The Boys Season 5 Review: The Home Stretch Lands The Ending

The Boys has come a long way since the innards of Robin Ward were blasted across the sidewalks of New York. For those who remember Hughie once had a girlfriend who didn't shoot light beams from her hands, everything has changed and nothing has. Prime Video's superhero series has evolved into the very kind of multi-faceted media juggernaut the past four seasons took every opportunity to criticize, but The Boys is still the same fascinating, biting satire of corporate culture and modern politics that it was when this ride started back in 2019.

Season 5 isn't really the end of The Boys. The prequel starring Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy and Aya Cash's Stormfront, Vought Rising, looms on the horizon, and it would be ill-advised to bet against further spinoffs after that. The Boys season 5 is, however, the concluding act in Billy Butcher's war against Homelander - the very battle that kicked off this bloody, rarely-fully-clothed affair in the first place. That brings with it a certain level of pressure, especially in an era where audiences will claim a finale is an elaborate conspiracy to cover up the "real" last episode if they don't like it.

These expectations are not lost on The Boys itself. There's a line in episode 1 that confronts such concerns in a typically meta fashion. Good news first: the seven episodes of The Boys' final season that were sent out for review (with the eighth and final installment being held back) stick the landing... even if they hit a couple of bumps along the way.

The Boys Season 5 Makes Character Resolution Its Top Priority

"It was, like, impossible to tick every box and tie up every little storyline. I mean, just try making EVERYBODY happy. You can't do it. Finales are the worst." Not our words, but the words of The Boys season 5, episode 1. Oddly, this becomes the overarching philosophy for much of The Boys' final season, but instead of working its way around the board ticking off unresolved plot points, season 5 dedicates itself to resolving the respective journeys of each major character.

The Boys' closing act brings character returns few would've expected, traumas from season 1 that were never fully unpacked, and bubbling tensions that have been threatening to spill over for years. Because as much as it often feels like The Boys is about love sausages and crimes against marine life, the series is really about people. The likes of Homelander, Billy Butcher, Starlight, Hughie Campbell, A-Train, Kimiko, and Ashley Barrett have all been built into devilishly complex figures that belie the typical boundaries of a superhero story, and go far beyond any counterparts from the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic books.

So, even if The Boys season 5 isn't overly trying to "tick every box and tie up every little storyline," it does afford each and every significant character enough room to complete their journeys. Sometimes it's pretty, other times it's very much the opposite. Sometimes an arc ends as you'd expect, other times it's a slight curveball. Unless Starlight ends up burning down King's Landing in episode 8, however, The Boys' final chapter stays admirably faithful to the characters that have been at the vanguard of this chaos for the past five years, and that was undoubtedly the most important box The Boys needed to tick.

The Boys (Slightly) Grows Up In Season 5

Make no mistake, fans of gross-out humor are well-catered for in The Boys season 5. There are scenes to make even the toughest viewers wince, and a more adult version of the flatulent dwarf from Artemis Fowl. But for the first time since season 1, The Boys isn't trying to outdo itself with increasingly disgusting and diabolical scenes at each and every turn. Whether it be Herogasm in season 3 or the inhuman centipede of season 4, The Boys always seemed to be reaching for a higher level of shock value (and more often than not finding it).

The final chapter certainly has its moments, but The Boys isn't competing with itself now. It's a mark of maturity that ensures viewers get the depravity they expect, but also that said depravity won't be dominating the discourse when the dust settles.

In season 5, The Boys also makes a deliberate shift with its real-life political comparisons. It's not really a secret at this point, but for anyone yet to draw the parallel, episode 1's opening scene features a fan in a red cap ferociously cheering for Homelander. The Boys has never hid its political alignment, and those comparisons have added a vital cutting edge, sometimes even predicting real-world developments with eerie accuracy.

As part of its final message to the world, The Boys valiantly brings a hint of calmness to the debate. As much as the show's politics is apparent, there's a greater sense of nuance this time around. Homelander's employees are conflicted. His supporters say one thing while thinking another. It's a more sympathetic, realistic depiction than just "Homelander supporters bad," and one that brings more humanity to an extremely partisan conversation. Very few characters in The Boys season 5 are absolute villains, and they're the ones who willingly and continuously choose that path through their actions.

On the other side of that coin, Team Starlight's moral high-ground isn't as stable as it used to be. Back in season 4, Billy Butcher was the sole source of sadistic behavior, with the rest of his team trying desperately to curb those violent instincts. The Boys season 5 proves that even the likes of Starlight and Mother's Milk are capable of tapping into their inner darkness. There's only one character The Boys presents as wholly good, and it's hard to argue when they smell so sweetly of strawberry smoothie shampoo.

The Boys Season 5's Biggest Problem Is A Hangover From Season 4

The very final episode notwithstanding, The Boys season 5 is a strong ending that walks a tricky balance between narrative closure and supes punching each other in the face. Even so, this isn't the strongest The Boys has been, especially when thinking back to its glory days in seasons 2 and 3.

The biggest problem with The Boys' penultimate season in 2024 was pacing. A few episodes in, it became very clear which direction the story was heading in and what the eventual endgame would be. As Gen V arrived to help push things along, a few episodes of The Boys season 4 felt like they were holding back in preparation for the big finale.

The Boys season 5 is no longer holding anything in reserve, but that pacing issue hasn't gone away. With seasons 4 and 5 amounting to a combined total of 16 episodes, it's hard not to feel like a more concise 12 would have given a little more zip. A dangerous Compound-V variant, trudging through old research facilities - some of these songs have been heard before. As much as I love Terror, when part of a show's final season is told from the perspective of a dog, a few episodes probably could have been dropped without unduly detracting from the overall ending.

The Boys doesn't quite move with the verve and swagger of seasons 2 and 3, but as a conclusion to the saga, it feels right. As the show itself so eagerly points out, finales walk a terrifying tightrope between delivering the goods and storytelling admin, but The Boys makes that ordeal look relatively pain-free. Barring an absolutely terrible last episode, one can see The Boys being hailed in future years as among the most consistently impressive shows of the streaming era. "Finales are the worst?" Not if you're Homelander, apparently.