10 Most Shocking Moments of 'The Boys' Series Finale, Ranked

5 days ago 11

Karl Urban as Billy Butcher holding a white bulldog in The Boys Season 5

Published May 25, 2026, 2:22 PM EDT

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Spoiler Alert: This list contains spoilers for The Boys series finale.The Boys has officially come to an end with its Season 5 finale. While fans are bound to have plenty to say about the final episode — as is the case with any major series ending — the finale firmly seals the fates of Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and Homelander (Antony Starr). Although their long-awaited showdown is exactly what viewers expected, the episode still delivers plenty of surprises that only a finale could pull off.

Considering the show already had source material to draw from, some revelations may have been predictable to longtime fans. Still, seeing those moments unfold visually on television is an entirely different experience. The Season 5 finale knows exactly how to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, and with that said, here are the most shocking moments of The Boys series finale, ranked.

10 Sister Sage Loses Her Super Intellect

Susan Heyward as Sister Sage in The Boys Season 5.

All that hypercognition in Sister Sage's (Susan Heyward) head eventually becomes too much to bear. After turning her back on Homelander following his newfound religious psychosis, Sister Sage sides with The Boys. In the aftermath of Frenchie's (Tomer Capone) death, the all-knowing Supe contributes to the team by doing the unexpected: sacrificing her intellect.

This isn't the first time Sister Sage is sick of being the smartest human in the world, often lobotomizing herself to enjoy a sense of normalcy. To see if the uranium radiation works, Sister Sage triggers Kimiko (Karen Fukahara) to activate her power-erasing abilities. Her gamble works, and Sister Sage loses her genius in the midst of it.

9 Oh Father Is Killed by a Ball Gag

Daveed Diggs as Oh Father in Season 5 of 'The Boys.'

Homelander might be playing god, but it's Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) who's pulling all the strings. The evangelical Supe leads his megachurch like a corporation, with all donations used for Vought's exploits. Ironically, for someone who's supposed to worship Jesus, he has no qualms about turning to blasphemy and prophetizing Homelander.

Apart from blasting his pipes during mass, he can unleash wall-crushing sonic screams powerful enough to hurl people through the air. Ironically, that ability became the cause of his death. During a confrontation with Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother's Milk (Laz Alonso) clamps Oh Father's mouth shut from behind using a specially made ball gag gifted by Ashley (Colby Minifie), forcing the sonic blast back into him and causing his head to explode.

8 The Deep Dies at Sea

Chace Crawford as The Deep stepping out of the ocean with a hammerhead shark behind him in The Boys Season 5

During the final battle, Annie (Erin Moriarty) drags The Deep (Chace Crawford) all the way to the seaside for a one-on-one fight. It doesn’t sound like the wisest decision, considering The Deep's greatest power comes from the ocean itself. Unbeknownst to Annie, however, The Deep had a massive falling out with the sea creatures back in Season 5, Episode 6.

For context, the sea creatures blame The Deep for an Alaskan oil pipeline burst that killed billions of marine animals, effectively banishing him from the ocean. When Annie throws him into the water, he is immediately surrounded by sharks, only for a tentacled creature to impale him.

7 Billy Butcher Rips Out Homelander's Brain

Homelander's death scene from season 5 episode 8 of 'The Boys'

Butcher has been in some extraordinary fights with Homelander, but none more brutal than the Oval Office battle in the Season 5 finale. Previously, Butcher came close several times to ripping Homelander to shreds. Some of their most iconic clashes include the Vought Tower fight and the Herogasm ambush, which left an entire house full of people dead.

The Oval Office fight sees Butcher teaming up with Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) and Kimiko to take Homelander down before Kimiko blasts away his powers. In a full-circle moment, Butcher silences a pleading Homelander with his beloved crowbar, not only impaling his head but literally ripping his skull apart and spilling his brains across the floor.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides

🖖Capt. Kirk

✊Princess Leia

🔦Ellen Ripley

🔥Max Rockatansky

FIND YOUR HERO →

How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.

AI absorb everything — every variable, every pattern — and move only when I know the path forward. BI read the room, make the call, and own the consequences. Hesitation costs more than mistakes. CI rally people. A cause needs a voice, and I refuse to let fear be louder than conviction. DI assess the threat, establish what needs doing, and get it done without waiting for permission. EI don't lead. I act. Others can follow or not — I'm already moving.

NEXT QUESTION →

What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.

APrescience — the ability to see further ahead than anyone else and plan accordingly. BImprovisation — I'm at my best when the plan falls apart and I have to invent a new one. CConviction — I know what I'm fighting for, and that certainty doesn't waver under fire. DComposure — I stay functional when everyone around me is falling apart. Panic is a luxury. EEndurance — I outlast things. I take the hit and keep moving long after others have stopped.

NEXT QUESTION →

What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.

AThe survival and dignity of my people — even if I have to become something frightening to ensure it. BThe safety of my crew — every single one of them. No one gets left behind. CFreedom — for my people, for every world still crushed under the weight of an empire. DThe truth — what actually happened, what's actually out there, whether anyone believes me or not. EThe one person — or the one memory — that still makes any of this worth surviving for.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.

AWith intensity and distance — I care deeply, but the weight I carry makes closeness complicated. BWith warmth and irreverence — I take the mission seriously, not myself. CWith directness and trust — I say what I mean, and I expect the people I work with to rise to it. DWith professional care but clear limits — I'll protect you, but I won't pretend we're family. EWith wariness that slowly becomes loyalty — I don't trust easily, but when I do, it holds.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything.

