{"id":667207,"date":"2026-05-13T18:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/667207\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:24:09","slug":"the-boys-recap-season-5-episode-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/667207\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boys recap: Season 5, episode 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of chatter about whether The Boys wasted too much of its final season on filler episodes\u2014you know, the type of episode where nothing of importance happens and the plot doesn\u2019t advance. While talking to TV Guide<\/a> recently, series creator Eric Kripke noted it wouldn\u2019t make sense to have a big battle each week. He also added that \u201cNone of the things that happen in the last few episodes will matter if you don\u2019t flesh out the characters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, he\u2019s both right and wrong. I don\u2019t view these last few outings of The Boys as \u201cfiller.\u201d The superhero series didn\u2019t waste precious time, but unfortunately for Kripke, he didn\u2019t flesh out his characters much either. And no, giving Mother\u2019s Milk a long overdue moment to shine (and discuss the origins of his nickname) in the penultimate episode doesn\u2019t fully count because it\u2019s the type of \u201cfleshing out\u201d that should\u2019ve happened already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, too much of season six has focused on Soldier Boy distantly staring into space while thinking about his past, ridiculous Trump parodies, and the same old back-and-forth between Homelander and The Boys. So instead of developing its protagonists in this final round or finding ways to meaningfully conclude their stories, The Boys has actually been stuck in the same loop. That\u2019s exactly why it\u2019s become exhausting to watch, and it\u2019s why big moments like Frenchie\u2019s death or Gen V\u2018s Marie Moreau resurfacing now don\u2019t have an impact\u2014at least not in the way that Kripke and his crew intended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the \u201cThe Frenchman, The Female, And The Man Called Mother\u2019s Milk,\u201d (damn, that\u2019s a mouthful) begins, it\u2019s officially Homelander\u2019s world. His first order of business now that he\u2019s immortal? Crushing the skull of non-believer President Calhoun. As new POTUS Ashley puts it, the goal is now is just to survive. But was the goal any different for the rest of the show? Wasn\u2019t Homelander always one of the most powerful and despicable Supes? Yes, the fact that he now has V1 is devastating. And I assumed that it would make the remaining two outings far too difficult. Instead, this is just a regular episode. Homelander\u2019s plans are to lock Soldier Boy up in his cage again so he doesn\u2019t run off to Bogota, and he fires The Deep, who has nowhere else to go. (Black Noir\u2019s death doesn\u2019t so much as move a needle.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most significant twist is that Homelander finally guts one of the members of Butcher\u2019s team. While searching for Sister Sage, who betrayed and abandoned him, Homelander finds Frenchie. He knows that Frenchie is just distracting him from finding Sage and Kimiko, who are hiding nearby. So instead of using his powers to properly find the two women, Homelander quietly kills Frenchie. It\u2019s not brutal or bloody, which is usually Homey\u2019s M.O. Why would he let Frenchie die so nonchalantly? It makes no sense. Perhaps it\u2019s only so that The Boys can get away with the emotional goodbye between Frenchie and Kimiko, but even their final hug doesn\u2019t land with any sort of punch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, The Boys allowed this couple\u2019s on-and-off to continue for far too long. Remember how Frenchie was randomly with a guy from his past for almost all of season four? And now, in season five, the pair couldn\u2019t agree on what they wanted out of their lives together. So Frenchie\u2019s death doesn\u2019t yield any sort of reaction from me. Kimiko, on the other hand, is heartbroken. And this comes after she spent the whole day voluntarily getting tortured in a locked uranium chamber, hoping it\u2019ll give her the same powers as Soldier Boy. The plan was that if she became like him, then she can remove the V1 from Homelander\u2019s blood. If nothing, at least she\u2019ll be super motivated to accomplish that task next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other major moment in \u201cThe Frenchman, The Female, And The Man Called Mother\u2019s Milk\u201d is the long-anticipated return of Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and Jordan Li (London Thor). The Gen V kids have been helping Annie\u2014we\u2019ve heard about it plenty\u2014and they finally show up here in the flesh. They\u2019re initially disappointed because Annie, dejected after seeing Homelander inject V1, tells them to wrap it up. She even taunts Marie by saying her power is no good if she can\u2019t control it. In response, Marite quotes Annie\u2019s own words back at her, saying, \u201cSince when did hopeful and naive become the same thing?\u201d I like this mirroring between badass female leaders\u2014they have been tormented by organizations they believe in, lost close family members and friends, and are in hiding as they seek revenge and salvation. If The Boys were truly interested in character development, season five would\u2019ve focused on their friendship and mentor-mentee relationship rather than setting the table for Vought Rising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Something along those lines does happen with Butcher and Hughie in this episode\u2014though not enough of it. The two of them end up strengthening and reaffirming their friendship, but it comes at the cost of another unnecessary Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) appearance. While sneaking around Vought Studios, Butcher and Hughie are caught by the psychic Synapse, who is working for Homelander. Synapse forces them to confront difficult truths, especially Butcher. But it all comes back to Joe, an old FBI friend of Butcher\u2019s whom he wasn\u2019t able to save when they were both out in the field. In season four, Joe appeared as a figment of Butcher\u2019s imagination, and now, Synapse takes his form to torture Butcher. But all this does is lead to a repetitive storyline about why Butcher is the way he is, and why Hughie will always choose to believe in him. Butcher and Hughie are the show\u2019s two leads, but it\u2019s done very little with them this season. This episode leaves a lot to be desired on that count, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, they defeat Synapse, and rush to warn Frenchie about Homelander\u2019s impending arrival. By the time they get to the hideout, Frenchie\u2019s a goner. And that\u2019s all The Boys does to set up its very last episode. Fittingly lackluster, huh?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stray observations:<\/p>\n

\u2022 A list of Homelander\u2019s demands include: Turning his church into the national religion, troops taking over sanctuary cities, banning abortion and nut milk, and making breastfeeding mandatory.
\n\u2022 Sister Sage, having temporarily given up because she failed to predict Soldier Boy switching sides out of \u201clove,\u201d continues to lobotomize herself so she can binge-watch Love Island.\u00a0
\n\u2022 The Boys has had one too many jokes about the difficulty of pulling off a series ender. In this episode, while filming a Yellowstone-esque drama called American Eagle, The Worm is told to \u201cwrite a finale that isn\u2019t just a dog pile.\u201d That\u2019s when we learn Vought Studios is using the Taylor Sheridan AI, which doesn\u2019t respond well to notes.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Butcher saying, \u201cHitler on the outside, Fosse on the inside,\u201d is a hilarious way to describe Homelander and Oh Father\u2019s grand musical plans for announcing Homey as the next Jesus Christ.\u00a0
\n\u2022 After nabbing Tilda Swinton to voice The Deep\u2019s octopus girlfriend, The Boys gets Samuel L. Jackson to briefly tap in as a fish named Xander. He tells The Deep in this episode that the supe been banned from entering any body of water. So when a bunch of beachgoers beg him to rescue a drowning man later, all The Deep can do is hilariously skedaddle out of there.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Soldier Boy to his son: \u201cYou\u2019re too weird. You\u2019re not a God. You had a wet dream about some chick with wet, juicy tits.\u201d So why\u2019d you give him the V1, buddy?\u00a0
\n\u2022 Grossest scene award: This one\u2019s easy. Homelander lackeys Dogknott and Sheline are on a rampage inside Vought Studios, killing those who aren\u2019t true believers, when Annie and MM step in to help. During the fight, a rat is involved and, well, it gets really bloody and gross.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club\u2018s TV critic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a lot of chatter about whether The Boys wasted too much of its final season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-667207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}