We finally got to the supe-killing virus in action in season 5 of The Boys, and the results are brutal.
When Frenchie released the Supe Virus in episode 2 “Teenage Kix”, Rock Hard’s skin breaks apart, exposing his skull and organs. Jetstreak spent his final moments puking up black bile before collapsing. And Soldier Boy, one of the most powerful supes alive, falls to the floor in agony with his skin covered in blisters. After his body was retrieved, even Homelander thought his father was dead and had a breakdown.
Then, right before the episode ended, Soldier Boy sat up inside his body bag. How did he survive an extremely dangerous virus designed specifically to kill supes like him?
The answer is that Soldier Boy isn’t like the supes we’ve seen on the show.
Why the Supe Virus Failed to Kill Soldier Boy
To understand how Soldier Boy survived, you have to look at how the virus was made.
Vought R&D researcher Dr. Sameer Shah designed the supe virus to target people who were injected with Temp V and the standard version of Compound V. The result was disturbingly effective against modern Supes, which we saw with Rock Hard and Jetstreak.
But Soldier Boy is a different case.
Decades earlier, Soldier Boy enlisted in the US army during World War II to volunteer to be a test subject for Frederick Vought’s original version of Compound V. Also known as V1 or V-One, it’s the earliest and most powerful iteration of the drug that gives supes their powers. It also prevents aging and illness, making subjects functionally immortal. Soldier Boy hasn’t aged a day since the 1940s.
When Sameer was working on the virus, he didn’t have access to V1. The old formula was lost because Vought didn’t want immortal superheroes they couldn’t control. Soldier Boy is currently the only known living supe with V1 in his system and he was in government custody, stuck in cryogenic storage during Sameer’s experiments.
What that means is when the virus entered Soldier Boy’s system, it couldn’t kill him because it wasn’t made to target V1. Exposure to the virus did damage him at first, but it only knocked him unconscious for several hours.
How Soldier Boy’s Survival Changes Everything
Showrunner Eric Kripke has confirmed that Soldier Boy’s survival is the MacGuffin the rest of the season will revolve around.
We know from the trailer that Homelander and the Boys figure out that Soldier Boy is still alive. If V1 is strong enough to protect Soldier Boy, then it could protect Homelander from the virus too. And if Homelander gets V1 into his bloodstream, he’ll be an unkillable menace. That’s the last thing humanity needs. An immortal, increasingly unstable, narcissistic manchild who can and will burn the world into the ground if you so much as have an erratic heartbeat around him.
For Butcher and the Boys, the stakes are just as high, but in a different way. If they can get their hands on V1 first, Sameer could make the virus powerful enough to kill Soldier Boy and Homelander. They could also use it to make Kimiko and Starlight immune to the virus.
Either way, Soldier Boy has become the most important character in The Boys fifth and final season.
The race for V1 is on. Whoever gets their hands on decides how the series will end.
Season 5 of The Boys is available to stream on Prime Video. New episodes premiere every Wednesday at 3:00 a.m. ET/12:00 a.m. PT until the series finale drops on May 20, 2026.
