Though The Heavens May Fall

Red is bleeding through everywhere at Vought Tower. That pain bill, those invoices to self-deception, it’s all coming due. Homelander’s regime always featured a sham management structure – his whim was all that mattered, even before he declared himself Home Lord and Savior. But it’s been building steadily, all through this final Boys season, that even threats to be lazered cannot keep this level of absolute crazy together and functioning. We’re into it, this idea of evil as a self-fulfilling dead end, even when evil incarnate is in the driver’s seat. When Homelander murdered Firecracker, it wasn’t powerful. It was deflating, pitiful, inevitable. 

Which is the same cold, empty feeling that permeates the podcast studio at Vought HQ after The Deep jealously, needlessly murders Black Noir II. Their race to the bottom was another Season 5 feature, as they competed for visibility with Homelander. After Deep sent eels to butt-murder Adam Bourke and dash Black Noir’s dreams of Broadway glory, here in Episode 6 (“Though the Heavens May Fall”), Noir sabotages the undersea petroleum pipeline HL forced Deep to promote. Deep turning his back on the totality of marine life to carry water for the regime is unforgiveable. (“Oil is all natural!” – Come on, dude.) And Black Noir causing a massive environmental disaster just to embarrass his rival is appalling. But the end result – Deep silencing Noir’s gloating by ramming a blade into his neck; “You’re not my bro, bro” – was utterly predictable. Paying more bills by spilling more blood. And still their souls are tainted. 

The Boys have managed to formulate a lethal dose of kill juice. It will be despensed by the altar at the Democratic Church of America, as HL delivers a sermon beneath the tacky fake benevolence of his gold-crusted statue. Annie and Hughie are tasked with this mission. But on the way to the church, they take a detour to lay on the hood of the Caprice and laugh at vulgar shapes in the clouds. Amid all the destruction and bloodshed, as good supes like Annie and Kimiko contemplate killing themselves to let humans and human boyfriends live, it’s a nice moment for these two characters. Annie and Hughie’s love story remains a reliable underpinning to all the Boys chaos.  

The Boys are also still tracking that vintage V1 jab. And to this end, Mother’s Milk seeks out The Legend, an ex-Vought exec who first appeared in Season 3. (Legend is played by Paul Reiser, also a legend.) The connect leads the team to a Vought-ified retirement community, based on The Villages, where Legend says Golden Geisha (Naoko Mori) could locate Bombsight, her old flame. But while Kimiko sees the star of Undercover Geisha and fangirls out, the retired supe is bitter about everything, and especially unhappy to see Legend. “There ain’t enough rubbers on earth for me to fuck you again.” As is typical, the Boys’ attempts to elicit Goldie’s help only leads to more trouble. 

Sage switches sides! Which the Boys don’t trust when she shows up at their spot. We don’t trust it, either – Sage has been working her own angle since forever, and very likely still is. But she reminds the crew she knows about the Golden Geisha play, Hughie and Annie’s movements, all their plans. And their mutual interest: “Stopping a petulant lazer-eyed narcissist from also becoming immortal.” Sage wants to prevent Homelander’s receipt of V1 and make progress toward her apocalypse reading bunker. It’s still mass murder she has in mind. But isn’t that similar to the Boys’ also potentially genocidal project? “At least I’m honest about it,” she quips to Mother’s Milk. It’s so simple for this show to glaze over individual deaths, because it’s forever threatening the same thing on a global scale.

Detaining Golden Geisha does the trick, and Mason Dye is revealed as Bombsight when the first-gen supe blasts out of the sky to protect his lost love. But while she predicted he’d bring V1 to the scene – to inject Goldie, so they could finally share immortality – Sage is as shocked as everyone when Soldier Boy also arrives. He’s got a grudge with Bombsight going back 80 years, wrapped up in complexes about who was better. And while they trade blows in a standard super fight, it’s the legacy of another generation 1.0 supe where they dwell. “Clara.” Clara Vought. Stormfront. An unrepentant Nazi. But she was also the only person Soldier Boy ever truly loved.

And this is where Season 5 Episode 6 of The Boys gets really weird. Weird enough that we might consider it a true hinge, as this final back half unfolds. Weird enough that even super-smart Sage is shocked again. Because S-B says he has the power to take away Bombsight’s immortality, which he does with some sort of energy blast, only half-revealed on screen. Then, amazed at the sight of his own blood, S-B’s first-gen counterpart willingly gives up his V1-addled needle. He could age gracefully with Goldie instead. And then, right on cue, Homelander falls to earth.  

Soldier Boy’s lasting love for Clara outweighs his hate of Homelander. “I loved her more,” he tells his biological son, “and this is what she’d want.” To make HL immortal? Or does S-B have his own ulterior motive? The Boys crew and Sage watch from the treeline as S-B hands HL the V1. Homelander lazers an incision in his wrist. And he takes the blue goo plunge. 

While Soldier Boy watches intently, Billy Butcher tells everybody to run. It looks like Homelander is about to go nuclear. 

Boys Noize for Season 5 Episode 6 of The Boys (“Though the Heavens Fall“):

• At the site of Homelander’s planned sermon, Annie and Hughie also discover the body of Firecracker chilling on a slab, and a photo wall of every supe psychic in the nation. What is HL planning? Or, what was he planning before the V1 jab rocked everything?

•  When the crew visits the supes retirement community, Vought’s version of Nick at Nite or Me TV plays on a loop. The in-universe media gags include “Injun Engine #9,” a racist riff on the 911 of the 1970s, NBC’s Emergency!, and a spot Bombsight cut in the 1950s for “Vought Brand Weight Control Tablets.” Which, given what we know about his “bump buddies” drug habit, was probably cocaine.

• Death is both a constant and a disruptor on The Boys, so even with this finale season’s continuing investment in Epic Deaths, we’re not ready to declare Noir’s death blow official. Keep in mind he was already the sequel to the first Black Noir.

• “I mean, you’re a fucking whack job. But that’s talent.” The Legend gets away with saying this to Homelander, calls him “Kid” and “Bubelah,” and this is truly legendary. These are instant lazering offenses in any other context, but HL leaves the cagey old guy alive. Maybe he’ll pay his kill bill another day.  

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.