Ryan Butcher’s story in The Boys is pretty tragic. He’s a traumatized kid with immense power, caught between two father figures who offer a different vision of who he should become.
It’s easy to miss how his arc mirrors the radicalization of young people into extremist movements in the real world. And the show gives us an idea of how those troubled youths are corrupted through a mix of isolation, trauma, failed alternatives, and someone who pretends to offer unconditional acceptance.
The Start of Darkness
Ryan’s radicalization starts where most do: with trauma and isolation.
He’s the first naturally-born Supe while every other superhuman was injected with Compound V as a baby. That makes him unique, but that also means there’s no one else in the world like him.
When we first met Ryan at the end of season 1, he’s spent his entire life raised in a compound by his mother Becca. His mother wanted to keep him away from his father Homelander to prevent Ryan from growing up to be a raging sociopath.
But those plans go to hell when Homelander learns about Ryan and forces himself into his son’s life. Then his powers awaken in the worst possible way when Stormfront attacks him and his mother. In a moment of terror, Ryan’s heat vision activates for the first time and seriously injures Stormfront but he accidentally kills Becca in the process.
This moment lays the foundation for everything that follows.
How Homelander Corrupts Ryan
At the end of season 3, Ryan is living with Homelander after falling out with his step-father Butcher. During a rally, Homelander murders a heckler who was harassing Ryan in broad daylight. It’s shocking because this is the first time Homelander let his mask slip in public.
Once they pick their jaws up from the ground, the stunned crowd starts to cheer. Even Homelander is dumbfounded at first until he decides to roll with it.
And Ryan smiles as he watches the crowd. For his entire life, he never knew he had superpowers until Homelander came into the picture. Since then, Homelander makes sure to let his son know that he’s better than a regular human and how he shouldn’t have to hide it or feel ashamed. Now Ryan is watching his father’s words come to life. If people are willing to turn a blind eye to a Supe murdering someone in public, doesn’t that mean that Homelander is right? That Supes really are superior to everyone else?
By season 4, Ryan is living at Vought Tower with Homelander shaping him to be a successor. Vought arranges for Ryan to participate in their conservative, pro-Supe propaganda. When he accidentally kills a stunt performer during a staged rescue, Homelander tells him humans are fragile and they can’t save them all. When Ryan is horrified by his own capacity for violence, Homelander tells him he’s destined for greatness and needs to accept it. Homelander teaches Ryan that supes are superior to humans and that Ryan shouldn’t feel guilty about what he is.
It’s grooming, obviously. Homelander is a narcissistic monster teaching Ryan that might make right and regular humans are disposable. This is also similar to the extremist rhetoric you see or hear online. Take someone who feels alienated, give them an ideology that explains why they feel that way. Tell them they’re special, chosen, part of an elite group that sees the truth everyone else is too weak or stupid to understand. Offer them a purpose and belonging in exchange for abandoning their morals.
The Cracks in the Foundation
Thankfully, Ryan isn’t a lost cause yet. He shows signs that Becca’s influence is still fighting Homelander’s conditioning.
When Ryan accidentally kills the stunt performer during his first staged rescue, he’s devastated. Homelander dismisses it as collateral damage, but Ryan refuses to do another save. He understands that killing someone is a big deal even if it was an accident or they were “just” human.
When Ryan is featured on a Vought Christmas special promoting xenophobic ideology and encouraging kids to report on their parents, he stops the broadcast. He tells the audience their family isn’t their enemy. He also shares some stories of his mother and how she wouldn’t want him doing this, that she taught him to tell the truth.
It’s a beautiful moment that gives the audience hope that Ryan can break free from his father’s toxic influence. After that, Ryan reconnects with Butcher at a CIA safe house and the two start to form a genuine bond with one another. But since this is a TV show that needs a little drama now and then, everything goes to hell.
Desperate to have something to use against Homelander, Grace tells Ryan that Homelander is behind the attempted assassination of the President-elect. And that he was responsible for the crash of Flight 37. She even reveals that Homelander raped Becca, resulting in Ryan’s conception.
The poor kid is overwhelmed and wants to leave so he can clear his head, but Grace won’t allow it. He figures out quickly that Grace is trying to turn him against his father so she can train him to take Homelander down. When he tries to leave the bunker, he shoves Grace into a wall with enough force that the impact kills her.
Ryan has a blank expression on his face before he leaves, but it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking. Is he horrified at the fact that he’s just accidentally killed another person again? Does he believe Grace had it coming? Or does he no longer care anymore as he becomes desensitized to all the violence?
Where Grace and Butcher Failed
Grace and Butcher fail to save Ryan from Homelander because they keep proving him right. They claim to care about Ryan but treat him as a means to an end. They want him to reject Homelander’s ideology of using people as tools while simultaneously using Ryan as a tool. Homelander offers Ryan acceptance, purpose, and belonging. It’s not a hard choice for a kid to make. The hypocrisy is obvious even to a teenager.
The tragedy is that Ryan isn’t stupid or evil. He’s a traumatized kid making decisions based on his circumstances. Homelander is a monster, but he’s a monster who treats Ryan like a son. Everyone else treats Ryan like a solution to a problem or a bomb that needs to be defused.
For deprogramming to work, it needs to offer something better than what the extremist provides. It has to address the underlying needs that made someone vulnerable to being radicalized in the first place. Grace and Butcher never do that. They just tell Ryan that Homelander is bad and expect that to be enough.
Ryan’s arc is building toward a single question: has he reached the point of no return?
He’s killed two people he loved, been groomed by a narcissistic fascist and he’s been betrayed by everyone who he thought he could trust. He’s isolated, powerful, but can he still be saved?
If season 5 wants to redeem Ryan, it needs to offer him something Homelander can’t provide. Not just love or acceptance, it needs to show Ryan that choosing humanity leads to something meaningful.
