The Boys season 5 continues to deliver. The events in episode 7 are certainly becoming a part of such a fantastic series. However, when trying to recap episode 7, it’s actually best to start from the end and work your way back.
Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen The Boys season 5 episode 7, it might be best to stop reading now and come back to this later. It’s going to be tough to talk about this one without spoiling it.
Massive cliffhanger leading into The Boys season 5 series finale
Episode 7 leaves a massive cliffhanger that must be resolved heading into the series finale. The latest installment ends with Frenchie essentially sacrificing himself in an attempt to destroy Homelander’s powers.
You see, Butcher, Frenchie, and Kimiko had been working on an experiment to replicate Soldier Boy’s nuclear blast. The blast, as we’ve seen, strips supes of their powers. To replicate Soldier Boy’s blast, the crew built a machine inside an abandoned school. The machine used a type of radioactive material that mimicked the experiments the Soviets did on Soldier Boy.
The test subject, Kimiko, had been consistently exposed to the radioactive material in an attempt to recreate Soldier Boy’s nuclear blast within her. The rationale was that the Soviets couldn’t kill Soldier Boy even after exposing him to a nuclear bomb’s worth of radiation. Instead, it gave him additional powers. So, the same could work on Kimiko.
Meanwhile, Sage, remaining with Butcher and his posse, wanted to have no part of anything. She was completely at her wits’ end, seeing her plans fall apart.
As Sage admits in a heartfelt conversation with Frenchie, the man she loved and admired (Homelander) turned out to be a crazy psycho. Her inability to use her amazing intelligence to control Homelander led her to be cynical and detached.
A side note: That’s what this episode harps on. There is another scene in which Mother’s Milk tells Annie (Starlight) about how hard it is to remain hopeful and caring, particularly when everyone else has checked out.
That speed helped Annie recalibrate and re-engage with the plan to take down Homelander.
Back to the experiment. Sage eventually gets her wits together, agreeing to assist Frenchie. Now, it’s not evident that the experiment actually works on Kimiko. But in a final test, Homelander arrives at the school, searching for Sage.
Frenchie hides Sage and Kimiko, who’s weakened from the final test run, while he single-handedly engages Homelander. Frenchie locks himself into the chamber with the radioactive material, exposing Homelander to the device.
The machine itself didn’t seem to do anything to Homelander. And, it didn’t seem to affect Frenchie directly. The episode ends with Frenchie crawling on the floor with an abdominal injury. He passed out in Kimiko’s arms, suggesting he had died.
I’ve seen too many movies and shows to believe that’s the end of Frenchie, but we’ll see.
Homelander rebrands himself as a god
Here’s where things take a blasphemous turn. Homelander doesn’t attempt to rebrand himself as a god. He wants the world to see him as God. Religious discussions aside, Homelander’s blasphemous campaign seeks to anoint him as the Second Coming.
In a strange scene, Oh Father holds a private screening of a new film in which Jesus descends from Heaven and gives Homelander his crown of thorns, passing the torch to him. The ridiculous scene is filled with far-right rhetoric, catering to a, let’s just say, not-so-liberal audience.
The preparations to announce Homelander as Jesus’ “brother” lead him to instruct the current US President on a number of issues. The President, a puppet, agrees to whatever Homelander demands. However, Homelander asks Ashley to read his mind to know if the sitting President, indeed, believes in him.
Since the President is nothing more than a yes-man, Homelander liquidates him on the spot. That situation makes Vice President Ashley the new boss of the White House and country. In one specific scene, Ashley seemingly loses her mind while arguing with her other psychic half. That’s all we see of her, but it seems there will be more to come in the finale.
Something goes terribly wrong
As for the screening, it goes horribly wrong. Homelander has enlisted the services of the most powerful psychics around. One, in particular, went through the focus group’s minds, figuring out which ones truly believed in Homelander as their true god.
The “believers” were allowed to leave. The remainder were left to be slaughtered by Dogknott and Cate Dunlap. Annie and Mother’s Milk, who were inside Vought studios trying to kidnap Oh Father, ended up rescuing the trapped members of the focus group.
The other two intruders, Butcher and Hughie, were captured by the psychic Synapse. While it seemed like Butcher and Hughie were trapped, they essentially managed to trick Synapse into revealing Homelander’s plans while he read their minds.
There’s a very entertaining exchange between Joe Kessler and Butcher. The interaction ends with another gruesome death, though it’s not hard to guess who gets the short end of the stick. As Butcher and Hughie escape, they attempt to warn Frenchie that Homelander is on his way to get them. As we see in the final scene, they’re pretty much too late.
All told, The Boys season 5 episode 7 doesn’t really solve anything, and it’s not supposed to. If anything, it’s laid the foundation for what will be a knockout series finale.
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