Eric Kripke has never been subtle about what Homelander wants, but The Boys season 5 is making it clear that what he wants has officially crossed from political to theological. After spending four seasons accumulating power, influence, and adoration, the de facto president of the United States has set his sights on something much bigger than the Oval Office. Running a country is too small a wish for him. He wants to be worshipped and with episode 4, King of Hell, finally confirming his endgame, it’s become obvious that The Boys has been building toward this since the very beginning. The question now is whether anyone can stop a man who genuinely believes he’s God.
Homelander now sees himself as the messiah and wants everyone else to see him that way too. The episode shows him directing propagandist Firecracker to spread his word, with the two eventually landing on a vehicle for his divine ambitions: the Democratic Church of America.
Firecracker frames the ideology with the kind of nationalist repackaging that makes it all the more chilling: “The things that Jesus preached, turning the other cheek, taking in foreigners, caring for the poor, that stuff doesn’t sell anymore.” Alongside his theological ambitions, Homelander is also hunting for the V1 formula that would make him physically immortal, the final piece in his plan to become an actual, unkillable god.
Homelander’s arc is getting scarier on The Boys Season 5
Series creator Eric Kripke has explained, the show’s through-line for the character is this: “The more power he accrues, the less happy he becomes.” The presidency, predictably, hasn’t satisfied him and in episode 3 of The Boys Season 5, Homelander experiences a hallucination in which an angelic Madelyn Stilwell encourages him to “ascend,” asking why Jesus should have more love than him. That vision is what tips him into full messiah territory. And the timing of all this has been genuinely uncanny.
Homelander’s plan is now fully visible and it’s the most dangerous version of him the show has ever presented. A superhuman with nuclear capabilities, political control, and a growing religious movement built around his own divinity is a very specific kind of nightmare. The search for V1 adds a physical stakes dimension to what is otherwise an ideological war. And with Oh-Father’s pulpit now folded into the Democratic Church of America, Homelander has the infrastructure to make his delusions institutional.
The Boys has always been at its sharpest when it reflects something real, and right now, it’s never felt more real. Whatever the finale of The Boys Season 5 brings, Homelander’s endgame is clearer than ever.
The Boys Season 5 is streaming on Prime Video.
Edited by Nibir Konwar