WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for The Boys.Here’s why Becca was right to refuse Butcher’s offer of escape in The Boys season 2. From the start, Billy Butcher’s overarching motivation has been pure vengeance, which has essentially turned Butcher into arguably the show’s most dangerous character. That said, there’s a legitimate reason why Butcher is the way that he is. Homelander – the world’s top superhero – raped Butcher’s wife Becca, who she went missing shortly after – assumed to have either taken her own life or been killed by her attacker. Butcher has been on the warpath ever since, taking every opportunity to strike back at Vought and their fleet of spoiled super-powered celebrities. In The Boys‘ season 1 finale, however, Butcher discovered that Becca was actually alive. Following her ordeal, Becca fell pregnant with Homelander’s baby and had no choice but to go into hiding, putting herself at the mercy of the corporation Vought International.
In the opening episodes of The Boys season 2, Butcher was on the warpath with an entirely different agenda – rescue his wife and bring her back home. In “Nothing Like It In The World,” Butcher found the Vought compound holding Becca hostage. Their reunion was emotional, passionate, and well-deserved after everything the couple had endured. Finding a quiet spot away from the litany of CCTV cameras, Butcher and Becca hatched a plan to escape with Ryan – Becca’s super-powered son – but when the time came, she backed out and forced Butcher to leave. Becca argued that even though Butcher talked about saving Ryan, he’d somehow find a way to push Homelander’s son Ryan out of the picture. Butcher denied the accusation, but couldn’t resist calling the boy a “supe freak” in the process.
The Boys saddled Becca with an incredibly tough decision, but she made the absolute right call for a number of reasons, as revealed in The Boys season 3. While Homelander is a psychopath who only wants to mold Ryan into another version of himself, he turned out to be just as protective of Ryan as Butcher was against the mutual threat of Soldier Boy. Homelander is also much more predictable than Butcher, who even allied himself with Soldier Boy, not realizing that Soldier Boy would happily go through Ryan if it meant killing Homelander. In The Boys season 3, episode 3, “Barbary Coast,” Butcher even unjustly lashed out at Ryan because he was upset at Mallory’s past actions, which Ryan had nothing to do with. The truth is, like Homelander’s father Soldier Boy, Billy Butcher was a terrible dad and ultimately a danger to Ryan, despite the fact that Butcher actually loves the boy. While The Boys season 3 ended with Butcher temporarily setting aside his obsessive revenge plan to protect Ryan from Soldier Boy, it was Butcher who put Ryan in Homelander’s hands and Soldier Boy’s sights in the first place. With Homelander, Becca could at least ensure that Ryan stayed alive.
Is Butcher The Villain In The Boys?
The short answer is yes: Billy Butcher and Homelander are the most dangerous villains in The Boys’ roster of satirized Avengers-level threats. Butcher and Homelander are each other’s mirror images, especially in terms of their respective racist attitudes against supes and non-supes. Just as Homelander detests regular people, Butcher was intensely distrustful towards Starlight, even after Starlight’s knowledge of The Seven proved highly useful. Starlight never deserved being viewed with suspicion and Butcher acknowledged as much, but he then showed the same attitude towards Kimiko in The Boys season 2. Frenchie, MM, and Hughie have all adopted Kimiko as one of their own, but Butcher only tolerated her presence, even bluntly informing Mallory that he’d happily put “The Female” down if necessary. Butcher also faced a Boys mutiny after he tried to shoot Kimiko’s brother without hesitation. Common wisdom would suggest that Butcher might show more mercy towards Ryan since he’s only a child. However, this is the same Butcher who used a baby supe as a weapon during The Boys season 1’s hospital gunfight.
Can Butcher Prove Becca Wrong In The Boys Season 4?
The Boys season 4 could see Butcher finally embracing his role as the show’s real villain, finally proving that Becca was right about not putting Ryan in Butcher’s hands. The show has taken a different approach to the source material, but it also seems to be sending Butcher down an equally dark path. This is supported by Butcher finally getting access to Vought’s Temp V or V24, which puts him on an equal playing field with Homelander. To be fair, Butcher did save Hughie from taking a lethal dose of Temp V, and while under the influence of the same drug, Butcher also worked with Homelander to protect Ryan. However, neither Hughie nor Ryan wouldn’t have been in danger if it weren’t for Butcher’s ill-fated alliance with Soldier Boy. Though Becca couldn’t have foreseen Butcher’s exact plans, it seems that she knew Butcher enough to deduce that her son might be slightly safer in Homelander’s hands. Indeed, Homelander is driven by his extreme need for love and approval, which extends to his son Ryan. In contrast, Butcher is driven by sheer revenge and only loves Ryan because he is Becca’s son.
In The Boys season 4, Becca’s choice could be put to the test one last time, especially as Ryan has sided with Homelander, which could push Butcher to even more drastic measures. Butcher isn’t a rapist like Homelander, but in terms of who has the greater potential to threaten himself and everyone around him – especially the people he loves – Butcher is clearly the worse threat. As Stan Edgar once told Homelander, “You are not a god. You are simply… bad product.” While Edgar treated Homelander with overt disgust, Edgar afforded Butcher with much more respect, hinting that even the great Stan Edgar feared Billy Butcher. Homelander may just be a psychopathic man-child who mistakenly thinks of himself as a god, but the same can be said of Butcher – except he is much smarter and can actually lead people. It remains to be seen whether Becca can be proven wrong by Billy Butcher in The Boys season 4, as it’s never too late for Butcher to undergo a redemption arc. For now, however, it seems that Becca was absolutely right about Butcher all along.
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