The Boys' First Big Season 5 Death Confused Me More Than It Moved Me

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet streamed The Boys’ Season 5 premiere via Amazon Prime subscription, so be warned! [Cue the airhorn on Black Noir’s podcast soundboard.]

The critic-approved final season of The Boys finally arrived last week — or at least the first two episodes did — and with them came the return of Love Sausage and his extremely lengthy (and violent) manhood. But watching Mother’s Milk once again face off against the well-endowed villain wasn’t the most talked-about moment from the opening salvo. Rather, that distinction went to one of the more shocking deaths to hit the 2026 TV schedule thus far, with Jessie T. Usher’s speedster A-Train getting fatally derailed by Homelander.

The death itself follows the truly great moment where A-Train chuckles in Homelander’s gobsmacked face just before his neck is snapped. Given the former Seven member’s death was fully inevitable, the moment itself wasn’t as shocking as seeing it play out before Season 5’s first hour ended. But I’m taking some issue with the precise way it went down, as the logic behind it all doesn’t quite add up to me.

I’m Perfectly Fine With A-Train’s Death Being A Callback To Robin’s Death In The Very First Episode

Entirely on a thematic level, I think it makes abundant sense for the writers to make A-Train’s final act of mercy be a direct reversal of how audiences first met him, when he obliterated the body of Hughie’s girlfriend by running straight through her. That all-time horrifying Boys moment is what kicked off Hughie’s whole anti-Supes arc, and what looped him into Butcher’s vigilante group.

So it makes cosmic sense that one of his final acts was drawing Homelander away from killing Hughie, in spite of all past animosity. I feel like he would have done the same thing even if another protagonist was in the line of fire, save for Butcher, but there's extra meaning with Hughie.

As well, the episode gave us a last bit of "all is well now" closure between A-Train and his brother Nathan, which worked as something of a neon sign alerting everyone that the redeemed speedster would be taken out of commission before much longer. His brother's kind words, plus The Deep's ignorant ones, helped bring A-Train to making the heroic decision that doomed him. That all tracks.

But it’s his other final act, where he clumsily avoids turning another young woman into Jackson Pollock-spatter, that took me out of the moment entirely.

Almost Everything Else About A-Train’s Death Sequence Just Confused Me

For all that I can buy into the emotional logic and poetic justice imbued in A-Train’s death scene, I’m having trouble coming to terms with several of the moments that led to it. Here are some of those details that are tripping me up.

• Even if A-Train is running in a zigzag motion, Homelander isn’t an alligator, and isn’t shooting projectiles. So there’s no real reason why A-Train should have been able to avoid getting sliced in half by Homelander’s swivel-headed laser blasts. Are the lasers not continuous? Was A-Train just ducking and jumping at THE most opportune moments?
• The Boys showed off A-Train’s speedy precision inside the freedom camp just before the Homelander chase, where he more or less stopped time in front of Homelander to save Hughie & Co. While being chased, however, A-Train doesn’t seem to have this ability, or else he would have been able to more easily sidestep seemingly the only obstacle on this barren street.
• This show has made a strong point of noting that A-Train was high off Compound V when he obliterated Robin, without exactly excusing him for it, but certainly indicating that he was too effed up to avoid her. Now presumably more sober than he was then, A-Train should have been able to avoid this woman without it turning into a woods-destroying catastrophe.
• I get that having Homelander chasing him is a distraction, but what sense did it make for A-Train to look over his shoulder right at that moment? Did he think Homelander wasn’t there anymore? Also, a speedster turning their head back and forward again should conceivably happen way too quickly to be the catalyst here. If that’s the case, just him blinking would be near disastrous.
• As a speedster, wouldn’t city streets and neighborhoods be the worst place to aim for when zipping around, especially when being chased? That’s literally where all the people are. I get that it’s easier on the feet, and that A-Train is better about dodging people outside of pursuits, but the first step in this plan should have been only running through non-populated areas. Even if it’s the middle of the night.

One way that my dorky brain would probably accept this scenario without further issue would be if we saw a supercut showing off hundreds of other times A-Train slipped up while narrowly avoiding open car doors, unhoused citizens, wandering pets, frisbees gone askew, or any number of other unsuspecting obstacles in his path. If he's going through this on a weekly basis, if not more frequently, I can more easily buy into this mishap causing his fate to be sealed. Or neck-snapped, more specifically.

I get that this is my own hang-up, that others might not agree, and also that it's not showrunner Eric Kripke's job to please every viewer with every moment. So in the long run, I guess I don't think it was THAT diabolical. Although I do wish A-Train had been able to physically embarrass The Deep after dismantling the aquatic antagonist's flimsy confidence. If we'd have seen a lightning-fast one-two combo to his singing gills, the details behind A-Train's death might not have phased me at all.

Okay, that's a lie, but still. The Deep needs to get his own neck BRO-ken. Nailed it.

The Boys will keep building up its Season 5 body count every Tuesday on Prime Video. Be sure to have a box of (Teenage) Kix and — [licks lips] — milk ready for that morning's viewing. Or whatever time of day.