No good deed ever goes unpunished; that’s what the major takeaway was from the first season finale of Amazon Studios’ Gen V. As the second offshoot venture of The Boys universe, Gen V delved into the filthy corruption involving supes, this time at the grassroot level, as Vought-sponsored superhero institute Godolkin University turned out to be the root of all evil. What began as the student group’s investigation into the death of the institute’s ace student, Golden Boy, gradually turned into the unraveling of multiple conspiracies. The existence of a supe asylum/prison known as the Woods inside the university premises was revealed, as was the even more disturbing fact that it was intended to study and experiment on supes to serve the God U Dean Indira Shetty’s motive of creating a universal deterrent against the supes.
All of these scandals were covered up by the dean by manipulating Cate, a teenage supe with mind manipulation powers, into brainwashing her friends who were investigating the situation. After her truth was exposed, Cate murdered Indira and went through a radical change in her perspective as she started considering superhuman individuals as universally superior to their powerless counterparts. Cate went on to free the supes who were captive in the Woods and provoked the whole bunch against humans with her hateful dictates. This culminated in a clash of ideologies with her friends, and the ensuing bloody battle between them was the highlight of the finale, the impact of which will continue to unravel in the fourth season of The Boys. In this article, we will discuss the plot points that majorly revolve around the future of the second season of Gen V, excluding the larger world-building connections of the The Boys series, which we will talk about in a separate article.
Spoilers Ahead
What Will Happen To Marie And Her Friends?
As Cate and her followers proceeded to massacre God U’s non-supe authorities, Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre tried to stop them in their tracks and eventually succeeded, thereby saving the Vought execs and God U trustee board in the process. However, responding to Vought CEO Ashley’s emergency call, Homelander arrived at the university premises and, out of nowhere, attacked Marie and framed her team as the perpetrators. Later, it is shown that the media has run with the false narrative touted by Homelander as well, and Marie and her friends are held captive in an undisclosed location.
The immediate question that arises is what will happen to this bunch of do-gooders, as it seems that Vought has decided to ensure permanent silence from the only ones who know the truth about their nefarious machinations by framing them as villains and holding them captive. To make the situation worse, no major third party except Cate and Sam is aware of the truth, which makes the prospect of their escape all the more impossible. It goes beyond saying that Vought will not repeat the same mistake of the Woods this time, and it will not be as easy as it was for Emma to break Sam out of the prison. The media has already portrayed the bunch as mass murderers, which means their public life is as good as over unless they can somehow convince the world of the truth. This particular situation could be highlighted in season four of The Boys as well, but we like to think it will focus more on the newest recruits of the Seven for the time being.
Polarity Legacy: Will Andre Get Help From His Father?
Speaking of third parties who might have knowledge about the situation, Andre’s father, the magnetism-powered veteran superhero Polarity, somewhat knows about his son’s investigation into the Woods. Well aware of Vought’s evil designs regarding superhero management and the socio-political situation, Polarity initially reprimanded Andre for digging into the rabbit hole of God U, and despite knowing what happens in the Woods, he never took a stand against it, to protect his image. This caused a rift between the father and son, and Andre began hating him for his hypocritical, pretentious nature.
However, things changed after Polarity went through a life-threatening seizure, which made him unable to use his powers without putting his life at risk. Andre decided to make amends with his father, and Polarity apologized for his past actions as well, while encouraging his son to chart out his own path. After learning that Andre has been framed for the God U massacre, hopefully Polarity will try to rescue his son and clear his name from the false accusations as well.
An X-Men Situation: Conflict Between Cate And Andre
The Gen V series was an adaptation of one of the most notorious story arcs of The Boys comics, the G-Men saga, which was a parody version of Marvel’s X-Men lore. The Gen V finale brought a nifty tease about the connection by pitting Cate and Andre against each other. The leader of X-Men, the pacifist Charles Xavier, with mind manipulation and telepathy powers, believes in the co-existence of humans and mutants and is in conflict with his friend, the magnetism-powered mutant supremacist and leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Magneto. In a subversive take on that scenario, in Gen V, Cate is the supremacist telepath leader, whereas her lover Andre is the magnetism-powered pacifist. Needless to say, this dynamic adds much heft to the otherwise edgy narrative, and it will be interesting to see how much further this plays out in the second season of Gen V.
Marie’s Quest To Absolve Herself
The beginning of the first season of Gen V showcased the dangerous potential of uncontrollable superpowers with the character Marie Moreau, who had accidentally killed her parents using her blood manipulation powers in front of her younger sister Annabeth. The horrifying incident caused an estrangement between the sisters. Marie, who was wracked with guilt and self-hatred, sought redemption by enlisting in God U, which she thought might give her a chance to get recruited in the Seven, thereby making her sister feel proud of her. Even during the finale, Vought CEO Ashley uses Marie’s singular motive to manipulate her into killing the rogue supes, which shows how driven she was to the one objective. However, by the end, Marie and her friends are framed by Homelander, and her dream of getting recruited into the ranks of the Seven is irrefutably destroyed. But Marie still has the opportunity to make moral calls as she hasn’t become Vought’s puppet just yet, which still allows her the opportunity to reconcile with her sister one way or another. Season four of The Boys will not delve into the character arcs of Gen V characters that much; therefore, it’s a safe guess that Marie’s journey will progress from the second season onward.
