The Boys Series Finale Gives Antony Starr's Homelander The Fate He Deserves

Contains spoilers for "The Boys" Season 5, Episode 8 – "Blood and Bone"

"The Boys" has spent five seasons building up Homelander (Antony Starr) as the worst person in the world. He's the world's strongest supe, but also an immoral, insecure, egoistical manchild who's prone to violently lashing out at the slightest provocation. As such, it was always going to be tough to give him an awful enough ending to be truly satisfying. "The Boys" Season 5 finds a way to continue delivering shocking moments with "Blood and Bone," though. 

"The Boys" Season 5 has been bloody and occasionally brilliant. The series finale continues both themes, as it does its level best to humble and humiliate Homelander in the world's eyes in a way that will no doubt have all the "Homelander is a hero" people squirm.

After the late-game plot of giving Kimiko Miyashiro (Karen Fukuhara) a supe-depowering chest ray ability succeeds and she uses it on Homelander, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) proceeds to give the freshly powerless supe a prolonged and cathartic beatdown. Homelander spends his last moments as a sniveling coward, pleading and groveling on his knees while offering to perform various degrading acts if he's spared. It all takes place in front of a TV camera, and viewers walk away in disgust when they see how small and sad Homelander really is — and that's before Butcher graphically wrenches the supe's head open with a crowbar right there in the Oval Office.

"The Boys" isn't known for its restraint, and the deluge of humiliations the show piles on Homelander is nothing short of impressive. Antony Starr is clearly having a blast playing the depowered character, replacing Homelander's signature twitches and looming presence with a combination of panic, confusion, and pathetic submission. His performance makes sure that, even after Butcher beats Homelander bloody, the antagonist remains utterly without redeeming traits. 

Even before Homelander's final moments, the show is happy to make him seem as bad as possible. Early in the episode, "The Boys" once again dunks on Donald Trump by reinforcing Homelander's coding as a Trump expy — this time, with Trump's ally-turned-opponent Elon Musk catching strays when Homelander deposes of Gunter Van Ellis (Ivan Sherry), an obvious Musk parody. Then, Homelander crashes out midway through his speech to the nation, revealing himself as a broken, bloodthirsty maniac. Finally, the tide in the pre-depowerment fight between him, Butcher, and Kimiko turns when Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) arrives, finally forcing Homelander to realize that his son will never accept him.  

Adding insult to injury is the fact that Homelander isn't even the final boss. His last stand partially intersects with Starlight's (Erin Moriarty) fight against The Deep (Chace Crawford), who even gets a cooler death scene than Homelander. What's more, there's still half the episode left when Homelander dies, and the last fight in the show is between Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Butcher.