Why did Jackie and Quinn Cozens stop talking?

After a Red Dawn-like terrorist attack leaves America in shambles, Quinn Cozens starts to regret the falling out he had with his sister, Jackie.

The burning question for all readers who check out Beyond the Lost Horizon is: What led to Quinn and Jackie’s falling out, and why did I make this a major storyline?

The short answer: Passionate differences in their political worldview.

The short takeaway: Unless someone’s completely obnoxious about their political views to the point they can’t hold a convo without them bringing something up, don’t cut ties with people who think the government’s role is to “provide for people.”

Political differences was the icebreaker for Quinn and Jackie

On the left, you had Jackie, a major proponent of everything Quinn stood against.

Jackie leaned hard into progressive politics. She championed multiculturalism, supported expansive safety nets and single-payer healthcare, and believed strong regulation—from gun laws to public schooling to green energy—was the only way forward. To Quinn, every one of those positions reeked of coercion and State overreach.

Quinn was as radical a libertarian and revisionist as one could get, so he and Jackie clashed on about every topic. He saw Jackie’s belief system as the reason the West was in such decay, and held people like her responsible for its slow, deliberate collapse.

To Jackie, Quinn was a neo-Confederate who cared little about the poor, racial and religious minorities, or kids who couldn’t afford to eat unless vast public school “meals for all” policies were in place.

They may’ve been brother-sister, but their staunch political beliefs hurt their relationship. That said, it didn’t kill it.

Quinn Cozens never acted like a good guy

Quinn and Jackie fell into the classic “Us vs. Them” pitfall you see from anyone in America with a political opinion they’re passionate about. Jackie saw Quinn’s kind as corrupt, and Quinn saw the opposite, but one sibling acted like the good child while the other didn’t.

Jackie stuck close to her family, even after she got married to a well-to-do man who shared her worldview and moved to State College, Pennsylvania. She came home for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter holidays, and, when her grandparents started deteriorating, she visited even more until their dying days.

Quinn was the opposite, making short appearances at Christmas as he pursued his sports writing dream. When he showed up longer than 20 minutes, he had a phone in his hand and his laptop on him, shunting himself into a corner or another room so he could work and isolating himself from everyone.

While Quinn held the right viewpoints, he did an awful job acting like his side had it right. Jackie’s viewpoints all required coercion and zero individual consent. Still, if they tried persuading someone torn between the worldviews, you can argue Jackie’s actions got to the point better than Quinn’s.

The fallout and seeking redemption

Jackie grew sick of Quinn’s selfish ways, and not long after her wedding to Sean, the two stopped talking. Quinn couldn’t handle Jackie’s criticism, nor did he care for Sean, whom he felt solidified Jackie’s worldview.

Though he wouldn’t admit it at the time, Quinn missed Jackie and blamed himself for their falling out. He immersed himself in his sports writing and fitness life, all while finding reinforcement for his viewpoints.

Still, his heart ached, and it was yet another reason he spent so much time in solitude. Yet toward the end, right before the coordinated terrorist attack wreaked havoc on America, Quinn started visiting his parents again. It was his way of saying sorry for all the missed time.

He also lived in regret of not being there enough for his now-deceased grandparents, and did what he could to salvage relationships with everyone who turned their backs on him, minus his cousin and best friend, Jonas.

So, when Quinn stumbled across a helpless Yui Kikuchi during the terrorist attack, he didn’t hesitate. If he couldn’t make amends with or save Jackie in this carnage, he’d redeem himself through a proxy. And that’s where his story picks up in Beyond the Lost Horizon.