After a rollercoaster character arc in season 4, The Boys‘ actor Valorie Curry explains the deeper meaning of Firecracker’s conspiracies. Throughout season 4 of the Prime Video show, Firecracker is a character who is constantly shown to be coming up with a litany of slander and conspiracy theories, often targeted against Annie January, aka Starlight. Still alive at the end of season 4, Firecracker will likely be a key character in The Boys season 5 as the series reaches its conclusion.

In an interview with Screen Rant at SDCC, Curry details the meaning behind Firecracker’s conspiracies. When asked whether she thinks her character believes in what she is spewing, or whether she is just aiming to be manipulative, Curry agreed that “ultimately, she is totally manipulative,” but explained that the deeper reasoning for this is being “underestimated” by the rest of the Seven and simply trying to survive. Check out the full quote from Curry below:

I think she’s horrible. She’s racist, she’s transphobic, she’s homophobic, she is a sexual predator. But in terms of things, does she believe that Tom Hanks is part of a deep state conspiracy? Probably not. But she will say whatever she has to say and I think, yeah, you’re right. Ultimately, she is totally manipulative. She will do whatever she has to do to survive and anything approximating to thrive. And she’s underestimated for a lot of the season until she’s not, because she’ll do things that nobody else will do and nobody realizes that that’s actually pretty dangerous.

How Firecracker’s Conspiracies Will Impact Season 5

Firecracker Is An Important Aspect To The Boys’ Political Parable

Throughout The Boys season 4, Firecracker becomes a more powerful character as she kowtows to Homelander. Homelander is the most powerful of the Supes, and is the one seen to be rising to the highest power at the end of the most recent season, aiming to take over the country to an even greater degree than he did in previous seasons. Homelander is used as the pseudo-Donald Trump figure throughout The Boys, and with the election on its way this fall, season 5 will have even more relevant content to draw from.

While Homelander might be the most direct stand-in for Trump, Firecracker is certainly used as a metaphor for parts of the former president’s rhetoric. Firecracker promotes the idea of “fake news” in her smear campaign against Starlight. Her TV program Truthbomb, as well as the “racist, transphobic, and homophobic” dialogue it promotes mirror the rhetoric of alt-right media producers such as Breitbart, Fox News, or Alex Jones. As such, the way in which Firecracker communicates and distorts information as part of a faux-cabinet for a Trump equivalent will likely be relevant to season 5’s political commentary.

Another fascinating element of Curry’s character description is the fact that Firecracker will “do things that nobody else will do” in The Boys. One such thing is forcing milk production for Homelander, even when her lactation treatment begins causing her heart problems. While this could be a powerful way to rise to power, doing whatever it takes to thrive and rise up could end up being a detriment to Firecracker, or even kill her.