Editorials
‘The Boys’ Will Be ‘The Boys’: The Seven Gnarliest Kills in the Series So Far
The Boys are back in town. After four seasons absolutely roasting the superhero genre (and life as we generally know it), Eric Kripke and his crew have proven time and time again that no one does viscera quite like Homelander, Butcher, and their ragtag bunch of misfits. With the final season of the clever Prime Video comic book adaptation now on the horizon, the show’s insatiable appetite for carnage has excitement at an all-time high. Promised to be the last, things are guaranteed to get messy, and no one is safe.
So, in honor of season five for the gloriously depraved series, here are The Seven (get it?) gnarliest kills the show has delivered so far.
Spoilers abound: read at your own risk.
Kimiko and the Acid Vomit (S2E6)
Let’s just say it — The Boys would be nothing without Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara). With her fierce nature, intense skills, and ability to heal quickly, Kimiko proves herself an invaluable asset to the team and to their ability to actually get shit done without dying. Whether it’s ripping off faces, stabbing dildos through eyeballs, sawing off her own limb, or clawing someone’s face off while listening to “Maniac” by Michael Sembello, there are any number of worthy Kimiko scenes that could make this list. And yet, sometimes it’s the simple ones that prove the most disturbing.
During the mission to infiltrate the mysterious Sage Grove Center, Kimiko, Frenchie, Lamplighter, and M.M. are interrupted by a supe patient with the ability to vomit acid. After nearly killing Lamplighter, Kimiko pulls the supe off him and stomps down hard on the supe’s stomach, causing him to vomit up acid all over his own face. As the acid eats through the man’s own face and skull, the rest can’t help but watch in utter shock and disgust. Rightfully so.
Butcher Kills Victoria Neuman (S4E8)
Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) was always a bit of an enigma when it came to her allegiances and alliances on The Boys. As a congresswoman and director of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, she was well-versed in the rules of politics and held her cards close to her chest. Especially, when those cards came to her own special set of supe skills. This ambiguity ultimately made her death feel like a genuine shock, compounded by the fact that it was at the hands, or rather tentacles, of Butcher (Karl Urban), who literally ripped her apart in a truly brutal fashion for all her former friends to see.
Vought on Ice (S4E3)
The Boys loves a good setpiece, and few are more gleefully, gloriously bloody than the Vought on Ice massacre scene. As Homelander (Antony Starr) pursues Hughie through the air duct system, a bevy of ice skaters is rehearsing their routine for the Vought-approved song, “Let’s Put the Christ Back in Christmas.” As the metaphorical shit begins to hit the fan, M.M. (Laz Alonso) distracts Homelander with the stage lights, leading him to laser a poor skater in half mid-routine. Understandably, the rest of the skaters panic, leading to multiple other ice skate-related deaths and injuries that are as hilarious as they are harrowing.
A-Train Kills Robin (S1E1)
Truly one of the best tone-setting sequences ever, the death of Robin in the first episode of The Boys instantly lets audiences know what they’re in for. As Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Robin share a heartfelt conversation while strolling down the street, Robin takes one little step off the curb and literally explodes as A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), hopped up on Compound V, runs right through her. Unfolding in slow motion, blood, guts, and bone hang in the air as Hughie looks down to see he’s still holding what remains of Robin’s hands. It’s gross. It’s sad. It’s gory. It’s the event that kicks off the whole series and Hughie’s involvement with The Boys.
Termite Sneezes (S3E1)
An ancillary supe, Termite (Brett Geddes), can shrink to super-tiny size. Like many supes, Termite uses his powers for more than just professional purposes. Let’s just say, sex for supes can be complicated. During one such sexual encounter, Termite snorts some cocaine, shrinks down, and consentually crawls into the urethra of a lover. This soon proves to be a terrible plan for all involved as the drugs irritate Termite’s nostrils, causing him to sneeze, blowing him back up to his normal size, and blowing his lover to bits from the inside out. Need we say more?
A-Train and Blue Hawk Go For a Run (S3E6)
Despite being the fastest man in the world, A-Train’s character journey throughout the series is anything but linear. Continuously confronted by his moral compass, identity, place within The Seven, and physical limitations, he’s a character that steps across the line separating hero from villain on more than one occasion. That said, he’s a character eternally worth rooting for. Rarely is this fact more evident than in Season 3 when he confronts Blue Hawk (Nick Wechsler), a racist, violent, manipulative supe.
