‘The Boys’ Season 5 Finale Just Made The Deep’s Death Even More Devastating With a Hidden Detail About Ambrosius

Few shows have ever committed to a running gag with as much genuine emotional investment as ‘The Boys‘ did with The Deep and his oceanic companions, and the series finale proved that commitment ran deeper than anyone watching at home could have known.

Throughout five seasons on Prime Video, Chace Crawford’s disgraced superhero built a bizarre and surprisingly poignant relationship with the sea creatures he claimed to protect. The creative peak of that relationship arrived when the show cast Tilda Swinton as Ambrosius, a talking octopus who became The Deep’s secret lover, with the two-time Academy Award winner lending genuine warmth and romantic longing to a role that could have been pure absurdity. The affair eventually unraveled when The Deep returned to his suite smelling of Sister Sage, and Ambrosius, aware of the betrayal, pleaded with him that their relationship was worth fighting for.

Rather than softening, his anger exploded, and he smashed her tank and left her to die from asphyxiation, destroying the only creature who had offered him something close to genuine love. It was the clearest signal the show had ever given that The Deep was beyond saving, and the finale made sure the ocean remembered.

In the series finale, Starlight overpowered The Deep and sent him flying into the ocean, the one place he had been desperately avoiding throughout the latter half of the season. A swarm of sharks surrounded him, and a giant octopus delivered the killing blow, wrapping around him and impaling his head with a tentacle before dragging his body underwater. The moment landed as darkly comic and satisfying in equal measure, but showrunner Eric Kripke has since revealed that the scene carried a layer of meaning that never made it to the screen.

Speaking after a panel, Kripke explained that the writers’ room had worked out dialogue making clear that the octopus responsible for The Deep’s death is Ambrosius’s cousin, confirming it as official canon even though the detail was cut from the final episode. “The canon is that it’s Ambrosius’s cousin,” Kripke said.

Crawford, who played The Deep across all five seasons, added his own spin on the reveal, saying he heard one of the fish say, “This is for Ambrosius.” The exchange suggests that what looked like random oceanic vengeance was actually something far more personal, a targeted act of justice carried out by family.

Kripke had previously described Ambrosius as The Deep’s best shot at happiness, someone he was too self-centered and self-hating to appreciate. The reveal that Sister Sage had been using The Deep all along meant that he killed the only creature in the world that genuinely loved and respected him. The octopus waiting for him at the bottom of the ocean was not random fate. It was a consequence that had been swimming toward him since Season 4.

‘The Boys’ has always excelled at burying its most meaningful storytelling inside its most outrageous choices, and this final detail is perhaps the purest example of that instinct the show ever produced. Now that Kripke has confirmed the canon, does knowing the octopus was Ambrosius’s cousin change how you feel about The Deep’s death?