In the very first scene of The Boys season five, Annie is on a mission. She works with a tech guy to sabotage Homelander’s latest event and show the Flight 37 video to the masses. In case you forgot, that’s the clip where Homelander clearly threatens desperate passengers before leaving them to die. It didn’t quite work the way she thought it would, and things got a little complicated when Black Noir II showed up, too. But, after that scene, Black Noir II was acting strange in The Boys season five. And I think I know why.
We see Noir and the Deep have a tense meeting with Homelander. He’s upset that Annie was able to get that video out and is also not happy that they haven’t found A-Train. Black Noir II remains silent in front of Homelander, even when questioned. But, as we know, this new Black Noir is actually pretty chatty otherwise, especially with people like the Deep. However, when they are alone in the hallway, Noir doesn’t say a word. Sure, he could’ve been annoyed with the Deep in general. But I don’t think that’s the case. Here’s my theory about Black Noir II, specifically that he’s possibly dead or at least being held hostage.
Annie was certainly not working totally alone in that first scene. Sure, the tech guy was in on it, but there had to be someone else from the resistance as well. We know it wasn’t A-Train, as he was with his family over in France. The Gen V kids are up to their own activities of liberation. Kimiko was in another country and the rest of the Boys, save for Butcher, were locked up at the freedom camp. That only leaves one person for her to work with: Polarity. He survived the events of Gen V season two and promised the group that his work wasn’t done yet.
And, thanks to Marie, his powers are sharper than ever. Annie managed to get the upper hand on Black Noir II in that control room, knocking him out. It would have been easy for them to drag Noir II away and either kill him or hold him captive somewhere so Polarity could take his suit. He’s an in shape dude and has the maturity and poise to pull off this dangerous kind of mission. Homelander can sense a person’s nervously beating heart, after all. Annie and the Boys need an inside person close to Homelander whom he still trusts to a degree.
Polarity also has some personal beef with Black Noir II. In Gen V season two, he was driving Doug, a man who had been mind controlled by Thomas Godolkin for decades, to somewhere safe. The duo even have a touching conversation in the car. Unfortunately, Noir II shows up, killing Doug and taking Polarity to be locked up. Polarity escaped after Sage allowed him to for reasons that still aren’t totally clear.
We know that the Deep is not totally aligned with Homelander because he knew where A-Train was. Sage is also plotting something against Homelander in a sense, too. So why not have Black Noir II turn out to be Polarity in disguise when the time is right? Maybe the resistance runs deeper than what meets the eye…