After everything this show was building toward over the years, I really wanted The Boys Season 5 to feel explosive from beginning to end. And while the final season definitely has some good moments, it also feels strangely… distracted. They were trying to wrap it up while simultaneously setting up three other things. That’s probably my biggest issue with the season overall: it never fully feels like a final season.

The stakes are technically huge. Homelander has basically turned America into a fascist nightmare, dissenters are being thrown into “Freedom” Camps, and everyone is operating under constant fear. The political commentary is not lost on me, but on paper, this should feel like the show firing on all cylinders. Yet weirdly, large chunks of the season feel slower and more interested in backdoor-piloting future spin-offs like Vought Rising than actually focusing on ending The Boys itself.

There are a lot of plot points that ultimately feel unnecessary in hindsight. The heavy focus on Soldier Boy and the virus ends up going basically nowhere, which makes several episodes feel like filler in a season that really couldn’t afford fillers. That’s the frustrating part; however, there’s good stuff here, but the pacing and priorities are all over the place. Still, when the season locks in emotionally, it works.

Ryan’s storyline honestly broke me a little. This poor kid never stood a chance. One father wants to mold him into a monster just like himself, while the other is basically asking him to sacrifice himself to stop that monster. The moment Becca died, Ryan was doomed to be emotionally torn apart by both sides, and this season leans heavily into that tragedy. Some of the strongest material comes from watching him struggle under the weight of expectations from men who fundamentally don’t know how to love normally.

And speaking of surprisingly great character work: I loved seeing cracks finally form in Firecracker’s faith and worldview as things started hitting closer to home for her. Meanwhile, Sister Sage just wanting peace and quiet to read books is honestly one of the most relatable things the show has done for me. Underneath all the chaos and manipulation, she’s basically just an exhausted nerd trying to get some alone time.

The finale itself? I actually liked it, it’s serviceable.

I know reactions are going to be mixed, but I think the final episode does a solid job of paying off the emotional core of the series. It might not have been as explosive as some might have wanted, but Homelander and Butcher needed to have that confrontation. The show has been building toward it forever, and thankfully, the finale doesn’t waste time getting there. More importantly, I appreciated how much effort the episode put into stripping away Homelander’s carefully managed public image. We’ve always known he was terrifying behind closed doors, but the finale fully exposes him for what he really is: a petty, cruel, emotionally hollow, and deeply unstable person.

Some of the smaller payoffs worked for me. The Deep ended up the way he did felt appropriately poetic, Ashley got a surprisingly decent redemption moment, and Ryan’s return landed emotionally. I also liked getting a glimpse at where the surviving Boys ended up by the end.

That said… I do understand the frustration surrounding the Gen V characters, especially Marie. Spending two seasons building her up only to barely use her in the final stretch feels disappointing, on that I agree. But at the same time, I also don’t think having Marie suddenly defeat Homelander in the finale would’ve felt earned either. She never really had a meaningful connection to him or the core Boys storyline. If they wanted Gen V to matter more, that integration needed to happen throughout the season. The little that’s there does not count as meaningful integration.

Honestly, that kind of sums up the season as a whole. A lot of the ideas could’ve worked better with a stronger focus and buildup.

But despite all my criticisms, I still enjoyed the ride overall. I think this is one of those finales where your experience depends heavily on what you wanted from it. If you go in looking for every missed opportunity, you’ll probably leave disappointed. But if you take it for what it is, a messy, entertaining, occasionally brilliant conclusion to one of the wildest superhero shows ever made, there’s still a lot to appreciate.

Even when The Boys stumbles, it still knows how to leave an impression.

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