So it’s pretty clear Ryan still has a conscience, so the capacity for him to be good and do good is still there, which is good for…well everyone. That said I see two possibilities for his future for at least the end of this season:

1. Homelander kills him. We already see that Homelander, man-child that he is, is already insecure about Ryan’s youth and power (there’s some evidence that Ryan may be more powerful than Homelander). Also with Ryan’s goodness in him, there’s a solid chance that Homelander tries to kill Ryan. If he succeeds I think that galvanizes Butcher enough to just release the Supe Virus into the wild (If he does, $5 says he uses the redeemed A-Train as patient zero).

If Homelander tries and fails to kill Ryan that leads to my 2nd possibility.

2. The Boys raise Ryan. Now this could happen even if Homelander doesn’t try to kill Ryan. It could just be Butcher finally gets through to Ryan. No matter what though Butcher can’t raise Ryan since he’s a dead man walking, and Grace is back in the game and I’m not confident she wouldn’t just raise him as a weapon or put him on ice like Soldier Boy or Homelander just kills her to prove a point. That leaves The Boys.

Now someone or someones are going to need to be Ryan’s primary caretaker in this scenario. Frenchie and Kimiko are immediately out since they both have way too much trauma to raise a child with potentially world ending powers. Plus they have crazy uncle and wine aunt energy (which one is which depends on the day). Hughie and Annie would be good candidates, her being a supe would really help with Ryan’s upbringing and Hughie has a good heart which I think Butcher would want Ryan to learn. That said I think it’d be interesting to see Ryan in the care of Mother’s Milk. Besides the hilarity of milk obsessed Homelander’s son being raised by a guy called Mother’s Milk, MM has a good heart and is tough but fair (as he said in season one he’s a mother>!fucker!< With a heart). He’s also already a father so has experience raising kids, and having Ryan actually being around normal kids his own age like Janine would be good for him. Plus the full circle moment of MM raising Ryan, whose grandfather killed his, would be an interesting story beat.