Nobody goes into The Boys expecting sunshine and rainbows. The Prime Video TV series is notorious for leaving viewers traumatized in just about everyway imaginable. This is, after all, a show that deals with the worst that a super-human world has to offer, as its so-called superheroes are the last people that anyone would ever want saving them. They're the worst of the worst, and the show has to live up to those expectations with some truly shocking moments season after season.
Naturally, the stakes are so much higher in the fifth and final season. How does the series based on the Garth Ennis comic book of the same name outdo itself? Well, by upping the ante with more shocks, mess, chaos, and violence that only this show would be capable of pulling off. And the most recent episode of The Boys season 5 wasted no time in reminding viewers of that.
*** This article contains major SPOILERS from The Boys season 5 episode 7. If you don't want to know what happens in this one, don't read on. ***
The Boys season 5 kills off another major character in pentulimate episode
You could feel the stakes heading into The Boys season 5 episode 7, titled "The Frenchman, the Female, and the Man Called Mother's Milk". With a title like that, you could just tell that this was always going to be a big one. And that's not even taking the fact that it's the final season into account.
Homelander is now essentially immortal due to the fact that Soldier Boy got him the infamous V1 compound that also happens to increase his strength and durability (because that's what this world needs... stronger, unstoppable Supes). So when he arrived to deal with Kimiko, Sister Sage, and Frenchie, it all feels very final. The trio decide to hide in a zinc vent (as The Boys' big bad can't see through zinc... just as Superman can't see through lead-lined objects) but unfortunately there isn't any room for Frenchie, who selflessly decides to confront Homelander himself in the uranium cell.
After some choice words, Frenchie activates the uranium and it very quickly has an impact on both characters. Although, Homelander's durability allows him to withstand it easier than Frenchie does. What happens next is intentionally unclear, but we can see Homelander exit the cell and fly off into the skies, leaving behind a wounded, dying Frenchie, who is crawling his way out of the cell.
Kimiko runs to him, begging him not to leave her. He promises that he never will and kisses her, dying in her arms shortly afterwards. It's an emotional moment that moves even Billy Butcher, who is watching from afar. And while fans were understandably gutted about the beloved character's death, a lot of them were asking one very specific question: How did Frenchie die?
While The Boys season 5 left it ambiguous, it's implied that the effects of the uranium - the toxic radiation burns - simply got to him in the end, destroying his organs and leaving him very, very bloody. If Homelander had attacked him, he would have likely already been dead. The villain carried himself like he simply didn't have time for this, rushing Frenchie to answer his questions and not falling for his verbal goading (for the most part). No, when he realized that Sister Sage and Kimiko "weren't there", he likely just left the cell so that the uranium could finish off Frenchie for him.
This differs a great deal from how Frenchie dies in the comics. See, in the original source material, Frenchie outlasts Homelander, as he and Kimiko become victims of Billy Butcher's crusade against, well, everyone carrying any trace of Compound V in their systems. The pair are trapped in The Boys HQ when they are clearing up and spot a remote-controlled bomb that Butcher had planted their earlier. With no escape possible, Frenchie tells Kimiko that he loves her in French (just as he does in the series), and allow the explosion to consume them.
Frenchie's death is a tragic moment regardless of the portrayal. It's safe to say that The Boys season 5 episode 7 delivered on that front, breaking fans' hearts every moment of the way. And it has set the stage for a finale where, once again, no character is safe. When the credits roll on the show for good, very few of them could be left standing.
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