‘The Boys’ Star Teases a “Full Circle” Ending for The Deep That’s Well Deserved

[Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 7.]

In Episode 7 of the final season of the Prime Video series The Boys, The Deep (Chace Crawford) continues his downward spiral, never quite able to please Homelander (Antony Starr) and now banned from the ocean. After he’s faced with a hero moment he can’t do anything about, the walls close in, and he’s confronted with the consequences of his actions. With just one episode of the series left, whatever The Deep’s ultimate fate turns out to be, Crawford promises that “his comeuppance is going to be sweet.”

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Crawford about how The Deep is never able to get the respect he so desperately wants from Homelander, what it took for Deep to realize that he never should have given all his loyalty to someone who doesn’t care about him, how much he’s enjoyed working with Starr during the run of the series, the worst moment of Deep’s life, having the perfect actor voice Xander the shark, how the Cybertruck jokes just wrote themselves, and how The Deep’s fate has been a long time coming.

Homelander Is Showing No Loyalty to The Deep in Season 5 of ‘The Boys’

"It's this heartbreaking thing for The Deep."

COLLIDER: In Episode 7, Homelander breaks it to The Deep that he’s abolishing The Seven, which The Deep clearly doesn’t react well to. In that moment, when The Deep asks Homelander to give The Seven to him, did he sincerely think he would get Homelander to agree to it? It just seems like Homelander doesn’t even remotely care about anything that The Deep wants.

CHACE CRAWFORD: Even more so than in any other season. Antony [Starr] was just so funny. He was finally like, “I have no use for this guy.” And then, in the finale, there’s something really funny with one of the moments of our interaction that Antony added in. I probably worked the most with him, and it was the toughest, knowing that we would never work together again. But I think The Deep earnestly thought that was a good idea and that he might be able to talk Homelander into letting him have it by going, “I could take The Seven. I could do the whole thing.” It was just one last desperate attempt to hold onto some sort of relevancy for The Deep, feeling like his whole life and identity was crumbling, finally, once and for all, and he wasn’t going to have anywhere to go, and no father figure and no home. It's this heartbreaking thing for The Deep, finally realizing the end is near.

When Homelander tells him not to make it all about himself and wishes him all the best, do you think that was the moment that The Deep was just regretting his life choices and putting all of his loyalty with Homelander?

CRAWFORD: Yeah, I think that might have been finally like realizing, “Oh, he doesn’t love me the way I thought he did.” It took this long for him to realize that. That was a really good scene, a really good moment where he realizes, “This dude is not your friend. He really doesn’t care about you and doesn’t actually want anything to do with you.” For people to see The Deep’s downfall and for him to get his comeuppance, the realization that Homelander doesn’t love him, is good. It’s powerful. It’s a good moment to have and was sort of inevitable.

Getting Banned From the Ocean Was the Worst Moment in the Deep’s Life in ‘The Boys’

"It's a sad world for The Deep. It's a tough life. He's on his own."

You also have the moment with The Deep at the water talking to Xander, the hammerhead shark, and having Samuel L. Jackson talking back to you. In the avalanche of sad for The Deep, was it worse for him to have Xander ban him from the water, or was it worse to have Homelander tell him he couldn’t have The Seven?

CRAWFORD: Banning him from the water was probably the biggest for him. That was probably the biggest moment for The Deep. Oh, my God, I saw that too in ADR. They were like, “Do you know who’s [voicing Xander]?” They had already recorded it, so to hear Samuel L Jackson’s voice was so fucking funny and amazing. We shot that on this dock, and I was just acting to this green tennis ball in the water. So, to see what they did with it, visual effects wise, and then to hear Samuel L. Jackson was amazing. They got Tilda Swinton for Ambrosius. Samuel L. Jackson for this one was just so funny that I lost it. As I was watching it, I was like, “Oh, my God, I’m going to miss this show so damn much.” There’s going to be nothing that I ever do that will compete with that. It’s a sad world for The Deep. It’s a tough life. He’s on his own.

How did you feel about him standing on that dock and shouting directions at a man who was drowning? It feels like The Deep just wants to be a hero, and here’s this opportunity right in front of him, but he can’t go back in the water to help save this guy, so he’s shouting directions at him to save himself.

CRAWFORD: I think it was really shocking for him to realize, “Oh, I really fucked up this time,” with his sycophancy for Homelander and his people-pleasing tendencies, to say yes to everything, and he couldn’t stick up for himself and say, “No, the one thing I won’t do is be the face of this oil pipeline,” and he does it and then that happens. I remember [Eric] Kripke pitching it to me before the season and just dying laughing like, “Oh, my God, this is really, really funny.” It’s just one more massive fuck-up for The Deep. It tees some other stuff up too. It was so much fun to shoot. It was so good. I’m going to miss everything about it.

Do you think he’s just completely surprised at having to face the consequences of his own actions and behavior? Do you think that just comes as a total shock to him?

CRAWFORD: I think that’s the funniest part about it. He’s still playing the victim. He’s like, “I’m the victim. I’m victimized here. This is wrong. Life is unfair.” He just can never take responsibility for his actions. He’s never had real consequences. So, here they are.

Watching him driving a Cybertruck explains some things about his mindset this season.

CRAWFORD: That was my favorite. When I saw that car in the third episode, I was like, “Yes!” It was a lot of fun.

I love it because it’s a joke within itself without having to say anything.

CRAWFORD: Yeah, totally. You don’t even have to touch it. You don’t have to say anything about how he got it. It just is. And it’s fantastic. Same with the podcast.

Chace Crawford Thinks Fans of ‘The Boys’ Will Be Pleased With How the Deep’s Story Concludes in the Series Finale

"It was a long time coming."

Whatever The Deep’s fate is, do you feel that it’s deserved and earned? How do you think viewers will feel about it?

CRAWFORD: I think the fans are going to be really pleased, to be honest, and I think it was a long time coming, as far as seeing The Deep struggle and be at his lowest point ever and completely emasculated and just laid out with no friends. And he killed his close friend. It’s really a sad thing. He can’t really get his shit together, up until the end. It’s full circle from what happened in the pilot episode of the season and seeing Deep’s inability to be redeemable. He’s irredeemable, so getting his comeuppance is going to be sweet. It’s going to be very sweet.

The Boys is available to stream on Prime Video.