How Hughie & Butcher Can Survive Their Supe Death Sentence

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Boys season 3.

The Boys season 3 episode 7 reveals that Hughie and Butcher signed their death sentence the moment they injected Temp V to become one-day supes, but there is still a way they can avoid their impending doom. By introducing temporary Compound V, aka "V-24," The Boys turned the tables on Homelander and gave Hughie and Billy Butcher the opportunity to have a toe-to-toe showdown with him. Unfortunately, they find themselves at odds with their bad luck again when Starlight learns that three to five doses of V-24 are all it takes to make it lethal. Considering how Butcher and Hughie have taken more than three doses and are likely to take a few more in the season's finale, their fate seems to be sealed unless they do one thing.

The V-24 research notes found by Starlight claim that the drug can cause "Hyper Accelerated Malignant Tumors." A pivotal scene in The Boys season 3 episode 7, in which Butcher's ear starts leaking blood for no reason, also confirms that the drug has started taking its toll on him. Perhaps one more dose and Butcher will tip off to the point of no return, and while he succumbs to his own miseries, he will probably take Hughie down with him. But could the pair still somehow reverse V-24's damage?

The obvious way to turn this around would be to get off the drug and hope that it has not caused enough damage to kill them, though both have potentially passed the point of no return already, or likely will soon in the next episode. On the other hand, the not-so-obvious course of action for Hughie and Butcher would be to get their hands on Permanent V and survive, but live with the burden of being a supe for the rest of their lives. The season's penultimate episode seems to foreshadow the latter when Starlight gives Kimiko a dose of Permanent V, which helps Kimiko get her lost powers back and heal from her injuries. After learning about V-24's side effects, Starlight might have snagged a few more doses of Permanent V for the worst-case scenario where Hughie's life is on the line. Even if she didn't, given that Kimiko only uses a portion of her own Permanent V, Hughie and Butcher could take the rest of it when the time is right.

Will The Boys' Hughie & Butcher Take Permanent Compound V?

Billy Butcher from The Boys holding an injured Hughie up, walking with his arm around his shoulder.

Hughie and Butcher's decision to go from one-day supes to full-timers may further set the stage for an epic climactic battle. The closing moments of season 3, episode 7 ("Here Comes A Candle To Light You To Bed") hint that a potential father-son team-up between Soldier Boy and Homelander is now underway. To stand a chance against the two overpowered supes, Hughie and Butcher will have to raise the stakes, and the only way they can do that is by becoming full-fledged supes themselves. Taking permanent Compound V does not align too well with Butcher's virtues, but it looks like he is starting to run out of both options, and time.

Other than the loss of morals and self-identity, dosing on permanent Compound V can have other downsides as well. So far, it has not negatively affected Kimiko and Congresswoman Victoria Neuman's daughter, but its long-term effects on adults are yet to be known. In The Boys season 3, A-Train suffers a heart attack as the consequences of overdosing on the drug, which suggests that injecting Permanent V is not bereft of its own side effects. However, when all hell breaks loose and chaos ensues with the potential Soldier Boy-Homelander collaboration, what other choice will Hughie and Butcher have?