I’ll be the first one to admit that The Boys and I have a complicated relationship. Eric Kripke’s ultra-gory superhero satire was cutting-edge in its first few seasons, and its spinoff, Gen V, adapted that concept remarkably well to a younger audience. However, as The Boys reached Season 3, a problem became very apparent: the entire show was building up to a final confrontation between The Boys and Homelander, but with each season and each renewal, that final fight was kicked down the road, and it was difficult not to see how the plot was treading water.Now, The Boys are back in town one last time, and that promise of finality is exactly what the show needed. With an epic finale to build to, everything about the series clicks into place: the story’s stakes feel immediate, the satire finds a new angle that feels completely fresh, and even the format of the series itself evolves. The Boys may be ending, but that’s exactly what it needed to secure its legacy as one of the best superhero shows of all time. At the end of The Boys Season 4, Homelander (Antony Starr) reached new heights of his already-unprecedented power. With a puppet leader in the Oval Office, Vought (and by extension Homelander) had nothing in its way for world domination, and Hughie (Jack Quaid), Frenchie (Tomer Capone), and Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso) were sent to a “freedom camp,” where they’ve been for the last year. But when Annie January (Erin Moriarty), formerly Starlight, makes a big move against Homelander, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) attempts to get the whole gang together for one final mission — one that could eliminate supes forever. The gang’s all back together one last time in The Boys Season 5. | Amazon Prime VideoMeanwhile, Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), freshly infected with Compound V, is now Vice President of the United States, but is so under Homelander’s thumb that even as part of her tells her to do the right thing, she’s terrified to cross Homelander. And for good reason: Homelander is on a tear unlike any other in this season, to the point where you can tell when an episode is going to end when he murders a major character. As established in Episode 1, nobody is safe, and it’s incredibly rare for everyone at the start of the episode to make it to the end credits alive. But Homelander still finds time for his hobbies, including reviving his father, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), who has one of the best storylines of the season, probably due to the fact that his prequel series, Vought Rising, will carry on the franchise after the main series is over. He’s also taken up a new dream, basically the only title he has yet to conquer: God. One of the biggest critiques about the later seasons of The Boys is that the series had become unrecognizable from the other superhero franchises it set out to satirize. While some of that remains — there’s a self-indulgent running gag about how hard it is to write finales — most of this issue is cleared up by focusing on religious satire, often more resembling The Righteous Gemstones than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the core of this plotline is Oh Father (Daveed Diggs), a supe mega-preacher who immediately hitches his apple wagon to Homelander’s new aspiration, much to the chagrin of Firecracker (Valorie Curry), who isn’t as willing to throw away the faith she was raised with. The introduction of Oh Father allows The Boys to shift its cutting gaze to the entire institution of Christianity. | Amazon Prime Video Of the seven episodes critics were given for review, there’s an obvious standout: Episode 5, which takes an anthological look at the characters that might not get the spotlight, including the new Black Noir, Sister Sage, and even Terror, Butcher’s dog. In each of its many segments, we get the most nuanced storytelling we’ve ever seen on this series. It’s also the most star-studded episode by far, and the one most narratively satisfying.In a way, every episode this season could serve as a fitting wrap-up to the series, dealing with issues of sacrifice, closure, and questions about the nature of normalcy, all the themes you expect to see from a final season. The end is never treated as something to dread, but something to look forward to, and that outlook is what makes all the difference. Critics may not have been shown the finale, but even these seven episodes have healed my relationship with this show. I’ll still have my nitpicks, but I can’t deny the truth: this is the superhero show that will define the last 20 years, and frankly, no other story could do this era justice. The Boys Season 5 premieres on Prime Video on Wednesday, April 8.