The Boys Season 5, Episode 5: A Riveting Tribute to Iconic Twilight Zone Classic

The latest episode of “The Boys,” titled “One-Shots,” offers viewers a mix of humor and heartbreak as it delves into the lives of its eclectic characters. Among the standout moments are the antics of Terror the dog, contrasted with the grim, yet perhaps inevitable demise of Valorie Curry’s Firecracker. However, the episode’s most intriguing revelation is the emergence of a supe with a hidden agenda, and surprisingly, it’s not the notorious Homelander, played by Antony Starr.

Previously, in Episode 4 of Season 5, we were introduced to Sister Sage, portrayed by Susan Heyward, as a formidable new adversary to Homelander. In this episode, her true intentions are revealed to be far more sinister than even Homelander’s grandiose ambitions. Sage’s scheme for humanity’s demise draws unexpected parallels to the classic “The Twilight Zone” episode, “Time Enough at Last.”

In her chilling plan, Sister Sage envisions unleashing a supe virus to ignite a cataclysmic “World War Supe,” pitting supes against humans in a devastating global conflict. Her ultimate goal is to emerge as the sole survivor, hidden away in a bunker, with only Colby Minifie’s Ashley Barrett potentially by her side. This is all in pursuit of her peculiar dream: to spend her days reading in peace, free from any interruptions. Her opposition to Homelander stems from the knowledge that he would be a perpetual nuisance in her envisioned post-apocalyptic solitude.

Yet, Sage’s plan has a potential flaw she might not have considered. The dark twist at the end of “Time Enough at Last” serves as a cautionary tale; the protagonist finds himself surrounded by all the books he desires, only to be unable to read them due to losing his eyesight. Sage’s dystopian dream might lead to a similarly ironic fate.

Sister Sage’s “The Twilight Zone” plan may have a dark side that she hasn’t considered. After all, the seminal Season 1 episode of Rod Serling’s sci-fi anthology, “Time Enough at Last,” ends with the main character having all the books he could ever want, but no eyesight to read them.

“Time Enough at Last” is a must-watch “The Twilight Zone” episode that still hits hard. It stars Burgess Meredith as geeky book aficionado Henry Bemis, who’s hiding in his bank workplace’s vault to spend his lunch hour reading when a new type of nuclear weapon ends the world. As far as he knows, Henry is the sole survivor. He starts out appropriately wrecked, but soon figures out that he has enough supplies to last a lifetime, and a massive stack of books from a local library to read without anyone ever telling him to do anything else again. Unfortunately, he breaks his glasses just as he begins his dream life, and his “time enough at last” turns from a personal paradise to a massively ironic hell. 

Firecracker and Sister Sage both joined “The Boys” in Season 4, and the former dies in “One-Shots.” Could “The Boys” be sneaky enough to use the same episode to stealthily hint that Sage will suffer the Henry Bemis-like fate of losing her eyesight, robbing her of her beloved books? 

“The Boys” Season 5 is streaming on Prime Video.