PR in the Philippines

(SeaPRwire) –   It’s unusual to wish a show would conclude sooner than intended, but The Boys is an exception. With only eight episodes in its final season, the series was already short on substance — and it didn’t take long for the superhero satire to squander the anticipation or goodwill cultivated by earlier seasons. Watching Season 5 has become a weekly ordeal, with each episode feeling worse than the last. Even though its penultimate episode delivered some deserved emotional moments, it also deepened disappointment for fans who had hoped for a collaboration between the Boys and the Guardians of Godolkin.

The Boys’ college spinoff, Gen V, did significant work to prepare for the heroes’ climactic confrontation with Homelander (Antony Starr), especially by positioning Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) as the most powerful weapon in the Boys’ lineup. Those who watched Gen V Season 2 naturally assumed she and her peers from Godolkin University would join the Boys at some point. After all, they needed every advantage they could get. Unfortunately, that never happened. Marie wasn’t seen until this week’s episode of The Boys — which, again, is the second-to-last — when she and Jordan Li (London Thor) arrive to share intelligence with Annie January (Erin Moriarty). Both clearly want to play a more active role in the fight, but Annie refuses: “What good is all that power,” she asks Marie, “if you can’t control it?”

To be fair, Marie demonstrated remarkable mastery over her abilities by the end of Gen V, healing severe burns, sealing a severed carotid artery, and even reviving someone from death. Compared to Annie’s efforts this season — which mostly involve standing idle and losing several minor battles against lower-tier supes — Marie is essentially Supe Jesus. It’s understandable that Annie wants to protect the young recruits she brought into the resistance, particularly as the threat from Homelander grows increasingly dire. But the window to spare anyone from a deadly fate has long closed: Homelander is immortal, has assassinated the President, and is actively working to convince the public he is divine. If that fails (and it likely will), he may very well destroy the entire world. Even if Marie’s powers aren’t perfectly controlled, it remains absurdly reckless to reject capable help when facing such a monumental crisis.

Luckily, Annie eventually sees her error by the end of Episode 7. After another failed attempt to strike Homelander in his weak spot, she goes out of her way to find Marie and Jordan and finally requests their assistance. They might simply offer shelter to the civilians Annie and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) rescued from Vought HQ, rather than joining the front lines directly. Still, given that the Guardians’ storyline appears concluded after The Boys wraps up, this could represent the series’ last opportunity to correct its most glaring oversight.

Since Gen V has been cancelled, the likelihood of seeing Marie or the Guardians again has diminished significantly — regardless of what Eric Kripke, overseer of the Vought Cinematic Universe, claims otherwise. This urgency now rests on the shoulders of The Boys finale: even if Marie won’t be central to defeating Homelander, it still makes no sense to exclude her entirely from the conflict. She is one of just three supes strong enough to at least depower Homelander — alongside Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), whose radiation powers can neutralize any supe, and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara), who now wields similar abilities.

Marie, meanwhile, could potentially extract Compound V from Homelander’s system; alternatively, she could trigger micro-explosions by rupturing blood vessels, weakening him enough for another hero to land a decisive blow. Not to overlook Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips), a telepathic sup who can imprison foes in psychic prisons and force physical translocation through touch. Gen V is packed with characters who could assist during key moments while the Boys carry out their mission, yet the main series consistently ignores their existence, fearing the final battle might feel too easy.

The Boys will probably resolve the Homelander issue on their own in the upcoming finale, but doing so would be the laziest possible outcome, especially with so many potential allies left unused. Our protagonists have endured eight grueling episodes of struggle when answers to multiple challenges were already available in Gen V. It may already be too late to expect The Boys to remember this in its concluding chapter, but that slim hope remains our only chance to keep the ending compelling.

The Boys is streaming on Prime Video.