This week, we begin in a movie theater where we find The Legend (Paul Reiser) doing cocaine in the bathroom. He’s been laying low here, working under an alias. Even though she was killed last week, Firecracker (Valorie Curry) returns in a movie theater promo very similar to the Nicole Kidman AMC ad.
MM (Laz Alonso) pays The Legend a visit and asks him about Bombsight’s whereabouts. They need to find him before Homelander does. Legend is surprised to hear that there’s still V1 out there, thinking they’d destroyed it all. MM manages to convince Legend to help.
Back at Vought, Homelander (Antony Starr) and Sage (Susan Heyward) observe a trial of a new batch of V1 they’re trying to cook up. It doesn’t go well, and the test subject dies horribly. Deep (Chace Crawford) walks in looking for Firecracker. Homelander tells him she’s moved on to a better place, and Deep realizes she’s dead. Homelander tells him there isn’t room on the boat for nonbelievers.
Sage gives Deep a mission, telling him to protect an oil pipeline. She wants him to shoot a PSA saying the pipeline is safe and that the fish love it. He tells her the fish don’t love it, but she asks whether he cares about the fish more or Homelander. He says Homelander, then leaves. Sage tells Homelander that she isn’t able to replicate the original V1 formula. He retorts that there’s no way Frederick Vought is smarter than her and commands her to keep trying. She looks conflicted.
At The Boys’ hideout, they’re watching Oh Father’s latest video. Butcher (Karl Urban) tells the gang that as soon as the virus is ready they have to go, but Hughie (Jack Quaid) tries to convince him to wait. As their conversation ends, Frenchie (Tomer Capone) tells them it’s ready. They start to walk through their plan to deploy the virus, which starts with Annie (Erin Moriarty) sneaking them into the church. Hughie insists on waiting so they can get the V1, but Butcher tells him they’re almost out of time.
MM returns with Legend. Hughie asks him about Bombsight; Legend tells him that if Bombsight doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be, so they have to go through his lady: Golden Geisha. She’s the only one who knows how to get a message to him. She’s currently at a retirement home at Vought Villages, so Legend is going to pay her a visit. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) decides to join him, since she’s a big fan of Geisha. Before he leaves, Hughie asks Frenchie to promise to find the V1; he does.
Sage and Ashley (Colby Minifie) argue about the plan, and Sage wants to know whether Ashley is onboard or if she needs to pivot to Plan B. She then hits her with chloroform and flips her over to talk to Back Ashley. She needs her help. She doesn’t want Homelander to become immortal. She needs Back Ashley to read Soldier Boy’s mind ASAP.
At Vought Villages, Legend and Kimiko find Golden Geisha and tell her they’re looking for Bombsight. She tells them she hasn’t seen him in years. They relay the news to Butcher and MM, who decide to kidnap Goldie to get her to talk. Legend tells them they’re being crazy, but MM retorts that the world is crazy. Legend leaves them; he doesn’t want any part in what they’re doing.
Noir (Nathan Mitchell) watches Deep’s PSA about the pipeline and looks very angry. Elsewhere, Hughie and Annie look out at the clouds and have a quiet heart-to-heart.
Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) visits Sage and tells her the search for V1 has led to one dead end after another. He doesn’t want to do anything for the church and tells her he’s busy tomorrow. After he leaves, Back Ashley comes out of hiding and tells Sage that Soldier Boy was lying and that they do have a lead on the V1. She tells Sage about Bombsight and that Soldier Boy is actually thinking about helping Homelander—he may even be secretly proud of him. Back Ashley asks Sage what they’re going to do next, and Sage tells her not to worry; she has it handled. She saw this coming. She takes out a notebook with Maeve’s picture on it and tells Back Ashley she has to cut out her tracking chip and never come back.
Kimiko, MM, and Butcher sneak into Goldie’s room. She wakes up and tries to defend herself with her force field powers, but MM is able to sedate her. They start to wheel her out but are stopped by some elderly supes. The Boys make quick work of them before Frenchie gets there.
