When wondering how he and Soldier Boy’s relationship will change going into the finale now that he has a father, it’s worth taking a look at his mommy issues first. Season 1 spent a lot of time developing his relationship with Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue), in which the two would often engage in a strange kind of mother/son sexual role-play. Homelander shows signs of jealousy over Stillwell’s infant son, and even after he murders her, he still gets a thrill over drinking her leftover breast milk.
There’s a lot to unpack with those scenes, but I think we’ve got the gist: The fact that Homelander never got to have a mom growing up has now led to him longing for motherly affection, which has materialized into a fetish Stillwell attempts to use as a way to keep him loyal. But as the season 1 finale showed, just because Homelander had this relationship with Stillwell didn’t mean he’d hesitate to kill her the moment he felt she betrayed him. He may long for motherly affection, but motherly affection is not enough to win his loyalty.
In the latest episode’s final scene, Homelander seems pretty excited to finally have a father in his life, but we know the excitement can die down pretty quickly. If Soldier Boy wants to make up for lost time and try to be a good dad to him, things might actually work out for a while. But if Soldier Boy’s not interested? If he rejects Homelander outright? Things can get very bad very quickly.