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Karl Urban does a fantastic job as Billy Butcher and the rest of The Boys cast have great chemistry together. But if the series continues to deviate from its source material, it could lose some of its impact.
In the comics, Butcher goes full sociopath and amasses an army of supes under his control. He then attacks the White House and a sniper kills him.
Plot Directions
The Boys season 4 wrapped up with a massive fight against Godolkin that helped reshape the series’ leading heroes and closed the book on some of its biggest villain twists. But the show also ended on a multi-level cliffhanger that left Frenchie and Kimiko captured, previous antagonist Victoria Neuman dead, and tentacles emerging from former supe-hater Billy Butcher. So how could the season 5 finale play out?
One possible plot direction comes from Sister Sage’s mysterious plan. Throughout season 4, she has been dropping hints that she’s planning something huge. While many fans assume she’s referring to her plans for the upcoming presidential elections, it’s possible that her “Phase 2” is much more sinister.
This could involve the return of Jensen Ackles, who plays Soldier Boy, in a larger role than ever before. He’s a major figure in the comics who plays an extremely powerful character with ties to the CIA. So if Sage does want to bring her old boss back into the fold, she’s going to have to do some major reshaping of the Boys’ internal politics.
But the main reason that Vought’s kidnapping of Frenchie has the potential to be so dangerous is that it gives him control over a top chemist. This could allow him to create new versions of Compound V or even bioweapons that target humans and supes alike.
This isn’t to say that Vought won’t be stopped in his quest for power. After all, the CIA has already taken down a number of his top lieutenants this season. It just might come down to the final battle between him and The Boys.
Character Developments
If The Boys follows the comic ending, it could see President Homelander killed in season 5. That might seem unthinkable for a show that prides itself on being subversive but it would make sense to sideline him. After all, the cloned version of him is already dead in the comics and Antony Starr’s live-action version is still around.
There are several characters on the Boys team that could die in season 5 based on the way the comics end. Billy Butcher is one of the main characters on the team and he’s always leading his squad into combat against Supes and Vought. He’s also a mentor and big brother figure to Hughie. He’s brutal but has some surprisingly profound sentiments about love and he’s committed to keeping his teammates safe.
Butcher has a vendetta against Homelander that needs resolving and his actions towards the end of season 4 hint at him committing supe genocide in the future. That might mean that he’ll kill several members of the Boys including MM, Frenchie, and Kimiko.
The show’s decision to gender-swap Stormfront and cast Aya Cash as the character was a masterstroke. Her take on the Nazi supervillain is far more intelligent than her comic book counterpart who was a one-dimensional brute. She’s now a savvy media manipulator who utilizes social media and meme culture to spread her hateful ideology.
While a lot of the main characters on The Boys have been around since the beginning, there are newer additions to the cast as well. Karen Fukuhara’s Kimiko is the newest member of the team and she is a character that fans might find hard to get used to. She’s a ruthless killer and an expert in torture but she’s also a kind person who loves to cook. It’s likely that her relationship with Edgar will be key to the story in season 5, as she might turn to him for help as a fugitive.
Fan Expectations
For a series that was notoriously cynical in its tone and subject matter, The Boys ended on a relatively positive note. The main arc and its aftermath largely left it to the reader to decide what happened next, and while many fans assumed that Butcher and the rest of the CIA would be back to stop any possible revival of superheroes, Dear Becky made it clear that the world had been shook enough by superhumans’ nefarious actions to make sure they never got the chance to have unchecked power again.
The end of the arc also saw Butcher and his team, including Mother’s Milk, Frenchie, and Kimiko, get wiped out in a brutal battle on top of the Empire State Building, with Hughie being the sole survivor. Butcher still wasn’t satisfied, though, and he managed to get his hands on a strain of Compound V that could be remotely triggered to kill any superhumans with even the slightest trace of it in their systems. He used it to set up a worldwide network of bombs that, when triggered, killed any supes with significant levels of the chemical in their system.
Thankfully, thanks to intel from The Boys, the U.S. military was able to thwart the plan, using weapons designed specifically to target Superhumans to destroy Butcher’s army and leave him with no chance of ever having a return to his previous power. As such, the climactic showdown was a fitting end to the arc and the world, in general, seems to be much more prepared for the possibility of supes returning than it was at the start.