*Spoilers for episode 8 of Gen V below*
Gen V is a spin-off of the popular show The Boys, which is based on the Garth Ennis comic book of the same name. Gen V follows Marie Moreau, a young woman with superpowers, as she tries to navigate life at Godolkin University, a school that specializes in teaching young people with powers how to fight crime and promote themselves. Episode 8 explores the following themes: morality and justice vs. revenge.
Episode 8 begins with Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann) leaving the rest of the group to go and liberate the supes trapped in the woods. Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh), Emma (Lizze Broadway), and Marie (Jaz Sinclair) debate wether to call Vought for help and ultimately decide to go stop Sam and Cate on their own. Andre discovers that his father (Sean Patrick Thomas) is giving himself brain damage due to his powers. Andre’s father apologizes to his son and warns him to do whatever Vought says in order to protect their family. Cate calls Andre and tells him to come to Godolkin to help her.
Back at Godolkin, Ashley (Colby Minifie), the head of Vought, has a meeting with some other heads of the school, where the goal is to select a student to become a new member of the Seven. Sam and Cate free the trapped supe prisoners at the woods. Sam also sees visions of Luke (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who tries to convince Sam not to follow Cate’s lead but Sam ignores him. Cate orders the captives as well as Sam to take their revenge. This begins with one of the captives killing a human professor.
Emma is able to find Sam and stop him from killing a professor, but the pair argue and Sam ultimately decides to continue attacking humans. This leaves Emma distraught and as she sobs her powers are activated which seems to confuse her. Sam and Cate meet again and Sam continues to hallucinate Luke who insists that he stop Cate. Sam decides to stop listening to Luke and has Cate use her powers to keep him from feeling any emotions or pain.
Marie is able to activate a panic button which turns on a “sonic whistle” that stops the rampage. The whistle only works for a moment though as one of the attacking supes uses his powers to disable it. Out of desperation, Ashely calls Marie and asks her to kill the attacking supes, promising to get Marie a meeting with her sister if she does so. A helicopter arrives to rescue the board members. Cate user her powers to try and destroy the helicopter but Andre is able to land it on the ground, though it can no longer take off. Andre and Marie try to convince Cate to stop the attack but she refuses and has Maverick (Nicholas Hamilton) attack Marie. Using her powers, Marie is able to see Maverick despite his invisibility and knock him out, and Jordan is able to get Ashley and other Godolkin heads to the immobile helicopter. Cate tries to trick Andre into helping her but when he refuses she has Sam attack him. Andre is able to knock out Sam though he is also unable to keep fighting by the time he does so.
Marie and Jordan are able to stop the three last Godolkin prisoners, with Marie seemingly accepting the brutality of her powers and using them to their full potential. Cate then attempts to use her powers to subdue Jordan but before she can do so, Marie uses her powers to destroy cate’s right arm. Homelander (Antony Starr) shows up to the school and Marie tries to approach him, thinking that he is there to back her and Jordan up. Homelander instead becomes angry with Marie, tells her that she is a traitor to supes, and uses his laser vision to knock her out. Homelander watches a news broadcast that lies about the attack by claiming that Marie, Jordan, Andre, and Emma are responsible for attacking Godolkin, while Cate and Sam were the ones who protected the campus. Marie wakes up in a hospital room with no doors next to Jordan, Andre, and Emma and realizes that the four are being held in captivity. The episodes also features a mid credit scene with Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), one of the protagonists from “The Boys”, where Butcher explores the woods, which has now been abandoned.
Episode 8 is an action heavy episode that pays off on all the tension built throughout the series. The episode does a good job of combining intense fight sequences with powerful emotional moments between the main characters. The goals and motivations of the characters also feel realistic and logical. An example of this can be seen through Sam and Cate, whose actions are reprehensible. Even so, the viewer has an understanding of how the characters wound up choosing their violent path which keeps Sam and Cate from being viewed as complete monsters. The hesitancy displayed by Marie, Jordan, Andre, and Emma when it comes to fighting against their friends is also another strong emotional moment that cements them as the true “heroes” of the show. The final twist where Marie, Jordan, Andre, and Emma end up being framed for the attack is also shocking enough for the viewer to be invested in season 2.
The strongest performances of the episode once again come from Maddie Phillips and Jaz Sinclair. Phillips does a good job of making Cate’s motivations and emotions clear and the scene where Cate’s arm is blown up feels incredibly realistic thanks to Phillips acting ability. Sinclair does a good job of showing Marie’s initial conflicted feelings that later culminate into desperation as the attacks intensify. The scene where she saves Ashley and the other Godolkin officials is one of the biggest stand out moments of the show and the emotions she displays are also very convincing.
Overall, the episode is a strong closer for season 1, and definitely succeeds in building anticipation and hype for season 2.
Rating: 8/10