Lambs To The Slaughter
Is Billy Butcher leading The Boys to their deaths, and does he even care?
Revenge is a great motivator, which is why some of the best stories revolve around it. Being wronged fuels people in different ways, some forgive and don’t forget, while others go out of their way to exact vengeance on those who have screwed them over and will stop at nothing to get it.
Sometimes, vengeance can get the better of people and all of their decisions moving forward are either motivated by it or blinded by it. In the case of Billy Butcher on The Boys, his quest to get back at Homelander and any other Supe in the world has done both, and it may cost him what little in his life he has left.
It’s hard to imagine that the character of William “Billy” Butcher is far worse in Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic than he is on the Amazon Prime show, and maybe the lack of his dog, Terror, might actually be part of the reason. However, one of the biggest changes between the comic and show version of Butcher is that Becca is actually dead at the start of the source material, and not hidden away somewhere. At the start of the show, Butcher just seems to be a man who has it out for Supers and especially Homelander. Along the way, he recruits Hughie and rounds up his own team including Frenchie and Mother’s Milk who is apprehensive about returning to action because he has a family, a plea that falls on deaf ears. As the season progresses he reveals that Homelander raped and killed his wife, adding a shit ton of context for his quest for vengeance. Along the way, he kidnaps and tortures Translucent, uses a Compound V-infused baby as a weapon, shoots Starlight even though she was just trying to help, and, worst of all is what he does to Madelyn Stillwell. Beliving she is Homelander’s weakness, he plants C4 in her house threatening to blow it up until Homelander arrives. Homelander goes on to kill Stillwell to prove that she isn’t his weakness, he also calls Butcher’s bluff by bringing her Stillwell’s baby with him which proves to be costly because Butcher detonates the C4 killing the baby before Homeladner flies him away. The season ends with Butcher waking up in an undisclosed location and seeing his wife Becca alive and with a kid, who turns out to be Homelander’s.
After seeing that Becca hasn’t been dead this whole time, he wakes up separated from her again before finally reuniting with The Boys. Once he’s back with his crew, he urges them that the war on Supes is more important now than it ever was, but he neglects to tell them about Becca being alive until later on. During season two, Butcher would go on to kill a whale that The Deep uses to block off an escape attempt by The Boys, almost shoots Starlight again, and makes deal with Vought to take Ryan as long as he can get away with Becca. Eventually, everything the two seasons have been building up to with Homelander and Butcher comes to a head as Stormfront, fresh from freeing from an an-all female beatdown, cuts off Billy, Becca, and Ryan’s getaway. As Stormfront threatens to kill Becca, Ryan unleashes his powers severely injuring Stormfront but accidentally killing his own mother. With no wife left to fight for, and a clean slate thanks to Grace Mallory’s connections, Butcher might become an even more dangerous man and if he does things worse than what he’s already done, he may end up being the biggest threat to not only Vought and The Seven, but to The Boys as well.
When Butcher recruits Hughie, he did so by taking advantage of him following the killing of his girlfriend by A-Train. So while Butcher does go on to care about Hughie, his initial reasoning in bringing him on the team was just to have another body on the team and he doesn’t hesitate to prey on someone who suffered a devastating loss. When he brings Frenchie and Mother’s Milk back into his vengeful crusade, both are reluctant, yet he seems to care little about either of their reservations. He knows Mother’s Milk has a family and Frenchie has close friends but he doesn’t seem to care about any of them, going out of his way to convince them that their loved ones will be safe, even though he knows he can't guarantee it. At this point, he feels that he suffered more than anyone else on The Boys with Becca’s rape and apparent murder so nothing, and nobody, would stand in his way including those close to the rest of the team. His blind rage and lack of compassion for anyone else end up costing Susan Raynor her life when her head spontaneously explodes in season two, a fate that is arguably better than what she goes through with Butcher in the comics.
After Butcher is reunited with Becca at the end of the first season and then subsequently separated from her again, a more desperate Billy than ever emerges. Now knowing that Becca is alive and being taken from her again, there’s a sense of urgency in finding her, and when Kimiko and her brother run off he’s the most persistent to follow them which brings up questions with The Boys. He reveals that Becca is alive and even punches Hughie for his apprehension in locating the siblings. It’s obvious The Boys, and Hughie up to a point, would do anything to help Butcher get Becca back but it feels that this compassion and dedication isn’t reciprocated towards them. His deal with Vought also proves that nothing will stand in the way of him being with his wife again, including her own child. Butcher would go on to lie to the team about the deal, which, again, puts them all at risk when coming face to face with Stormfront. Butcher is mostly angry and in a, to rip a word from him, diabolical mood but when he’s with Becca and during her death, a softer side of Butcher comes out and the heartbreak of his wife’s death hits hard because the man portraying the character can do both sides so well.
Karl Urban has been a mainstay on the big screen for quite a while now and it’s felt as if he’s never been given the credit he rightfully deserves. First coming to the world’s attention in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Urban would star in another franchise with the reboot of Star Trek for three films. He would also go on to attempt to resurrect a dead license in Judge Dredd to many critical plaudits and appear, as it seems everyone at this point has, in a Marvel movie, the Taiki Waititi-directed Thor: Ragnarok. With so many iconic roles in huge franchises under his belt, it was only a matter of time until he was trusted to lead one and the team behind The Boys, as they usually do, nailed the casting of Butcher with him. It seems cliche to say that the show would not work if any of the characters were miscast but in the case of Billy Butcher and Karl Urban, the saying holds. It’s hard to see anyone else in the world play Billy Butcher with as much aggression and eventual violent compassion as Urban does.
With Becca dead and Ryan safely away (for now), Butcher and The Boys have the opportunity to move on from this life, but Butcher has nothing to walk away to. Frenchie has his friends and Kimiko, Hughie looks like he’s going to start a new ill-advised career with Congresswoman Neuman and has his relationship with Annie, and Mother’s Milk has a wife and child.
So with nothing left to lose, where does Billy Butcher go from here? Although he and The Boys have been cleared of all wrongdoings, Vought is more than likely still after him for reneging on their deal, so it’ll come as no surprise if he needs to get the team back together and put their lives at risk all over again.
