‘The Boys’ Finale Review: An Annoying Little Sh*t to the End, Mostly for the Better — Spoilers

Eric Kripke's superhero satire-turned-political allegory wraps up with the long-promised showdown between Homelander (Antony Starr) and The Butcher (Karl Urban). But its closing message hits much sooner, and much softer, than may seem appropriate for Amazon's shocking, outspoken series.

[Editor’s note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Boys” Season 5, Episode 8 — the series finale.]

Early in “The Boys” finale, Annie January (Erin Moriarty) sits down with Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), the 20-year-old supe once thought to be the key to defeating Homelander (Antony Starr), once and for all. Now, Annie is asking Marie to escort a horde of his followers to Canada where they’ll be safe (more or less) from further attacks. Marie is understandably miffed. Why should she be sidelined while Annie, Hughie (Jack Quaid), and the rest of The Boys take their final stand against a fascist dictator who thinks he’s God? Why should she bother spending time protecting people who may still be loyal to their cruel tormenter, even after he tried to have them killed? And why should she even bother to do what Annie says when there’s no plausible path to victory, in the short- or long-term?

Annie answers by recounting when she first met Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), who was already “bitter” and “checked out.” Annie tried to remind her “that there’s always something worth fighting for,” but the Seven’s Wonder Woman stand-in wasn’t hearing it. She was too jaded, too far gone. Annie swore to never let herself become so hopeless, but she did, and only recently has she pulled herself back out of that hole. Maybe she was an “annoying little shit” to Maeve back then, but now she knows being an annoying little shit can be exactly what’s needed.

“I’m not on a suicide trip,” Annie says, reassuring Marie before sending her next-gen ally on her less-than-merry way. “It’s not a lost cause. It’s not even about winning. It’s about keeping the light burning for as long as we can.”

In its final hour, “The Boys” heeds Annie’s words and embodies her annoying persistence. Hope is hard to come by these days, and while it can feel as out of place in the intermittently satisfying series finale as it often does in our far less malleable reality, a bit of grace makes for an admirable end note.

There’s also, of course, quite a few befouled bodies along the way. As promised by the aptly morbid preceding episodes, “The Boys” Season 5 kills off a slew of series regulars. There’s Frenchie (Tomer Capone), who died last week while protecting his great love, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), but whose intimate funeral stirs the embers of passion that will later save mankind. Then there’s Oh Father (Daveed Diggs), hoisted by his own ball gag, and The Deep (Chace Crawford), foisted by a oceanic friend-turned-foe.

My personal favorite kill, though, wasn’t a long-awaited offing; it was a spur-of-the-moment exile, when Homelander — piqued by the implication that a God like Him would need anyone — murders Elon Musk the world’s richest man by booking him a one-way flight into orbit. (“He’s an astronaut,” Homelander says, when asked where Not Elon went. “I took him to space.”)

That’s also part of what’s irksome about “The Boys” finale: After so many spectacular and nauseating deaths across five seasons, it’s unreasonable to expect showrunner Eric Kripke & Co. to have saved the best for last. That The Deep is quickly crushed by one vengeful octopus rather than slowly tortured underwater by all the sea creatures he’s wronged is a letdown; the fish-fucker deserved a nastier end than that. (Thankfully, Homelander’s belittling speech provides an even clearer, more cathartic adieu to “The Boys'” douchiest bro.) Similarly, Sage’s (Susan Heyward) reverse heel turn and Ashley’s (Colby Minifie) life-saving assistance in the West Wing are apparently good enough deeds to spare these savory villains a more commensurate sentence.

So what about Homelander? Shouldn’t the Trump surrogate’s ultimate downfall be as resplendent as possible? Shouldn’t it be memorable enough to tide us over until the day we’ve all been waiting for finally arrives? Maybe, but “The Boys” chooses to stay on message, which requires something simpler.

Through a rushed sequence of conveniences, Homelander finds himself in the Oval Office with Kimiko; his son, Ryan (Cameron Crovetti); and his ultimate rival, Billy The Butcher (Karl Urban). While the men knock each other around, Kimiko tries to channel her new power: a beam of light that renders its target completely powerless. Doing so would prevent Homelander from wiping every non-supe from the face of the earth and expose him to the murderous, vengeful Butcher, so he could never attempt genocide again. With a little help from Frenchie’s ghost — “Rage is not what makes you strong,” he tells her, rekindling their love and sparking her light — Kimiko saps Homelander’s powers, Ryan subdues him, and Butcher impales his brain with a crowbar, before popping his skull like a stubborn lock for good measure.

Seeing Homelander reduced to a whimpering coward — and on live TV, since the final battle took place in the middle of his address to the nation — is gratifying, especially considering how it echoes what Ryan told his dad earlier in the episode (“You were already a lonely, miserable piece of fucking shit, throwing tantrums when you didn’t get what you want”) and what A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) said with his final words at the start Season 5: calling Homelander a “sniveling fucking loser.” Honestly, the crowbar death-blow works, too, since it’s Billy’s favorite weapon — and Billy ain’t long for this world either.

Hughie killing Billy — to prevent him from committing genocide against superheroes — is as bleak as “The Boys” ending gets. While tempered by consistent comparisons to Homelander, including one last blunt invocation by Ryan, the son he always wanted (“You’re not a good person either”), the series recognizes he’s not the path forward; an antihero may be needed to bring down a villain, but building a future on the lesser of two evils isn’t America’s way out of its late-capitalism hellscape. (Consider this “The Boys'” AOC endorsement.) Making Hughie pull the trigger emphasizes what we’re really losing when Butcher says goodbye: a friend — a flawed friend, but a friend nonetheless.

From its broader plot points “The Boys” finale can feel kind of ho-hum. Homelander lost. The Boys won. The final shot is a happy reflection of the premiere’s opening sequence. All the pieces clicked into place, and a few of them came together a little too easily. Frankly, given the series’ 1:1 embrace of Homelander:Trump and its origins as Hollywood satire, I would’ve expected the fascist’s downfall to be more closely tied to his declining popularity (propaganda has its limits) and increasing uselessness to conglomerates and the billionaires who run them. (Won’t they lose money when he wipes out all their paying customers?) That doesn’t mean robbing Billy of his shot at prying open Homelander’s skull, but with only a symbolic solution to Trump’s authoritarian rise — love conquers all! — Homelander’s undoing robs the finale of some of its bite.

Some, but not all. Episode 8 keeps its edge on the periphery. Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) is back in the White House, rounding up supes after attempting to assassinate his super-powered vice-president. Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) is back at Vought, running the company he helped turn into the exemplar of corporate corruption. Ashley’s unanimous impeachment makes it hard to imagine a second female president being sworn in any time soon, and there’s zero implication a country fractured by extremists is any closer to healing. Add on the finality of killing off its two biggest stars, and “The Boys” dodges any accusations that it’s become the never-ending franchise it originally lampooned.

To call it a happy ending wouldn’t be wrong, but it would be blinkered, just like calling it a frustrating finale would be fair, if also neglecting the good reasons for crafting an ending built on hope. Annie outlined those reasons long before she was pregnant, and they help explain why she would be. “It’s not even about winning. It’s about keeping the light burning for as long as we can.”

After living in darkness for so long, sloshing through untold gallons of blood while gawking in abject horror at what the world has become, it’s hard to deny “The Boys” an ending with a little light.

Grade: B-

“The Boys” is available on Amazon Prime Video.