With every twist revealed and character strengths established, the finale of Gen V season 2 puts the main team at tense odds with Thomas Godolkin. “Trojan” begins with a flashback of Godolkin injecting himself with an early version of Compound-V. In the present, Marie is unable to help Doug (Cipher), so Polarity drives him to the hospital. Before they make it, Doug is killed, and Polarity is captured by Black Noir. Marie finally heals Cate in the wake of Godolkin’s escape. Godolkin sets up a class to kill the weak Supes in his plan to control Marie and Homelander. Sister Sage disapproves of this plan, freeing Polarity to get her way. The main group sneaks their way into the class and subdues Godolkin, but not before he gains control of Marie. Before Marie can do any serious damage to anyone, Polairy manipulates magnetic fields and stops the mind control. Marie explodes Godolkin’s head, and the group escapes, with Polarity staying to take the fall. In the end, the group is recruited into the resistance by Starlight and A-Train. 

“Trojan” and the season as a whole have represented major issues with Gen V, The Boys, and franchise television at large.“Trojan” suffers from both a weak story and an over-reliance on The Boys. On the whole, Gen V felt like a subplot of The Boys rather than a strong show in its own right (with said subplot not being anything great). Doug’s death was decently surprising in terms of the culprit and timing within the episode, but it felt inevitable once revealed that he would not be able to play any significant role in the future. The scheme of the group’s infiltration of Godolkin’s class was funny but predictable, with the climax itself being similarly basic. Marie killing Godolkin came as a fun, decent surprise. That said, it was only surprising in the sense that this show has an addiction to saving important characters for later. At the same time, his villainy felt extremely rushed, especially with how much of the season was focused on the cyclical, flat dynamic of the group and the unearthing of the uninteresting lore of Odessa. 

The largest issue in the episode was the shocking number of characters who barely suffered physical consequences. It is a shame to see hardly any deaths from a universe that started out so incredibly unique and special due to how unsafe every character felt. “Trojan” revels in the mind-control scene of having all of the students beat each other bloody, only to be far too precious and protective of the main characters. Not killing these characters would be slightly less of an issue if their narrative invincibility didn’t reek of their exclusive purpose of being eventual foot soldiers in The Boys season 5. The biggest shame of this type of reliance on set-up is that it is extremely difficult to judge Gen V on its own merit. Even as a supplemental piece to The Boys, the show fails to create characters that elevate themselves beyond predictable archetypes, despite how powerful and smart the show insists they are. As a spin-off show, crossing over with The Boys is expected and sometimes welcome (such as The Deep being in the cultish fraternity), but this season, with or without cameos and world-building, failed to be engaging week to week. Its main characters are thin and act cyclically, plot points play out predictably, and there is very little tangible tension throughout.

Rating: 3/10