Soldier Boy and Homelander walk inside what they believe is Bombsight’s apartment. There’s a laptop on the table. Homelander opens it, and it plays a video of him doing weird sexual stuff with Stormfront when she was bedridden. Soldier Boy gets mad and asks whether Stormfront really killed herself. Homelander says she did after Ryan destroyed most of her body. Soldier Boy wants to know if he locked her up in his room and made love to her amputee body. Homelander denies it and tells him he tried to keep her alive. Soldier Boy punches him in the face. Homelander finally admits that he couldn’t let her go and that he loved her—and now realizes that so did Soldier Boy. Soldier Boy admits it, telling him he was with her for decades. Homelander realizes that the video is Sage screwing with them. Homelander tells Soldier Boy that he can’t find the V1 without him, and Soldier Boy retorts that Homelander doesn’t deserve to live forever.
Hughie and Annie sneak into the church. They see a wall full of pictures of psychics. They hide in a room and find Firecracker’s dead body. Despite their differences, Annie mourns her briefly.
Butcher and MM continue looking for Bombsight, but none of Goldie’s numbers for him work. She really has no idea how to reach him. They leave her with Kimiko. Frenchie tells them he thinks Goldie’s telling the truth—and Sage, who has found their hideout, agrees!
Sage tells them she’s there to help. She wants to stop Homelander; she wants him dead. MM asks why they can trust her, and she says they shouldn’t, but she already knows Hughie and Annie are off to deploy the virus. She could’ve stopped them but didn’t. Butcher doesn’t think Sage is the suicide type. Sage tells them she knows Goldie doesn’t know how to contact Bombsight, but she does. She again asks to help.
Ashley delivers a statement to the press, telling them there was a massive oil spill bigger than Deepwater Horizon. Deep is shown on the scene covered in oil. There are dead fish everywhere, and Deep is distraught. The fish blame Deep.
Sage brings Butcher, MM, Kimiko, Frenchie, and Goldie to an undisclosed location. She tells them that if Bombsight sees his girl tied up, he’ll come to save her. Kimiko thanks Goldie for being her role model when she was growing up, saying it meant a lot to see someone who looked like her on TV. Goldie asks her to release her, but Frenchie says they can’t until they get the V1 from Bombsight. Goldie realizes they’re looking for V1 and starts to laugh.
Goldie tells them she’ll just tell Bombsight to give them V1 because she doesn’t want it. She didn’t take it when he offered it to her, and that’s why he left. She says living forever would be torture: “Summer’s only beautiful when you know winter is coming.” Kimiko agrees with her and tells Frenchie she and Annie already had this discussion. They don’t want to watch Frenchie and Hughie die while they essentially become vampires. Frenchie gets emotional.
Hughie and Annie get inside the sanctuary, and Hughie hides the virus. They’re caught by Oh Father (Daveed Diggs), who knows Annie from their childhood. They argue about God and Homelander before fighting. Oh Father knocks her back, so Starlight isn’t able to light up fast enough. Hughie interrupts them with the virus. He bluffs and tells him that Annie already took the antidote, so only Oh Father is at risk. He tells him to let her go, and he does.
Deep is crying heavily about the oil spill. Noir walks in and starts to make fun of all of his dead fish friends. Then, Noir admits to bursting the pipeline open as revenge for Deep killing Bourke and tells him they’re even. Deep says 1.4 billion fish are dead and manages a sneak attack on Noir. He strangles him before stabbing him in the head. RIP Black Noir II.
Legend gets back to work at the theater when he gets a visit from Homelander, who promptly kills his manager. Legend tells him he’s not working with Butcher, reaffirming his position on Team Homelander.
MM talks to Sage; she tells him all she wants is solitude. They have differing views on the virus, but they both ultimately want the same thing. Suddenly, there’s a big bang and Bombsight (Mason Dye) makes his grand entrance. Bombsight tells them to get away from Goldie. He threatens to kill them all, but Butcher holds a gun to Goldie’s head and tells him they should talk.
