Season 5 of The Boys showed up with a big flashing sign that said: nobody is safe. It was not bluffing. Characters started dropping as early as episode 1, and the finale stuck the landing with a pile of major deaths. Here is how it all shook out, in order of maximum jaw-drop to slow, quiet heartbreak.
The Deep
The Deep has always been the show’s go-to punchline, but let’s not rewrite history — he is every bit as nasty as the rest of the Supes. After years of awful behavior, he finally runs out of lives in one of the series’ nastiest exits. During a fight with Starlight, she blasts him into the ocean. That alone would be bad enough for the fish guy, but then the ocean turns on him: an octopus tentacle coils around him and punches straight through his mouth. Brutal, final, and yes, thematically perfect.
Chace Crawford even teased fans that his character’s fate would be worth the wait:
"I think the fans are going to be really pleased, to be honest, and I think it was a long time coming."
One wrinkle for comic readers: this is a departure. On the page, The Deep survives and winds up with a new superhero team called True. Not here.
Homelander
The big one. Fans have been waiting five seasons to see Homelander finally get got. The moment arrives after he and Billy Butcher are blasted by Kimiko using Soldier Boy’s power, stripping both of them of their abilities. Butcher is still plenty dangerous without powers. Homelander? Not so much. Realizing he has nothing left, he begs Butcher to spare him. Butcher does not. He swings a crowbar and beats Homelander to death. That long, ugly rivalry ends the old-fashioned way.
Billy Butcher
Comic readers saw this coming. Butcher’s final spiral starts when he finds the body of his beloved bulldog, Terror — and it happens right after he loses Ryan for good. Grief turns to rage. He decides every Supe has to go and triggers the Supe-killing virus through the building’s sprinklers. Hughie tries to stop him and gets a savage beating for his trouble. As Butcher raises the final blow, Hughie blurts out a memory of Lenny, Butcher’s little brother. It knocks Butcher off his rhythm just long enough for Hughie to grab a nearby gun and shoot him. Hughie is shattered; Butcher tells him not to carry the blame.
Oh Father
Short, messy, efficient. During a confrontation with Mother ’s Milk, Oh Father moves to use his voice-based power. MM shuts it down fast, gagging him before he can get a word out — and Oh Father’s head explodes. Done.
Terror
The gentlest death in a show that almost never does gentle. Terror dies of natural causes — a quiet passing — and the timing makes it hurt more: it happens just after Butcher loses Ryan for good. It is a small, crushing beat in the middle of the chaos.
What really twists the knife is the off-screen reality. Bentley Alexandar, the bulldog who played Terror from the start, passed away at 11, shortly after production wrapped on the final season. Suddenly, that scene stops feeling like a scripted gut punch and lands as a simple goodbye to a cast member everyone clearly loved.
Season 5 promised danger around every corner and delivered exactly that, from the early shockers in episode 1 all the way to the finale’s last swing of a crowbar. Which death hit you the hardest?