There are just two episodes of The Boys Season 5 left, and the series told us how devastating they’ll be with a single line from its latest chapter. SPOILERS ahead for The Boys Season 5, Episode 6. The Boys Season 5, Episode 6 concludes with the worst twist imaginable: despite Sister Sage’s insistence that Soldier Boy won’t give Homelander the V1, Jensen Ackles’ supe does just that. This makes Butcher’s supe virus useless against him, and it ensures that very few people will be able to stand up to Homelander going forward. His level of power was already disastrous after The Boys Season 4’s finale, and now, things are about to get so much worse.
One line from “Though the Heavens Fall” proves as much, highlighting just how bad this development really is. There are plenty of characters who cower in fear when Homelander’s around, but there’s one who rarely retreats in his presence. This changes in the latest episode, playing up the stakes more than anything else. More than anything else, it reveals how devastating The Boys‘ penultimate episode and series finale are likely to be.
The Boys Season 5, Episode 6 ends with a single line from Butcher: “Run.” It may be the first time we’ve seen Karl Urban’s character so scared, and it’s certainly one of the only instances of him withdrawing rather than fighting. Even when Butcher has no powers, he’s willing to defy Homelander to his face — something few supes would even dare. And with Compound V in his veins, Butcher is always willing to trade blows with Antony Starr’s supe, regardless of where they both fall on The Boys‘ power scale. This one line from Butcher completely upends their dynamic, and it drives home how concerned viewers should be ahead of The Boys‘ ending.
If Butcher is telling his team to retreat, you know things are dire. Fortunately, that’s exactly how it should feel on the heels of Homelander getting the V1. With a few unlikely exceptions, the serum essentially makes him unkillable. This means there will be no end to his reign. Butcher’s supe virus won’t solve the problem, nor will the passage of time. Homelander will be able to call the shots for as long as he wants, and there are few things that can stop him. The stakes are now higher than ever, and Butcher’s final line conveys that well.
We don’t know exactly how powerful Homelander is now, but his heat vision looks capable of taking down an entire forest at the end of The Boys Season 5, Episode 6. With that much raw power, Homelander can cause serious destruction in the remaining two chapters. We can probably expect quite a few deaths as The Boys moves toward its end, along with physical destruction on a wide scale. Homelander winning seems more likely than ever, and even if he doesn’t, there’s no coming back from this. Even Butcher won’t be able to find a snarky joke to detract from that.
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