Legend leads Homelander back to The Boys’ secondary hideout. Homelander finds a Taco Bell receipt and believes Sage is taunting him. Homelander is confused; he thought he was supposed to become God, but none of what’s happening makes sense to him. Legend comes to realize he’s probably not leaving alive and accepts his fate. He tells Homelander that this is just how it goes—eventually you get old and the world moves on to the next big thing. He mentions something about Vought life-alert necklaces and how Goldie is a spokesperson, leading Homelander to realize she might be wearing one.
Homelander deduces that Legend isn’t scared of him, but empathizes with him instead. Legend tells him he’s a wackjob, but all talent is, so he’s not surprised. He then tells Homelander to do what he has to do, preparing for his death, but Homelander lets him go. Legend is surprised but hurries out the door. Homelander calls Vought for the coordinates on Goldie’s necklace.
MM asks Bombsight for the V1, but Bombsight says he can’t hand it over. He still believes Goldie will change her mind; he doesn’t want her to die. He asks what they’ll do with the V1, and Frenchie tells him they intend to destroy it. Bombsight again declines, and Butcher tells him they’re not leaving until he hands it over. Bombsight asks if they thought he was stupid enough to bring it with him, and Sage says yes, correctly recognizing that it’s in his left pocket.
The Boys surround him and they begin to fight. Bombsight is very strong, managing to handle both Butcher and Kimiko. Goldie tells him to hand over the V1. Bombsight knocks out Butcher, while Frenchie and MM shoot at him. Bombsight tries to escape with Goldie, but she uses her force fields to protect Kimiko.
Bombsight suddenly gets knocked back by Soldier Boy, who was summoned there by Sage. She tells them Soldier Boy is there to help. He and Bombsight hate each other and have been fighting for over eighty years. MM wonders whether they can actually trust Soldier Boy, and Sage says they can because no one hates Homelander more right now. She says people are predictable.
Soldier Boy and Bombsight continue to fight. They’re pretty evenly matched. Bombsight can fly and launches himself upward with Soldier Boy, and they eventually crash land in a nearby field. Soldier Boy manages to get the upper hand. Bombsight begs him to stop before he kills him, and to everyone’s surprise, Soldier Boy actually stops. Bombsight tells him he can’t hand over the V1 and that even though Goldie doesn’t want it, maybe one day he’ll find someone who does. Bombsight has had trouble sustaining a relationship because of his drug problems and because Soldier Boy is everyone’s favorite, including Klara. Bombsight has hated Soldier Boy because everyone loved him so much, but Soldier Boy tells him he couldn’t be what Klara wanted.
Soldier Boy tells him they don’t need to kill each other and offers to take away his immortality and powers so that he and Goldie can live the rest of their days together. Bombsight questions him, and Soldier Boy tells him he’ll do it in exchange for the V1. Bombsight agrees and hands over the last remaining vial of V1 to him. Soldier Boy charges up and blasts him with his radiation beam, eradicating the V1 from Bombsight’s system and turning him into a regular human again. Bombsight notices he’s actually bleeding and realizes it’s the first time he can remember seeing his blood. He’s delighted—until Homelander arrives!
Bombsight runs away, and The Boys watch from afar helplessly. Soldier Boy and Homelander have a tense standoff as Soldier Boy takes the V1 vial out of its case. Soldier Boy brings up Klara and how she used to say the craziest stuff about how he was the strongest supe alive. He says she was wrong; she hadn’t met Homelander yet. Soldier Boy then gives his son the V1.
Butcher looks on in horror. Sage is stunned; she says this wasn’t supposed to happen, that it was impossible. Homelander asks Soldier Boy why he hates him, but Soldier Boy instead says he loved Klara more than he hates him, and that this is what she’d want. Homelander lasers himself in the arm and injects himself with the V1. As it begins to take, he blasts laser beams into the sky.
Butcher ends the episode with one word: “RUN!”
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The Boys Season 5 will premiere the first two episodes on Wednesday, April 8th, followed by weekly episodes, leading up to the epic series finale on Wednesday, May 20th.
In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.