How The Boys Season 5 Will Address The Disappearance Of Jessie T. Usher's A-Train
The marketing team for the hit Prime Video superhero satire series "The Boys" has done some incredible work blurring the lines between the show's reality and our own reality with a strong social media presence for fictional mega-conglomerate Vought International. They've also helped bridge the gap between seasons with things like the hilarious fake Fox News-style segments "Seven on 7," and now they've provided a quick update on one of season 4's biggest loose ends... sort of.
In a post on the website formerly known as Twitter, the official Vought International account shared an update on the status of A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), who disappeared in the penultimate episode of the season after Homelander (Antony Starr) discovered that he was the mole inside the Seven secretly working for The Boys.
Vought has frequently spun the disappearance of various supes in different ways, even replacing Black Noir under everybody's noses after the original one died. For A-Train, the spin team has gone with a variation on the "top secret mission" story that was used to cover the disappearance of Translucent (Alex Hassell) back in "The Boys" season 1:
"Today, Vought can confirm A-Train is being deployed overseas effective immediately. We have to keep all details confidential, both for his safety and the safety of the free world. Let's wish him good luck and especially, God speed!"
So, where has A-Train really gone?
A-Train has gone through one of the most unlikely transformations over the course of the series, with a pretty incredible redemption arc beginning in "The Boys" season 4. After having his heart replaced with that of his arch-nemesis in season 3, A-Train started genuinely trying to make amends for his past mistakes by helping Hughie (Jack Quaid) and the Boys in their quest to take down Vought. Unfortunately that also left him with a giant target on his back, so he made himself scarce and had gone AWOL by the end of the season.
Pretending that he's overseas will protect Vought from having to find a replacement too soon and will help erase any messy questions, but for how long? A-Train gave up his identity as the mole in order to help Annie (Erin Moriarty) and Butcher (Karl Urban), after all, so it's entirely possible that he'll return in "The Boys" season 5 to finish what he started.
So what's next for A-Train, really? It's hard to tell, because his redemptive arc is pretty different from what happens in the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, as A-Train is even more completely beyond redemption in the source material. (Honestly, he's pretty far gone in the TV series, too, but compared to some of the other characters in the series he's not that bad?) Either way, "The Boys" showrunner Eric Kripke and the writing team have their work cut out for them when it comes to figuring out what to do with A-Train by the end. Will he do one more grand thing to "make up" for the death of his ex-girlfriend Popclaw? Will he chicken out at the last moment and get crushed by someone righteous? We'll have to wait and see, but I hope he gets one more chance to prove to Hughie that he's more than just another supe scumbag.