Season 5, episode 6 of The Boys was extremely all over the place, yet it ultimately raised the season’s stakes and pushed the plot the furthest thus far. In search of V1, The Boys seek the help of The Legend, who works at a movie theater. Annie and Hughie discover that Firecracker’s dead and have a tense run-in with Oh Father. The quest for V1 takes them to a Supe retirement home and Golden Geisha, the lover of Jetstream, with Soldier Boy and Homelander close behind. Homelander and Soldier Boy are put at odds when Soldier Boy discovers the truth about Homelander and Stormfront’s relationship. Homelander winds up with a chance to kill The Legend, but spares him and intervenes in the climactic fight between Soldier Boy and Jetstream. Smaller plotlines in this episode follow Black Noir destroying an oil pipeline in retaliation for The Deep’s actions in the previous episode, which leads to The Deep killing Noir. Sage gets Ashley to read Soldier Boy’s mind and sows resentment between him and Homelander. Tensions escalate, however, when Soldier Boy gives Homelander the V1. 

This season is very clearly setting up Homelander to be as powerful as possible, but it seems more concerned with advertising the Soldier Boy prequel series than it is with making Homelander’s power increase seem authentic. From his introduction, Soldier Boy has always been used to introduce interesting older Supes. However, the interesting characters that provided pieces to Soldier Boy’s past this season have morphed into characters that only exist to tease aspects of his past with no regard for the consistency of Soldier Boy’s backstory. As for Soldier Boy’s backstory, his supposed connection to Stormfront comes completely out of nowhere, especially given that it becomes the primary reason he gives Homelander the V1. Jetstream, in isolation, was decently interesting given his relationship to immortality, Golden Geisha, and Soldier Boy, especially as his powers are taken away.

While a seemingly superficial issue, it is important to highlight the show’s action sequences. There has not been a compelling action scene from both a visual and dramatic standpoint since season 3’s climax. Despite this not being an issue specific to this episode, its climax highlights how basic everyone’s powers are, as the fight essentially devolves to characters hitting each other across the room. This could even apply to Starlight’s fight with Oh Father, as the compelling powers of light and sound are only used to knock Starlight backward a few times. As shown in the retirement home, the show overcompensates for a lack of creativity in its fight scenes, on a filmmaking and superpower level, by relying on gory or sexual shock value that is no longer shocking by this point in the show. Of course, it is clear that the show’s priority lies in its character moments and interwoven plot. However, as its plot grows increasingly forced and its characters grow increasingly stale, the pedestrian fight scenes do not provide any silver lining in a show and episode built around climaxes featuring big brawls. Finally, The Deep killing Black Noir was an interesting, if anticlimactic moment, and Homelander’s one scene with The Legend was a highlight of the season. 

Rating: 4/10