Homelander’s punching rampage in 'The Boys' is gut-wrenching

We discover that Ryan has been hanging out in Russia and killing military guys left and right. He returns back to America after getting a text from Victoria Neuman’s daughter Zoe. She wants Ryan’s help to kill Butcher, who murdered Victoria in season four. But Ryan isn’t sure that will work. He rightfully calls Butcher dangerous before Zoe storms off and, of course, Butcher was watching the whole time.

Ryan cannot bring himself to kill Butcher, and they have a conversation about the supe killing virus and Homelander. Butcher gives young Ryan a sad task: to get close to Homelander, release the virus, and kill all three of them. He says that the world is less safe with supes in it. Ryan eventually agrees to it, saying all he does is hurt people. 

Butcher takes Ryan back to his lab in Erie, where they discover that Sameer and Zoe destroyed all of the supe killing virus. Sameer was rightfully upset at the truth about what happened to Victoria, so he decided to do this and Frenchie/Kimiko allowed him to leave alive. Butcher estimates that it will take around a month to create more but Ryan insists that they should go now, even without the virus. Of course, Butcher’s mouth gets in the way as he says Ryan is not strong enough and will just be another stupid kid on a dummy mission. He’s not wrong, but having a little tact would’ve been helpful, sir. 

As teenagers do, Ryan goes off to confront Homelander, specifically about sexually assaulting his mother. Homelander lets him beat up on him for a bit before he turns the tables and nearly beats Ryan to death. It’s pretty darn heartbreaking to watch it happen to one of the few beings whom Homelander seemed to tolerate the most. Butcher gets there a little too late and Ryan is laid out and barely sentient. Kids just don’t understand. This act of violence will only spur both Ryan and Butcher to go after Homelander even harder, either together or on their own terms. We shall see how the chips fall.