The Boys Finale Indicates If Ryan Loses His Powers (But There's A Catch)

Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) returned to face his father in the final episode of The Boys, but the series finale has left many wondering if the young supe lost all of his powers. Ryan was revealed to be the secret son of Homelander (Antony Starr), who assaulted Billy Butcher's (Karl Urban) wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten). Ryan was raised in secret until Homelander learned of his existence, and the war for his loyalty began. 

Season 5 found Ryan firmly opposed to Homelander, but he still couldn't beat his father in a fight and ended up being brutally beaten by him, almost to death, in Episode 3. His superpowers, identical to his father's, allowed him to heal, and Ryan returned after a brief absence for the series finale.

What Happened to Ryan In The Boys Finale (It Was a Solid Ending)

Ryan first appeared in The Boys series finale when Homelander found him living off the grid in a remote cabin, healing from his injuries. Homelander tried to convince Ryan to return home with him, but his son refused, still hating him. 

Ryan then reappeared in the heat of the moment at the White House, aiding Butcher and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) in the fight against Homelander. Even with Ryan and Butcher's combined superheroic efforts, they struggled to contain a V1 suped-up Homelander. 

However, Kimiko then manages to enact their silver bullet, letting off the depowering blast that she'd gained in the previous episode from the experimental radiation process that also gave Soldier Boy his powers. This power, as demonstrated earlier in the episode on Sister Sage (and earlier in the series on Kimiko herself), is a concentrated blast of nuclear energy that is capable of removing Compound V from a supe's bloodstream, reverting them to a normal person.

The blast is aimed directly at Homelander, who is restrained by Ryan and Butcher, but the three of them are caught in the crossfire. The subsequent scene confirms that Homelander is successfully stripped of his power, but it also seems to imply that Butcher and Ryan are left powerless too.

So Did Ryan Actually Lose His Powers?

The Boys Season 5 finale offers hints about Ryan's condition after Kimiko's power blast. 

In the aftermath of the fight, back at the Boys' homestead, Butcher sits down with Ryan and comments that "We ain't got no powers no more, we're just ordinary blokes." While this seems true for Butcher, Ryan never actually confirms or denies it. It seems on the surface that Kimiko's power blast may have worked on him too, seeing as he was also caught in the crossfire. 

Another thing that makes it seem all the more likely that Ryan is powerless is that, in the next scene after this conversation, Butcher is willing to go to Vought and unleash the supe-killing virus. Butcher was hesitant to do this initially because it would kill all supes, including Ryan, and he'd sworn to Becca that he would protect her son, so doing this would put that promise in jeopardy. At the end, Butcher is ready to release the virus, seemingly knowing that he and Ryan are now in the clear thanks to Kimiko's depowering blast. 

However, there is one potential catch to all this, which is that Ryan is a natural-born supe, the first of his kind. Where Kimiko's power blast can successfully vaporize the Compound V in a supe's bloodstream, Ryan was never injected with Compound V, he was born with his powers. They are a part of his genetic makeup, so it's unclear whether the depowering blast would have been effective on him as well. 

The finale of The Boys leaves the nature of Ryan's superpowers open-ended. The last moments show him going on to live a normal life with Mother's Milk and his family, and there's no hint that he has powers again in the show.