The Boys final episode kicked off early with 4DX theater screenings on Tuesday, and the anticipation was strong enough that Prime Video added a second screening after I reached out.
It also comes as Prime Video says the final season of The Boys became the showâs most-watched season, with around 57 million viewers per episode. So while the main series is over, Amazon clearly doesnât want to lose that audience.
There is no direct sequel series announced, but Vought Rising is on the way with Jensen Ackles back as Soldier Boy. A couple of other spin-offs have already been canceled, while The Boys Mexico is still reportedly moving forward.
The question now is whether fans will follow anything outside the main series. Gen V didnât last, and The Boys was always the main attraction.
The Boys Final Season Had Plenty Of Backlash
The final season of The Boys has taken a lot of heat online. Some fans called it filler-heavy. Others didnât like the direction, the politics, or where the story went.
I didnât hate it.
After the past couple of disappointing seasons, and the letdown of Gen V, I actually thought the final season did a decent job. It wasnât great, and it didnât come close to the early seasons, but it was better than I expected.
The same goes for the final episode. I wasnât going in expecting much, so maybe that helped. By the end, I was satisfied enough.
The Finale Was Predictable
The final episode was predictable. You could see most of it coming, especially once everything started lining up for Homelanderâs end.
But at least The Boys got an ending.
The finale wasn’t perfect, but it did close out the main conflict and gave the characters something resembling a final chapter.
It also wasnât Game of Thrones bad. The comparison doesnât really work because Game of Thrones had a much stronger lead-up before crashing in its final season. The Boys had already been slipping, so the expectations were much lower.
Game of Thrones still blows The Boys out of the water as a series, but The Boys finale didnât feel like the same level of disaster, again because The Boys just isn’t as good.
Eric Kripkeâs Politics Hurt The Show
Going into the final season and final episode, it was obvious showrunner Eric Kripke was going to keep doing what he has been doing.
The politics were not subtle. The Trump angle, the White House imagery, and the heavy-handed messaging (“Elon Musk” gets murdered again) were exactly what you would expect from Kripke at this point.
Homelander getting killed in the White House, in the Oval Office, on the Resolute Desk, was not surprising. It was the obvious endpoint for the showâs political obsession.
The problem is that it hurt the story. The comic handled things better. The show became more interested in making a point than telling the strongest version of the story.
That has been one of the biggest problems with the later seasons.
Butcher Was Right
The finale also proves Butcher was right.
The supes are still out there. Vought is still standing. Giancarlo Espositoâs Stan Edgar is back in charge, which means the machine is still running.
Sure, Homelander is dead, and that’s a win, but the larger problem is not gone.
As Butcher warned, they can just create a new Seven. Another Homelander could rise. The system that created him still exists.
That leaves the finale in a strange place. The Boys stopped the biggest monster, but they didnât really stop the thing that made him possible, which was responsible for his creation.
The Ending Lacks Real Closure
There isnât a ton of closure here.
Some characters get to move on. Some get happy endings and get married. Some are pregnant (and not married – yawn). Some go off into normal lives. But it all feels a little too clean considering everything that happened.
The supes are still around. Vought is still around. The world still has the same problem. Even Soldier Boys is put back in the tube.
And Butcher is dead, which means the one guy who understood the full scope of the threat is gone. He was extreme, but he wasnât wrong.
By the end, the show resets itself. Homelander is gone, but Vought remains. The Seven can be rebuilt. The cycle can start over.
Was The Boys Finale Worth It?
So was it all worth it?
Mostly, yes.
The finale doesnât save the weaker seasons. It doesnât erase the filler. It doesnât fix the political messaging that dragged the show down. It also doesnât deliver the kind of finality that would have made the whole series feel complete.
But it does stop Homelander. It gives the main story an ending. It lets the surviving characters move forward.
For a show that had lost a lot of its edge, that was enough for me.
I wasnât expecting much from The Boys final season or the final episode. As a fan who had been disappointed by where the show went, I came away satisfied.
Not blown away. Not shocked. Not thrilled.
Just satisfied enough.
Rating: 6 out of 10
