The Boys Season 5, Episode 4, “King of Hell,” has proved to be the most divisive episode of the final season so far. We’re now at the halfway point of the Prime Video show’s final run, but it rather than racing towards the finish line, it’s very much slowing things down this week. The installment’s plot is largely driven by a visit to the Vought medical facility Fort Harmony, where Homelander, Soldier Boy, and most members of the Boys converge, while Annie pays a visit to her father. Warning: This article contains SPOILERS.
There are a couple of dramatic twists and turns in the episode. The Boys turn on each other, under the influence of something strange at Fort Harmony. That turns out to be Quinn, a mutated human-plant Supe with ties to Soldier Boy’s past, who is then killed by him. And Homelander gets briefly locked up by his father and blasted with radiation, but emerges and ends up declared a prophet. At the same time, most of the characters ended up where they started: looking for V-One.
The nature of the episode has led to a lot of complaints on social media, with hundreds of comments on The Boys subreddit complaining about it being “filler,” and a similar case on X. For example, u/Helpful_Teach_7102 wrote “waited a week for this stupid filler episode man,” while u/Good_Strength6099 complained about the prequel setup, posting, “Definitely a back door pilot for Vought rising in someway. Weird filler vibes.” On X, @twigzza said that “having a filler episode in a final season is crazy.” These are just a few examples, but the sentiment is echoed pretty loudly, especially with there only being four episodes remaining and plenty of story to get through.
Was The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 That Bad?
Image via Prime Video
Personally, I thought “King of Hell” was fine. Nothing spectacular by any means, but not a terrible episode either. It was just solid, with some fun character moments as the Boys fought each other, and I actually quite liked Annie getting to reconcile things with her father and learn about (and try to bond with) her brother. At the same time, I understand the complaints, given this is the final season and it didn’t really progress the plot, nor did it really service enough of the main character arcs: you could take it out, and we probably wouldn’t miss much.
It should also be noted that not everyone is down on the episode, and it currently has a pretty good 8.1/10 rating on IMDb – the lowest of the season so far, but by no means a disaster, nor the lowest of the show by a long shot (that would be Season 4, Episode 2, “Life Among the Septics,” with a rating of 7.2).
Still, it did have its problems, and the “filler” aspect might have been better if it hadn’t felt like such clear setup for the Vought Rising prequel: with the mystery of Quinn, the mentions of Bombsight and Stormfront, and the emotional response from Soldier Boy that we don’t yet fully understand, it means that the episode will only full work and we’ll get the character development and catharsis from the spinoff, which shouldn’t really be happening in a final season.
There does have to be a careful balance, and those complaining about the season being too slow need to be a little careful for what they wish for: as Game of Thrones Season 8 showed, pacing of a final season can go too far in the other direction, as well. Slowing things down works if there’s strong character development, which is what this episode didn’t quite nail enough of, but there’s plenty to be excited about moving forward, especially after that ending with Homelander.
New episodes of The Boys release on Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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