‘The Boys’ Showrunner on Butcher’s Internal Conflict in Season 4: ‘He’s Really Rattled by What Could Be Happening’

[Editor’s note:The following article contains spoilers for Episode 5 of “The Boys” Season 4, “Beware of the Jabberwocky, My Son.”]

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With the ending of Season 3 of “The Boys” seeing Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher diagnosed as terminally ill following multiple injections of Compound V, Season 4 sees him rushing to find a solution, while also being kept on a leash. Since his team doesn’t seem to want his help, he conspires with old CIA colleague Joe Kessler (new cast member Jeffrey Dean Morgan), but in this past week’s episode, “Beware of the Jabberwocky, My Son,” he starts to realize death may not be the only thing he has to worry about . In a recent interview with Variety , showrunner Eric Kripke discussed the episode, acknowledging the mutated bunny Butcher encounters to be a bad omen.

“It doesn’t mean anything good,” he said. “I don’t want to give too much away, but I think Butcher is really starting to wonder what’s happening to him, and wonder how he was able to kill Ezekiel. And this is a little bit of bunny foreshadowing.”

The scene Kripke references sees Butcher release a bunny that’s been injected with the same drug he injected himself with only to have to kill them later when they sprout tentacles from their stomach. At another point, Butcher blacks out as he mauls a Firecracker supporter to death. Finally, the episode ends with Butcher chopping off the leg of Neuman’s daughter’s father, Dr. Sameer Shah, then kidnapping him.

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“The story for him in this episode is trying to stay on the straight and narrow, trying to be loyal to his team. But then the bunny and what’s happening to it — and maybe what’s happening to him — just really, really rattles him, and makes him feel a lot more desperate,” said Kripke of Butcher’s internal struggle. “Hence, he brings Kessler into the equation, and chops off a guy’s leg just to cover his tracks, which is not amazingly rational behavior. I think he’s really rattled, and scared by what could be happening to him.”

The episode doesn’t only feature struggles for Butcher, but for Jack Quaid’s Hughie, as well as his father, Hughie Sr., played by Simon Pegg . Injected with Compound V to rouse him out of his coma, Hughie Sr. is given powers that cause him to kill fellow patients at the hospital. Kripke said putting Hughie Sr.’s powers in relation to his son’s reveal how Compound V actually works.

“It’s super subtle, but it says something about the Campbell DNA that Hughie’s power is a teleporting power and dad’s power is sort of like a phasing power — but both are cousins in a way,” said Kripke to Variety. “It was in the same ballpark. In our minds, the power you get is some combo of V and your DNA. And so if he has similar DNA with his dad, it stands to reason that maybe his dad would have a similar power.”