Billy Butcher takes a dark turn in The Boys season 4 finale, and the episode’s opening minutes hint at his villainous transformation long before he 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s Victoria Neuman.

The Boys season 4, episode 8 intensifies the stakes for the major protagonists, with Homelander and Sister Sage gaining political power and Butcher succumbing to his darker inclinations. After understanding Joe Kessler is the devil on his shoulder, Butcher attempts to create a balance between his hatred for Supes and his humanity. However, Ryan’s actions in the season 4 finale lead Butcher to support Kessler and the Supe genocide he advocates.

This suggests that Homelander will not be the only evil in The Boys season 5, since the show’s heroes will also have to deal with Butcher. Although Homelander and Butcher will be on opposing sides of the approaching fight, they are quickly becoming mirror images of one other. A smart sequence in The Boys’ season 4 finale foreshadows this change of events, drawing a clear connection between the two characters.

How The Boys Season 4’s Finale Foreshadowed Butcher Becoming As Bad As Homelander

They Both Face Down Their Mortality In The Last Episode

Within the first 10 minutes of The Boys season 4 finale, both Butcher and Homelander find themselves in similar situations — and the series seamlessly transitions from one to the other to highlight this fact. Butcher’s first scene in episode 8 finds him on his deathbed, where Kessler continues to push for a Supe genocide. Then Grace appears, and Butcher lights a cigarette and asks for a pint. He knows that he’s dying, and he faces his mortality by embracing his vices one last time. He’s not the only one staring down his own mortality when the episode opens, either.

“The Boys hints at these characters being similar by showing them going through identical issues.”

Butcher’s first scene transitions to a shot of Homelander looking at his collection of gray hairs, proof that The Seven’s leader is aging. Homelander is disgusted by how rapidly it’s happening, and it’s clear that he’s just as fixated on his mortality as Butcher — even though Homelander has plenty more time at this point in the show. The Boys hints at these characters being similar by showing them going through identical issues. And although Butcher evades his death at the ending of The Boys season 4, the finale’s last moments prove he’s as bad as Homelander.

Is Butcher Really As Bad As Homelander After The Boys Season 4?

Both Characters Have The Same Goal For Season 5

Throughout The Boys, Butcher is a more sympathetic figure than Homelander. However, the final episode of season 4 demonstrates that he is equally as terrible as the Supe. In the fifth and final season of The Boys, both characters share the same goal: to commit genocide on separate groups of people. Homelander intends to pick up non-superheroes and traitors and imprison them in internment camps, ensuring that the United States is exclusively safe for heroes. Meanwhile, Butcher intends to deploy a virus on Homelander, which might cause a global pandemic among Supes.

Butcher and Homelander will be antagonists in upcoming episodes of The Boys.This heightens the tragedy of their ultimate confrontation, as Butcher becomes into the people he despises in order to exact retribution. Butcher appears to be doomed to die as the villain, until his visions of Becca or The Boys convince him otherwise. In season 5 of The Boys, he is willing to die alongside the other Supes if his scheme is successful.