The Boys Recap: The Natural Order to Things

The Boys
Though the Heavens Fall
Season 5 Episode 6
Editor’s Rating ★★★★
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Throughout all the talk about V-One, nobody on this season of The Boys has acknowledged a commonly understood fact: Being immortal would suck. An antidote might seem pretty enticing when you know a lot of people are out there with a virus engineered to kill you — Homelander’s quest for ultimate power has always been well defined — but what about the supes like Kimiko and Annie who just want to live a normal, peaceful life with their mortal boyfriends? They’re faced with a tough choice: Risk death by supe-killing air freshener or face the existentially terrifying reality of never aging beyond the current version of yourself?

“Though the Heavens Fall” is possibly the strongest episode of the season — not just for barreling ahead with the plot but for finally reckoning with these questions about aging, mortality, and loss. It accomplishes that primarily through a visit to a retirement home for supes called Vought Villages (à la the Villages in Florida), where former actress Golden Geisha resides. She and Bombsight were once together, so going through her is the best way to track him down and secure the last samples of V-One. 

The Boys come by this information via the Legend, who’s “hiding out” from Vought by working at one of their movie theaters under the name Chet Vanderbilt. Like Soldier Boy at times, the Legend is a character who mainly exists as an excuse for the writers to include copious references to old starlets these men have banged. But Paul Reiser still brings the perfect energy to the role, landing even the groan-worthy lines. 

Legend and Kimiko enter Vought Villages alone at first, learning that Geisha hasn’t seen Bombsight in years. So Butcher and M.M. join later that night to kidnap and force some information out of her, overcoming the minor threat of a few old supes — most of whom have somewhat lazy old-person-supe names like Hot Flash or old-person-supe powers like extremely dangly, heavy testicles — without much trouble. Butcher even reluctantly agrees to merely injure (instead of killing) them. 

Geisha was telling the truth about Bombsight, so they’ll need to use her as a hostage. They even have a new surprise ally who can get her ex-boyfriend here: Sage, who has finally pulled the trigger on leaving Vought Tower and turning on Homelander entirely. She can’t (or won’t) get the pharma team to replicate V-One like he wants, and she finds out via Ashley 2’s mind reading that Homelander secretly ordered crime analytics to track down Bombsight without her knowledge. That’s the final straw; she’s ready to be a free agent now and help the Boys ensure that Homelander does not attain immortality. 

At the lot where the Bombsight meet happens, Geisha finds out the squad is looking for V-One. Here’s where the immortality discussion kicks off: She reveals that her ex originally stole the V-One for her, but she didn’t want it, so he left. Geisha has no regrets, though, even in her later years. As she eloquently puts it: “Summer is only beautiful when you know winter is coming.” 

Kimiko definitely relates to this sentiment, and, in fact, she and Annie had an offscreen conversation agreeing that it would be painful to watch their partners age and die if they were to take V-One. Frenchie seems shocked and heartbroken, which I get — the virus could be released and potentially kill all supes the very next day, although the likelihood of that happening is still pretty unclear — but did he really never consider this possibility? At least he comes around to the idea of destroying the V-One by the time it’s within reach. 

In the end, it doesn’t really matter because Homelander gets the doses after all. Sage was counting on Soldier Boy turning on his son when she invited him here to kick Bombsight’s ass, especially after revealing Homelander’s sordid history with Clara Vought–Liberty–Stormfront to him. But that little trick just allowed the men to deal with their issues once and for all, getting the truth out in the open. Soldier Boy isn’t actually interested in killing the people he cares about, like his old colleague Bombsight and now his son. He actually takes away Bombsight’s immortality and powers in exchange for the V-One, giving him a happy ending of sorts, now that he can age alongside Golden Geisha. And when Homelander arrives, he gives him the V, knowing his son is the true strongest supe alive. Clara would’ve wanted this. 

The stuff with Soldier Boy, Bombsight, and Clara Vought is an obvious setup for the Vought Rising spinoff, and not all of it is that interesting. For one, I’m not enormously compelled by Mason Dye’s bland portrayal of the much-discussed Bombsight, though he played a great douchebag in Stranger Things season four. But it still mostly works, and the Homelander level up raises the stakes in a big way. I also love the Homelander-Legend scene, which allows for another opportunity to unpack some vaguely relatable feelings about aging and the inevitability of getting shoved out one day. Homelander actually lets Legend live when he sees he isn’t scared of him!

The other Boys’ mission in this episode mainly serves to set up a big climax during Homelander’s sermon next week. With the new doses of virus available, Butcher is keen on targeting the sermon for a Homelander-killing terrorist attack. So Hughie and Annie sneak into Oh Father’s repurposed church and successfully plant a virus-filled air freshener near the altar, only getting caught in the process by Oh Father himself. 

It’s a little ridiculous that he buys Hughie’s virus bluff and lets both of them go, but the scene is a strong one for Annie, with whom Oh Father shares a history from her Capes for Christ days. Apparently, he was like an elder brother whose approval she craved, someone more genuine in his faith than Ezekiel. Even now, he doesn’t seem to think of himself as cynically turning on Christianity by embracing a new messiah. He’s happy to sell Homelander, someone who doesn’t require blind faith. Daveed Diggs sells the hell out of Oh Father’s delusional confidence and smugness; it’s his best scene yet, and I wish he and Annie got to share more scenes. 

This is a solid subplot for Hughie as well. Before they even reach the church, Hughie and Annie take a moment to sit on the hood of the car and point out shapes in the clouds, a scene that feels reminiscent of their cute love story in season one. Too often, Hughie gets boiled down to his essential goodness and nothing else, but at least now he gets to explain the source of his recent hope: a lesson from his late father that life is 90 percent about how you react. Simple, but effective enough. 

You know who could’ve used some of that advice? The Deep, who does not react well to … anything, really. Ever loyal to Homelander, he films a PSA defending the protested Vought petroleum pipeline in the Bering Sea, calling oil “all-natural and organic.” That’s where Black Noir gets an idea to avenge Adam Bourke: punch a hole in that pipeline, leading to a fish holocaust and the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. It’s perfect because it takes advantage of Deep’s own deep moral failure in betraying his fish brethren. “We know, Kevin,” one dying piscine friend croaks. “We know it was you.” 

Is it an admittedly intense escalation after Deep killed just one man? Sure is. And the only way Deep can one-up Noir at this point is just to murder him, which he promptly does. This story was probably always heading in this direction, but it’s encouraging to see more bodies dropping as we near the end. The Seven is down to just three now, and by the time these final two episodes are over, I’m not sure any will be left, immortality be damned. 

Extra Frames

• The Nicole Kidman references in the Firecracker VMC ad did make me laugh. 

• “I am VP. Do you know how bad it would look if the world ended on my watch?” 

• “I don’t want to fuck him. He is old and disgusting.” “You know I can hear you when you say that, right?” Honestly, I’m not sure I buy that Legend would take much offense to this. I feel like he’d respect Kimiko for saying it. 

• Another nice use of the Legend: calling out M.M. for how much he’s under Butcher’s spell. And it’s totally true, based on M.M.’s response to the criticism (he claims Butcher is the only one making sense in this crazy world). Somehow Legend spitting the word pathetic as he walks away lands so much harder than Hughie ranting at M.M. a couple of episodes ago.

• That said, I’m not sure Sage’s “We’re both doing mass murder, but I’m better than you because I’m honest about it” logic really holds when she’s trying to bring about the apocalypse. 

• “I’m not kidding. I think I just shit Ashley’s pants.”