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The Boys gets a rushed, fittingly brutal, and surprisingly moving finale

Women save the day (again) in "Blood And Bones," while Hughie is reaffirmed as the show's beating heart.

By Saloni Gajjar  |  May 20, 2026 | 10:44am
Photo: Jasper Savage/Prime Video
TV Reviews The Boys
The Boys gets a rushed, fittingly brutal, and surprisingly moving finale

The Boys inherently flipped the script on the good-versus-bad conflict: Supes meant to defend the world were mostly the villains, putting up a façade of heroism, as long as it benefited them and their bureaucratic overlords. This premise gave the Prime Video series (and its source material) leeway to go wild with its satire of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, celebrity culture, political corruption, and corporate malfeasance—with varying levels of success. To its detriment, The Boys succumbed to the very narratives it was trying to poke fun at, especially as the lines blurred between the show’s reality and ours. It should’ve wrapped up at least two seasons ago, so the fact that it now ends on a decently satisfying note is a win, even though the victory is quite unearned. 

What made The Boys consistently engaging wasn’t the violence—although the innovative ways it found to chop, bludgeon, smash, maim, and explode characters could be as fascinating as it was gratuitous. All of this presented a central moral dilemma about whether righteousness truly defeats evil, and at what cost? While the show tried to be as subversive as possible throughout its run, in the end, it’s a straightforward story: The good guys suffer a few losses along the way, but they ultimately win, and the worst dude of all time gets his head cracked open just like he did in the comics. Homelander’s long-overdue death—in the Oval Office, no less—is a weight lifted off of everyone’s shoulders. I cheered in relief. But the journey to this particular destination feels rushed because of the final season’s muddled pacing. Season five spent way too much time pulling on lackluster narrative threads and telling crummy jokes. Heck, even the bit of Hughie reading Frenchie’s will, which has a lot of asshole talk, feels superfluous considering that “Blood And Bones” only has one hour to wrap up this entire saga.  

To make up for lost time, The Boys marches ahead with gusto in this episode. It’s equal parts rewarding and annoying, because it’s another sign of the show’s wasted potential. While some arcs come together nicely—like Ryan’s return and who he chooses to stay with, or that closing montage—others fail big time. Take Sister Sage, for example, who debuted in season four as the world’s most intelligent Supe, only for season five to essentially abandon her storyline and use her as a convenient plot device—much as it did with the Gen V crossovers. Put her next to A-Train and Black Noir on the list of Black superheroes who didn’t get the thoughtful material they deserved from The Boys. 

It’s disappointing that Sage, after taking a forceful blast from a radioactive Kimiko, loses her powers and her personality. She turns into a dimwit who chews loudly and wants to spend her remaining time on Earth galavanting around the Harry Potter attractions at Universal Orlando. Her vibes are very, “Go girl, give us nothing,” which is tragic. At least on her way out, she got The Boys to realize they have a strong weapon among them. Although Hughie, ever the beating heart of the show, reiterates to Kimiko that she isn’t just a tool to destroy Homelander. I do love that she’s the one with the ability to rob Homelander of everything he holds dear. But it also raises the question of why season five devoted so much real estate to Soldier Boy. 

The Boys head off to the White House, hoping to attack Homelander while he’s giving a speech on live TV about his second coming as Jesus Christ. When they’re trapped in the secret hallways underground, VP Ashley rushes to their defense, betraying Homelander and her husband, Oh Father, to do it. Thank goodness Ashley realized she does have a spine. Without her help, the team would’ve never made it out alive. It means Kimiko, Sage, and Ashley have saved the day so far. Technically, Gen V‘s Marie, Jordan, and Emma, too, because they ship off to Canada with Starlight supporters before Homelander can kill them all. 

Don’t worry, Annie isn’t too far behind. She does everyone a favor by taking care of The Deep, whom she finds sulking at the White House, dejected after Homelander abandons him yet again. She flies off with The Deep to a beach and tries to talk some sense into him, urging him to turn on Homelander and take responsibility for his actions (including, let’s not forget, the fact that he sexually assaulted Annie when she joined The Seven). But she should’ve known that an insecure, narcissistic incel like The Deep would never change his mind. So when he attacks her, Annie pushes him into shark-infested waters. It’s a sight for sore eyes when the fish he claimed to love chomp on him instead. (That the final blow comes courtesy of an octopus who remembers what he did to Ambrosius is the cherry on top of a bloody cake.) 

