There has been a lot of chatter about whether The Boys wasted too much of its final season on filler episodes—you know, the type of episode where nothing of importance happens and the plot doesn’t advance. While talking to TV Guide recently, series creator Eric Kripke noted it wouldn’t make sense to have a big battle each week. He also added that “None of the things that happen in the last few episodes will matter if you don’t flesh out the characters.”
Well, he’s both right and wrong. I don’t view these last few outings of The Boys as “filler.” The superhero series didn’t waste precious time, but unfortunately for Kripke, he didn’t flesh out his characters much either. And no, giving Mother’s Milk a long overdue moment to shine (and discuss the origins of his nickname) in the penultimate episode doesn’t fully count because it’s the type of “fleshing out” that should’ve happened already.
However, too much of season six has focused on Soldier Boy distantly staring into space while thinking about his past, ridiculous Trump parodies, and the same old back-and-forth between Homelander and The Boys. So instead of developing its protagonists in this final round or finding ways to meaningfully conclude their stories, The Boys has actually been stuck in the same loop. That’s exactly why it’s become exhausting to watch, and it’s why big moments like Frenchie’s death or Gen V‘s Marie Moreau resurfacing now don’t have an impact—at least not in the way that Kripke and his crew intended.
When the “The Frenchman, The Female, And The Man Called Mother’s Milk,” (damn, that’s a mouthful) begins, it’s officially Homelander’s world. His first order of business now that he’s immortal? Crushing the skull of non-believer President Calhoun. As new POTUS Ashley puts it, the goal is now is just to survive. But was the goal any different for the rest of the show? Wasn’t Homelander always one of the most powerful and despicable Supes? Yes, the fact that he now has V1 is devastating. And I assumed that it would make the remaining two outings far too difficult. Instead, this is just a regular episode. Homelander’s plans are to lock Soldier Boy up in his cage again so he doesn’t run off to Bogota, and he fires The Deep, who has nowhere else to go. (Black Noir’s death doesn’t so much as move a needle.)
The most significant twist is that Homelander finally guts one of the members of Butcher’s team. While searching for Sister Sage, who betrayed and abandoned him, Homelander finds Frenchie. He knows that Frenchie is just distracting him from finding Sage and Kimiko, who are hiding nearby. So instead of using his powers to properly find the two women, Homelander quietly kills Frenchie. It’s not brutal or bloody, which is usually Homey’s M.O. Why would he let Frenchie die so nonchalantly? It makes no sense. Perhaps it’s only so that The Boys can get away with the emotional goodbye between Frenchie and Kimiko, but even their final hug doesn’t land with any sort of punch.
Unfortunately, The Boys allowed this couple’s on-and-off to continue for far too long. Remember how Frenchie was randomly with a guy from his past for almost all of season four? And now, in season five, the pair couldn’t agree on what they wanted out of their lives together. So Frenchie’s death doesn’t yield any sort of reaction from me. Kimiko, on the other hand, is heartbroken. And this comes after she spent the whole day voluntarily getting tortured in a locked uranium chamber, hoping it’ll give her the same powers as Soldier Boy. The plan was that if she became like him, then she can remove the V1 from Homelander’s blood. If nothing, at least she’ll be super motivated to accomplish that task next week.
The other major moment in “The Frenchman, The Female, And The Man Called Mother’s Milk” is the long-anticipated return of Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and Jordan Li (London Thor). The Gen V kids have been helping Annie—we’ve heard about it plenty—and they finally show up here in the flesh. They’re initially disappointed because Annie, dejected after seeing Homelander inject V1, tells them to wrap it up. She even taunts Marie by saying her power is no good if she can’t control it. In response, Marite quotes Annie’s own words back at her, saying, “Since when did hopeful and naive become the same thing?” I like this mirroring between badass female leaders—they have been tormented by organizations they believe in, lost close family members and friends, and are in hiding as they seek revenge and salvation. If The Boys were truly interested in character development, season five would’ve focused on their friendship and mentor-mentee relationship rather than setting the table for Vought Rising.
Something along those lines does happen with Butcher and Hughie in this episode—though not enough of it. The two of them end up strengthening and reaffirming their friendship, but it comes at the cost of another unnecessary Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) appearance. While sneaking around Vought Studios, Butcher and Hughie are caught by the psychic Synapse, who is working for Homelander. Synapse forces them to confront difficult truths, especially Butcher. But it all comes back to Joe, an old FBI friend of Butcher’s whom he wasn’t able to save when they were both out in the field. In season four, Joe appeared as a figment of Butcher’s imagination, and now, Synapse takes his form to torture Butcher. But all this does is lead to a repetitive storyline about why Butcher is the way he is, and why Hughie will always choose to believe in him. Butcher and Hughie are the show’s two leads, but it’s done very little with them this season. This episode leaves a lot to be desired on that count, too.
Ultimately, they defeat Synapse, and rush to warn Frenchie about Homelander’s impending arrival. By the time they get to the hideout, Frenchie’s a goner. And that’s all The Boys does to set up its very last episode. Fittingly lackluster, huh?
Stray observations:
- • A list of Homelander’s demands include: Turning his church into the national religion, troops taking over sanctuary cities, banning abortion and nut milk, and making breastfeeding mandatory.
- • Sister Sage, having temporarily given up because she failed to predict Soldier Boy switching sides out of “love,” continues to lobotomize herself so she can binge-watch Love Island.
- • The Boys has had one too many jokes about the difficulty of pulling off a series ender. In this episode, while filming a Yellowstone-esque drama called American Eagle, The Worm is told to “write a finale that isn’t just a dog pile.” That’s when we learn Vought Studios is using the Taylor Sheridan AI, which doesn’t respond well to notes.
- • Butcher saying, “Hitler on the outside, Fosse on the inside,” is a hilarious way to describe Homelander and Oh Father’s grand musical plans for announcing Homey as the next Jesus Christ.
- • After nabbing Tilda Swinton to voice The Deep’s octopus girlfriend, The Boys gets Samuel L. Jackson to briefly tap in as a fish named Xander. He tells The Deep in this episode that the supe been banned from entering any body of water. So when a bunch of beachgoers beg him to rescue a drowning man later, all The Deep can do is hilariously skedaddle out of there.
- • Soldier Boy to his son: “You’re too weird. You’re not a God. You had a wet dream about some chick with wet, juicy tits.” So why’d you give him the V1, buddy?
- • Grossest scene award: This one’s easy. Homelander lackeys Dogknott and Sheline are on a rampage inside Vought Studios, killing those who aren’t true believers, when Annie and MM step in to help. During the fight, a rat is involved and, well, Sheline ends up chomping on it in a truly bloody and disgusting scene.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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