APrepare in silence. If they won't listen, I'll be ready when they finally have to. BKeep pushing until someone listens — and if no one does, handle it myself. CBuild the case, find the allies, and make the threat impossible to ignore. DDocument everything. The truth matters even if no one believes it yet. EStop trying to convince anyone. Survive it. That's the only argument that counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again.

AMy innocence — I've seen what I'm capable of, and I can't unsee it. BPeople I loved — the command chair has a view, but it's a lonely one. CA normal life — I gave up everything ordinary the moment I chose the cause. DMy sense of safety — I know exactly what's out there now, and I can't pretend otherwise. EAlmost everything — and I'm still not sure what I'm carrying it all for. But I keep going.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours?

AI understand them deeply — and I know exactly which ones must be broken, and why. BI respect the spirit of them and bend the letter when the situation demands it. CThe system is the problem. I'm not here to work within it — I'm here to dismantle it. DI follow protocol until protocol stops being useful. Then I make the call myself. EThe rules collapsed a long time ago. What's left is instinct, and mine are reliable.

NEXT QUESTION →

When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.

ADestiny — or something that feels so much like it that the difference no longer matters. BThe people on my ship — their faces, their trust, the fact that they're counting on me. CThe belief that what we're fighting for is worth every sacrifice, including this one. DSheer refusal to let it win — whatever it is. I don't stop. That's just who I am. EI'm not sure anymore. But the road is still there, and I'm still on it.

REVEAL MY HERO →

Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

Paul Atreides

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you.

Captain Kirk

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it.
Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.

Princess Leia

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of.

You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.

Ellen Ripley

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there.
When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.

Max Rockatansky

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

6 Stan Edgar Takes Over Vought International Again

Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) in 'The Boys' Season 3.

While hiding in an underground bunker, Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) shares a brief monologue with MM about how defeating Homelander is useless. It's not that taking Homelander down is useless — it's the idea that there's always going to be someone else that's like Homelander. The Supe might be gone, but evil always persists.

After Homelander's death, Edgar rises from the ashes and takes his "rightful" place as the leader of Vought International. Although he promises to restructure the company, the fact that Edgar can go from zero back to CEO shows just how cutthroat the cycle of capitalism really is. Edgar may reduce Supe activity, but as a system, Vought will always exist as long as it has the resources to survive.

5 President Robert Singer Tries To Recruit Hughie

Jack Quaid as Hughie Campbell in one of Homelander's prison camps in '/-The Boys Season 5

Hughie is probably the last person the President of the United States would call. But given his history with the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, it makes sense that President Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) would reach out to him. With the Seven gone and Vought preparing to get back in business, it's only a matter of time before the FBSA is up and running again.

Singer specifically wants Hughie to lead the FBSA, but Hughie declines, much to the president's disappointment. Instead, Hughie focuses on his new "startup venture" — an audio tech shop that serves as a quaint little homage to his old workplace back in Season 1.

4 Homelander's Televised Mental Breakdown

Antony Star as Homelander sitting with his feet up on a desk in The Boys Season 5

When Homelander loses his powers after Kimiko's energy blast, Vought's poster-boy Supe becomes nothing more than a pathetic loser. Homelander has long been feared by both Supes and humans alike. But ever since the debut episode, it's been very clear that Homelander has a desperate need for external validation.

Homelander's insecurity spirals further over the past five seasons. And when Homelander doesn't get what he wants, he throws a tantrum. It's even funnier once his powers are gone, prompting him to have the biggest breakdown of all, begging on his knees and offering to "suck Butcher's d–k" or even "eat his s–t" on live television to stay alive.

3 Terror Dies in His Sleep

Karl Urban as Billy Butcher snuggling with Terror.

Unfortunately, Homelander's death isn't enough to fill the emptiness inside his chest. With his wife gone, Ryan refusing to stay by his side, and his crew slowly turning their backs on him, Terror had become Butcher's only remaining moral compass.

His brief moment of peace comes crashing down when he discovers a lifeless Terror lying in his bedroom. At that point, there's no turning back for Butcher. With nothing left to live for, he unleashes his rage on the Supes. Terror might have died on television, but the most heartbreaking part is that the real-life pit bull passed away from old age after Season 5 production wrapped.

2 Hughie Kills Butcher

Karl Urban and Jack Quaid in 'The Boys' Season 5.

The now-powerless Butcher has officially reached the point of no return. Homelander's death isn't enough for him anymore — he wants every Supe wiped out. He loads the virus into Vought's sprinkler system, waiting for the Supes to clock in the morning before pulling the trigger, effectively infecting all 99 floors of the building and potentially the rest of the world as the virus spreads.

Hughie manages to stop him just in time, but at a grave cost. Butcher comes within inches of releasing the virus, making it understandable when Hughie retaliates by shooting him. It's at that moment that audiences realize Butcher has been dead for a long time, broken by years of tragedy, and that it was only a matter of time before someone finally put him down.

1 Annie Murphy Is Pregnant

Ryan might have lost his powers, but another natural-born Supe is already on the way. Arguably, one of the finale's most shocking revelations is that Annie is pregnant with Hughie's baby. Even more surprising, the couple plans to name their future child Robin — the same name as Hughie's girlfriend from the premiere episode of The Boys.

Whether Annie's child will become the key to a larger The Boys' universe storyline involving more natural-born Supes remains unclear. But becoming a future mother doesn't mean Annie is ready to stop fighting crime. Using their audio tech shop as a cover, she and Hughie continue tracking criminal activity through their makeshift computer setup.