PR in the Philippines

(SeaPRwire) –   Supes in The Boys mostly adhere to the traditional superhero formula: a flashy costume, public relations campaigns, and at the core of everything, a distinctive superhero alias. But that alias carries a heavy load of baggage. Suddenly, you’re no longer an individual—you’re a character and an asset for a larger entity, whether it’s Vought or simply the greater good. Given this, it’s easy to understand why Starlight now likes to go by her real name, Annie January.

However, not every Supe receives a superhero moniker. In fact, Season 5 Episode 4 of The Boys introduces a Supe who’s only known by his first name—Quinn—because he wasn’t considered valuable enough to become a superhero. And this very rejection is what powers his frightening ability, one that alters our perception of the show’s heroes.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Boys Season 5 Episode 4.

While searching for V1—the original iteration of Compound V that can grant a Supe immunity to the contagion Billy Butcher intends to unleash—Butcher and his crew head to Fort Harmony, where the first V1 trials took place. But they aren’t the only ones after it: Homelander and Soldier Boy are right behind them.

But as soon as the Boys step inside the fort, they start bickering with one another, giving in to their most primal urges. Additionally, there are corpses of other people who entered the lab—but they weren’t harmed by an external attacker. Instead, they killed each other. Frenchie quickly comes up with an explanation: toxoplasmosis, a parasite (often found in cat feces) that has psychoactive and behavioral impacts on humans. While everyone else begins fighting without cause, Frenchie is immune because of his long history of substance abuse.

Frenchie’s initial thought was that V1 had altered the local vegetation, but he soon discovers the real culprit is something entirely different: Quinn, one of the first test subjects for V1. He was injected with the compound alongside Soldier Boy, but while Soldier Boy rose to stardom, Quinn was cast aside as a failure. Since then, he’s been dormant, attached to a wall in Fort Harmony and boiling with anger toward Soldier Boy—who wasn’t even a real soldier, just a wealthy kid craving power.

That hatred has transformed into spores that infect anyone who comes into contact with them, filling them with the same fury. This means Quinn not only has the ability to influence the behavior of those nearby, but he also has no control over this power. His resentment is so intense that he doesn’t even mean to take down those around him—they simply turn on each other on their own.

But just as Soldier Boy was the source of Quinn’s pain, he’s also the one who puts an end to it. Frenchie taunts Soldier Boy into using his nuclear blast on Quinn—one of the rare weapons capable of taking down a V1-injected Supe. Only then do the other characters regain their sanity.

Quinn might not have a superhero alias, but that’s exactly what makes him one of the scariest Supes we’ve seen in The Boys to date. He was totally overlooked by the superhero industry, and that all-encompassing anger is what gave him his powers in the first place. It’s crucial to remember that for every Soldier Boy, there are countless Quinns—and Vought has its fair share of victims it’s swept under the rug.

The Boys Season 5 Episode 4 is now available to stream on Prime Video.