Okay, so by this point we all know how it went down with Butcher in the finale of season four – with the huge twist that saw him fully lean in to his dark side and go off the rails with the imaginary Joe Kessler in his ear. This rampage, starting with his Doc Oc style murder of Victoria Neuman and stealing of the supe killing virus is the first step in Butcher’s overarching plan that he will be fully enacting genocide on all supes. It’s a complex twist, because Butcher has always been an anti-hero but this leaning into full and unremorseful annihilation of anyone with super abilities is going to cause major conflict in season five. If you’ve read The Boys comics, you’ll know this isn’t really a shock – but one comment Butcher makes to Hughie in issue #30 actually foreshadows what happened in the finale.

Big spoilers ahead, but also a very good theory about how the writer foreshadows the end game of Butcher in The Boys.

What does Butcher actually say?

It’s now kind of no shock that the show and the comics go full Game of Thrones Daenerys style with Butcher being the main antagonist after his quest for vengeance and justice is planned to lean into full on genocide. But there is a comment made in issue 30 of The Boys comics between Hughie and Butcher that foreshadows what was always going to happen. The pivot was inevitable.

Butcher explains to Hughie on a train ride that the Boys aren’t actually there to make the world better, they’re just there to stop it getting any worse. A grim outlook. What’s worse is that Butcher’s plan isn’t just to kill all the supes, it’s to kill the millions of people with any Compound V in their bodies at all. Innocent people.

This is hinted at when Butcher compares supes to surgeons operating on cancer, and makes a comment saying “it’s hard to know when to stop cutting.” He foreshadows how his quest for vengeance will also result in the death of so much innocent life.

This is proven true in the final of the comics – SPOILERS

This foreshadows what happens to the characters at the end of the comics, and do not read on if you don’t want spoilers. The show might go in a different direction to the comics, but…

The comment about not knowing when to stop cutting foreshadows what Butcher ends up doing to his friends in the comics. Yep, Butcher actually kills Kimono, Frenchie, Mother’s Milk and the Legend. The only one he spares is Hughie.

If this happens in the TV show I will not be able to cope I fear.