The Heroic Homelander Act That Confuses The Boys Fans

In a thread on the r/TheBoys subreddit, some viewers expressed their confusion as to why Homelander saves an infant at the end of "The Boys" Season 1. In this episode, Billy Butcher takes Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) and her son, Teddy, as his hostages, attaching numerous explosives to the Vought businesswoman. In response, Homelander simply murders Stilwell with his laser vision, but he ultimately opts to leave the child unharmed. Prior to this moment, Homelander's obvious hatred toward Teddy is alluded to originate from Homelander's sexual and maternal relationship with Madelyn. So, why would Homelander save a child he hates?

In a post to the Reddit thread, u/The1Big1Enchilada argued, "It was for reputation, the blame was put on Butcher for the explosion so he saved the kid to look heroic." This would certainly make sense, as we know Homelander saves Billy's life not only because he knows Billy wants to die, but so he can also make him suffer more by revealing that Becca (Shantel VanSanten) and Homelander's son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) are alive. Naturally, Homelander is always looking to improve his image, so saving Teddy could be a simple effort to convince the public of his heroism. 

However, other users suggested an alternative theory. In a post that received 15 upvotes, u/DontWannaBeCrowFood argued that Teddy could be a Supe as Stillwell may have given her own child Compound V. For some time, the answer to this question had been left open to speculation, but Season 3 of "The Boys" has seemed to prove some fans' theories correct.