Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Boys” Season 5, Episode 8.
“The Boys” wrapped up its five-season run on Prime Video with a notably different ending than the one in the Garth Ennis comics.
The final season was always leading to a showdown between Butcher and Homelander, but how the finale planned to get there was a bit up in the air. The show has always deviated from the source material, so choices made much earlier than the finale meant that things would not be one-to-one. For fans of certain characters, they should be counting their blessings because for as bloody as the finale ended up, the comics were much more brutal.
Here is how “The Boys” wrapped up its series finale and how things changed from the comics.
How “The Boys” series finale ended
“The Boys” ended the only way it ever really could — Butcher vs. Homelander. The newly immortal supe is ready to make his move and announce himself the Second Coming (or really First Coming, according to Homelander) of God. He’s making the announcement straight from the Oval Office and has his army of mind readers ready to pinpoint any nonbelievers watching his speech to have them taken out.
With Kimiko irradiated to the point she can fire off a blast to remove superpowers (all thanks to Frenchie, RIP!), the Boys head out to sneak into the White House and confront Homelander once and for all. The fight goes largely as expected, Homelander fights Butcher and Kimiko — and eventually Ryan — until eventually he’s hit with the blast and loses his powers. With everyone officially de-powered, Butcher pops the top off Homelander’s head and the mission is done.
Post-Oval Office murder, the group celebrates their win. Butcher suggests him and Ryan could go off together, but is shot down and reminded that he also isn’t a good person and Ryan wants nothing to do with him anymore. He returns to his room to be comforted by Terror only to find the dog died in his sleep. These two moments push Butcher to the brink and he decides he’s going to use the supe virus anyway. He heads off to Vought Tower and Hughie follows, realizing what is about to unfold.
Hughie confronts Butcher in The Seven conference room and tries to talk him down. After trading a few blows, Butcher puts Hughie on the ground and is about to pull the trigger but hesitates, thinking about his brother. His thumb seems to move away from the trigger to release the virus right as Hughie gets his gun and shoots Butcher. The man lies to his friend saying he would have never stopped and Hughie did the right thing and then he dies.
The Boys bury Butcher and then go off their own way to end the series. MM gets married and Ryan is apparently his best man, Kimiko goes off to try the food and see the sights she talked about with Frenchie, and Hughie and Annie open up an electronics shop that is a front for Starlighter working as an independent supe. They’re also expecting a baby together.
How does “The Boys” comic end
The ending here is quite a bit more tragic. Black Noir was actually a Homelander clone in the comic and the one responsible for the majority of the depravity that happened. This causes the real Homelander to snap and lead a supe rebellion against the government. The final battle still takes place at the White House but there are a number of supes also fighting with Homelander, rather than him trying to erase others and install himself as a new god. Homelander is eventually killed by Black Noir and then Butcher takes out Black Noir.
Butcher in the comics is already hellbent on killing all supes with the virus. The rest of the Boys know this and try to stop him. Before getting away ready to spread the virus, Butcher kills Mother’s Milk, Frenchie and Kimiko for daring to try stopping him. Only Hughie is left to deal with his former friend. The two fight on the Empire State Building and after a fall wounds Butcher he goads Hughie into making a choice. He lies and says he killed Hughie’s parents when they traveled overseas earlier in the series, and says he’s never going to stop trying for a supe genocide. Hughie kills Butcher — exactly like Butcher wanted — and the man dies smiling.
The changes
“We knew that we did not want to have Butcher murder all of the Boys,” showrunner Eric Kripke told TheWrap. “Hughie being the only survivor felt wrong to us. It just shows how they’re different mediums, and when you have a TV show you make a pact to the viewers with these characters that you know you’re not just going to arbitrarily murder people they love, so we were never going to go there.”
Obviously the majority of the finale plays out differently. Homelander never had to worry about a clone. And more upsettingly, Butcher seemed like he would have been OK with Homelander’s death being the end of the whole affair had he and Ryan gone off together.
Butcher also clearly eggs Hughie on in their confrontation at Vought Tower, but he seems to have made the decision himself to give up on his supe genocide crusade right as he pushed Hughie past the point of no return. He gives Hughie one last gift by lying and telling him he would never have stopped. For such a bleak show at times, the series managed to end brighter than the comics.
“The Boys” Season 1-5 are now streaming on Prime Video.
