The Boys' Billy Butcher May Have Become the Very Thing He Hates

Billy Butcher has always been a complex and driven character in The Boys, but his recent experiences and choices have brought him to a new crossroads. As he grapples with his failures and lives on borrowed time, some fans can't help but wonder if Butcher has become the very thing he despises.

[Possible spoilers ahead]

At the beginning of the season, Butcher's encounter with Joe Kessler, a CIA agent, sets the stage for a familiar narrative. Kessler attempts to convince Butcher to return to service before Homelander and his sympathisers round them up and put them in camps.

Initially, this might come across as a generic argument to reignite Butcher's passion for annihilating Supes. However, as the fourth season unfolds, Kessler’s seemingly harmless statement is slowly revealed to be Homelander's plan all along: build an army of Supes and neutralise opposing forces, using Tek Knight's resources to prepare prisons for their opponents.

With Kessler being revealed to be a figment of Butcher’s imagination as a result of his Temp V usage, it appears that The Boys’ ex-leader has always been aware of Homelander's endgame. Now, let's dive into the fan theories and see how they stack up.

Butcher and Homelander are two sides of the same coin

"Both Butcher and Homelander, in very different ways, are wrestling with whether they're human or whether they're monsters," shares showrunner Eric Kripke in an interview.

While Homelander’s spiral into full madness is almost established at this point, Butcher's is still up in the air, with hallucinations of his dead wife Becca, and Kessler still fighting for his soul. “Kessler represents the monster side and Becca represents the human side of Butcher. Those two sides are at war with themselves, but they're all Butcher," Kripke adds.

The series no longer follows the source material religiously, but it is worth noting that Butcher had an incredibly dark arc in the comics, where he ends up snapping and murdering The Boys save for Hughie.

Conversely, thinking like Homelander can put him at an advantage as he and The Boys figure out a plan that’s two steps ahead to stop the Supe once and for all.

As the season approaches its finale, audiences will see if Butcher will lean into his diabolical side and fight Homelander's fire with equally destructive fire, knowing that he can wipe out his kind with the virus developed at Godolkin University.

Season 4 of The Boys is currently streaming on Prime Video.