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Although seven years ago, The Boys showrunner probably couldn't have imagined how popular the superhero satire series would become, Eric Kripke says he always had Billy Butcher and Hughie's last scene together in the back of his mind.
Warning: the following contains major spoilers for The Boys season 5 episode 8, so turn back now if you haven't seen the series finale yet.
One of the most shocking moments in The Boys season 5 series finale has to be Hughie killing Butcher. However, Kripke says that this was always the plan. "That was just about the only thing we knew we were gonna do from the very, very beginning," said Kripke in an interview with Deadline. "It’s about as faithful to the comics as we get. And I always love that last moment of it all comes down to just those two characters, and so we had a target we were aiming for."
After defeating Homelander, the Boys head back to basecamp, but things quickly turn sour for Butcher, as, after Ryan tells him that he doesn't want to have a father-son relationship with him, he finds Terror dead in his dog bed. With nothing else to lose, Butcher takes the Supe Virus to Vought Tower, planning to kill all Supes so that the world never has to suffer another Homelander. Hughie figures out what is happening and goes after him, as he knows that if Butcher releases the virus, many innocent Supes will die, including Annie (Starlight)
At Vought, the two square off. Hughie warns Butcher, but the Boys leader won't see sense, leading Hughie to shoot him in the chest. Butcher dies holding Hughie's hand, telling him that he looks just like his little brother Lennie. But what The Boys viewers may not know is that this is how Butcher dies in The Boys comics, too. However, in the comics, Butcher also kills Mother's Milk, Kimiko, and Frenchie during his rampage on the way to Vought Tower.
The Boys TV show often strays away from the comics, but this detail was important to Kripke, as although the focus is often on the battle between Homelander and Butcher, the "kind of the secret conflict of the show" is between Hughie and Butcher, which is the "emotional heart" of the series. "We’ve laid so much infrastructure in terms of Hughie and Butcher, and what Hughie’s relationship to Butcher is, and why Butcher brought him on the team in the first place.
"One good thing about Butcher is, he knows he’s a sociopath with no conscience… And Hughie’s goal from the beginning was to be his little brother and to stop him when he finally goes too far." Kripke added that this is one of his "favorite scenes" in the whole show, as "it was so satisfying to bring together threads that we’ve been planting for seven years now."
The Boys complete series is available to stream on Prime Video. For more, check out our The Boys season 5 finale review and our The Boys season 5 ending explained.
