There were plenty of different revelations in season 3 of The Boys as Amazon Prime released the first three episodes to allow fans to quickly binge through all of them and immediately get hooked. One of the early revelations in the newest season was in relation to Victoria Neuman’s past and a place called the Red River, which connected her to a man named Tony. So, what is Red River in The Boys, and who are the unwanted supes?
Red River is an unwanted and neglected orphanage that was designed to be a place where orphaned supes are being kept. It is possible that these supes were unwanted due to their weird powers. However, it is also possible that the kids in Red River were also experimented on by Vought.
It seems that Red River does have a connection with The Boys Presents: Diabolical, which is an animated anthology that is based on the universe of The Boys. That said, Red River is connected to Congresswoman Victoria Neuman’s past as she was from that orphanage. So, with that said, let’s look at what we know about Red River in The Boys.
What Is Red River In The Boys?
Early in the newest season of The Boys, there were a lot of revelations as the plot only gets more interesting. One of those revelations was related to Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, who we met back in the events of season 2.
In season 2, Neuman was shown to be a strong and fierce woman who fought against the fact that supes were basically getting their way and were able to skirt the law. Due to the events of season 2 and because there was a supe going around popping people’s heads, she eventually earned enough traction in season 2 to become the founding director of the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs. She ended up recruiting Hughie to be her assistant in this new government office while also hiring the other members of The Boys to be her people on the ground.
However, in the final episode of season 2, it was revealed that she was the one responsible for popping people’s heads all along, as she could do it just by looking at the person. This was a fact that was revealed to Hughie early on in episode 1 of season 3.
During the premiere night of Dawn of The Seven, there was a scene where a mysterious man from the crowd was calling out to Congresswoman Neuman and calling her Nadia. Meanwhile, as the episode went along, the same man was waiting just outside Neuman’s office. Hughie asked him what he was doing there as the man revealed that he was waiting for Nadia while referring to a picture of the congresswoman on the wall. The man later told Hughie that he was Nadia’s childhood best friend and that his name was Tony.
In the latter part of the episode, Hughie saw Tony chasing after Neuman just outside of the building of the FBSA. Tony followed her all the way to a dark alley as Hughie chased after them but kept himself hidden the entire time.
Tony was referring to Neuman as Nadia, as the congresswoman told him to stop calling her by that name in public because she was no longer Nadia. After that, Tony insisted that she would do something about what happened to them in a place called the Red River. This eventually led to a fight between the two supes as Congresswoman Victoria Neuman killed Tony using her powers, all while Hughie heard everything that happened.
This led to Hughie investigating the Red River place that Tony was talking about as he was able to find it and learn more about Congresswoman Victoria Neuman’s past. So, what is Red River in The Boys?
When Hughie visited the place called the Red River, it appeared that this place was an orphanage. However, it looked like it was a place that was seemingly underfunded and neglected because it didn’t seem like a good place for children to be living in. Hughie, under the guise of being an employee of Vought, was able to take a good look at the children and the facilities while talking to the caretaker.
From the looks of it, this place is actually an orphanage for neglected and abandoned children that were injected with Compound V, as they are basically orphans that were left there because their parents probably didn’t like the powers that they developed. It could also be possible that they couldn’t control their powers and ended up killing their parents. After all, the powers that Compound V can awaken in a child are quite random.
Moving along, when one of the kids pointed to the TV to show the caretaker that Hughie was Starlight’s boyfriend and that he was working for the FBSA, he told a lie about him and Starlight wanting to adopt a child in the Red River as the caretaker took him to a room to show off their database of all of the kids there.
Hughie sneakily copied the files from the computer so that he could take a look at Nadia’s files and history with the Red River. It appeared that Nadia already had her lethal powers as a child, as all of the files related to her revealed that she had killed off one of the employees of the Red River using her powers.
However, in one of the files, there was a video that showed that she was about to be adopted by none other than Stan Edgar, the CEO of Vought, as it was clear that she had been working for Vought the entire time. That was when Hughie realized that he was also working for Vought the entire time as well because the FBSA was a puppet of Vought due to the relationship between Neuman and Edgar. And that was what also led him to return to The Boys.
Who Are The Unwanted Supes In The Boys?
When Hughie visited the Red River, he realized that some of the kids had strange powers, as there were some that could teleport and walk on walls. It was hinted that these kids were there because they were either orphaned or abandoned. As such, they were just waiting for some parents to adopt them and bring them home. And the reason why they had no parents could be connected to the random effects of Compound V, which could give a child deadly or unwanted powers.
However, this side of the story was actually explored in the animated anthology series called The Boys Presents: Diabolical. One of the episodes featured a story wherein the characters are unwanted supes that live in a group home because no one wanted them due to their weird powers. And some of them had very weird powers that added a comedic touch to that episode.
These are not the heroes that Vought could use or that parents could be proud of, and that was why they were tossed into that group home where they were able to live alongside one another with their weird powers.
How Does Red River Connect With The Boys Presents: Diabolical?
Even though Diabolical isn’t entirely canon, there are some episodes that are actually canon in the sense that they are connected to The Boys TV series. The final episode, which explored Homelander’s early beginnings with The Seven and his rivalry with Black Noir, is the only one that is clearly canon.
However, the second episode, which talked about the unwanted heroes with weird powers, isn’t entirely canon but was still able to connect itself to The Boys through the Red River. It was this episode that showed what Vought was doing with kids that had powers that weren’t quite useful to them as they were dumped in an orphanage. So, while this episode may not have been canon, it still showed an early glimpse of one of the subplots of season 3 of The Boys.
