Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 4, episode 7.
Summary
The Boysseason 4, episode 7, director Catriona McKenzie teases Billy Butcher’s (Karl Urban) arc in season 5. After premiering on Prime Video in 2019, creator Eric Kripke’s hit superhero parody show returned for season 4 earlier this year, continuing Butcher’s violent quest against Homelander (Antony Starr) and Vought. The character has been going to increasingly extreme lengths to accomplish his mission, and Butcher’s story is now set to conclude inThe Boysseason 5, which will serve as the show’s last.
In a recent interview withScreen Rant, McKenzie touches on what awaits Butcher inThe Boysseason 5, teasing the character’s continued struggle between his light and dark instincts. While McKenzie doesn’t know where exactly Butcher’s story will go, she expresses excitement at seeing what Kripke comes up with. Check out her comment below:
“Obviously, there’s been comments about how zeitgeist-y this show is about where we’re at, and Butcher is kind of our access into this world. He’s the human that’s taking on these superheroes. I think all of us are animals, and we all have these outrageous impulses. Some of us act on them, but some of us go, ‘You know what? I’m an animal, but I’m also a civilized, sophisticated member of a community, and I have a social conscience.’
“What I love about Eric Kripke is the way he’s created this character of Butcher that could go either way. He has the potential for terrible violence, but he also has a conscience, and he has these memories and commitments to characters that keep him in check — sort of.
“I’m actually going back to Toronto to do season 5, and I’m so excited to see where Kripke takes Butcher. I think it is sort of the call to arms, asking, ‘What is it to be human, and what is it to run a race that’s full of integrity and grace and wisdom rather than just kill the world or smash it with vengeance and violence?’ I’m really interested to see how he threads that needle, and it remains to be seen how he takes Butcher to the end of that line.”
How The Boys Season 4 Sets Butcher Up For Season 5
Butcher Has A Massive Choice To Make
InThe Boysseason 4, Butcher has, for the most part, been locked in a struggle between his lust for blood and revenge, and his humanity. This becomes especially apparent with the reveal in season 4, episode 6, that Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has been a figment of Butcher’s imagination all along. His visions of Becca (Shantel VanSanten) and Kessler are really a representation of his light side and his dark side, respectively.
Why Butcher’s “Devil” In The Boys Season 4 Looks Like Joe Kessler
Kessler represents the darker parts of Butcher in The Boys season 4, while Becca symbolizes his humanity — but why does he see Kessler specifically?
So far, it’s not entirely clear which side of Butcher is winning. Episode 7 now sees the character in possession of the Supe virus, which is stored in Kimiko’s (Karen Fukuhara) severed leg, but he doesn’t yet have a weaponized version of it strong enough to kill Homelander. According to Dr. Shah (Omid Abtahi),making a version of the virus that could take Homelander down would also trigger a global pandemic that effectively kills every Supe, leaving Butcher with a clear moral dilemma.
It remains to be seen how the finale will play out afterThe Boysseason 4, episode 7, butwhether Butcher weighs his quest against Homelander over his Supe friends like Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Kimiko will likely be a major question heading into season 5. The fact that his days are now severely numbered due to his brain tumor only puts further pressure on him, and he very clearly wants to take Homelander out before he dies. It’s unclear how Butcher’s story will conclude inThe Boysseason 5, but challenging days are evidently ahead for him.
The Boys' season 4 finale releases on Prime Video on July 18.
The Boys
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The Boys is a gritty and subversive take on the superhero genre, focusing on a group of vigilantes who confront powerful superheroes abusing their abilities, exploring themes of corruption and moral ambiguity in a world where heroes are not always what they seem.
