The most tragic figure in the season 4 finale is the head-popper Neuman (Claudia Doumit), who realizes too late that allying herself with Homelander will never work. Neuman’s world comes crashing down the moment Homelander outs her as a supe on live TV, then threatens the life of her daughter.

But for a moment in the finale, it looks like the Boys have a chance at averting disaster. Hughie and Neuman work out a deal, and Hughie convinces the rest of the gang to ally with Neuman to help take Homelander down. It’s a nice little metaphor for different coalitions coming together to oppose an impending far-right regime, much like that French election earlier this month. But this isn’t France. This is America, where our coalition against fascism can fall apart to petty infighting at any moment. Case in point: here comes Butcher, who’s just allowed the devil on his shoulder to take control of his body.

Butcher not only gets in the way of the Boys’ plan to stop Homelander, he also brutally murders Neuman with a bunch of seemingly-indestructible tentacles. (Her poor orphaned daughter now has to go to that depressing Red River Institute, the one place Neuman didn’t want her to end up.) We’ve seen already that Neuman’s capable of withstanding a bullet to the head, and even Homelander’s lasers, which means that Butcher might be the most powerful supe on the show now. Maybe he can finish off Homelander on his own next season, but that would still leave another huge problem to take care of.