Daisy Phillipson
Prime Video
With The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 making a shocking revelation, you might be wondering: is Billy Butcher a 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 delving into this world 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 latest episode, but has he gone to the dark side and become a new supe? Warning: Spoilers for The Boys Season 4 Episode 4 ahead!
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Is Butcher a supe?
Butcher isn’t a supe… kind of. 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.
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Butcher claims that all it’s done is sped up his deterioration. However, earlier in the episode, he gets into a scrap with the Christian supe Ezekiel after breaking into Firecracker’s trailer.
Prime VideoEzekiel is killed before he can finish Butcher, but we don’t know how
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.
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When the scene comes back into focus, Butcher’s alive while Ezekiel’s been blown to pieces. Since Butcher blacked out, it’s not confirmed whether this is a result of him having unknowingly obtained powers from Compound V or if another supe secretly saved him.
If it’s the former, maybe Butcher is a supe after all. Either way, the serum hasn’t left him in great shape, with previous scenes showing a worm-like parasite wriggling under his skin, making Butcher pass out in the shower.
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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.
Related:
The Boys fans explain Season 4 Homelander “plot hole”
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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.
Prime VideoCompound V appears to have made Butcher even sicker
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.”
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“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.
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It looks like the latter commenter is right, in that Butcher claims taking Compound V — which he stole from the vial Frenchie obtained to give Kimiko her powers back — has only made him more ill.
But if it really was Butcher who killed Ezekiel, it may have given him powers that he doesn’t know about yet.
We’ll be sure to keep this page updated as and when new details about Butcher’s supe status are revealed.
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Until then, The Boys Season 4 Episodes 1-4 are streaming on Prime Video now. Find out when to tune into the next one with our Season 4 release schedule. You can also read about whether Soldier Boy will return in Season 4 and what Sister Sage did to her brain, as well as all of the new TV shows heading to streaming this month.
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