The Boys was supposed to be a critique of the superhero blockbuster subgenre, which relied way too much on Easter Eggs, deep-cut references, and callbacks to previous movies within the franchise while extending its longevity in pop-culture discourse with the help of spin-offs, prequels, sequels, and spin-offs of said prequels and sequels. But, with the release of Gen V and The Boys Season 4, this particular Prime Video IP has become the very thing that it sought to mock because a major plot point of the main show is based on its spin-off show. And, for some reason, if you have missed the spin-off show, you’ll be scratching your head while watching the main show. At the cost of sounding repetitive, Eric Kripke’s show intends to mock the type of fans who see every entry in a franchise as the best kind of homework. So, it’s ironic that he and his co-writers are expecting their fans to do the same. However, without any further ado, let’s talk about what this Supe-killing virus is all about and why Butcher is after it.
Spoiler Alert
The Supe-Killing Virus Was Made at Godolkin University
Gen V’s Indira Shetty, the dean of Godolkin University (the ultimate educational institution for Supe kids whose toppers have the chance to join the Seven), hated Supes because her husband and child died in the plane crash caused by Homelander in the first season of The Boys. Since she had access to superpowered kids and the best scientists that Vought had to offer at Godolkin University, she created a secret experimenting facility called The Woods. With the help of Dr. Edison Cardosa and Cate (a student who had mind-manipulation powers), Indira used the blood and powers of Golden Boy and his brother, Sam, to create a potion that was capable of neutralizing a Supe’s powers. Cate used her mind-manipulation powers to wipe off Golden Boy and Sam’s memories so that their bodies could be reused. When the potion was stable enough, Indira and Cardosa tested it on some of the students who didn’t have a good family background, and hence nobody would care if they died. And when the Supe-killing virus became strong enough to kill a Supe, Indira asked Cardosa to make it contagious as hell so that she could spread it all over the world and kill every Supe.
How Did Neuman Get The Supe-Killing Virus?
Indira informed Grace Mallory about the fact that she had created a Supe-killing virus and she wanted to use it to cause a Supe-apocalypse. Mallory advised against it. And while it seemed like Indira was going to spread the virus all on her own, she failed to do so because the kids at Godolkin University killed her for her illegal experiments. Marie Moreau tried to inform Victoria Neuman about the Supe-killing virus, in the hopes that she’d put a stop to this nonsense. Neuman got in touch with Dr. Cardosa and asked him to deliver the virus to her. When he did her bidding, she simply exploded his head and kept the virus in her possession. As evident from the events of The Boys Season 4, episode 5, Neuman didn’t destroy the virus. In fact, she took it to Sameer (Neuman’s husband and an esteemed Vought scientist who worked for Stan Edgar) and asked him to experiment on it. Sameer obviously made a huge blunder. Well, unlike Indira, Sameer didn’t experiment on Supes; instead, he tried to create Suped-up hamsters and then tried to apply the Supe-virus on them. Unfortunately, the hamsters escaped and leaked all the Compound V they had into the groundwater of the Neuman’s farm, thereby turning all the animals there into Suped-up mutants. Most of the Supe-killing virus was also destroyed. He did still have one syringe full of the poison, but the heroes had to use that to kill the animals and save themselves.
Why Is Butcher After The Supe-Killing Virus?
Gen V never showed who was listening to Mallory’s conversation with Indira about the Supe-killing virus. Since Butcher showed up at the end of the show, I just assumed it was him and he was sent there by Mallory to check out the Supe-killing virus that Indira was talking about. Now, The Boys doesn’t give a lot of clarity regarding how exactly Butcher found out about the Supe-killing virus as well. We see him chilling out with Kessler and sifting through some files which have snapshots of dead students from the CCTV footage of the prisons in Godolkin University, and then telling Kimiko, Frenchie, Annie, and MM about the fact that he simply knows about the existence of this Supe-killing virus. Hence, I have to assume again that it was Mallory who sent him to The Woods for a looksee.
When Butcher got there, he saw that people were dead, but he didn’t know the “how” or “why” behind it. And Kessler kind of filled in the blanks for Butcher with his access to Godolkin’s CCTV. Now, Butcher was hellbent on not just killing Homelander and Neuman, but every Supe in existence. That’s why his eyes lit up when he saw that there was one syringe full of that poison. Of course, he was sad when they had to use it up to kill the Suped-up animals. However, he was so desperate to get his hands on the Supe-killing virus that he faked Sameer’s death by hacking off his leg, and got one of the virus-filled Supe-animals so that Sameer could use it to create a version of the Supe-killing virus that could kill Homelander. By the way, there’s an interesting implication in The Boys Season 4, and this implication is based on my assumption that the bunny that was filled with the Temp V and Compound V also had a bit of the Supe-killing virus in it. Yet, it didn’t die until Butcher squashed it to death. Butcher has Temp V and Compound V in his system. So, maybe he is turning into some kind of a tentacle monster that’s immune to the Supe-killing virus. It’s possible, right? Well, we’ll have to wait a few more weeks to get all our answers.
