We weren’t exactly expecting a happy ending in The Boys’ season two finale, but the level of death, tragedy and dismemberment in What I Know put the rest of this year’s episodes to shame, delivering a few emotional gut-punches along with the physical ones.

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Look away now if you haven’t watched the finale yet, because below the jump we’ll be delving into some serious spoiler territory.

Still here? Then you’ll know that the final downfall of Stormfront (Aya Cash) came at a heavy price. As the ex-Nazi supe tried to choke Becca (Shantel VanSanten) to death, the latter’s son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) finally activated his latent superpowers to save her.

Unfortunately, while his heat-vision blast did take out Stormfront (while still alive, she had severe injuries including the loss of all four limbs) Ryan also inadvertently killed his mother Becca, leaving her to die in the arms of Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher.

Despite his fury, Billy ended up protecting Ryan from his biological father Homelander (Antony Starr) after promising Becca he’d protect her child – but as the series closes, Butcher is left alone again, tragically separated from his wife so soon after their reunion.

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Shantel VanSanten as Becca Butcher in The Boys (Amazon Prime Video)

And in an ironic twist, this surprise plot turn actually takes the series closer to Garth Ennis’ original comic book, which saw Butcher’s wife killed by her and Homelander’s son some time before the events of the story unfold. In the print version, Becca died when the super-baby (complete with flight and laser version) burst out from inside her, with Billy killing the child soon after.

Back in 2019, the end of season one shocked fans of the comic when it was revealed that Becca and her super-son were alive after all – but with hindsight, perhaps we should have seen it coming that Billy wasn’t in for a happy reunion. Now, after years of assuming Becca was dead, and a brief period of realising she was still out there, Butcher’s back to being alone.

The Boys season 2
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Exactly what new acts of violent revenge against supes this will spur him to is currently unclear, but one thing’s for sure – with Becca gone, there truly is nothing holding him back any more. In the original comic book story, the widowed Butcher is even more ruthless and self-destructive than the TV version.

Warning: some serious spoilers for The Boys comic book follow!

After successfully killing Homelander and the Seven, the comic book Butcher turned on anyone else who had Compound V in their veins (including some friendly supes), before murdering his own teammates when they tried to stop his rampage. Now, there’s no saying the Amazon series will follow this storyline exactly – but if we were Butcher’s team-mates, we’d be keeping an extra eye out.

In other words, dark times may be ahead for Billy Butcher and the rest of The Boys. Well, darker times, anyway.

For more on The Boys season three, read our guide to Soldier Boy, the new character played by Jensen Ackles.

The Boys season two is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video – you can sign up for Prime with a free 30 day free trial.

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Check out our guides to the best movies on Amazon Prime and the best Amazon Prime series, or see what else is on with our TV Guide.

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