Diksha Sundriyal
The fifth and final season of Prime Video’s ‘The Boys’ reaches its halfway mark with an episode that drops a lot of details about Soldier Boy and his history in reference to Vought and V1. The fourth episode has the Boys taking a trip to Fort Harmony, where they intend to find V1 before Homelander gets his hands on it. However, a weird thing starts to happen as almost all group members turn against each other. Meanwhile, Homelander and Soldier Boy make their way to Fort Harmony, where the latter has an unexpected reunion that takes a turn. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Quinn was One of the First Supes to Get V1
One of the things to come into focus in this season of ‘The Boys’ is V1, the earliest iteration of Compound V, which was given to the likes of Soldier Boy with devastating consequences. The formula was so potent that most test subjects did not survive it. Soldier Boy was one of the handful who not only survived the dose of V1, but also came out of it with superpowers and immortality. However, while it was a gift to Soldier Boy, Stormfront, and the other Supes, it turned out to be a curse to people like Quinn. He was part of the same test group as Soldier Boy, whom he was always jealous of. This is confirmed by Soldier Boy himself, who reveals that Quinn always hated him.
This hate and jealousy most likely originated from the fact that Soldier Boy used his father’s money and connections to get a place in the trials. Before V1, he was a nobody, a disappointment to his father, especially when compared to his decorated brother who served valiantly in war. Because the best of the best were recruited for the trials, Soldier Boy wouldn’t have made the cut if it weren’t for his father’s money. The fact that he came out of those trials with unprecedented powers, immortality, and the kind of fame that people only dream of would have been enough to make people like Quinn jealous. So far, we don’t know anything else about his background, but it can be assumed that he earned his place in the trials fair and square.
It is likely that he served in the war and believed himself more deserving of superpowers, compared to the rich, spoiled brat next to him. If he didn’t already have enough hate for the guy, Quinn would have hated him even more after his own powers kicked in. He would have lamented the fact that while someone as undeserving as Soldier Boy got all the good powers, he received the powers of making vines and releasing pores. How exactly Quinn happened to be left alone at Fort Harmony for all these years remains to be seen, but it’s clear that he has been in that hellscape so long that his hate manifested into a monster of its own.
Quinn’s Hatred for Soldier Boy Developed Into a Superpower of Its Own
When Quinn received a shot of V1, he survived it and received the powers that most likely started with him being able to manipulate plants and other organic material. What exactly happened to turn him into a plant-like mutation himself will most likely be covered in the events of ‘The Boys’ prequel series, ‘Vought Rising.’ However, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to believe that either the V1 reacted badly for Quinn or he tried to escalate his powers to match Soldier Boy’s and ended up doing something that made things worse for him. In any case, he ended up getting stuck to a wall of Fort Harmony, turning into a plant himself. Over time, vines grew out of his body, covering the building and releasing spores that affect any living being crossing the area.
Ending up in this situation would have given Quinn a lot of time to reflect, and evidently, he spent it hating Soldier Boy, and most likely other people whom he blamed for his condition. As a human, this hate might have stayed nothing more than a feeling inside his heart. But in this new mutated form, the hatred came out of the spores, infecting anything or anyone that inhaled it. Thus, Quinn’s hatred became infectious, affecting the people who entered the building or even stayed in the surrounding woods. These people started hating each other, leading them to attack and kill one another. It is likely that the animals also suffered from this, which is why, when the Boys enter the woods, there is no sign of any wildlife.
In the end, Quinn is relieved of his fate by Soldier Boy. Ideally, the Supe would have preferred to let Quinn rot in his current situation. The feeling of hatred was mutual, and Soldier Boy didn’t mind the fact that Quinn was trapped in a hell of his own making. However, Frenchie eggs him on, stoking his anger to the point that Soldier Boy ends up using his powers to blast off Quinn. With the V out of his system, his powers disappear, and he dies on the spot. This is good news not just for him, because he is finally free of his doomed fate, but also for Frenchie and his gang, who are now free of the secondhand hatred that led them to turn on each other.
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