In the second episode of The Boys' fifth and final season, "Teenage Kix," Billy Butcher and the others decide to test the Supe-killer virus Dr. Sameer Shah has been developing on the near-indestructible member of the titular teen Supe team, Rock-Hard. But en route, Butcher, Hughie and Kimiko run into an old friend.
Frustrated with how ineffective the other members of The Seven have been in apprehending The Boys, Homelander decides to thaw out his dear old daddy, the incredibly powerful Soldier Boy, who agrees to track down Butcher, Starlight and the rest of the crew.
A couple of years in deep freeze have done nothing to mellow out the volatile WWII veteran, but Butcher manages to distract him long enough to allow the others to make it to Teenage Kix's headquarters. When Soldier Boy follows them in, Frenchie unleashes the virus, which kills Rock-Hard, Jetstream and (seemingly) Soldier Boy within seconds.
Homelander soon arrives on the scene and seems genuinely distraught about his genetic father's demise, but as he walks away from the ambulance, Soldier Boy sits up in his body bag.
The prevailing theory is that Soldier Boy survived the effects of the virus because he has V-One - the original and far more potent version of Compound V - in his system, which showrunner Eric Kripke has now all but confirmed.
"Yes, it is true that Soldier Boy is not dead, and the reasons that he’s seemingly immune to this virus are what really set up the primary MacGuffin of the season," he tells TV Insider. "It really turns everything on its head. Suddenly, there is a way to survive the virus, and so it becomes a race of who acquires it. If Homelander acquires it, it’s game over. If The Boys acquire it, then maybe the people that they love can survive, and so everyone’s battling for the future. Can they survive this war? Can they survive this particular virus? And this storyline becomes a big driver of the season."
So, it sounds like the remaining episodes will focus on a race to find some V-One, which is most likely where the characters from Gen-V will come in.
In the fifth and final season of The Boys, it's Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother's Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a "Freedom Camp." Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It's the climax, people. Big stuff's gonna happen.
The Boys stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, Colby Minifie, Cameron Crovetti, Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jensen Ackles, and Daveed Diggs.
Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Phil Sgriccia, Michaela Starr, Paul Grellong, David Reed, Judalina Neira, Jessica Chou, Gabriel Garcia, Ori Marmur, Ken F. Levin and Jason Netter serve as executive producers.