Taking place after the infamous “Herogasm,” A-Train puts his own life at risk when he goes for a run, dragging Blue Hawk, nearly naked, along the asphalt behind him. Not only are the visuals absolutely horrific as Blue Hawk gets shredded in mere seconds, but it’s a prime example of how art so often imitates life within the world of The Boys, paying tribute to the tragic death of James Byrd Jr. in 1998. Unsettling and grisly on multiple levels, Blue Hawk’s death becomes a reckoning moment for A-Train, sparking a character transformation that continues to unfold.
Webweaver Splits (S4E7)
Webweaver is one of the grossest, most uncomfortable supeever to grace the serieses. In The Boys, that’s saying something. Addicted to heroin enemas, Webweaver’s weakness is exploited by Butcher and used to garner information about Homelander and Vought. This ultimately gets revealed in a nauseating interrogation scene involving Firecracker, Homelander, and Webweaver. Even after profusely apologizing for leaking info and promising never to do it again, Homelander isn’t feeling particularly understanding in this moment. Disgusted and angry, Homelander slowly rips Webweaver limb from limb, heightening the disgustingness of the scene to a whole other level.
Honorable Mentions:
- Homelander Puts Frank ‘n the Oven (S4E4)
- Hughie Pushes Translucent’s Button (S1E2)
- Lucy the Whale (S2E3)
- The Red Congressional Hearing (S2E7)
- Hughie’s Dad in the Hospital (S4E5)
The fifth and final season of The Boys premieres exclusively on Prime Video on April 8, 2026.
The Evil Dead universe expands this weekend with the arrival of Evil Dead Burn in theaters, unleashing a demonic siege upon a grieving family. Director Sébastien Vaniček doles out a gauntlet of pain from beginning to end, and that includes the credits.
While Evil Dead Rise skipped out on credit scenes, Evil Dead Burn follows 2013’s Evil Dead with the inclusion of a mid-credit scene and a post-credit scene, extending the Deadite mayhem to the very end.
Vaniček uses the mid-credit scene for levity, injecting one last punchline of gallows humor regarding the Price family. It also raises questions on where that carnage leads. But it’s the post-credit scene that holds larger franchise implications, sure to get fans talking.
It also doesn’t make much sense.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead!
Evil Dead Burn directly ties to Evil Dead Rise, with a possessed Jessica (portrayed in the new movie by Greta Van Den Brink) brutally dispatches a pair of fishermen before leaving the lake in search of those in possession of the Kandarian dagger: the Price family. Deadite Jessica kicks off a new wave of terror when she targets eldest son Will (George Pullar), using him as a Trojan horse into his family.
The Evil Dead Rise connections come full circle in Burn’s post-credit scene, bringing back a fan-favorite Deadite.
In this scene, the daughter of the cremator hired to handle Will’s remains gets curious about a shelf of unclaimed ashes. Among them are the ashes of Ellie Bixler. The girl, left alone while her mom is tending to a client, hears a voice she mistakes for her mother. It’s not.
The voice guides her to a mirror, where she sees not her reflection but that of Deadite Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland). Ellie wastes no time dispatching the child, claiming with a grin, “Mommy’s back.“
Sutherland’s Deadite performance remains a standout in this franchise, but Ellie’s appearance here doesn’t make much sense beyond fan service. Evil Dead Rise final girl Beth (Lily Sullivan) reduces Ellie, who’d assimilated into the Marauder, to a bloody pulp via tree shredder in the film’s climax. There’s not a lot of flesh or sinew left to cremate, to start. To really get into semantics, the Marauder was an amalgam of multiple Deadites in one, so separating her remains from, say, Danny’s (Morgan Davies) or the neighbors seems like an impossible task.
The Marauder in Evil Dead Rise
It’s also jarring in that Deadites tend to prefer to make their torment personal. Ellie has zero connection to this random child. To further nitpick, there are likely much closer crematoriums to Ellie’s home, even if the lake and Price household are in the general region.
Most of all, Vaniček plays so fast and loose with the Deadite possession rules that this scene breaks from the established norms in a confusing way. There’s no dagger here or incantation to summon a demon, so it’s not clear how just being in the presence of her ashes summons her here.
Does any of this really matter? Not at all. The haplessness of this scene’s inclusion doesn’t seem to suggest anything other than a fun momentary reprise of a fan favorite character. It does, however, seem to leave the door wide open for Ellie’s full return.
It’ll be a while before we find out if that is indeed the intention behind this scene; the next is Evil Dead Wrath from director Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County) set for theatrical release on April 7, 2028. It’ll predate all Evil Dead films with its 1972 setting.
Evil Dead Rise
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