The Boys Season 5 Episode 7 MCU Cameo Is a Stroke of Genius — Here’s Why

Well, that was a flex. The Boys Season 5, Episode 7 sets the table for the finale and then sneaks in a cameo that is both a perfect joke and a clean shot at a certain other superhero machine. Spoilers ahead for Season 5 through Episode 7.

Where Episode 7 Leaves Everyone

Coming off Homelander's terrifying upgrade at the end of Episode 6, this week's outing plays like a pressure cooker right before the blowout. The episode, titled 'The Frenchman, the Female, and the Man Called Mother 's Milk,' even breaks what the show has been calling its biggest rule, and it still keeps the stakes high while quietly closing out a few arcs.

• Gen V's missing characters pop in briefly, emphasis on briefly.
• Frenchie gets the most definitive ending of the bunch.
• Soldier Boy gets shoved back into cryo, which takes Jensen Ackles' walking WMD off the board again.
• The Seven is officially disbanded, and The Deep gets the most darkly funny send-off the show could give him: tossed from the team and told to stay out of the water for good. After his pipeline fiasco, every sea creature hates him, which literally stops him from saving a drowning man. His hesitation is caught on camera, and with that, his hero brand is toast — with or without The Seven. He could still surface in next week's finale, but the curtain's basically down.

The Cameo: Samuel L. Jackson, Shark Whisperer (But Not For The Deep)

About that send-off: The Deep learns he is no longer welcome in the ocean from Xander the shark — a one-time finned buddy — who is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. And yes, the voice does exactly what you want it to do. Jackson's delivery is sharp and menacing enough that you feel how unwelcome Kevin is now, but it's also very funny to watch a shark verbally fillet him. It's exactly the kind of casting swing this show lives for, and it lands.

Why This Works So Well

There are layers to this one, and they are all deliciously petty:

• Jackson's Marvel track record looms large. As Nick Fury, he built the team, commanded rooms without superpowers, and sold the whole enterprise with equal parts charm and threat. That same presence powers Xander's threats here.
• The timing is a meta gag: Fury is the guy who assembles heroes; in The Boys, Jackson shows up right as Homelander is tearing his own squad apart. No team-up offer for The Deep — from anyone.
• Bonus shark history: back in 1999's Deep Blue Sea, Jackson squared off with a shark and did not make it to the credits. Here, he gets to be the shark. Poetic, a little mean, and possibly a setup for a kill if the show wants to twist the knife in the finale.
• As a broader shot across the aisle, having the MCU 's most iconic recruiter show up in a universe that loves to lampoon superhero culture is just chef 's-kiss trollery.

All told, it's satisfying to see someone finally put The Deep in his place so decisively — and the fact that it's Samuel L. Jackson, as a shark, making him feel small? That is exactly the kind of weird, very specific gag this show excels at. If Episode 7 is the appetizer, Episode 8 looks like it still has some comeuppance left to serve.