The Boys has ended after seven long years. And the finale is everything a follower of the series alone would expect. Season five episode eight, titled Blood and Bone, was the culmination of everything mounting up to the confrontation of Homelander (Antony Starr) and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban).
Spoilers ahead, so read at your own discretion.
The spoilt man-child with a God complex is defeated
What most fans speculated is true. Homelander gets a crowbar shoved into his head by Butcher. The final moments of the ‘strongest superhero’ was spent on his knees begging for his life and throwing a tantrum about how it is unjust to kill him. As all heroes fall, in all epics throughout the world, it is ugly and satisfying for the people rooting for the good vs evil battle.
But the show is not good vs evil. The show has been a big blob of grey areas in the society, which made it last for seven years.
While the show did not promise any flashy ending, it tied all the knots.
In loving memory of Butcher
Frankly, Butcher had to be killed. Everyone watching the show knew he was not a good man, nor a moral compass who would eventually slay the villain. He was the necessary evil to kill off the unnecessary evil.
Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) was the moral compass all along, hoping in situations which had no hope whatsoever. Like mythology, the good kills off the evil. That is the ending most suited for a show like The Boys.
While everything adds up, the finale was rushed. A lot happened but the fans were probably not given enough time to process the events. Such is the constraint of time for a series.
The ending shot is eerily similar to the beginning. Hughie is standing on the street with his girlfriend, only this time there’s no A-Train (Jessie T. Usher).
The show ends on a high note, and Eric Kripke has done justice to the tone, mood and underlying political messages closely associated with the series. Only Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) is not accounted for.
Though, it is heart breaking for Terror to die, and to know he has actually moved on to the great beyond in 2025.