Who will be the one to defeat Homelander in The Boys? It’s the question that defines the final season of the Prime Video series. And it is, for now, still the dominant question, because it seems rather unthinkable that Antony Starr’s villain won’t be defeated in some way, even if it’s possible he will not actually be killed. There’s no shortage of candidates who are ready to take a shot, with some of the more realistic choices including Billy Butcher and Ryan Butcher. You could still include Soldier Boy in there, too, but he’s siding with his son. There is, however, another compelling option. Warning: SPOILERS for The Boys Season 5, Episode 5 ahead.
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Soldier Boy may not be a threat (for now), but another member of the Seven is a huge risk to Homelander: Sister Sage. The smartest person in the world has been key to Vought’s goals since her introduction in The Boys Season 4, using her unrivalled intelligence to help develop Homelander’s plans and ensure their success.
And yet, her own goals have shifted. She doesn’t want Homelander to succeed, nor anybody else for that matter. She wants to prevent him from getting V-One, so that the Supe-killing virus can be unleashed, all-out war sees humans and Supes kill one another, and she can wait it all out in a bunker, before being allowed to live a life of peace and quiet.
Sister Sage’s Plan Was Set Up In Gen V Season 2
Sage’s plan is revealed to Ashley – and more so, Back Ashley – in The Boys Season 5, Episode 5, but it’s something that’s been a long time coming. The first sign I really saw that this could be on the cards was with Sister Sage’s role in Gen V Season 2. There, she had a relationship with Thomas Godolkin, but ultimately betrayed him, leading to his downfall. That wasn’t part of her plan, and came despite the genuine love she seemed to have for him. But it was necessary because he went rogue and could no longer be controlled.
That highlighted Sage’s adaptability to changing circumstances, and told me she’d have no problem turning against Homelander if it was what was best for her. Even in The Boys Season 4, it never fully tallied up why she put up with him so much, so it makes sense now that she is plotting against him. Sage never shared the same philosophies as him; it was all about her own intelligence, boredom, and nihilistic outlook. Now that he sees himself as God, of course she’s working to bring him down – and all without having to do any dirty work herself.
Sister Sage vs. Homelander: Who Is Going To Win?
It’s one thing to plot against Homelander, it’s another to be successful at it. The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 already highlighted that things aren’t going to be easy for Sister Sage in this regard. She convinced Soldier Boy to accompany Homelander to Fort Harmony in search of V-One; at the time, that seemed to be her hoping he’d turn against his son and stop him from getting his hands on it, which was indeed her plan. However, things didn’t quite go as she hoped: they didn’t get the V-1, but they know who has it, and Soldier Boy is, for now, committed to helping Homelander (though I still think that might change).
Ashley will perhaps prove to be a more useful pawn (and I suspect that invite to the bunker will quickly go missing), but there are a lot of unpredictable factors at play here, as evidenced by Homelander’s murder of Firecracker. If he were to get any sort of inkling of her working against him, not trusting him, or even simply because he decides she’s expendable, then he could quite easily kill her. As much as Godolkin shows what she’s willing to do, it also proves she can’t account for irrational decisions like that, and no one is more irrational than Homelander.
There’s also the fact that Sage’s plan carries its own kind of evil, and would lead to humans and Supes wiping each other out. Homelander is, ironically, the best chance at preventing that. He’d still then need to be defeated, but that remains doable, whereas there’s no coming back from Sage’s idea. It’s a fascinating development that makes the stakes even higher for The Boys Season 5, and we should learn more about how it plays out pretty soon, with just three episodes of the entire series to go.
New episodes of The Boys release on Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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