The apocalypse that The Boys has been threatening since Season 1 finally feels real in Season 5. Homelander now has V1 running through his veins, The Seven is collapsing from within, and Butcher looks less like a man seeking revenge and more like a terminally ill cowboy walking into his own funeral. Episode 6, Though the Heavens Fall, pushed the series into pure endgame territory with Black Noir II dead, Sister Sage defecting, and Soldier Boy making the worst possible decision by handing Homelander immortality instead of ending him. 

What makes the final stretch fascinating is that The Boys has never treated death like a clean heroic sacrifice. This is a universe where people explode inside whale carcasses, corporate fascism gets wrapped in Vought marketing slogans, and redemption usually arrives five minutes too late. Here are the characters most likely to die before the curtain falls.

Billy Butcher has been carrying death flags since Temp V started rotting his body back in Season 3. Season 5 doubled down on that inevitability by turning him into something closer to a monster than a vigilante. Even his allies increasingly look at him the way Hughie once looked at Homelander. Fear has replaced loyalty.

The series has also mirrored the comics more aggressively this season, especially in framing the inevitable Butcher versus Homelander confrontation as mutually destructive. Betting odds and fan theories alike now treat his death as almost unavoidable. The tragedy is that Butcher finally becoming capable of killing Homelander may cost him the last scraps of humanity Becca tried to preserve.

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And if Butcher represents the dying soul of the series, Homelander remains its corrupted heartbeat. Every season of The Boys has escalated his god complex from insecure celebrity narcissism to full-blown authoritarian messiah territory. Season 5 finally pushed him beyond the point where even Vought propaganda cannot contain him. 

Homelander injecting himself with V1 felt like the show’s equivalent of Thanos getting the final Infinity Stone. The sky laser sequence at the end of Episode 6 basically screamed “final boss unlocked.” Yet narratively, Homelander surviving the series feels impossible. Eric Kripke has built five seasons around the question of whether absolute power can finally be stopped. 

Fans now suspect Soldier Boy may eventually depower him before Butcher lands the killing blow. If Homelander dies, expect it to be ugly, personal, and stripped of the godlike imagery Vought spent years selling.

The Deep killing Black Noir II may have sealed his fate more than any ocean related disaster ever could. The murder was impulsive, emotional, and exactly the kind of reckless betrayal Homelander punishes brutally. What makes his situation worse is isolation. A Train is dead. Firecracker is gone. 

Noir is dead by his own hand. Even the sea creatures that once symbolized his weird emotional refuge now feel disgusted with him. The comics let The Deep survive by cowardly hiding from the chaos, but the show has drifted far from Garth Ennis’ blueprint. Right now, he feels like a dead man swimming.

Sister Sage spent most of Season 5 acting like the chess master behind Homelander’s empire, but Episode 6 revealed the flaw in her intelligence. She underestimated emotional chaos. Soldier Boy choosing legacy over logic shattered her entire strategy. 

Now she is openly working against Homelander after quietly sabotaging him all season. In The Boys, betrayal almost always ends in gruesome punishment. Sage may be the smartest person alive, but intelligence has never protected anyone from Homelander’s ego.

The finale on May 20 may bring the collapse of a fascist empire filmed through a blood-splattered Vought commercial. Whether it is Butcher, Homelander, The Deep, or Sister Sage, somebody important is not making it out alive. 

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Share your own finale predictions and which death would hit hardest when The Boys finally pulls the trigger in the comments.