The Boys finale was messy as hell, but there’s one reason Butcher’s ending is so perfect

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead for The Boys season five finale*

For all its faults, The Boys season five episode eight – ‘Blood and Bone’ – absolutely killed it (‘scuse the pun) when it came to Butcher’s ending. 

After seven years of bone-crunching, gut-squelching, supe-driven chaos, The Boys has drawn to a close. The finale has landed on Prime Video, showing the climax – and aftermath – of Butcher and Homelander’s war.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Homelander’s powers are all over the place, Gen V’s characters don’t get the send-off they deserve (not Eric Kripke’s fault, they had no idea the spinoff would be cancelled), and there’s no large-scale massacre we’d hoped for. 

But I’m saying it right now: it’s not as bad as, say, Stranger Things. One of the big reasons for this is Butcher’s death. 

Butcher gets his villain arc at the end of The Boys finale

Sure, The Boys TV show is very different to Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comics (where Black Noir turns out to be a Homelander clone who’s been committing these horrifying acts). 

But there were high hopes Butcher would get a comic-accurate villain arc. And though it’s a tad rushed, Kripke and the writing team manage to make it happen right at the end, with Hughie killing Butcher to prevent him from total supe destruction. 

You see, in the source material, after Homelander and his clone are killed, Butcher becomes consumed by his hatred for supes and goes on a rampage, killing anyone with Compound V in their system – including his own team. 

He then brings Hughie to the Empire State Building where a fight ensues. They both fall, with Butcher unable to move. 

Butcher goads Hughie into killing him by pretending he killed his parents, and the plan works – Hughie stabs him in the chest, bringing his rampage to an end. 

There were plenty of fans hoping to see Butcher go down this route in season five, but after the release of the penultimate episode – and the revelation that the finale is just an hour long – these hopes were quickly dashed. 

However, episode eight manages to honour this storyline in a way that makes sense to the show’s events. 

After Homelander is killed and The Boys get a chance to breathe, Butcher presents the idea of a fresh start to Ryan now that both of them no longer have powers. 

“We could find somewhere quiet. Start again, just you, me, and Terror,” he says. But Ryan rejects him, saying he’s “not a good person” and that he doesn’t want a fresh start with him. 

When Ryan leaves, Butcher goes to see little Terror, only to discover his beloved pet pooch has died in his sleep. Even though this isn’t how he dies in the comics, his death becomes a huge catalyst for Butcher’s revenge arc, just as it does in the show. 

Filled with rage, Butcher grabs the supe virus and sneaks out to Vought Tower, where he loads it into the sprinkler system. 

Hughie spots the virus is gone and follows, with the pair having their final confrontation in the Seven’s office. “We need to end the whole bloody notion of supes,” says Butcher, but Hughie tries to reason with him. “You are not a monster, Butcher,” he says. 

But there’s no changing Butcher’s mind – he’s got nothing left to lose – so Hughie pulls out a gun. The pair fight, with Butcher picking up the controller to unleash the virus. 

Just as Butcher’s about to hit the button, he looks at Hughie’s face and sees his brother, Lenny. This causes him to pause long enough for Hughie to shoot him. 

As Butcher lays dying, Hughie apologises and says he’s going to call an ambulance, but Butcher tells him not to. He makes peace with it and says he was never going to stop, before acknowledging everything he’s put him through. 

Hughie takes Butcher’s hand as he dies, with the pair finally sharing a moment of honesty after years of manipulation and violence. 

Yes, the whole thing moves incredibly fast – one minute Butcher’s talking about retirement with Ryan, the next he’s trying to wipe out every supe left alive. But unlike some of the finale’s shakier moments, the emotional payoff feels earned. 

More importantly, the show perfectly honours the comics by giving Butcher the villain arc, while also adapting it according to the show’s storyline. If it had just ended with Butcher running off into the sunset, it would’ve betrayed everything his character represents.

This man was never built for peace, and I’m so glad the finale understood that. 

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Featured image credit: Amazon Studios