‘The Boys’: Eric Kripke on Setting Up ‘Vought Rising’ Easter Eggs in Soldier Boy’s Visit to Fort Harmony

The Boys dives deeper into Soldier Boy’s (Jensen Ackles) history during the latest episode, “King of Hell,” which sends the supe to Fort Harmony on a search for V-1, the original formula that gave him powers, and could potentially make his son Homelander (Antony Starr) immortal. Warning: Spoilers for The Boys Season 5 Episode 4 ahead!

Seeking to beat the show’s titular vigilantes there as they search for answers, Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) convinces Soldier Boy to accompany Homelander, hinting that getting the V-1 first could prevent the power-hungry leader from getting the thing he wants most. The trouble is, Fort Harmony is a space that is shrouded in hate, due in part to the living remnants of someone from Soldier Boy’s past.

Grown against the wall in a form resembling something from The Last of Us, Quinn (Kris Hagen), clearly strikes a nerve for Soldier Boy, who locks Homelander in a chamber with Uranium that weakens him in a way viewers have never seen before. The mission to find and destroy the V-1 before Homelander can use it isn’t exactly successful, but the journey for Soldier Boy is an illuminating one for viewers, as we uncover bits of his history that will play into the forthcoming prequel series Vought Rising.

And it was a big episode as well for Annie’s own father-daughter bond with her dad, Rick (guest star Tim Daly), who had only been mentioned in the series until this episode reveals a much-needed heart-to-heart between the pair. Below, showrunner Eric Kripke discusses diving deeper into Soldier Boy’s lore, testing parental bonds, and more in Episode 4 of The Boys‘ final season.

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The visit to Fort Harmony uncovers some Soldier Boy history. What was exciting about delving into that space and using it as a world-building platform?

Eric Kripke: It’s like a little bit of a teaser on Vought Rising, but it’s not so much about the location as it is about the stories that you hear about all the different characters, like Soldier Boy’s rivalry with his brother, for example, or when you meet him in Vought Rising, he’s not like this tough, cocky, devil may care guy, he’s a much more green version of Soldier Boy that everyone frankly rolls their eyes at because he’s the rich kid who bought his way into the program, whereas everyone else was really seasoned military. And also the notion that the trial and error and the death and destruction that Vought caused on his way to making those four super soldiers, and then as it evolves into creating what we know the V as we know it today, and the trail of bodies he left behind, that’s an important setup as well. So it was fun. We tried to do it in a way that was just important to this particular episode. And every season we’re talking about Compound V, where did it come from, how did it start, what really is its origins, and that’s just interesting in and of itself, but it also helps kind of tease Vought Rising.

Soldier Boy puts Homelander in a radioactive chamber as a way to neutralize him. What should we take away from the fact that this chamber has such a weakening effect on him and continues to exist?

Without spoiling anything, it does come back to a certain extent, and outside of the fact that he can’t see through zinc, we’ve never really explored any weakness for him physically — nothing but emotional weakness — and we thought it was just an interesting thing to explore. Because ultimately he’s a human, his kryptonite would be the same kryptonite that all of us have, which is just highly insanely radioactive material, whereas we would drop dead within 5 to 10 minutes, Chornobyl style, he won’t drop dead, but it’ll make him sick in a similar way that Kryptonite makes Superman sick. So, it felt like a real-world version of Kryptonite. If Kryptonite existed in the real world, it would just be nuclear rods, and so it was sort of like our spin on attempting something like that.

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Soldier Boy is playing along for Homelander in terms of searching for V-1, but there’s an ulterior motive. What can you say about their father-son dynamic as the season continues to play out? 

Yeah, we’ve tracked this sort of twisty, weird father-son relationship between these two, which is Soldier Boy hates Homelander heading into this episode, like hates him, and only goes to Fort Harmony to f**k over Homelander. Sage very intelligently is like, “Wouldn’t it be great if you two lived forever?” But it’s definitely hinting to Soldier Boy, “Don’t you want to stop him from getting this, right?” And so he’s there to stop Homelander from getting the V-1, and Sage doesn’t want Homelander to get the V-1 for reasons we’ll explain soon.

But then at the very end, Soldier Boy has this unexpectedly emotional experience and confrontation with his past, he’s really rattled, and then when Homelander sees him and doesn’t try to punish him or kill him, but gives him space, it’s like a weirdly loving good son thing to do. And I think that really throws Soldier Boy for a loop of like he had every reason to take me down, but he didn’t, and that sends Soldier Boy on a journey of like maybe there’s more to this kid than I thought. Even as freaky as he is, maybe he really is my son, and that sort of complicates things.

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On the other side of father dynamics is Annie’s relationship with her dad, who outwardly supports the Anti-Starlight movement for appearances. Why was it so important to introduce us to him before the series is through?

[There were] a few reasons. One is, Erin pitched that story as early as Season 2, and so I always was like, I promise we’re gonna get to it. And then when Hughie’s mom came out of the woodwork, she was like, “What about my dad?” And I was like, “I promise, I promise you we’re gonna do that story.” ‘Cause I do think it’s a really interesting story. We haven’t talked about her dad in a while, but if you go back to Season 1, there’s so much obviously there, and when there’s so much rich story, I don’t like leaving it on the table.

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It’s so obviously dramatic, and so we really wanted her to have an interaction with her dad, and then I think it’s an important idea, that’s represented by an actor as good and as likable as Tim Daly, which is, the majority of people out there are good people, right? They’re just scared, scared with the economic situation, price of gas, price of groceries, is their family going to be okay? But like he’s clearly skewed right, he’s clearly a religious, devout guy, but he’s a really good guy and wants to do the right thing, and I think we genuinely believe that that’s the majority of the country and that the problem is not the people, the problem is the leaders, and so we thought he gave us a great opportunity to make that point.

The Boys, Season 5, Wednesdays, Prime Video