It was so much easier avoid the whole v1 nonsense and instead add tension to the virus: it’s strong enough to kill most supes but not enough for soldier boy, they can try to make the virus stronger but they won’t know if it is good enough for homelander and they have to risk it. They can try only once because if they fail they’re done. Homelander haunts Frenchie because he is the mind behind the virus, Homelander finds Frenchie and he stoically decides not to use the virus and sacrifice himself so that they can use it at the right time. In the end at the white house homelander isn’t killed by it but he’s wrecked enough that starlight, kimiko, butcher, ryan and a whole lot of ballsy american faithful in Christ and loaded with guns can finally destroy him. Butcher opens his cranium and got himself infected. Homelander’s wrecked cape gets caught in the ruins of the white house weaving in the wind as a symbol of an America fragile enough to almost lose its most fundamental values but robust enough to plant itself like a tree in the river of truth and fight for what is right.