[Editor’s Note: Mild spoilers for the first episode of The Boys Season 2 follow below.] 

If you’ve seen the first few episodes of The Boys Season 2, you know that Karl Urban’s Billy the Butcher character is M.I.A. for a good chunk of time. That puts the focus on how Hughie (Jack Quaid) and the gang try to forge ahead without their fearless leader, while letting the audience continue to ponder exactly what happened after that Season 1 cliffhanger ending in which Butcher discovered his wife was alive – and had a young son whose father is Homelander (Antony Starr).

We’re left to fill in the gaps as to how Butcher made his way back to The Boys, but that wasn’t always the plan. Showrunner Eric Kripke previously told us that they shot a good chunk of footage revealing what Butcher did after he was dumped by Homelander but ended up cutting it out of the show. And now that footage has been officially released online as a short film called “Butcher.”

It’s neat to see this unused footage but it’s also pretty clear why it was cut. It was supposed to fit into Episode 2, but we’d probably be itching to get back to the main action with Hughie or Starlight (Erin Moriarty) or Billy with the gang instead of this flashback, as that’s a bit more of a pressing matter.

But it is nice that Kripke and/or Amazon felt inclined to share this with the world. So take a look at “Butcher: A Short Film” below to get those gaps filled in. Episode 4 of The Boys Season 2 will be released on Friday, September 11th.

And if you want more of The Boys Season 2, check out our full recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3.