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After The Boys Season 5, Episode 4, I’m More Convinced Butcher Is the Show’s Real Final Villain
The Boys is building to Homelander’s (hopefully) inevitable defeat in Season 5, but after the latest episode, I’m more convinced than ever that Butcher is the show’s real final villain. SPOILERS ahead for The Boys Season 5, Episodes 1-4. The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 takes the titular team on a trip to Fort Harmony, where they hope to find the V1 serum that Homelander is searching for. Unfortunately for them, a supe called Bombsight gets to it first. But thanks to the inflammatory power of another V1 supe, Quinn, the tensions among the group boil over — and it leads to some harsh words and even a few physical blows being exchanged between the show’s leads.
And while Hughie’s and Kimiko’s moments of extreme honesty and anger can be overlooked — even if it means no happy ending for one of The Boys‘ best couples — Butcher’s behavior makes it more likely he’ll become a proper villain before the Prime Video series is through. It’s no secret that Butcher is the most volatile of the main team, and he’s become more and more like Homelander with each season. The Boys Season 4’s ending even makes a show of him embracing his worst instincts over his humanity. He’s clearly tipped into villain territory, but I’m starting to think he’ll be the final threat The Boys must contend with instead of Antony Starr’s supe.
The Boys Season 5, Episode 4 Cements Butcher as a Villain on Par With Homelander
Butcher’s black-and-white thinking and dedication to revenge make him a dangerous character from the beginning of The Boys, but he leans further into his worst qualities over time — and they’re clearer than ever in Season 5, Episode 4. In “King of Hell,” he and MM speak about their true plan to destroy the V1 rather than using it to save Starlight and Kimiko. And when Hughie overhears them and calls Butcher out, it’s hard to argue with his insults. Despite Hughie’s initial insistence that there’s good in Butcher, he tells him, “If there was anything human in there, it’s dead.” And when he calls Butcher a “monster,” Karl Urban’s character tells him, “Maybe I like it better this way.”
He doesn’t seem bothered when Hughie tells him that he’s “just as bad as Homelander, maybe worse,” either, which feels like a clear sign that Butcher is now the very thing he vowed to destroy. And to drive that point home, he attacks Hughie with his tentacles, proving he’s no longer concerned with protecting the few people he actually cared about in earlier chapters of the show. Everything Hughie says aligns with Butcher becoming the final boss, as does Butcher’s behavior. It’d be a twist, but not wholly surprising after his decisions from The Boys Season 4’s finale onward.
Butcher Becoming the Villain Was Inevitable After The Boys Season 4’s Ending
The Boys Season 4’s ending may not have set Butcher up to be the final villain, but it laid the groundwork for him becoming as bad as Homelander. The previous outing sees Butcher choosing his worst impulses — represented by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Joe Kessler — over the reason he started his quest for vengeance in the first place: Becca. The fact that even Becca’s memory can’t get through to him, and that he’s no longer concerned with his promise to her, puts Butcher past the point of no return.
And his willingness to use and sacrifice Ryan, as well as his own teammates, in The Boys Season 5 underscores how far gone he is. Hughie’s spot-on about Butcher’s humanity: the few things that previously gave him a moral code are no longer on his radar. In trying to kill Homelander, he’s sacrificed the only redeemable parts of himself. And as both Butcher and Homelander represent extreme sides of two opposing ideologies, it makes sense for both of them to be defeated. Butcher being the final villain would also be in line with what happens in the comics.
Butcher Being the Final Villain Would Be Semi-Accurate to the Comics
The Boys deviates too much from the comics in previous outings to deliver a completely faithful ending, but it could take certain beats from the source material and use them in its own conclusion. And Butcher becoming the final villain would maintain some fidelity, as that’s the case in the original story as well. SPOILERS ahead for The Boys comics. At the end of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comics, Butcher isn’t the only who kills Homelander; Black Noir is. There’s a whole twist about him being a clone, which can’t happen in the show. But after Butcher’s showdown with Homelander leaves him alive, Butcher decides to take out all supes — the same endgame he’s chasing in the TV series.
And comic Butcher kills his own teammates in pursuit of that goal, including MM, Frenchie, and The Female (who Kimiko is based on). He’s only stopped and killed by Hughie, and after The Boys Season 5, Episode 4, this seems like a direction the Prime Video adaptation could go in. Hughie and Butcher are certainly starting to hate one another enough to get here, and it’s not hard to see Butcher turning on his own team. After this week, he’s made it clear that he’s willing to.
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