The Boys Season 5 Ends Its Downward Trend in the Thoroughly Entertaining Episode 'One-Shots'

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Boys Season 5, Episode 5! The Boys hasn't enjoyed the strongest track record since returning for its fifth and final season. While the premiere got things off to a solid start, the subsequent three episodes have failed to establish much momentum for the series. It really feels as though The Boys is stalling for time until the final showdown. Episode 5 doesn't necessarily address that fundamental complaint as much as it could, but this latest installment is just so entertaining that it's hard to find too much fault with it. "One-Shots" shakes up the structural formula in a fun way, opting for an almost "22 Short Films About Springfield" approach and giving us a series of interconnected vignettes focused on a variety of characters. Even Terror gets his moment in the sun, as we learn what exactly he sees when he humps his precious, tattered Homelander doll (kudos to Antony Starr for being such a good sport in this episode). Again, it's not the ideal way of pushing the Season 5 narrative forward, but it allows for some welcome character development on several fronts. Most notably, we get a surprisingly engaging subplot focused on Valo