The Boys - Compound V theory *spoilers*

[ThrallsWife]

Hey, does anyone else here watch The Boys?

I've been thinking about this since the last episode, but is it possible that Compound V causes hallucinations?

We already know that Temp V causes changes to the brain and that continued use can make these changes fatal, but what about the real deal?

In the episode of Noir's death we see that he frequently hallucinates his cartoon friends to be by his side. We also see Homelander "seeing" an image of himself talking to him in the mirror and frankly, Kimiko's increasing musical episodes are both bizarre (even for this show) and annoying.

While we know that the Deep is able to communicate with sea animals, we also know that he has a history of sexual abuse and I wouldn't put it past the show that his more recent sexual encounters with the octopus are down to imagining communication there. A-train and the arrow guy are both off their face on drugs and their after-effects, so I wouldn't be surprised if that suppresses the effects on their brains somehow. We also know that Stormfront was delusional about a Third Reich coming - could this be part of a hallucination?

Starlight may be too young to experience the effects. The only one that doesn't quite fit with this theory is Maeve, but then we have never seen much of her background and story.

So could this season have paved the way for more of the brain damage being explored in Season 4?

I’ve really liked how the seasons have developed. Interesting theory about long term effects of compound v!

Possibly, but I think Noir's hallucination were because of the brain damage Soldier Boy gave him.

Agreed that they could have been intensified - speech and imagination are both on the same brain half, aren't they?

But what it doesn't explain are both Kimiko and Homelander.

Unless childhood trauma plays a part there, too.

Something else - do you also think there may be different effects depending on the age at which Compound V is given? We know many children, like Starlight and Homelander, received their doses as babies, but Kimiko and Nadia's daughter both got injected much later. And with Ryan born Supe, will he not suffer any side effects at all?

I think it's probably less that compound v causes hallucination specifically, in all Supes, because we've only seen a few very examples (I think some of yours, like stormfront) are reaching a bit tbh, and the vast majority of Supes haven't shown any indication of hallucination at all. I would say only Noir's are really hallucinations - Kimiko's are presented as more of a fantasy/dream, and Homelander has so many issues the 'mirror image' thing could be any number of things.

BUT it's certainly plausible that it causes a variety of different side effects which manifest in different ways in different people. It's clearly highly volatile particularly in the original form - some people (babies/foetuses) die instantly, others get 'good' powers (and even those have a wide range and level of strength/ability ) and others get (if you look at diabolical or the kids in the orphanage or the high security hospital that Lamplighter worked at), utterly useless or weird ones so it clearly reacts differently for different people, so would make more sense that any side effects are also different.