Jensen Ackles Explains Soldier Boy's V1 Choice in The Boys Season 5 Episode 7
Jensen Ackles says the boys season 5 episode 7 will show more of why Soldier Boy handed Homelander the V1 in season five, episode six. The move came after Soldier Boy gave up the key to immortality and then watched Homelander inject himself at the end of the episode.
Ackles described the choice as “almost this passing on of the torch,” and said, “If you want to live like this and you want to deal with it, then be my guest.” He added, “I played this sense of, 'I hope you can do it better than I did,’ and giving his son a chance to be able to do that meant having to give him the V1,” before promising, “And then we’ll see in episode seven a little bit more of why he did that.”
Soldier Boy and Homelander
Soldier Boy has spent years treating Homelander as a rival he could not respect. In season three, he repeatedly dismissed him, and in season five, episode four, he betrayed Homelander by locking him in a supe-proof cell with enriched uranium at Fort Harmony.
That earlier breakup makes the V1 handoff harder to read as simple mercy. Homelander broke out of the cell and walked away instead of taking revenge in season five, episode four, and Ackles said that may have softened Soldier Boy’s heart.
Bombsight and the V1
In season five, episode six, The Boys tried to retrieve the last known vial of V1 from Bombsight, played by Mason Dye. The group kidnapped Golden Geisha, played by Naoko Mori, to draw him out, while Sister Sage called in Soldier Boy because she knew he hated Bombsight and believed no one hated Homelander more than he did.
Bombsight, a member of Soldier Boy’s first team, survived Dr. Frederick Vought’s first and most potent version of Compound V. During the confrontation, Soldier Boy offered to use his powers to remove the V1 from Bombsight’s system in exchange for the dose, then handed the vial to Homelander after getting it back.
Episode seven payoff
Homelander injected himself with V1 at the end of the episode, and Billy Butcher told the gang to run. That leaves episode seven to do the useful part of the job: explain whether Soldier Boy was making a tactical bargain, a father-son gesture, or both.
Ackles has already answered the emotional frame. “He’s kind of come to a point where he feels like, ‘Well, this is the only legacy that I have to leave the world with, and if I’m going to be here and I’m going to be stuck on this planet forever, then it might as well be my son, and we’ll just kind of figure it out together,’” he said. For viewers, the immediate takeaway is simple: the V1 handoff is not the end of the turn, just the point where the show finally starts explaining it.
