The Boys Season 4 is over, and it delivered plenty of shocking revelations about Billy Butcher. But, is he now a fully-fledged supe?
Given he’s spent most of his adult life hating Vought, The Seven, and pretty much anything supe-related, it’s rather ironic that Butcher’s now dying after dabbling a little too hard with Temp V.
Now he knows he’s got just months left on the clock, he’s more determined than ever to get Ryan away from Homelander, ramping up his efforts in The Boys Season 4 Episode 3.
His journey takes yet another turn in The Boys Season 4 finale, but has he gone to the dark side and become a new supe? Warning: Spoilers for The Boys Season 4 ahead!
Is Butcher a supe?
It was teased a couple of times throughout Season 4, but the big finale revealed Butcher is most definitely a supe. Or, at least, the tentacled tumor writhing around inside him has superpowers, that’s for sure.
The clues were there all along. In The Boys Season 4 Episode 4, Butcher reveals to Hughie that he secretly injected himself with Compound V after finding out he was dying, but it didn’t quite have the desired effect.
Butcher claims that all it’s done is speed up his deterioration. However, earlier in the episode, he gets into a scrap with the Christian supe, Ezekiel, after breaking into Firecracker’s trailer.
Ezekiel uses his super-stretching abilities to wrap his arm around Butcher’s neck like a boa constrictor. For a moment, it looks like Butcher’s about to die, but the screen goes black and we hear a scream.
When the scene comes back into focus, Butcher’s alive while Ezekiel’s been blown to pieces. Since Butcher blacked out, it was unclear whether this was a result of him having unknowingly obtained powers from Compound V or if another supe secretly saved him.
But, in The Boys Season 4 ending, just as Hughie and The Boys are about to strike a deal with Victoria Neuman, Butcher shows up. He looks healthier, and very angry.
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Determined to put a stop to the arrangement and obtain the supe virus for himself, Butcher unleashes his powers: the tumor inside him has become a grotesque tentacled beast, and it binds Neuman tightly before ripping her in half. That’s one hell of a superpower!
Why didn’t the Compound V work?
Although it’s not known why, the Compound V serum doesn’t work as well for adults. The results are often immediate and are far likelier to result in adverse effects, including fatalities, which is why it appears to have caused Butcher some issues.
It’s why Vought always urged parents to use Compound V on their children. It works better on younger subjects and can take a long time — sometimes years — to take effect.
Before The Boys Season 4 premiered, one of the leading fan theories was that Butcher would save his own life by taking Compound V.
“He has to or the Temp V will kill him,” said one on Reddit. “A-Train probably defects and gets him some.”
Another wrote, “It’s the only way for Butcher to overcome the side effects of the Temp V. Ironically, he has to fully commit to being a supe.”
“He’s already dying so he doesn’t really have anything to lose unless it speeds up the process or, since we know you get the same powers, he’ll just be invulnerable to it for good now,” added a third.
The latter commenter is right, in a way. By taking Compound V, Butcher may well have made himself severely ill, but he’s also given himself the monstrous ability to keep his sickness at bay. He’s essentially a really grim, Cockney version of The Hulk.
For more from The Boys, you can also read about what Sister Sage did to her brain or the gnarliest deaths in Season 4. Now The Boys is done, you can check out all the new TV shows heading to streaming this month.
