Spoilers for “The Boys” Season 5 Episode 3, “Every One of You Sons of B*tches,” follow.
“The Boys” has earned a reputation for extreme gross-out comedy and violence, yet it’s also a show that’s proved reluctant to kill off characters. Oh, sure, it’s killed off a few recurring characters, but early into the fifth and final season, most of the main cast from Season 1 is still alive, and it’s been noticeable for a long time. Even as far back as Season 3, some fans criticized “The Boys” for bending its story backwards to keep Homelander (Antony Starr) alive.
The show has even written around character death to keep its status quo. When the masked supe Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell/Fritzy-Klevans Destine) was killed in Season 3, “The Boys” kind of brought him back from the dead by having Vought International cover up the death and hire an actor (Mitchell) to be the new Black Noir. Now, the latest episode of Season 5 does a similar workaround to bring back Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue), who Homelander killed back in the Season 1 finale, “You Found Me.”
Stillwell was the Vought executive in charge of managing superheroes on the Seven. To manipulate Homelander, she played the part of a sexualized mother to him. Homelander finally killed her as a show of dominance, making eye contact with her and unleashing his heat vision, but Stillwell still lives in his head. In “Every One of You Sons of B*tches,” he hallucinates her as an angel appearing before him.
Homelander hallucinates a vision of Madelyn Stillwell
Elisabeth Shue has returned as Stillwell a few times before. Back in Season 2, Homelander has the shapeshifting supe Doppelgänger (Dan Darin-Zanco) change into Stillwell to satisfy his perverse lust. Shue also voiced Stillwell in an episode of animated spin-off “The Boys Presents: Diabolical.” The episode, “One Plus One Equals Two,” was a prequel about a young Homelander, and it was all but stated Stillwell had been grooming him since childhood. Now, this angelic vision of her returns to push Homelander onto his darkest path yet.
Homelander has hallucinated before, but this new scene opens with him remembering everyone who’s ever called him weak or pathetic, before the curtains open in his room, revealing clouds, a bright light, and Madelyn dressed in a white robe with angelic halos behind her. The hallucinated Stillwell indulges Homelander’s worst self, encouraging him to “ascend” and become an immortal god. “Why should [Jesus] have more love than you?” she asks Homelander, and encourages him to “baptize the unfaithful in their own blood” until the only people left are those who love him. She then flashes her boobs at him, which reveal blinding light, as the scene cuts to an overhead shot showing Homelander is kneeling before nothing.
Homelander has been crashing out this season. His worst secret is finally out, as Annie (Erin Moriarty) leaked the footage of him leaving everyone on the crashing Flight 37 to die. He’s consumed by the thought that not everyone worships him. His biological father Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) still thinks Homelander is a disappointment. This angelic vision isn’t going to make Homelander any less unhinged, that’s for sure.
“The Boys” is streaming on Prime Video.
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