The Boys Season 5 is steadily building to the show’s end, and its latest episode kills off any chance of Homelander’s comic-accurate death happening on-screen. Despite a slower lead-up to The Boys‘ last three episodes, Season 5, Episode 6 ups the stakes significantly ahead of its final chapters. SPOILERS ahead for The Boys Season 5, Episode 6. “Though the Heavens Fall” sees Mason Dye’s Bombsight entering the fray, which concludes with Homelander getting his hands on the last vial of V1. It throws a significant wrench in Butcher’s plans, and it makes Homelander nearly unbeatable. A smaller moment from earlier in the episode ensures his ending won’t mirror his comic counterpart’s, however.
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The Boys Season 5 is gradually killing off its supporting players, with several members of The Seven meeting their ends in recent episodes. A-Train’s death is the earliest and saddest example, but Firecracker’s demise also stands out. And this week, yet another member of Vought’s superhero team perishes. After Homelander’s latest power-up, it may not matter much in the grand scheme of things. It does eliminate any chance of Homelander being brought down in the same way he is in the comics though.
Homelander’s Comic-Accurate End Is Now Impossible After Black Noir II’s Death
The tensions between The Deep and Black Noir II are at an all-time high when The Boys Season 5, Episode 6 opens, the result of The Deep killing Adam Bourke in the previous chapter. Bourke serves as a mentor figure for Black Noir II, who has a secret passion for acting — one that almost takes both of them to Broadway. When The Deep ruins that by killing Bourke, it’s all but guaranteed the pair will come to blows. “Though the Heavens Fall” pays that off, though Black Noir II doesn’t put up as much of a fight as you’d expect. In retaliation against The Deep, he destroys the new pipeline he’s promoting, killing 1.4 billion fish. In a fit of rage, The Deep strangles and stabs Black Noir II, leaving another vacancy on The Seven.
This means Oh Father won’t be able to use Black Noir II as a healing miracle to prove Homelander is God. It also rules out any version of a comic-accurate ending for Antony Starr’s supe. In the source material, Homelander is killed by Black Noir, who turns out to be a Homelander clone under the mask. Vought tasks him with killing Homelander if he gets out of hand, though the clone has his own reasons for setting up the original’s death. As we’ve seen both iterations of Black Noir without the mask — and the real Homelander is truly evil in The Boys show —this exact twist was always unlikely. However, the Oval Office tease from The Boys Season 5 trailer, combined with Black Noir’s suspicious behavior in earlier episodes, made a case for a partially faithful ending.
Even if The Boys keeps elements of Homelander comic death, like where it happens, it’s looking far less likely that Black Noir will have anything to do with it. At this point, the only way to stick to the source material’s script would be way too absurd, even by The Boys‘ standards.
The Only Way to Give Homelander a Comic-Accurate Death Now Would Be Ridiculous
The Boys is known for leaning into absurdity, but the only way to give Homelander a comic-accurate death now would be to replace Black Noir again. Vought and Homelander certainly aren’t above doing so for the optics, but it would be underwhelming to introduce a third Black Noir in the last two episodes, just to have him kill Homelander. It’d be an unsatisfying end for The Boys‘ greatest villain, and it’d feel unrealistic. How many times can The Boys really replace Black Noir and get away with it — and with Homelander more powerful than ever, why would they even need to?
The Boys Season 5 would be wise to go in a different direction with the villain, especially since there are several other characters with the potential to beat him. All of them would prove more satisfying than a last-minute clone posing as Black Noir III.
The Boys Season 5 Is Better Off Going in a Different Direction With Antony Starr’s Villain
Given the changes The Boys makes to the comics, there are more interesting ways to deal with Homelander than by introducing a clone, especially now that he has the V1 in his bloodstream. Ryan isn’t in the source material, and Soldier Boy isn’t Homelander’s biological father in the comics. Both of these relationships require closure before The Boys is through, and either of them could be the key to bringing down the all-powerful supe. Soldier Boy’s nuclear blasts clearly work on V1 subjects, while Ryan remains a wild card given his natural abilities.
On top of that, Butcher’s feud with Homelander is the heart of the show — and while it’s hard to see how Karl Urban’s character could ever win a 1:1, their eventual face-off could end more climactically than in the comics. There’s also Marie Moreau to consider. Although bringing Gen V‘s characters in as a last resort feels like a copout, doing the same with a third Black Noir isn’t any better. At least the spinoff sets Marie up to contribute to Homelander’s downfall. A brand-new character doesn’t even have that foundation, so it’s unlikely The Boys will go there.
What do you think Homelander’s ending in The Boys adaptation will look like? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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