Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Boys season 3.The final shot of The Boys season 3 spells trouble for Billy Butcher in season 4, but one theory makes Ryan's climactic smile even more terrifying. Homelander, Soldier Boy, and Billy Butcher's backstories show how their skewed morals are deeply rooted in their childhood traumas and toxic paternal relationships. Ryan, too, has seemingly tipped off on the dark side because his father figures — Homelander and Butcher — are constantly letting him down and misguiding him, but he still has time to turn the tides and become a righteous supe. Whether he will eventually find redemption is yet to be known, but things are starting to look grim for Ryan in The Boys season 4, especially after season 3's closing scene.

Toward the end of The Boys season 3, Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) seems to have an eerie change of heart. Just when Karl Urban's Billy Butcher and Antony Starr's Homelander are about to duke it out again, Ryan addresses Homelander as "Dad" and leaves with him soon after. Given Billy Butcher's unrelenting animosity towards Ryan, this was a long time coming. However, there still seems to be a lot more to Ryan's complex decision than meets the eye.

Related: Ryan vs Homelander: Who Is More Powerful & Who Would Win In The Boys?

According to one theory, Ryan is starting to develop a soft spot for Homelander, but he only decides to hold his hand in The Boys season 3 to protect Billy Butcher and everyone else. Ryan realizes that Homelander is powerful enough to single-handedly kill all of them, and only he can stop him from doing so. He makes a hard call and puts his own sense of morality on the line to save others from his father's fury. However, by doing so, Ryan makes his character arc a lot more ambiguous and scary.

How The Ryan Season 3 Finale Explanation Sets Up The Boys Season 4

Cameron Crovetti as Ryan and Karl Urban as Billy Butcher in The Boys

With a clear deadline in sight, Billy Butcher is on a warpath against Homelander and Victoria Neuman in The Boys. Meanwhile, Homelander is gradually learning that no matter what he does, most of his fans will never stop loving him. Ryan, on the other hand, is in a liminal space where he could either blindly follow his father or turn a blind eye toward his evil ways. The fact that he joins forces with Homelander in season 3's final moments only to save others shows that his heart is still in the right place. However, Ryan's climactic smile in The Boys season 3 contrasts this by portraying that he does not mind Homelander killing nameless regular people when they take a stand against overpowered supes like him. This indicates that even though he still cares about Billy Butcher, he is starting to think like Homelander.

Ryan's complex arc makes him one of the most essential characters in The Boys' future storylines. His final decision will determine the fate of the rest of the world in The Boys' universe. Unlike his father, he is not yet a lost cause, but his desensitization to violence toward strangers proves he is only a whisker away from spiraling into the immorality and corruption that surrounds him.

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