The Boys’ Supernatural Reunion Didn’t Just Meet the Hype — It Crushed It
The Boys Season 5 turns Episode 5 One-Shots into a crowd-pleasing Supernatural reunion, as Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins crash the character-driven hour with cameos that outshine the hype. It’s a sharp, fan-thrilling showcase that sticks the landing.
I went into The Boys Season 5, Episode 5 ready for some nostalgic chaos, and it still managed to overdeliver. If you grew up on Supernatural, the Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki/Misha Collins mini-reunion is exactly the unhinged flavor you were hoping for — and, crucially, it actually matters to the story The Boys is telling in its final season.
Quick heads up: spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 5, aka One-Shots.
The episode: a bunch of one-offs that actually connect
One-Shots spends its hour-ish runtime hopping through character-focused vignettes. A few quick hits before we get to the reunion everyone is talking about:
• Firecracker gets surprising layers... and then Homelander kills her. Brutal, but very The Boys.
• Sister Sage keeps quietly laying the groundwork for a turn. The show keeps stacking those bricks.
• Butcher has not totally lost his soul yet. It shows.
The reunion you wanted, with a nasty little point
The standout is the one-shot from Soldier Boy’s perspective. Soldier Boy and Homelander head to Los Angeles to find Mister Marathon (Jared Padalecki), looking for intel on the missing V1 serum. Things go sideways fast.
The warm-up is a celebrity poker game packed with winks — yes, Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani pop in — a very meta appetizer that tees up what follows. Then Soldier Boy and Mister Marathon hit it off in the trashiest way possible: drugs, smack talk, and making fun of Homelander like it’s an R-rated convention panel. The vibe shifts when Mister Marathon and Malchemical (Misha Collins) try to recruit Soldier Boy to take out Homelander and slide into his spot. That pitch detonates into a gloriously idiotic, bloody showdown where Soldier Boy turns Mister Marathon’s famous friends into very unwilling human shields. It’s hysterical, it’s gross, and it’s easily among the season’s best scenes.
How the nods land without taking over
What I liked most: the show doesn’t just coast on old chemistry. The Supernatural trio is playing totally different archetypes, and their dynamic feels fresh — with just enough winks to make fans grin. The best sight gags are on the walls: Mister Marathon’s movie posters. You get digs at other superhero brands plus two delicious Supernatural-flavored titles — Ghost Runner 2: Supernatural Speedster and Mr. Marathon: Vampire Hunter. That’s the right level of tip-of-the-cap without turning the episode into a reunion special.
It’s funny, but it also moves the ball
This isn’t filler. The LA detour nudges Soldier Boy’s character forward and edges him closer to Homelander ideologically — which is terrible news for literally everyone else. If father and son track down Bombsight and lock down the V1, the regime they’re building becomes a nightmare to stop. The Boys have their work cut out for them.
Bottom line
One-Shots hits the sweet spot: it delivers a wildly entertaining Supernatural callback, doesn’t undercut the rest of the episode, and still pushes the main plot where it needs to go. If this ends up being the last time those three share the screen, it’s a fantastic capper. If not, I won’t complain about a Season 16 miracle.