The Boys Season 5 Just Confirmed a Fan Theory About One of Homelander's Biggest Threats — And I'm Even More Hyped
As The Boys barrels into its final season on Prime Video, one question dominates: who will finally bring down Homelander—and at what cost?
We all keep circling the same question with The Boys: who actually takes Homelander off the board? The final season is basically built around that. And while it still feels impossible that he walks away untouched, it also feels just as possible he doesn’t die. Either way, the show is teeing up a few different endgame shooters.
The usual suspects (and one you might be sleeping on)
- Billy Butcher: obvious pick, messy method. Never count him out.
- Ryan Butcher: the emotional kill switch, if the show wants maximum pain.
- Soldier Boy: he could do it, but right now he’s riding with his kid.
- Sister Sage: the smartest person alive, and quietly the most dangerous piece on the board.
Sage has been running the table since Season 4
Since she joined the Seven in Season 4, Sister Sage has been Vought’s secret weapon, using that freakish brain to map Homelander’s plays and stack the odds in his favor. But that was never about belief. It was boredom, superiority, and a serious streak of nihilism. And in Season 5, the mask finally slips: she’s not trying to help him win — she’s angling to end the whole game.
What she actually wants (it’s bleak)
In Episode 5, Sage spells out her agenda to Ashley — and, more specifically, to Back Ashley. She wants Homelander to fail to secure V-One, the supe-killing virus. If he locks it down, he can contain it. If he doesn’t, it gets loose, humans and supes tear each other apart, and she rides out the apocalypse in a bunker before reemerging to enjoy some quiet, post-chaos living. It’s not heroic, it’s not even villainous in a classic way — it’s cold, calculated self-preservation with a side of mass extinction.
This wasn’t a heel turn out of nowhere
Gen V Season 2 already told us who Sage is. She was involved with Thomas Godolkin and then sold him out when he went off script, which tanked him. She clearly cared about him, and still decided he had to go because he stopped being controllable. Translation: if you become a variable, you’re expendable. That tracks perfectly with her current plan for Homelander.
Where the plan stands after Episode 5
Episode 4 set up a key move: Sage nudged Soldier Boy to tag along with Homelander to Fort Harmony to find V-One. The quiet hope? Dad might cave and stop his son from getting it when the moment came. What actually happened: they didn’t retrieve the virus, but they did figure out who’s holding it, and — for now — Soldier Boy is backing Homelander. Not the outcome Sage wanted, but she’s adaptable. She always is.
That’s where Ashley could become her better pawn, though if I were Ashley, I wouldn’t bet on that bunker invite staying on the fridge. The bigger problem is volatility. Homelander just murdered Firecracker on a whim. If he smells even a hint of disloyalty from Sage, that’s a heat-vision execution with zero deliberation. You can out-think plans; you can’t always out-think a tantrum god.
Could Sage actually beat him?
Maybe — but her win condition is apocalyptic. If Sage gets her way and the virus spreads, humans and supes go to war and nobody really wins. The ugly paradox right now is that Homelander might be the best short-term firewall against that specific disaster. Stop the virus today, deal with Homelander tomorrow. And tomorrow is still doable. There are multiple people who can take the final shot once the world isn’t actively ending.
So yeah, Sister Sage might not punch Homelander to death, but she’s the most credible threat to his entire project — and the scariest alternative to it. Also, I wouldn’t pencil in Soldier Boy’s loyalty as permanent ink just yet.
Three episodes left in the series, and the show isn’t wasting time. New episodes drop Wednesdays on Prime Video.
Who do you think actually ends him? Drop your take in the comments.