Cate Dunlap as a mirror to Homelander and Butcher
! REWRITE OF AN OLDER POST !
Cate and Homelander share a similar origin of isolation and emotional deprivation during their most formative years. Homelander was raised in a lab, shaped into the perfect product - a shiny toy to sell to the masses, the American dream embodied. He was surrounded by the sterile company of doctors and researchers.
"To protect you. That's always job one at Vought, isn't it? Protect our most profitable asset?....You don't understand. The thing about cross-breeding dogs, you get the right genes, you can get a perfect creation. But it doesn't matter how perfect they are. It's not enough. When I raise subjects without their mothers, they become violent. Aggressive. Downright hateful. You should have been raised in a home with a family who loved you. Not in a cold lab with doctors."
John, before becoming The Homelander, had no mother to speak of - instead, he had tutors who would quiz him on American culture. He sought comfort from them as he would from a mother because they were prevalent feminine figures in his everyday life, capable of filling that role. In a sense, he was trying to create a makeshift family out of the staff, with Dr. Vogelbaum as the cruel and distant paternal figure and the tutors as his caring maternal figures.
"Uh today we had another incident. But this time the subject was not driven by anger but by something else altogether. I told Dr. Vogelbaum that the subject was obviously suffering from isolation induced depression but he didn't respond. He just told me to find another tutor."
[It’s good to note that this replacement of something as valuable as a "family member" (in John's eyes) could have also been formative in Homelander’s opinion of humans as replaceable toys - a subconscious thought that slowly grew stronger over the years.]
Both were locked away behind a steel door. Cate’s mother even took away the warmth of human touch from her.
"Keep your distance. And don't let her touch you."
This is where Shetty and Stillwell come into play, both disguising themselves as pseudo-"motherly" figures. Shetty and Stillwell sought to wield control over them, using them for their own goals, only to meet violent ends at their hands. Shetty and Stillwell play their roles in different ways and manipulate differently, but both offer praise and affection while exploiting inner desires and conflicts. They build trust, and when that trust is broken, Homelander and Cate feel betrayed, becoming unstable and angry. They slip from their grasp, and that control no longer works.
Cate holds hatred for humans, believing they see her and fellow supes as nothing more than "products" to market and sell to the masses for profit. Homelander views humans as disposable - nothing but ants to step on, toys to entertain himself with. Yet he still needs their love and adoration, a way to satisfy his own carnal, [human] need for approval, a lingering effect of being crafted into a "product" from an early age.
Cate and Butcher are extremists in their views, driving away their closest friends and allies with their radical beliefs about supes and humans. They are two sides of the same coin. Butcher is haunted by the death of Rebecca, while Cate is tormented by guilt for pushing Luke to his breaking point.