In the world of The Boys, superheroes aren’t born; they’re made. Specifically, they’re made with a dangerous substance called Compound V, which grants anyone who takes it superpowers (assuming they survive the process). In the third season of a the Amazon show, our anti-superhero heroes got their hands on something called Temp V, a new version of the stuff that granted them powers for a limited period of time. So Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) could shoot lasers from his eyes and Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) could teleport.
That helped even the playing field against superpowered monsters like Homelander (Antony Starr). But it came with a price: as Butcher learned at the end of the season, he used too much Temp V. It damaged his body. He has only months to live.
Now, in a deleted scene from the season 3 home video set, we find out what happened after that. Hughie comes in to talk to Butcher, and reveals his own diagnosis: he’s battered but will be fine. “They said it will be a couple of months, a lot of migraines, but I’m mostly all good,” he says. “We stopped taking the V just in time, I guess. Have they told you?”
Butcher lies to Hughie about his terminal diagnosis in deleted scene from The Boys season 3
And that’s when things get interesting. Instead of telling Hughie the truth, Butcher lies. “Yeah, yeah same here,” he says. “Aren’t we a couple of lucky fuckers, aye?” You can watch the deleted scene on Total Film.
Although Butcher acts like a badass, he has a soft spot for Hughie, so maybe he lied so his surrogate little brother wouldn’t have to worry. Or maybe it’s part of his grander plan to take down Homelander and eradicate all supes; it’s hard to tell with that guy.
We’ll find out more when The Boys season 4 premieres on Amazon Prime Video this summer. And there’s supposed to be more episodes coming after that, so season 4 either only covers a brief period of time or Butcher finds a way around his terminal diagnosis…or he dies and the show moves on without him.
It’s also possible that Hughie also received a terminal diagnosis but is lying to Butcher. We’ll see soon enough!
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