Art imitates life a little too well in the farewell season of Prime Video’s The Boys.
For the last four seasons, The Boys has flipped the superhero genre on its head. Instead of showcasing superheroes and the saviors, the hit show explores a world where they are corrupt, corporate-owned celebrities who continuously abuse their power. In The Boys, human vigilantes ultimately save the day.
What will The Boys look to achieve in its final season?
According to creator and showrunner Eric Kripke, the goal for the fifth season of The Boys is to leave viewers with some sense of hope.
“It’s really interested in the issue of ‘how do you hold onto hope when things can be that dark,’ which I think a lot of people right now in the world can relate to,” Kripke told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “I see it all the time. I see friends becoming cynical. I see other friends saying, ‘You know what? I’m burying my head in the sand until it’s all over.’ Basically, ‘wake me when it’s over,’ and it’s really hard and kind of hardcore and rebellious to hold onto hope and to keep getting up every time you’re knocked down — which I think is one of the best things about humanity, our ability to always get back up no matter how many times we’re punched in the face.”
For characters like Laz Alonso’s Mother’s Milk, hope is no longer the focal point, which leads him to believe that fans may see him at the most perilous version of the character.
“You’re definitely seeing the most dangerous version of Mother’s Milk,” Alonso told Blavity. “And the reason being is because you’ve always seen a very measured MM, because his main goal was making it home to his wife and daughter. I think in this season, he’s given up hope that him coming home is safest for them, and losing hope allows a person to be a much more dangerous individual, because they’re no longer operating under the guise of, ‘I got to make it home.’”
“Now it’s, ‘I may never make it home,’ Alonso continued. “There are moments in the Freedom Fighter’s journey where they’re not going to be optimistic, where they just don’t feel like doing good might be the way at achieving justice. Sometimes, you’ve got to do something else to get justice. That’s where we find them.”
Will Homelander be at his full evolution?
Homelander, the main antagonist in The Boys, has an image that doesn’t really match up to who he is on the inside.
“It’s not possible for him to evolve as such because he’s unable to reflect on the things inside that he would need to be able to reflect on to truly move forward,” Antony Starr, who plays Homelander, told Blavity. “You can expect more of the same, but it’s the last season, so we don’t want to leave any questions in the air. It’s a season of consequence.”
A-Train’s (Jessie T. Usher) redemption arc is one of the most complex in the season, but this last chapter could be the moment when he sees repercussions for every decision he’s made, good and bad.
“When we meet him at the top of Season 5, we learned very early on that he’s had a year to reflect, adjust and to just have these moments of honesty,” Usher said. “We can only assume how many conversations he’s had with his brother. He’s sort of in isolation with his family up on the run; it’s the only place that really makes sense for him to be post-Season 4.”
He added, “I just think that that much time to think about what you’ve done really does change a person, and he makes a decision in Season 4 that he’s going to leave behind this life that he’s held so dear to because obviously what matters to him has changed, and now he’s just honest with himself and able to say honest things and the truth to those around him. Then, when he’s facing Homelander, he’s able to be honest with him, and it’s something he’s never been able to do up until this point. That is the full-circle moment. He’s been lying about a lot to himself, and finally, for the first time, he’s able to spit some truth.”
The Boys’ fifth and final season is now streaming on Prime Video.