The Boys is back in town on Prime Video, and it’s already bringing some deaths with it. Season 5 is confirmed to be the final run of episodes for the superhero series, which inevitably means there will be some casualties as Billy Butcher et al aim to defeat Homelander once and for all. As the power of Antony Starr’s villain begins to extend to the White House, the stakes have never been higher, so it makes sense that the show is going to lose some people along the way. Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Boys Season 5, Episode 1, “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite.”
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The Season 5 premiere doesn’t waste any time in establishing just how high those stakes are. It kicks off with Annie infiltrating a Vought shareholder meeting, fighting Black Noir, and finally getting the plane video of Homelander in front of an audience (only for it to be dismissed as A.I.). Things only escalate from there, with an attempt to break Hughie, Frenchie, and Mother’s Milk out of Vought’s Freedom Camp leading to a showdown with Homelander, where A-Train arrives to slo-mo save the day… but at the cost of his own life.
A-Train’s Death In The Boys Season 5 Completes His Redemption Arc
A-Train’s Quicksilver-esque scene wasn’t just one of the coolest uses of his powers, but also critical to his entire arc. He was, in a way, the show’s first villain: his accidental murder of Robin, Hughie’s girlfriend, was the beginning of it all. While he was initially dismissive of the incident, he’s since come to not only deeply regret what happened, but also learn that he was wrong to blindly follow Homelander’s orders, culminating with him switching sides to work with Butcher, Starlighter, and the others in Season 4 (which then continued in Gen V Season 2’s ending), and Hughie forgiving him.
It’s fitting, then, that his ending includes saving Hughie, as he rescues him at the very last second from being blasted with Homelander’s heat vision. He could never bring Robin back or truly make up for taking her life, but saving his is the best possible way to atone. Things continue from there when he’s chased by Homelander: he narrowly avoids a repeat of the Robin death, turning his body in a split-second move to avoid running through an innocent bystander.
It’s a decision that ultimately costs him his life. He loses his balance, his goggles come off, and he falls down, eventually being caught by Homelander, who shows him no mercy. But it’s a moment that highlights just how much A-Train has changed. That he’s a person who will do the right thing, who’ll fight for his family and to save innocent lives, no matter the risk to himself. And as he stares down and laughs at Homelander, even when knowing he’s about to die, telling the villain that he is weak and pathetic, it’s as perfect and heroic a death as the speedster could’ve ever received.
Speaking with TV Line, A-Train actor Jesse T. Usher said he was glad that the character was “able to confront his monster face to face” and “put his foot up Homelander’s a** one last time.” He also explained that he’d asked showrunner Eric Kripke about where the character was headed towards the end of Season 4, revealing:
“I felt like we were just waiting to see how it was going to happen. He had no allies, he had no one that he can depend on or manipulate or even ask a favor from who would put their life on the line to keep things going for him. So it was a long time coming.
“Every decision he made dug his hole a little bit deeper, so I went to Eric Kripke and said, look, I personally don’t see a reasonable way out. Like, I don’t see him surviving … what he’s doing right now in any shape or form. What are we going to do because, you know, we’re all expecting to do Season 5? And he was like, ‘To be honest with you, I don’t know. We’re not going to deal with it in Season 4, we’re going to just deal with it in Season 5.’ In that moment, I knew that that was the start of the end.”
A-Train’s Death Is An Encouraging Sign For The Boys Season 5
As well as being very fitting for his character arc, A-Train’s death serves another purpose: it suggests all bets are off in the fifth season of The Boys. He’s one of its longest-running characters (no pun intended), and this sets the expectations for what’s going to follow. We’ve seen the likes of Game of Thrones and, more recently, Stranger Things be criticized for not killing off enough main characters in their final seasons, something it seems like The Boys wants to avoid.
Of course, deaths shouldn’t happen just for the sake of it or to create shock value. But A-Train’s death makes sense in terms of his arc and the larger story of the show and where things are headed in the war against Homelander. With so many others still in play, then most of them would certainly seem to be at risk. That includes Homelander himself, but his Seven cohorts like the Deep, Black Noir, Firecracker, and Sister Sage, as well as heroes such as Frenchie, Mother’s Milk, Kimiko, Starlight, Hughie, and Butcher. Not all of them are going to make it out of this fight alive, and with A-Train dying in the premiere, we could lose others at any time along the way.
New episodes of The Boys release on Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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