Could Clara Vought, aka Liberty, aka Stormfront, still be alive in The Boys? It seems rather impossible: the Nazi Supe was already seemingly killed off at the end of Season 2, when she was lasered by Ryan Butcher’s heat vision. The third season revealed that she was still clinging to life, her body badly burned. However, when even Homelander rejected her lifelong goal of creating a superpowered Aryan race, she ended up taking her own life. Or did she? Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Boys Season 5, Episode 4, “King of Hell.”
The latest installment of The Boys sees several characters take a trip to an abandoned Vought medical facility called Fort Harmony, including Homelander and Soldier Boy, where they hope to get their hands on some V-One. Along the way, they have some not-so-pleasant father-son bonding time, where Clara’s name is brought up, with Soldier Boy playing down his relationship to her. However, when Homelander reveals that she died by suicide, Soldier Boy rejects the idea out of hand, saying she’d never do that… and then asking the key question, “Did you see a body?”
Technically, there is wiggle room for Stormfront to be alive in The Boys. In Season 3, Episode 2, “The Only Man in the Sky,” she appears at the beginning in a hospital bed, which is where Homelander turns down her idea, and we see her looking sad and resigned to her fate. Later in the episode, a Vought breaking news broadcast announces “Stormfront Suicide,” and we see what is ostensibly her being wheeled out on a stretcher, but she’s in a body bag. We don’t actually see her death, nor do we get 100% visual confirmation of it.
Soldier Boy’s question in The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 is pertinent, then, because a golden rule of TV is that if you don’t see the body, there’s at least a chance the character did not die. It could have been a Vought trick and cover-up, with her being taken away to be used for further experiments, and to push Homelander’s own journey forward. Of course, the ambiguity also gives the writers flexibility, meaning the option is on the table if they ever wanted to use it. The show has done this kind of thing before, like with Queen Maeve, so it can’t be ruled out.
Now, they could be pulling the trigger on that option. After The Boys, we know Stormfront will return in the Vought Rising prequel, which is led by Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy and set in the 1950s, with Aya Cash reprising the role. Season 5 is setting that up, with references to Soldier Boy’s past and other Supes who’ll appear, such as Bombsight. It would not be a shock for Stormfront to also still be alive in the present day, which would allow Vought Rising to split its time between the past and the current day storyline with her and Soldier Boy.
Is there enough of a narrative reason to do it? Is there enough time to unpack it in The Boys Season 5’s remaining episodes, when it’s the last season? Those would be my major concerns with a potential Stormfront twist, as I don’t really see the value in it right now. There could be something in the likely redemption of Soldier Boy, but there are other ways to do that. The show has moved on from the character, and there are only four episodes left. It’s still possible it could work, but it might be better off focused on the many characters who are still alive, not one who might be.
New episodes of The Boys release on Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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