When Billy steps into the Oval Office, Homelander makes that expression. We know the one. The one that screams “you came back for me” or something. It’s an expression that belongs on the face of a yearning maiden. My butchlander-addled brain can’t help but interpret it any other way but there has to be a canon reason why he has that expression on. I checked the finale script for notes and didn’t find anything. It even adds to the delusion because it says that Homelander “..instantly forgets the camera.” What were the notes? What was Ant thinking while shooting? Why did they choose that shot? If there is no other explantion, I’m sticking to the butchlander interpretation thank you.
I think it's 100% fair that even outside of a Butchlander interpretation, it's an expression of relief.
He just lost his son. He realized that nobody will love him, ever. The world has been lost to him. In the moment he loses it on-camera, he knows this is the end. The world will hate him until the day he dies. He is forced to be a loathsome monster now. Ryan won't ever speak to him again. Neither will Soldier Boy, should he ever wake from his pod.
So here's Butcher. The one man who never broke a promise to him. The man who came for him. The man who is thinking of him all the time. The man who has dedicated his life to him in a way that nobody ever could. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.
Butcher has not been indifferent a single day.
Scorched earth is STILL ON. And while Homelander is deluding himself into ignoring what scorched earth even really means (that only one of them will be leaving the White House), he knows one thing: it's the most intimate thing he has to look forward to now.
