Are Butcher & Hughie Going To Die? The Temp V Reveal Is A Big Problem

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3, episode 7

Billy Butcher and Hughie Campbell. Vought's scientists were busy between The Boys seasons 2 & 3. The company's best brains concocted a temporary version of Frederick Vought's Compound-V superpower drug dubbed "V-24." Unfortunately, Vought's scientists aren't as brainy about basic security measures, and Queen Maeve stole several batches for Butcher to use against Homelander. Karl Urban's mucky Brit has been shooting the stuff ever since, and is ed by surrogate younger brother Hughie, who's fueled by a misplaced sense of romantic inferiority.

When Stan Edgar first introduced V-24 to America's next president, Robert Singer, he itted Vought's scientists were still ironing out kinks in the formula. As Starlight discovers in The Boys season 3, episode 7 ("Here Comes A Candle To Light You To Bed") those kinks were actually massive gaping flaws. After sneaking into a Vought lab, Starlight happens across top-secret V-24 notes lying around (seriously... guys?) and clocks the all-important warning: "Lethal after 3-5 doses."

Billy Butcher has already injected five doses of V-24 in The Boys season 3 - fighting Gunpowder, the Russia mission, visiting Crimson Countess, Herogasm, and the Mindstorm hunt. One more drops him well past the point of no return, and with The Boys season 3's climactic final battle approaching, Butcher will very probably get his unlucky sixth stamp on that V-24 loyalty card. Exactly what free reward he's entitled to remains to be seen. Amazon has already green-lit The Boys season 4, so Karl Urban's character at least enjoys a degree of plot protection. On the other hand, season 3's carelessly abandoned research notes wouldn't have specified five doses as the absolute maximum unless that number was significant. Maybe Butcher ends The Boys season 3 in a coma, or perhaps he's left with permanent injuries that force an infamously unfriendly lone wolf to rely on others. The research references "malignant tumors" as the cause of death, so Butcher might even become a walking time-bomb, liable to drop at any moment.

Unlike his big brother from another missing mother, Jack Quaid's Hughie has only taken four V-24 hits - Russia, Crimson Countess, Herogasm, and Mindstorm. By specifying that "3-5 doses" range, The Boys has afforded Hughie a little wiggle room here. So long as the free-balling teleporter doesn't take a fifth vial of the green stuff before The Boys season 3's final battle, he has a legitimate get-out clause. Hughie shouldn't necessarily stop worrying about his leaky brain just yet, however. It'd be classic Campbell misfortune for Hughie to suffer medical consequences after four doses, while Butcher gets away with more. The Boys history would then be repeating itself, with Butcher's anger and selfishness getting yet another younger brother killed....

Whatever V-24's problematic side-effects mean for Butcher and Hughie, the revelation has reset The Boys' landscape ahead of season 4. The advent of V-24 has let ordinary folk fight evenly against even the strongest supes, but the promise of a grisly death removes that weapon from the Boys' arsenal. Butcher and Hughie can't take any more doses without dying, while MM and Frenchie wouldn't risk their own brains melting now they know the truth. Dropping V-24 is the right move for The Boys. As fun as Butcher's laser vision and Hughie's flapping butt cheeks have been in season 3, V-24 has made fighting supes a little too easy. Rendering the drug unusable not only keeps Butcher's gang as plucky underdogs... it means supes just became dangerous again.