When season 5 of The Boys starts on April 8, 2026, Homelander will be at his strongest. He’s practically in charge of the United States, with President Calhoun under his thumb. His greatest enemies, the Boys, are either in hiding or imprisoned. Vought is still under his control, giving him the ability to influence the media.
Homelander seems to be virtually unstoppable. Which is why this would be the perfect time for the footage of Flight 37 to pop up.
For anyone who needs a refresher, it’s the recording of Homelander abandoning a plane full of passengers to die after he accidentally destroyed the controls with his heat vision. Queen Maeve and Starlight have used it to blackmail him in seasons 2 and 3 respectively, only to never bring it up again.
Now we’re heading into the final season and that footage is still out there somewhere. It’s just a matter of whether it’ll see the light of day.
Flight 37 is different from Homelander’s other crimes
Homelander has done plenty of horrific things over the course of the series. He’s murdered innocent people, raped Butcher’s wife Becca, humiliated his teammates in The Seven, maintained an abusive relationship with Queen Maeve even after the two stopped dating, tried to corrupt his son Ryan, etc. But Flight 37 is low even for Homelander.
Every terrible thing Homelander does comes from a place of power. He does whatever he wants because he knows no one will stop him.
Flight 37 is different. He wasn’t the overconfident, All-American hero he projects to the world. Instead, he was reckless, panicking and scared of the consequences of his failure. He left hundreds of people to die because failure was worse than mass murder. The recording is proof he’s nothing but a fraud.
The footage of Flight 37 could be enough to weaken his hold over the American people. His supporters can forgive brutality and a few gruesome murders. But there’s no way the entire country can dismiss a plane crash that could have been prevented as “no big deal”.
Why hasn’t the footage of Flight 37 leaked already?
Introducing the Flight 37 footage back in season 2 and never doing anything meaningful with it is sloppy storytelling.
Yes, Homelander has stated that if the footage was released to the public, the mask drops. He’ll abandon his desire to be loved and embrace being a monster. Abandoning the Flight 37 arc is supposed to be a sign that the Boys are backed into a corner with no means of reigning Homelander in.
The thing is, Homelander has been actively trying to break from his pathological need to be loved by the public. He’s been openly more aggressive, even killing people in public and has faced zero consequences for his actions. Worse, his fanbase is growing because they’re loving this side of him, which has given him more influence.
The show went out of its way to establish that this footage exists, and that it could ruin Homelander. Not using it in the final season, when the stakes have never been higher, would be a complete waste.
The three characters who could leak the recording
If the footage does surface in season 5, there are three possible candidates who would be behind the leak.
Starlight (Annie January ) is the obvious answer. She’s been working to expose Vought and Homelander for years. Being the face and leader of the anti-Homelander resistance, it makes sense that Annie would track down the footage and release it. She also has the media savvy to make the most of the situation.
However, her public image and reputation went into the toilet thanks to Vought’s machinations. Even if she does leak the recording, would the public believe her? Homelander could always dismiss the footage as being faked (in fact, it would be a good way to satire how AI has made it difficult to discern what’s real or fake). It would be a dangerous game of “he said, she said” that takes the attention away from Homelander’s authoritarian regime.
Ryan releasing the footage would be an interesting choice. Grace Mallory told him about Flight 37 in the season 4 finale, so he already knows what his father did. If Ryan gets his hands on the footage, it could be the breaking point that finally severs his connection to his father.
For Homelander, it would be the ultimate betrayal. The one person whose love Homelander desperately craves would be the one who destroys him. It’s a gut punch he might not be able to recover from.
Queen Maeve herself is the wildcard. She’s the one who first used it to blackmail Homelander, so it would be nice to see her finish what she started.
But would she go through with it? As of season 3, Maeve is powerless, and has left the country with her girlfriend Elena. She’s been hiding from Homelander for years. At the same time, seeing Homelander running the country could disgust her enough to pick one last fight with him.
Would anyone care at this point?
By the end of season 4, a significant portion of the population has been radicalized by Homelander and Vought’s propaganda. They’ve either accepted or ignored his violence up to this point. Would a recording of him abandoning a plane be enough to horrify them, or would they find a way to rationalize it?
The Boys has acted as a mirror for how people embrace the corruptive influence of conservative politicians and influencers. Releasing the footage and watching it not make a difference wouldn’t be out of place for the show.
If I had to guess, the footage will rear its ugly head at some point before the series finale. It’s just a matter of who peaks it and what happens afterwards. Will Homelander’s control over the media and the government allow him to suppress it? Will he double down and become even more vicious?
Flight 37 always symbolized Homelander’s cowardice. The final season should force him to face that.
