The Boys is one of the best shows on TV when it comes to focusing on multiple, disparate storylines at once. That said, season 5 Episode 4, "King of Hell," is a rare example of one arc massively outshining the other. It's not unusual for an episode to have a certain element that's more compelling than the other(s), but the imbalance is rarely quite so prominent as in "King of Hell." It's not an inherently bad installment; it's just a little frustrating.
With The Boys' final season now halfway done, "King of Hell" ends in such a way that the show can start to speed up as it surges toward the finish line. In many respects, the episode is perfectly suited to where it falls in season 5's running order. In others, it feels like mid-season filler from a show that has far more episodes to play with than just eight. The end result is an outing that is tricky to fairly appraise — but not impossible.
FULL SPOILERS beyond for The Boys season 5, Episode 4, "King of Hell."
Everything at Fort Harmony in "King of Hell" is peak The Boys
For all of the discord that's forever bubbling away in the background of the protagonists' interpersonal dynamics, it's rare that Karl Urban's Billy Butcher and company come to actual blows. There are certainly more than enough insults and disparaging comments hurled around throughout The Boys, but genuine physical showdowns between them aren't common. "King of Hell" finally allows that to happen, and it's the best part of the episode.
Although relatively conveniently set in motion by anger-making spores, the various fight scenes between members of The Boys' titular team are funny, nail-biting, and brilliantly choreographed. Plus, each actor perfectly adjusts their performance to seem more cruel than usual, with Jack Quaid's incensed version of Hughie standing out particularly well for me. It's all very subtle, until it's not. It's awesome.
Furthermore, Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy and Antony Starr's Homelander have their own, relatively self-contained arc at Fort Harmony that doesn't stand in the way of watching showdowns that we'll probably never see rematches for. One of the best sequences is seeing Homelander endure an uncharacteristic spell of physical weakness in the face of enriched uranium, a revelation so specific that it can't possibly come back before The Boys ends. Still, this is a good thing, as it seems too obvious as a path to the show's endgame. Finally, another sneak peek into Soldier Boy's dark past is always welcome, and we certainly got one of the best yet.
Annie deserved the reunion with her father, it should just have happened sooner
Erin Moriarty's Starlight has had her fractious relationship with her father mentioned before "King of Hell," but it's never been treated as an especially important storyline. So, while I see the logic in trying to offset the intense Fort Harmony scenes with something a little more emotional, I found myself sighing each time I was forced to leave the action and watch the scenes with Starlight.
It was a storyline that needed revisiting before the show ended, but maybe earlier in season 5 when things weren't heating up quite so much. If it absolutely had to be in "King of Hell," then the screen time should have been reduced. Nothing really came of it other than Starlight being encouraged to return to the fight, which was inevitably going to happen at some point anyway. None of these scenes were inherently bad, but they sat at odds with how great the rest of the episode was.
The narrative connective tissue in "King of Hell" had the perfect amount of screen time
Although Fort Harmony and Starlight's reunion with her father were at the core of "King of Hell," the episode made expert use of the remaining runtime. The Deep's (Chace Crawford) manosphere podcast arc teased a troublesome future in the few minutes it was given, and Vought's marketing plan to grant Homelander's request to position him as the USA's new lord and savior was about as joyously corporate as similar The Boys endeavors have been.
Two personal highlights from these ancillary mini-arcs were the ambiguity surrounding Ryan's (Cameron Crovetti) role in the battle to come, and the hard-to-read expression on Homelander's face as the episode ends. After spending the entire installment so sure that he deserves to be worshipped, "King of Hell" implies that Homelander's mental state has taken another dive, perhaps promising another left turn as The Boys wraps things up for good.
Episode rating: A-
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