‘The Boys’ season 4 finale: Butcher’s new power, explained

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Boys season 4’s finale.

The final episode of season 4 of The Boys ended with some big bombshells. Ryan Butcher accidentally kills Grace Mallory; Robert “Dakota Bob” Singer gets arrested for plotting with the Boys to assassinate Victoria Neuman; the newly-sworn President of the United States swears allegiance to Homelander, and proclaims martial law, and gives Homelander an army of superhumans.

But that’s not all! The Boys are ambushed and captured by Vought troops led by said superhumans; Starlight’s powers return (including a more potent version of her flight abilities); and, perhaps most notably, Billy Butcher brutally kills Neuman with his new superpower before escaping with the super-killing virus Frenchie had engineered.

Butcher started the episode in the hospital, on his deathbed, having begun to succumb to the large tumor in his brain. The cancer had been caused by his overuse of Temp V to fight Homelander in season 3, and it looked like it would kill him off before season 4’s climax.

However, there were hints of Butcher having a new superpower earlier in season 4. In the season’s fourth episode, Butcher intervened when the superhuman Ezekiel attacked Frenchie. After initially appearing to be losing the fight, Butcher blacked out and awakened to find Ezekiel dead and ripped into bloody chunks. As it turns out, he’d subconsciously used the new superpower we saw in the finale.

What is Billy Butcher’s new power?

Towards the climax of the season 4 finale, Hughie Campbell Jr. brought in Victoria Neuman to work with the Boys after her superhuman nature was revealed to the world, and she opted to switch sides. Hughie’s teammates were reluctant about the idea, but he insisted they trust him, which they did.

However, Butcher arrived out of nowhere, looking much healthier than he was in hospital, and he clearly wasn’t happy with having Neuman on his team. Now having complete control over his new ability, several tentacles emerged from his chest, covered Neuman’s eyes so she couldn’t use her head-exploding power, and tore her in half.

At the same time, he used the tentacles to keep Neuman’s superpowered daughter, Kimiko, Starlight, and a security guard at bay. Suffice it to say Butcher’s new power puts him in the upper echelons of the superhuman scale.

A blue vial could be seen as Butcher drove away (with his hallucination of Joe Kessler giving him an approving nod from the back seat). Presumably, Butcher injected himself with Compound V in between the final scene of him in the hospital and his surprise attack on Neuman. Whether it’s cured him of his brain tumor remains to be seen. However, he undoubtedly appears to be in better health, and it allowed him to consciously use a power he had previously used without knowing — and given how he used it to easily take care of several superhumans simultaneously, his new superpower could make him a serious threat to Homelander and his superhuman army in season 5.