Spoilers ahead!

While The Boys has provided fans with a multitude of interesting, multi-faceted characters, few are as curious and appealing as Mother’s Milk and Billy Butcher. Played by Laz Alonso and Karl Urban, respectively, the two men bring a new level of pain and planning to the mission of taking down The Seven.

Blast Magazine recently had the opportunity to chat with Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk) and Karl Urban (Billy Butcher) about their character’s relationships with each other and the rest of The Boys team.

On the nature of Mother’s Milk (MM) and Butcher’s relationship…

Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk): For Mother’s Milk, I feel like there is something therapeutic behind trying to keep Butcher from jumping off the ledge. Butcher is the leader of the team and also the most unpredictable member of the team so MM definitely has his hands full. We always look at the Butcher/MM relationship as MM being Butcher’s conscience that talks him off the ledge and tries to give him another way of looking at the situation but in many ways, Butcher is also a side of MM, the more risk-taking side. It’s the side of not playing life safe and taking chances in order to achieve a bigger goal. I feel like we all need that balance. Butcher needs MM as much as MM needs Butcher. You get to see that relationship develop as Season 2 progresses. There will be moments where MM tries to remind Butcher that he is a human as well, that there is some humanity that is buried deep under that trench coat. Those colors develop throughout the season. In Season 2, even more than the first season, you get to see how much of a dysfunctional family we are, but we are still a family nonetheless.

On Butcher’s state of mind entering Season 2 following the big reveal that Becca is still alive…

Karl Urban (Billy Butcher): The revelation that Becca is alive is a complete game changer. Finding Becca is Butcher’s main focus and drive for Season 2. The question is: how far is he willing to go in order to achieve that goal? In Season 1, Butcher was very obsessed and driven to take down The Seven. He made choices that involved turning his back on The Boys and that didn’t turn out too well. Going into Season 2, has Butcher learned from that? What is the price that he is willing to pay? In Season 2, all of the characters have to figure out how to deal with the challenge of having the element that is most cherished and most valued to the character ripped away from them.

On the potential of Hughie becoming the leader of The Boys in Season 2…

Karl Urban (Billy Butcher): Hughie isn’t just some cute piece of booty. He is there for a function. All of the members of The Boys have a specific function. MM is particularly meticulous and has a brilliant mind, in addition to serving as a moral compass for Butcher. Even though Butcher is really thought of as the leader, what we come to see in Season 2 is that if Butcher pushes The Boys too much or asks them to do something that they feel is egregious, they aren’t going to do it. It’s an evolving and democratic situation. Butcher is the one who tells The Boys to follow him and 90% of the time, they agree, but at the end of Season 1, Butcher ostensibly abandoned The Boys. In Season 2, he now needs The Boys and he’s vulnerable and desperate. The fracture in that relationship is really where we start Season 2 and we address it pretty quickly because Butcher needs The Boys to get his wife back.

On which characteristic of their character they respect/admire…

Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk): What I admire about Mother’s Milk is his tremendous loyalty to the mission. I wish I could be as committed to finishing projects as MM is. MM almost has this obsessive need for control and one of the ways he can exhibit that need is by focusing on the mission. He erects these boundaries in the process that The Boys don’t give a damn about. While that’s obviously frustrating for him, it gives him something to do so that he doesn’t focus on the fact that he doesn’t have his daughter and can’t see her, he’s losing his relationship with Monique, which is extremely important to him, and the world is basically crumbling around him.

Karl Urban (Billy Butcher): An aspect of Butcher that I really like is his ability to convince others to do what he wants them to do. It’s his ability to manipulate people and also just lead them on these sort of outlandish and dangerous exploits. I also really like Butcher’s ability to unify the group. As much as Butcher’s out there to be his own man and achieve what he wants to achieve, I think The Boys have become his surrogate family. In Season 2, there is a great evolution to that and we really see that s Butcher’s begrudgingly growing feelings towards his comrades, which makes him a more vulnerable opponent.

Be sure to watch the first three episodes of The Boys Season 2 when it premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 4th!

About The Author

Madeline Knutson is an Entertainment Journalist and Pop Culture Expert for Blast Magazine.

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