Firecracker Is 'The Boys' Most Poignant Allegory (So Far)

WARNING: Spoilers for The Boys Season 5 below.

I’m not going to fault anyone who can’t stomach The Boys final season thanks to the events hitting way too close to home. It is freaking eerie, and if you want an escape from the real world, this season has not been it. Absolutely zero judgment there.

I, on the other hand, have been marveling at how Season 5 was written before the 2024 election, and yet, it’s been on a Simpsons-level run of predicting the future. Sucks for reality, but you have to give props for dropping an episode where Homelander (Antony Starr) decides he’s God barely 48 hours after Trump portrayed himself as Jesus in a Truth Social post. The showrunners tried to depict the most egomaniacal turn of events possible, and they still couldn’t outpace the real thing.

While shock value has been The Boys’ bread and butter — the episode I’m about to reference featured a particularly gratuitous death by eel as well as a celebrity bloodbath — Season 5 pulled a surprising rabbit out of the hat with a seemingly one-note character: Valorie Curry’s Firecracker.

Since her arrival in Season 4, Firecracker has been nothing more than a QAnon-style grifter, who debases herself for Homelander by taking pills that made her lactate, but at the expense of her health. After choosing not to have her heart explode, Firecracker found herself on the outs with the all-powerful Supe, which is where we find her in Season 5. She’s still a key part of Homelander’s propaganda machine, but he’s iced her out to the point that she sleeps with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) in a misguided fit of revenge. Homelander had no interest in Firecracker sexually, but getting with his dad does do a number on his ego, particularly as he enters his God Era.

In a welcomed move, the Season 5 episode “One Shots” elevates Firecracker beyond both parody and sex object. As Homelander prepares to reveal himself to the masses as the literal God, Firecracker is genuinely torn between her Christianity and her devotion to Homelander. She plays the faithful servant/propagandist, but she’s dangerously trying to slow roll this operation. The situation reaches a boiling point when Firecracker’s old pastor, who practically raised her, reaches out and asks for help. His Florida church is being targeted by Vought for not joining the fold of Homelander’s Democratic Church of America.

To her credit, Firecracker tries to spare her old pastor by appealing to Soldier Boy after their latest tryst. Like her, Soldier Boy is not on board with Homelander’s god complex, but he also doesn’t care about Firecracker or whatever she’s talking about. He’s more annoyed that she wasn’t really into it this time. Like father, like son.

Before going back on the air for her latest report, Firecracker’s assistant gives her a list of churches that continue to resist Homelander. One of them is her old place of worship, and she’s given instructions to go scorched earth. In what is easily the most well-acted scene in The Boys’ entire run, Firecracker delivers a gut-wrenching and deplorable condemnation of the one person who actually treated her with love and respect. Valorie Curry should win an Emmy for this performance alone.

As the episode pivots to a series of vignettes, we catch up with Firecracker as she’s standing outside her apartment. She ignores a call from her pastor and tosses the Jesus action figure she used to carry around as kid into the trash. Firecracker has completely sold her soul to Homelander, and surely, her devotion to this God will be rewarded. Except he’s menacingly sitting on her couch.

While off in LA with dear old dad, Homelander learned from Solider Boy that Firecracker has doubts about him being a God. His ego can’t have that, so he immediately fires her from The Seven. She’s free to go, but Firecracker makes one last ditch effort to secure her place next to Homelander’s side. She gives it everything she’s got arguing that she’s the only person who actually loves him, which she truly does. Firecracker literally committed blasphemy for him and threw the only father figure in her life to the wolves. Her words clearly move Homelander, and that becomes her undoing.

Knowing that this need for love is a weakness, Homelander impales Firecracker’s head onto an eagle statue and walks out of the room like he swatted a fly. That’s how her new God rewarded her faith. If the poignancy of that moment isn’t clear as day, I’m honestly jealous. What’s it like not knowing anything that’s happening in the world? It must be amazing.