The Boys Season 4 ending explained: Is Butcher a villain now?

The ending of The Boys Season 4 changes everything – and Homelander may not be our biggest concern anymore.

The stakes from the outset of The Boys Season 4 were obvious: if Homelander wasn’t killed, he could get into the White House with Victoria Neuman, a dangerous blood-bender, under his thumb.

Fortunately, Gen V seemed to provide a solution: a flesh-rotting virus that exclusively targets Compound V. However, it could cause a genocide, killing Ryan, Starlight, Kimiko, and every supe in America – if not the world.

With The Boys Season 4 ending today, don’t expect much in the way of resolutions before Season 5. Just when things seem to sort themselves out… it all goes wrong.

How does The Boys Season 4 end?

Season 4 ends with Butcher killing Victoria Neuman with his “super cancer”, the new president declaring martial law, and Homelander leading a global division of superheroes to find and capture “Starlighters” – including The Boys.

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As Homelander learns about Neuman’s death, Sister Sage walks in with a balloon and asks why they’re not celebrating. “This is the plan,” she tells him, explaining that everything went exactly as expected.

It’s then revealed that Singer has been framed for Neuman’s murder, House Speaker Calhoun is about to become president, and he wants to “swear his allegiance” to Homelander.

Homelander questions why Sage would help him after tossing her aside, but she says she wanted to keep her end of the deal. “I told you, you could trust me – I got your back,” she tells him.

Why did she do it? “To see if I could… next time, listen to me,” Sage adds.

We cut to Calhoun declaring martial law and announcing that he’s deputized hundreds of superheroes to find “deep-state Starlighters.”

“Now that we have full legal authority, a veritable army of superheroes will be called upon to route these traitors from our government and our streets. America will be safe again… today, a new age of superheroes begins,” Homelander tells the press.

It appears that Hughie and co. manage to escape, but there’s a last-minute twist: Mother’s Milk is arrested by Love Sausage, Frenchie and Kimiko (who speaks for the first time, screaming, “No!”) are caught by Sam and Cate from Gen V, and Hughie and Starlight are stopped by Cindy, Sage Grove’s telekinetic supe from Season 2.

However, before Cindy can crush Starlight, she leaps into the sky and flies away.

The final moments show Butcher driving into the distance with Kessler in his rearview mirror, armed with the virus… and his powers.

The Boys Season 4 Episode 8 post-credits scene

It doesn’t end there: in The Boys Season 4 finale’s post-credits scene, Homelander finds Soldier Boy.

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Calhoun brings Homelander into a secret facility, where Soldier Boy is being held inside a massive tube – just like we saw at the end of Season 3.

Lest you forget, Soldier Boy is Homelander’s father… who tried to kill him the last time they were in each other’s company. With Mallory dead, we can expect Soldier Boy to be woken up in Season 5.

Who dies?

There are two major deaths in the finale: Victoria Neuman and Grace Mallory.

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Others die; Starlight kills Shape Shifter after escaping her shackles (Gerald’s Game style, if you’re catching my drift), while The Seven murders a smattering of Vought employees who could cause them headaches down the line (including Ashley… the other one).

Neuman’s fate is particularly cruel, considering she realizes the error of her ways and goes to Hughie for help. She promises to help… unfortunately, Butcher isn’t in the mood to negotiate. With his chest tentacles at his behest, he picks her up and rips her in half in front of everyone.

As for Grace, she dies after Ryan slams her into a wall, breaking her neck and killing her instantly. Much like throwing the stuntman at the start of Season 4, he clearly doesn’t realize his own strength, and we can expect his guilt to take a toll on him in Season 5.

Did Butcher just become a villain?

It’s unclear if The Boys Season 5 will follow this trajectory, but Butcher does become a villain in the comics.

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Butcher hasn’t always been a morally sound individual, but his heart has often been in the right place. That’s why he’s spent so much of Season 4 trying to convince himself that Ryan can be saved, and he won’t turn out like his maniacal father.

Grace’s death changes things; the “all bets are off” look he gives Kessler says as much. He still cares enough for Hughie not to hurt him, but it seems like he has one goal now: killing Homelander and any other supe who stands in his way, no matter the cost.

This echoes the path of the comics, where Butcher decides to kill billions of potential superhumans. We won’t get into any other spoilers, but don’t expect Homelander to be the only antagonist in the final season.

Catriona McKenzie, who directed Episode 7, teased to Screen Rant: “What I love about Eric Kripke is the way he’s created this character of Butcher that could go either way.

“He has the potential for terrible violence, but he also has a conscience, and he has these memories and commitments to characters that keep him in check — sort of.

“I think it is sort of the call to arms, asking, ‘What is it to be human, and what is it to run a race that’s full of integrity and grace and wisdom rather than just kill the world or smash it with vengeance and violence?’ I’m really interested to see how he threads that needle, and it remains to be seen how he takes Butcher to the end of that line.”

Is Homelander the president?

No, Homelander isn’t the president – but it’s unclear exactly which role he holds.

He appears at a press conference alongside President Calhoun, but he’s never given an official title. There’s a chance he’s Calhoun’s vice president, but we’ll need to wait until Season 5 to find out.

Why does Kimiko speak?

Kimiko’s first words mark a huge development for her character: she may no longer be tortured by the past, but her anguish is so painful she can’t hold in her screams.

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Earlier in Season 4, Kimiko explained the source of her mutism. When she was a child, she was kidnapped by the Shining Light Liberation Army, a terrorist group.

She was forced to fight other children to the death, and their bouts had a specific rule: whoever let out any noise – a cry, or even the smallest gasp – would be killed. She won every fight, but the trauma left her unable to speak.

Similar to Frenchie’s guilt over his murders, Kimiko feels like she doesn’t deserve happiness. They decide to overcome it together, just as their getaway is scuppered by Cate and Sam. Would you not scream if your world just collapsed again?

The Boys’ fate could connect to Gen V

We don’t see what happens to Frenchie, Hughie, MM, or Kimiko, but we may know where they’re going: the same prison holding Marie, Emma, and Jordan at the end of Gen V.

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Homelander obviously hasn’t ordered his army of supes to kill everyone on sight. Whether or not he wants to interrogate The Boys remains to be seen; one has to assume he’ll want to find Butcher, so it makes sense to keep them alive.

While Cate and Sam were recruited by Homelander after the Godolkin massacre, Marie and her friends were left in a strange, doorless facility.

There’s a few different theories about where they are: a secure Vought black site, where we could see Hughie and co. end up; or perhaps they’re inside Cate’s mind, hence why there’s no way in or out.

You can also read our full recap of The Boys Season 4 Episode 8, find out what we know about The Boys Season 5, and our ranking of every death in Season 4.