‘The Boys’ didn’t hold back at the end. Years of chaos, betrayals, and bloodshed culminated in the series finale, which finally dispatched the biggest monsters, but not without leaving fans stunned, emotional, and a little bit horrified.
Now, series creator Eric Kripke has revealed that three major deaths ultimately formed the finale, and that the fate of Homelander, Butcher, and The Deep had been preordained before the cameras ever started rolling on season five.
Homelander’s Final Moments Were Designed To Humiliate Him
Many fans found it most satisfying when Homelander lost his powers before dying in the finale. The enemy had been an all-powerful being all throughout the series, but now that he is human, he’s utterly broken. Kripke explained that this was always the point.
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“And it was designed that way from the beginning of the season. Many characters say to him throughout the season, “You take your powers away, and you’re nothing.” And we wanted to demonstrate that,” he told SR. Without his powers, Homelander was desperate and terrified. The creator wanted the viewers to understand that the character’s confidence was only because there was no one to challenge him physically.
“And we wanted to demonstrate that. If you take that guy’s powers away, he is a blubbering p***y. And by the way, so many strong men are like that when their power is finally taken away.” The final attack was even more personal for Billy Butcher. Butcher’s brutal beating of Homelander was something that had been building up from the very beginning. It’s a bit poetic that Homelander is begging for mercy after a year of showing no mercy to anyone else.
Butcher’s Death Brought The Real Story Full Circle
Homelander’s demise brought the shock, while Butcher’s conclusion brought the emotional payoff to the finale. Butcher lost everyone in his life and decided to unleash the deadly Supe virus throughout the world to prevent any more threats. After all, Hughie knew that his mentor had crossed a line that he could never return from.
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“Page one of the pilot. We knew two things. We knew Butcher somehow was going to kill Homelander, but we knew very clearly that Butcher was going to do some kind of horrible thing and that Hughie was going to be the one to stop him.”
One of the show’s most heart-wrenching moments occurs when Hughie shoots Butcher to stop him. Kripke also revealed that this ending was directly inspired by the original ‘The Boys’ comics, where the emotional conflict of the story is actually between Hughie and Butcher.
“Butcher x Homelander gets all the spotlight, but Hughie x Butcher has been moving along in plain sight this whole time. If.” The Dark Irony of the series was even more evident in The Deep’s gruesome death at the hands of sea creatures. “Yeah. Is there no more deserved death in that son of a b***h?” ‘The Boys’ remained faithful to themselves at the end, violent, uncomfortable, emotional, and unwilling to give easy endings.
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