The Boys manages to stuff this week’s episode with a handful of celebrity appearances, multiple POVs, and multiple bloody, unexpected deaths. But there’s one performance that stands out from the rest: That of Valorie Curry, who finally gets her chance to shine as Homelander’s fiercest supporter, Firecracker.
The Boys Season 5, Episode 5 offers viewers an inside look at Firecracker’s perspective, highlighting the cracks in her facade for the very first time. Homelander’s religious agenda comes to a head in Episode 5 as he, with Firecracker and Oh Father’s help, ramp up their plans of establishing him as America’s one true God. Firecracker is keeping up appearances by spearheading things, but she finds herself at odds with Homelander for the very first time as his agenda begins affecting her faith and people from her past.
**BEWARE: Major spoilers ahead for The Boys Season 5, Episode 5!**
But what Firecracker learns in Episode 5 is that no one is safe from Homelander’s agenda – not even her.
Curry told DECIDER in a recent chat that she “always knew” Firecracker was going to die, but she “was surprised she lasted as long as she did.”
Episode 5 truly showcases just far Firecracker is willing to go to further Homelander’s agenda, even if it means tossing aside her own beliefs and morals. She gladly did his bidding and spread his propaganda in a bid for power, ignoring the real-life ramifications it could have on people. When it comes to Firecracker’s fate, Curry revealed series creator Eric Kripke’s was partially inspired by a meme that was popularized on X ahead of the Trump administration that read, “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”
“Eric Kripke really wanted to explore the meme, or the trope of the ‘leopards won’t eat my face’ with her. And in order to make that point, the leopard must eat one’s face,” Curry said. “So, I knew that she was going to meet her demise, and probably at Homelander’s hand at some point.”
Knowing this was Firecracker’s farewell allowed Curry to take big swings with the character. Curry told DECIDER during a previous chat, “Embracing the fact that she’s a clown really allowed me to to be as bold as I needed to be.”
Noting Firecracker is “such a different character for me” compared to others she’s played, Curry said, “Everything on her is fake. You know what I mean? Everything. She’s almost completely lost in the performance of herself because she’s willing to be whatever will work for a crowd, will work for people. And embracing the fact that she’s a clown really allowed me to to be as bold as I needed to be.”
Keep reading to check out DECIDER’s chat with Curry to hear what she thought about Firecracker’s fate and her admittedly messy situationship with Jensen Ackles‘ Soldier Boy.
DECIDER: So I guess we should start at the end for now. So what was your reaction to learning Firecracker’s fate, and how was it filming that final scene with Antony Starr?
VALORIE CURRY: Well, I always knew she was going to die, like, from the time I joined the show, at some point she was going to die, because Eric Kripke really wanted to explore the meme, or the trope, or what have you, of the ‘leopards won’t eat my face’ with her. And in order to make that point, the leopard must eat one’s face. So, I knew that she was going to meet her demise, and probably at Homelander’s hand at some point. I was surprised she lasted as long as she did, because she was looking pretty unwell by the end of Season 4, but I was, you know, I was grateful that her death came out of this very character-based arc. Shooting that scene was great because I was lucky in that we shot my scenes for episode 5 sequentially. I really got to experience the arc, or the devolution, of Firecracker, and how broken she is by the time she enters that room. And the sort of devastation after the Truth Bomb show scene,… she’s coming in hot from that when the death scene happens, and that informs everything. So I was really grateful for that, because it allowed me to just bring so much to it and find so much that, I don’t know that I necessarily saw on first read on the page.
We got to see so much more of Firecracker’s character this episode, finally. I’d love to hear if you changed your approach to her character when approaching this episode?
I guess my approach didn’t change, but my character changed, you know? I was so glad that we got to see her without her mask on, because I had never seen her without her mask on, you know? I think the only moment there was, like, a flash of a moment with, with Annie in the apartment in Season 4, But even then, she is telling her story. She’s not truly dropped the mask. And she has so much her performance, and so much this persona, that I think even she has lost the sense of who she is. […]
Particularly in the scene with the Reverend – which was my favorite scene to shoot, I think, in the whole series, and I’m such a huge fan of W. Earl Brown who was my co-lead in that scene, – I felt like she was a child. I remember when I first read my audition for Firecracker, and it was that scene with Annie, it was so clear to me that she is still this wounded child, you know? And that pain and that anger is just so close to her skin. It is so close to the surface. And we see her as a child again with the Reverend. We get to understand why she is the way she is, where she came from, getting to just drop so much, even vocally, she changes, the accent changes. We know now how much the accent is part of the show. The whole way that I got to live in her body, getting to take off the boots and the suit, and the red lip, even just watching it back, I’m like, that red lip deserves its own credit, because it’s carrying a lot of weight. It was such a discovery for me, to get to see who she is without all that, because that is so… that has informed the character and the way that I inhabit her so much.
I was also really surprised to see her turn to Soldier Boy for help. Could you tell me a little bit about what you thought of those scenes with Jensen Ackles?
Well, the first scene, I love for her, because she has had a rough go. And she’s a very lonely character. I think that’s the other thing we kind of see with the scene with the Reverend, is how lonely she is. She’s theoretically an insider now, but she’s still really not. In the beginning of Season 5, we see how, at this point, Homelander’s kind of kicking her around like a dog, and she just wants to feel good. And in her normal life, before Vought, she knew how to wrap a man around her finger in 90 seconds, and I think it makes her feel good, I think it makes her feel powerful, that she can just sort of, like, seduce him like that.
She wants to get off. She wants to feel good for, like, a second, you know? She hasn’t felt good in so long, since she got there. From that very first scene, she hasn’t, she’s unguarded when she speaks to him in a way that we haven’t seen before. And maybe that’s it, she just gets a little too comfortable, you know? Like, he expresses his – not doubt, but just, like, how ridiculous he thinks the whole God thing is. And it gives her this moment of, like, ‘Oh, you too? Can we… no, no, no, no, no, no, no.’ You know what I mean? As soon as it’s out of her mouth, I do think she clearly regrets it, because he’s too close too Homelander to express that.
