The final season of The Boys has stopped pretending America can still be saved through institutions. By Episode 6, the show has transformed into something closer to a fascist apocalypse draped in superhero branding, with Homelander standing atop the rubble like a caped Caesar. The acquisition of V1, the volatile Compound V variant hidden inside Soldier Boy’s blood, changes the scale of the war entirely. 

Meanwhile, Homelander’s “cursed victory” has given the series its bleakest turn yet. He finally has the thing every tyrant secretly craves, permanence. 

Yet the genius of the show has always been that power in The Boys universe comes with rot underneath the costume stitching. Even now, there are still a few Supes capable of bringing him down.

Soldier Boy remains the most dangerous weapon in existence precisely because he does not fight like a superhero. He fights like a nuclear accident wearing an Eagles jacket. His radioactive chest blast already proved capable of burning Compound V out of Supes during Season 3, stripping powers at the cellular level rather than merely overpowering opponents physically.

That distinction matters against a V1 enhanced Homelander. Strength becomes irrelevant if Soldier Boy can depower him long enough for Butcher or the virus to finish the job. The show has repeatedly framed Soldier Boy as old-world violence incarnate, a relic too stubborn to die. In a season obsessed with immortality, the man who can erase superpowers entirely feels like the narrative’s ultimate equalizer.

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Yet The Boys has never relied on brute force alone when dismantling its monsters. Some of the show’s most horrifying moments come from powers that bypass spectacle altogether and turn the human body into the battlefield itself. That is exactly why the next potential threat to Homelander feels even more unsettling. 

Marie Moreau represents the terrifying future of Supe evolution. Her hemokinesis in Gen V already crossed into near-body horror territory, especially once she learned to manipulate blood internally rather than externally. Homelander’s invulnerability has always depended on attacks bouncing off his skin. Marie bypasses skin altogether. If she can sense V1 within his bloodstream, she could theoretically drain it, destabilize it, or rupture organs from the inside. 

The Boys universe loves ironic deaths, and there would be brutal poetry in Homelander being undone not by brute force, but by the very blood carrying his stolen immortality.

Ever since Ryan Butcher accidentally killed Stormfront with uncontrolled heat vision, the series has quietly hinted that his ceiling exceeds Homelander’s. Homelander wants Ryan to become a mirror image of himself, but every season has shown the boy recoiling from cruelty even while being seduced by it. If Ryan fully matures as a Supe while rejecting Homelander ideologically, he becomes the one opponent capable of matching him physically and psychologically. 

A son surpassing the father would fit the tragic Shakespearean energy the show has leaned into all season. Wild cards still linger around the edges. Cindy remains an unexploded bomb with terrifying telekinetic potential, while Sister Sage could easily engineer another biological countermeasure if she decides Homelander has become uncontrollable. In The Boys, brains are often more dangerous than laser eyes.

The deeper Season 5 goes, the clearer it becomes that defeating Homelander may not require one final superhero punch. It may require strategy, sacrifice, and monsters willing to fight an even bigger monster. The question now is not whether Homelander can be beaten. It is whether anyone survives the attempt.

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Who do you think might ultimately ends Homelander in the final season? Share your take in the comments.