Anticlimactic end to everything. Let's start with the most obvious issue: the final showdown with Homelander isn't even more intense than Herogasm. It replicates that 3-vs-1 fight, but delivers only a minuscule fraction of its impact. The V1 doesn't even make any difference during their fight. And no, there's not even a moment of Homelander snapping against civilians, something the show had teased and many had expected across five seasons. And when it finally comes down to Butcher vs Homelander, the supposed ultimate showdown, it barely lasts a few minutes. It references the comics showdown, but weakly. The scene feels more interested in making Homelander a theatrical embarrassment than actually dealing with the years of enmity between them. Even Butcher's rage feels toned down. He beat Mesmer and Gunpowder with more ferocious hatred than he brings to the man who ruined his life. The editing and SFX is so weak and much less punchy here than in those fights. Everything the show set up across seven years of 5 seasons (and 2 seasons of Gen V) amounts to almost nothing. Ryan, supposedly the ultimate weapon against Homelander, ends up meaning nothing. Even the consequence of him being the son of the most powerful supe is brushed off instantly. Butcher's V-induced cancer is similarly brushed off instantly. Marie Moreau and Gen V, who were also set up as the weapon against Homelander, have been hanging in the background this whole season, and they stayed there in the background. After the showdown, the show once again tries to reference the comics with the final moments between Hughie and Butcher, but it is so rushed that the decision leading to Butcher's choice feels dumbfounding. By that point, the dust has already settled. The finale has to invent excuses to escalate things again, and it becomes stupid. In general I feel like so much is swept under the rug. Oh Father's demise is so mundane. The Deep's fate, as the last remaining member of The Seven, is expected but also thrown aside too quickly. They don't even do anything meaningful with his gills, which earlier seasons had already established as his ultimate weakness. By the credits, The Boys' adventure has ended, and most of them get a happy ending. But because the show sweeps so much under the rug, the status quo barely changes. Vought persists. Bob Singer returns. It feels like we're back in Season 2. This could have been a scathing critique of how the rich and powerful survive everything, if the show had stayed true to the earlier seasons' criticism of supe power. Butcher's final message could have worked beautifully. But because everything is rushed and anticlimactic, it just feels lazy, and worse, like setup for future spinoffs. The aftermath of Homelander's extravagant rule is barely explored beyond a news-anchor summary that lasts less than a minute. A sad, pathetic ending for a series that started with a genuinely diabolical run. Their planned spinoffs aren't worth it.

a damn good finale OI, FUCK OFF, YOU CUNTS

Told ya, it would be utter garbage. And it did.