Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2!
The Boys fans have been warned that no one is safe in the show’s final season, and the first episode is a stark reminder of that fact. “Fifteen Inches of Sheer Dynamite” ends with the tragic death of a long-running character, emphasis on “running.” That’s right, Jessie T. Usher’s A-Train is the first major character to meet his end in Season 5.
A-Train dies at the hands of his former ally Homelander (Antony Starr). Having defected from The Seven and joined Starlight’s (Erin Moriarty) resistance in Season 4, A-Train had a big target on his back coming into Season 5. Ultimately, A-Train proved not quite fast enough to outrun his vindictive ex-teammate. Homelander snaps A-Train’s neck, but not before A-Train laughs and ridicules him, wondering why he was ever so afraid of him in the first place.
“When I say we, I mean the writers, we had decided a while ago that A-Train should probably be the first to go,” showrunner Eric Kripke told IGN in a recent interview. “It felt like Homelander’s anger towards him would be so red-hot that it was difficult to figure out a way to write around.”
As Kripke notes, there’s a certain poetic justice to the way A-Train dies in this episode. Back in the series premiere, A-Train committed manslaughter in his debut scene, accidentally running through Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) girlfriend while pursuing a criminal. Here, A-Train is only captured by Homelander because he dodges an innocent bystander and loses his footing.
“I think it was really important to us that A-Train go out a hero,” Kripke said. “And there’s this lovely moment that Paul Grillong wrote. Whereas in the very first time you saw A-Train in the pilot, he carelessly runs through a woman. And the very last time you see A-Train in the series, he very carefully dodges a woman, but that causes him to trip and cost him his life. But he goes out a hero, and it’s a really great bookend to show how much he’s grown as a character and how much more human and humane he’s become.”