Back in the Oval Office, Hughie and MM fight off Father Oh. And in another hilarious death scene, the crooner accidentally blasts his head off when he bites on a BDSM ball gag that Ashley gifted him earlier in the episode; she had it custom-made for him with titanium and everything. With no obstacles left, The Boys stages its Big Showdown #1: Butcher versus Homelander, with assistance from Kimiko and Ryan, who flies in to help kill his father. Homelander takes a good whacking before Kimiko eventually depowers him—an unspeakable relief. 

Realizing that he’s lost, Homelander—or do we just call him John, now?—begs for mercy. He falls to his knees and offers to suck Butcher’s dick, make him the head of Vought, or even eat literal shit. As pleasing as his humbling is, it ends too hastily. If I’ve suffered watching Homelander get the upper hand for almost five seasons (and seven years!), then I deserve to watch him be tormented for more than a minute. I barely have time to pop my champagne open before Butcher beats him up thoroughly (for Frenchie) and then, for Becca, drives his crowbar into Homelander’s head and rips it open. And just like that, the country is free of a cruel leader. Must be nice. 

Oy, the show isn’t over just yet; Big Showdown #2 remains. Technically, everyone should be celebrating. But when Ryan tells Butcher that he doesn’t want to stay with him (even though it’s what Becca would’ve wanted), he’s hurt. And it gets worse when Ryan correctly deduces that Butcher isn’t a good guy anymore either. It brings back what I said about The Boys‘ most interesting aspects: How much of yourself do you sacrifice to get what you want? As noble as Butcher’s intentions were, he devolved from antihero to a villain in his own right. Even most of his mates were sick of him, and he knows it. So to take the ultimate revenge, Butcher decides to drop the Supe-killing virus through Vought Tower. Hughie is the only one who realizes it and stupidly goes to stop him by himself instead of taking Kimiko with him. 

On the top floor of the Vought Tower—the same that once housed The Seven—the BFFs have a heart-to-heart. Hughie continues to have high hopes, telling his mentor that he’s not a monster. “It just hurts to be human,” Hughie says, which is a nice distillation of The Boys’ central message. We can’t hide our pain away under cool powers or technology, no matter how hard we try. Butcher refuses to listen, hesitating only when he briefly sees his dead brother’s face instead of Hughie’s. Taking the opportunity, Hughie reluctantly shoots Butcher. Before he dies, the two make amends in what turns out to be a very stirring scene. Jack Quaid and Karl Urban dole out tears; such sincerity is rare for The Boys, but it works. 

“Blood And Bones” closes with a final montage about the good guys who survived: Months after Butcher’s funeral, MM takes in Ryan and remarries Monique, Kimiko takes a well-deserved solo trip to France, a pregnant Annie continues to be a helpful superhero, and Hughie runs his own store, rejecting a job offer from POTUS Bob Singer to run the Bureau of Supe Affairs. The Boys ends with a shot of Hughie smiling widely, another reminder that he was and will always be the show’s emotional anchor—just a normal guy who got pulled into crazy circumstances and managed to stay true to his principles. 

This isn’t a franchise we’re getting rid of just yet, not with a prequel and a potential Mexico-set spinoff looming. But much like another unwieldy hit drama that ended its five-season run earlier this year, in its prime, The Boys was entertaining and managed to tell meaningful stories amid its endless carnage. It was way past that prime by the time it ended, but at least all of us—and Hughie, most of all—are free now. 

Stray observations:

  • •The final scene between Hughie and Annie—who decide to wait to get married—has plenty of callbacks to the series premiere, including the video store, the Billy Joel T-shirt, and, of course, their decision to name the baby after Hughie’s ex, Robin, who was vaporized by a speeding, wasted-on-Compound V A-Train in the show’s opening minutes. 
  • •I’m starting a petition to change the phrase from Chekhov’s gun to Chekhov’s ball gag. (Father Oh’s ball gag?) 
  • •The Boys couldn’t end without sneaking one more on-the-nose topical reference, so the finale introduces a billionaire named Goonter Van Ellis, who has 17 children and is an amateur astronaut. When he comes to the White House to make demands, Homelander flies him into space and leaves him there. Not the worst idea he’s had. 
  • •Ashley, on not wanting Homelander to find out she helped The Boys: “Fuck no, he would rip my tits out through my vag.” She briefly becomes the POTUS after his death, but a news clip reveals she was quickly impeached. 
  • •I hope Antony Starr does a proper comedy next because the funniest part of this episode is when Homelander repeatedly jumps up to fly after losing his powers.
  • •Grossest scene award (complimentary): Homelander’s body slowly drooping down, with his brain matter and blood oozing out on the Oval Office desk and floor. 
  • •Thanks for reading along with these recaps. I’ve had a diabolical time writing about this complicated, messy, over-the-top, and often enjoyable drama. See you next year (deep sigh) for Vought Rising? 

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.

 
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