After five seasons and seven years, Amazon Prime’s “The Boys” aired its series finale on May 20, 2026, marking the end of Amazon’s most popular series. Years of anticipation and buildup left “The Boys” with a lofty challenge: delivering a satisfying ending to a cultural icon in the superhero genre. While the season five premiere indicated a promising direction for the final chapter, the finale falls frustratingly short of expectations. A lack of cohesive narrative structure and a preference for setting up future spin-offs leave “The Boys” as an unfortunate parody of itself.
Fans of “The Boys” likely remember the “Vought Cinematic Universe Timeline” from season four, a blatant jab at the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline used for outlining future projects. It was a witty and self-aware commentary on how comic book movies have lost their fans by prioritizing countless spin-offs at the expense of overall story quality. “The Boys” seemed confident in its narrative focus, and it had three quality seasons of television to its credit. Considering this, it’s notable that Soldier Boy—a character receiving a spinoff show, “Vought Rising”—receives much more screentime than he is due. This screentime focuses on parts of his past unrelated to the main narrative. This shameless and ironic focus on setting up a spin-off is the finale’s downfall, completely stymying its buildup.
The writers themselves seem aware of the main narrative’s struggle to navigate around the spinoff setup; however, their attempts to harmonize the two result in a rushed and clunky narrative structure. This is most apparent in episode five, “One-Shots.”
The episode attempts to address the show’s various subplots by allowing multiple side characters to be the central focus of a story. Unfortunately, this episode feels like a desperate attempt to tie up loose ends before moving into the finale. None of the stories connect; once one is complete, the viewer is simply whisked to the next one. It’s hard to feel for any of the side characters when their stories feel like boxes to check on a list. Characters like Firecracker (played by Valorie Curry) are given a potentially interesting and emotional arc, but it falls entirely short due to limited screentime.
This issue persists with major characters. Frenchie, a fan-favorite member of The Boys, dies in the penultimate episode, but the finale needs to enter the final battle before there’s enough time to mourn him. More screentime could have allowed Frenchie’s death to be the emotional core of the finale that it wanted to be.
Screentime is also a major issue in the finale itself. Like the rest of the season, the finale has the right ideas for a good story, but not enough time to see them through. A final battle between Butcher, Homelander, and his son Ryan is exactly what fans wanted to see, but the cramped setting of the Oval Office makes the fight feel slow and awkward. Homelander groveling on his knees on live television after being defeated is a perfect conclusion to his character, but the preceding fight is so anticlimactic that the conclusion doesn’t feel entirely earned. Previous encounters with Homelander displayed much more struggle and spectacle than the true final battle.
Even The Boys themselves fight for a satisfying conclusion. A final confrontation between Hughie and Butcher should be the perfect full-circle moment. Hughie has remained true to his hopeful values throughout the show, while Butcher has come to embrace the monster he truly is. Watching the two characters who started it all in a clash of fists and ideals could make for an entire episode, but it’s crammed into the finale’s remaining thirty minutes. The show wants fans to tear up when Butcher dies at Hughie’s hands, but the moment was never given the time to live up to itself.
The finale is immensely frustrating, considering its potential. The writers understand the characters and what a satisfying arc would look like for them, but they can only provide the general frames. It’s not unreasonable for writers to set up spinoffs, but the final season simply isn’t the place to do it. “The Boys” used to make fun of such scenarios, and to add more irony, Soldier Boy doesn’t have a single scene in the final episode. Perhaps future projects in this world will be great, but that doesn’t change the shameless legacy “The Boys” will leave behind.
Benjamin Alvarez is the News Editor/Arts & Culture writer for The Triton.