Season 4 was a rough period for poor Annie, AKA Starlight. She got into a mostly one-sided feud with new supe villain Firecracker (Valerie Curry) that killed her reputation, she lost her powers for a bit, and then she spent ten days chained up to a radiator while a shapeshifting supe slept with (or more accurately, sexually assaulted) her boyfriend Hughie. The poor woman needs a win! This might be why her actress, Erin Moriarty, has a clear request for the fifth (and final) season: she wants Annie to finally get to kill the Deep (Chace Crawford).
“Listen, I personally, I think that as of this past season, all bets are off,” Moriarty said in a recent interview. “I think that we had certain predictions, ‘I think she should kill Homelander.’ I don’t think that want or desire will or can be met. Who knows? But she’s got to at least get The Deep, let me kill the fish guy at least, bare minimum for God’s sake.”
As fans recall, The Deep is the guy who basically started Annie’s journey from a naive believer in the system to a hardened rebel. In one of the show’s most controversial scenes, he raped her in the very first episode, on her first day joining the Seven. Since then, Annie and The Deep have been enemies, and they’ve also been on contrasting journeys: whereas Annie’s grown wiser and more courageous, the Deep has stayed a cowardly, vindictive creature. He’s played around with the idea of redemption, but he always goes right back to his selfish, power-hungry ways. Even the one element of his character that felt genuinely sympathetic, his love and respect for sea creatures, went out the window in season 4 when he murdered his squid girlfriend Ambrosius in a heated lover’s quarrel.
In other words: The Deep sucks, and he needs to be taken down. As Moriarty explained, “That concept of a cathartic karma. I think we really need it.”
The big question of season 5: who will kill who?
Moriarty added that although Annie should be the one to kill The Deep, she shouldn’t be actively seeking The Deep out. “It needs to be under circumstances where she’s provoked at first because that’s her,” Moriarty explained. “She can’t just go and kill someone. They need to attack her and it’s self-defense because she’s Annie, but she’s got to get someone and I feel like people weren’t rooting for that as much until this past season.”
It’s part of a conversation that feels awfully reminiscent of the ones going on in the “Game of Thrones” fandom in its final seasons. Fans debated who would be the one to kill off villains like Cersei, Euron, and the Night King, and they weren’t that happy with the answers the show gave them. There’s a certain sense of poetic justice fans always hope for, so it’s not satisfying when a villain gets killed off not by their long-term nemesis but by some other character they’ve barely interacted with.
That’s why when it comes to “The Boys,” most fans agree that Butcher should be the one to kill Homelander, and that if Butcher goes down a villainous route it should be Hughie who puts him down afterward. It’s also generally agreed that if Soldier Boy needs to die next season, Mother’s Milk should be the one to take him down. (Also, MM should totally get to kill Love Sausage too.)
Annie’s not the only one who should kill The Deep
“The Boys” has complicated some of these questions a bit, however; back in season 1 most fans would’ve wanted Hughie to kill A-Train in the end, for instance, but by now A-Train has redeemed himself to the point where this wouldn’t be fun or satisfying. Likewise, it’s hard not to wonder if Annie killing The Deep would be a little too predictable, a little too much of a step backward considering how much both characters have developed over the seasons. Annie has already gotten to beat the s*** out of The Deep in season 4, all while The Deep has thoroughly lost the respect of every single person in his life. The Deep is so far beneath Annie at this point, that it doesn’t feel like her killing him necessarily needs to happen.
Instead, I’d argue that A-Train should be the one to kill The Deep. The two characters serve as each other’s mirror image; both started off as terrible people with multiple chances to redeem themselves, but only A-Train grew for the better while The Deep only got worse. A-Train taking down The Deep might be the best way to conclude his five-season-long character arc and a good way to emphasize the tragedy of Deep’s many poor choices throughout the show. For the man who failed to change to be confronted in his final moments by the man who did, that sounds like as poetic a conclusion one could ask for.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. Much like how a certain “Game of Thrones” villain was defeated first by Jon and then by Sansa in a satisfying one-two punch, maybe The Deep gets taken down by Annie and A-Train working together. It could be a fun bit of karmic justice combined with a nice bit of reconciliation between Annie and The Deep, two long-time enemies who finally learn to trust each other. However it happens, fans can at least agree on one thing: The Deep needs to die. The final season won’t be complete until he’s left sleeping with the fishes, and not in a fun way. Solana Token Creator
