has always been yours.” Ryan and Butcher are able to hold Homelander towards her as she blasts all 3 of them. They all lose their powers.

Homelander is powerless, and it’s clear Butcher, without powers himself, is so much stronger. Butcher beats his ass as Homelander, who pleads for his life in pathetic fashion. Butcher uses a crowbar to end Homelander’s life, and the final image is the broadcast version of Homelander’s literal brain on display.

Butcher vs Hughie

After their victory the gang is together one last time in the safehouse as they decide on what happens next. Butcher asks Ryan to come live with him and Terror to start a new life as that’s what Becca would’ve wanted. Ryan rejects him because Butcher isn’t a good person either and he doesn’t want a fresh start with him. Butcher then finds Terror dead of natural causes which pushes some sort of trigger for him.

With nothing left he pulls out the vial of the virus that is meant to kill all supes. He leaves the house which Hughie sees, and he decides to investigate. He sees the missing vial and follows Butcher to Vought Towers. There Butcher reveals he dumped the virus in the sprinkler tank and all he has to do is pull a trigger of a device that would fill Vought Tower and subsequently spread throughout the whole world. He claims he’s trying to stop the next Homelander from rising which means ending the whole notion of supes permanently.

Hughie tells Butcher he’s not a monster but he realizes that Butcher is dead set on it so he pulls out a gun on him. Butcher disarms him and knocks it out of his hand and knocks him to the ground. They fight for the device that will release the virus. Butcher beats his ass and holds the device but Hughie is closer to the gun and as Butcher is ready to pull the trigger on the device Hughie pulls the trigger on the gun and shoots Butcher. Butcher dies.

The Boys Season 5 Ending Explained

The Boys hold a funeral for Butcher, who is buried next to Becca. Ryan is seemingly adopted or is temporarily living with MM. MM gets married again to his former ex-wife and now current wife, Monique. Kimiko is now seemingly in France as she sits in a cafe and eats a madeline.

Hughie gets a call from Bob Singer, now the president, and is asked to run the bureau of supe affairs which Hughie passes up and says he has his own startup venture. Hughie walks into Campbell Audio Visual a hardware store run by him and Annie who is now pregnant.

As they are talking, an alert comes on—some sort of crime alert, which prompts Annie to fly away to stop said crime as we watch Hughie smile at the sight.

Future For The Universe

The Boys universe is continuing beyond this show as Vought Rising is set for next year and The Boys: Mexico is in development. The former is a prequel, and the latter we don’t know enough about to say just yet. As of right now there doesn’t seem to be any continuation in the present for any characters outside of potentially Soldier Boy who was not present in this finale. Perhaps Vought Rising may continue his story in a double format of sorts down the line.

Hughie’s and Annie’s ending could certainly set up a new show set around crime-fighting or perhaps something even larger. Eric kripke the showrunner of the show said that Gen V characters would still be present in the future of the universe despite the cancellation of the show implying that there are plans to do more stuff set in the present, but it’s unclear where that will be as of right now.

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