Was ‘The Boys’ Season 4 Finale the Beginning of the End for a Beloved Character?
For the first few weeks of The Boys season 4, it looked like the fan-favorite superhero satire was losing its touch. And then, with an episode of V-ed up sheep flying in the air, and a season finale that changed the world, The Boys was back to being a diabolical delight! As Butcher would say, “Daddy’s home!”
Oi! Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 4!
Speaking of Butcher, our current not-so-favorite member of The Boys has not been himself for a while now. Consequences of trying to play God, you might say, but Butcher started off this season with only six months to live after being diagnosed with a tumor-like growth in his brain from excessive Compound V usage. By the end of season 4, however, Butcher does kinda sorta die … because what’s standing in front of us, using his body and his mouth to speak, isn’t the Butcher we know and love.
What happened to Butcher in The Boys season 4?
You recall the research that Annie found in season 3 on V24, the substance that when injected could give humans superpowers for 24 hours? Even though she informs Butcher that three to five doses of V24 could cause lesions in the brain and death, he continues to take it. The V gives him the usual super strength, durability, and laser vision, and he needs it because both Soldier Boy and Homelander are out loose. By the end of season 3, he finds out that he is terminally ill from overuse of Compound V, and will only live a year to 18 months.
The Boys season 4 begins six months after, with Butcher having only six months more to live. There’s also a bluish-black worm-like thing visibly squiggling inside his brain. When Homelander sees him, even he tells Butcher that whatever this growth is, it has spread through his entire brain. Butcher doesn’t reveal to anyone but he has started having hallucinations of his dead wife Becca too.
Butcher often has these minor blackouts, and then a major one when he is fighting the supe Ezekiel who catches him and The Boys going through Firecracker’s vanity van during the shoot of her show. Butcher wakes up to find Ezekiel completely torn apart, but doesn’t remember how it happened or who did it. He even reveals later that he tried taking more Compound V to cure his condition, but it only made it worse.
When The Boys get Stan Edgar out of prison and visit his farm, and find out that Victoria Neuman has been experimenting with the supe-killing virus from Gen V, Butcher sets a tester rabbit free from his cage. He finds the rabbit dead a little later, with moving tentacles coming out of his stomach. Butcher stomps on it and kills it without letting anyone know. But we know!
Butcher has been acting uncharacteristically diabolical this season, often giving in to the suggestions of his ex-marine coworker, Joe Kessler, who pops up on random missions with Butcher. When Butcher captures Dr. Samir and forces him to produce the supe-killing virus again, it is revealed to Butcher finally that Joe Kessler, much like Becca, is a hallucination in his head.
Billy Butcher in his Venom era!
Yeah, so Butcher has a symbiote-like organism living inside his noggin à la Venom. And as most fans figured it out, the Becca and Joe Kessler hallucinations were basically different aspects of Butcher’s personality trying to push through. Becca, much like when she was alive, is the one who keeps Butcher grounded in his humanity and a sense of right and wrong. She tells him that he loves Ryan and would never want to kill him just so he could kill Homelander.
But Kessler represents the darkest parts of Butcher, the one who’d do anything, irrespective of the collateral damage to the people he cares about. In fact, it is revealed that Butcher had left the real Kessler to die during their mission in the Panjshir Valley, thus attesting to his ruthlessness in the face of a mission to be accomplished. Kessler is all for the supe-genocide plan that would kill every single supe, including Ryan, Kimiko, and Annie.
Once he figures out what’s happening, Butcher successfully manages to keep Kessler under control, ignoring him every time he offers a violent solution. In the season 4 finale, when after collapsing, Butcher wakes up in a hospital and Ryan visits him, Kessler goads Butcher to kill Ryan, and gets ignored again. That is until Ryan suddenly snaps and ends up using too much force to push Grace Mallory away, killing her. As Kessler tells Butcher that Ryan is just like his father and won’t change, Butcher finally gives in and lets Kessler take the wheel.
With Kessler driving his superpowered meat suit, Butcher crashes The Boys’ meeting where they are trying to make a deal with Victoria Neuman for her and her daughter Zoe’s safety. Looking healthier than before, the same tentacles we saw in the V-ed up rabbit now emerge from a small cavity in Butcher’s chest and rip Neuman into two, killing her. He doesn’t hurt his teammates but advises them to go into hiding. He takes the new dose of the virus that Frenchie had prepared for him and walks out.
The finale’s ending shows Butcher driving away, the supe-killing virus in his hand. In the rearview mirror, he looks at his alter-ego Kessler and smiles, indicating that the symbiote is the one in control of Butcher’s mind and powers.
Is this the beginning of the end of Billy Butcher?
It sure looks like Butcher might be on his way to commit supe genocide, and The Boys are now not just up against Homelander and Sage’s new age of superheroes, but also one of their own gone rogue. And what happens if Homelander wakes up his daddy, Soldier Boy? Or when Ryan finds out what Butcher has become?
Let’s be realistic here, there’s no way anyone’s curing Butcher of his tentacled house guest. Which means the only way for him to go is six feet down under. He’s probably going to kill a bunch of supes on his way to death, but his end seems certain. And what a glorious end it will be to a character that has been incredible from the get-go. Then again, the series has been known to deviate from the comics storyline, so it’ll be interesting to see how Butcher’s arc is closed.
The Boys season 5, the final outing of the show, is going to be insane!
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