The Boys Season 5, Episode 5 Kills Off A Major Member Of The Seven

Spoilers for "The Boys" Season 5, Episode 5, "One-Shots" follow.

Some fans dismissed "The Boys" Season 5, Episode 4 as filler — and they were right! "King of Hell" was a nothingburger that indulged in old conflicts without advancing them, a foolish move for the midpoint of a final season. But if "King of Hell" worried fans about the direction of this final season, the much superior "One-Shots" should reassure them. It's funny, because this episode — structured as vignettes focused on different characters — seems in concept much more like a "filler" episode. Yet plenty of consequential events happen in those vignettes, including some major casualties. One of them? Misty Gray/Firecracker (Valorie Curry). 

Introduced in Season 4, Firecracker has been sucking up to Homelander (Antony Starr) for power even though he's indifferent to her at best. Firecracker was even willing to make herself sick for him, taking medication to induce lactation so she could serve Homelander's taste for breast milk. It seemed like a layup prediction that the pills would kill Firecracker, but Season 5 revealed she quit taking them. Unfortunately for Firecracker, hanging around Homelander is even more hazardous to your health. 

Back in "King of Hell," Homelander "rewarded" Firecracker's devotion by assigning her to help design his new plan: creating a new church with himself as god. The Christian Firecracker grinned and bore it, but was clearly terrified by the megalomania. "One-Shots" shows she's having some second thoughts about betraying her faith, as she confesses during some pillow talk with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).

Big mistake, because Soldier Boy rats her out to Homelander, who counts these doubts as betrayal. He fires her from The Seven, and after Firecracker gives a glowing speech reaffirming her devotion? Homelander, unconvinced and repulsed, impulsively shoves her head into a nearby eagle statuette, killing her.

Firecracker's death is hardly surprising. I previously ranked her as the character most likely to die on "The Boys" Season 5, and even Valorie Curry was rooting for her to bite it. What is surprising is how the show makes you sympathize with her throughout "One-Shots" before it happens. It hardly redeems her, but it shows Firecracker wasn't born soulless, either. However, she buries her conscience beneath fear and ambition, and receives perfect karmic comeuppance for it. It's some truly impressive writing for a show that's never had much use for nuance. 

In "One-Shots," Firecracker reconnects with Reverend Greg Dupree (W. Earl Brown), who helped raise her. He's getting some heat for not converting his church to a Homelander house of worship, and tries to reawaken the sincere Christian little girl he once knew buried inside Firecracker. You hope it'll work, but it doesn't; Firecracker throws him under the bus on live TV. A moral test came her way, and she failed, choosing convenience over principle. While previously Firecracker has waffled between loathsome and pathetic, "One-Shots" will have you briefly cheering her on to take a stand — and yet you're unsurprised when she doesn't. 

Fitting her Christian background, Firecracker's arc in "One-Shots" is about selling her soul. Except "selling your soul" doesn't literally mean a red-skinned Devil shows up and offers you wealth, power, etc. if you sign your name in his book. It means choosing the easy and immoral way, or personal gain over moral rightness time and time again, until eventually that evil comes back and destroys you one way or another, as it does Firecracker.

Each and every one of us has, at one point, betrayed our principles in small or dramatic ways. Firecracker's choices to submit to Homelander hit hard because you can't say for sure that you wouldn't do the same if you had a vindictive, laser-eyed, man-child psychopath breathing down your neck. 

Yet at the same time, Firecracker's choices were ultimately her responsibility. She wanted to be a star all the world could see, and to do so, she helped destroy things she preached — the church, American democracy, etc. — all in service of the man who would eventually kill her. (Note the symbolism of Firecracker's death, too, impaled by the wings of an eagle, the symbol of America. Both Homelander and Soldier Boy, avatars of everything rotten about the USA, have eagle-inspired features on their costumes, too.)

"The Boys" creator Eric Kripke maintains that Homelander is based on President Donald Trump. In turn, he's also said Firecracker was inspired by Trump loyalist political/media figures (specifically name-checking former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene). Throughout both his career in business and politics, Trump has become infamous for firing even people who were publicly loyal to him, e.g. recently, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Firecracker's murder is an exaggerated version of that; this is the only way her story could ever end.

While A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) proved redemption isn't impossible on "The Boys," most characters squander the opportunity to change and only get worse. The Deep (Chace Crawford), Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), Homelander himself, etc. Vice President Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) also wrestles with her fear and her conscience in "One-Shots," and depending on what choice she makes by the season's end, she might go down as Firecracker's foil.

"The Boys" is streaming on Prime Video.