The Boys Season 5 Is More Realistic Than Ever, But Still Won't Say One Name

Contains spoilers for "The Boys" Season 5, Episode 2 – "Teenage Kix"

Prime Video's dark superhero satire "The Boys" has historically enjoyed muddying its waters by dropping copious real-life references in the mix. This has allowed the show to ground its absurdities by presenting its world as more or less the same as ours, only with a tactical dose of Compound V added in the mix. The first two episodes of "The Boys" Season 5 waste no time reminding us that many real-world people and technologies exist in the show's world. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) used TikTok as one of her tools to relearn speaking, while Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Martin Shkreli, the Obamas, Coachella, Tyler the Creator, and even the Netflix show "Emily in Paris" are referred to in the dialogue.

However, "The Boys" is still dancing around the most obvious famous name on the list: Donald Trump. The show and the president share a long-standing connection that has led to "The Boys" dunking on Trump via its Homelander sneakers and Trump's 2024 assassination attempt changing the finale of "The Boys" Season 4. Eric Kripke's series has been pretty on the nose about its Trump satire without actually saying his name. Could that change in Season 5? With the likes of Elon Musk and Barack Obama — figures who have a history with the sitting president — getting mentioned this early in the season, it's easy to start wondering if "The Boys" will finally drop the ultimate reference at some point before the series finale.

There's an argument that "The Boys" doesn't need to mention Donald Trump because the show has its own version of the president in Homelander. "The Boys" Season 4 completed Homelander's transformation into Trump, and the supe's rise as a populist right-wing political figure has effectively erased the need for the real Trump in the show's universe. However, some may see the show's failure to reference Trump as something of a cop out, especially given that the likes of Elon Musk and Barack Obama have been brought up.

"The Boys" has rarely shied away from wearing its heart on its sleeve, and the president is a subject it has danced around for a pretty long time now. While there are lots of superhero media references peppered into the story, the series has also leaned into social and political commentary, becoming better known for the latter. It's the final season, so it's very likely that the show intends to truly put the pedal to the metal. Knowing this, viewers should probably be ready for anything — even that elusive Trump reference.   

"The Boys" Season 5 is streaming on Prime Video.