Whew, it’s been a minute since “The Boys” franchise hit us with “Gen V,” the college-based spinoff to the mothership series. Two years have passed since we last saw Marie and the crew, so it’s best we give you all a refresher.
Between bug-eyed puppets, that creepy laboratory and that wild massacre in the finale, a hell of a lot went down in the first season of “Gen V.”
We saw love connections between Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and Jordan Li (Derek Luh, London Thor), and Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway) and Sam Riordan (Asa Germann). And “Gen V” gave fans a butt-load of “The Boys” crossovers.
While we can’t break down every single part of the first season, there are some core events we think you should remember before starting the second season.
Welcome to Godolkin University
As the show’s title suggests — playing on the Gen Z demographic — we’re working with a younger group of supes in “Gen V.” The stars of the show, Marie Moreau, (Jaz Sinclair, Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) Jordan Li (London Thor, Derek Luh) and Luke Riordan (Patrick Schwarzenegger) all make up the student body at Godolkin University School of Crimefighting, an institution run by Vought where rising supes put their skills to the test and compete for top rankings in hopes of one day becoming a member of The Seven.
On the surface, God U appears to be like any other college campus … well, aside from the occasional invisible kid running down the halls. However, God U has a dark, twisted secret that hides beyond its corridors. Keep reading if you’d like to learn more.
Marie, the Bloodbender … Homelander’s Only Threat
That’s right, Marie Moreau is a bloodbender just like Victoria Neuman; however, she has her own unique set of abilities, and her power level surpasses the late supe.
Growing up, Marie always wanted to become a powerful superhero who eventually joins The Seven. She has a love-hate relationship with her powers, as she discovered them the same day she got her menstrual cycle. But that’s not the traumatic part. Because she didn’t know how to control them, she accidentally killed her parents with sent blood daggers. Her sister Annabeth witnessed the entire thing, and has since distanced herself from Marie. But that hasn’t stopped Marie from trying to find her.
In the meantime, Marie has taken up studies at God U, where she quickly becomes a star pupil, knocking over God U’s favorite Jordan Li, but don’t worry, they eventually start to fancy one another.
“The Woods” and the Supe-Killing virus
So remember when we said there’s a dark secret beneath the corridors of God U? Yeah, that secret is “The Woods,” which is what they call the secret lab Vought is hiding underneath God U. There, Vought executives have assigned scientists to imprison and experiment on super-powered children.
It used to be managed by now-dead Dean Shetty (Shelly Conn), who suggested the research division as a way to detain deadly supes. One of the supes Vought kept hidden away was Sam Riordan, the younger brother of Luke Riordan, who killed himself amid his efforts to free his baby brother. The fiery death happened in the pilot episode. Check out what “Gen V” showrunner Michelle Fazekas and executive producer Eric Kripke said about the moment.
But anyway, on top of keeping supes as their test subjects, The Woods scientists — via the instruction of supe-hating Dean Shetty — have also developed a supe-killing virus out of Compound V, which, in the wrong hands, could end the lives of the entire supe population.
Cate Dunlap’s Flips the Script … and Loses Her Arm
While we kinda side-eyed her catching feelings for her ex-boyfriend Luke Riordan’s bestie Andre (Chance Perdomo), we cut her a teeny bit of slack when we learned about Cate Dunlap’s tough upbringing. Her ability to “push” people to do as she tells them ended up leaving her with the most devastating moment of her life, she mistakenly caused her brother to vanish, which made her fearful of her own powers. Over time, she developed disdain for normal human beings after witnessing the mistreatment of supes, which triggers resentment and leads her into the control of Homelander, who uses them as his Guardians of Godolkin. Even though she hates being manipulated by humans, she does just the same to Sam, whom she keeps on a tight rope, forcing him to help launch a riot on the God U campus. We’ll get to that in a sec.
That Wild God U Massacre
Like we hinted at above, all hell broke loose on the Godolkin University campus after the ultra-powerful Cate and Sam broke bad and released the Supes who were being experimented on in The Woods, clearing the path for them to murder any human they came across — or any opposing supe who gets in the way of their revenge.
Homelander made his entrance after Marie blew up Cate’s arm for attempting to mind-control Jordan. He flew down to apparently end the mess — but first, he had a question for Marie. His intentions may be more malicious than they first seem.
“What kind of animal are you? Do you like attacking your own kind? Stay back,” Homelander says before using his laser vision to blast a confused Marie.
Marie and the Gang Are Being Held Captive
After their encounter with Homelander, the episode shifts to a pleased Homelander watching the news, which reported that Cate and Sam are “The New Guardians of God U.” Marie, meanwhile, woke up to find herself, Jordan, Andre and Emma in a doorless, hospital-like facility with no idea how they got there.
“Gen V” served “The Boys” lovers with another dose of Vought goodness while also setting up show-colliding tips and future storylines for watchers to look forward to. The crossovers between the two series will more so impact events that take place after “Gen V” Season and “The Boys” Season 4. The bridge from “The Boys” to “Gen V” kicked off at the end of “Gen V.”
In the Season 1 finale of “Gen V,” during the middle of the credits, the show cut to a scene where Billy the Butcher is lurking through the halls of God U’s secret lab, The Woods, revealing that “The Boys” character knows about the supe-killing virus God U dean Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) and Dr. Edison (Marco Pigossi) developed before they were killed. Cate killed Indira and Victoria Neuman murdered Dr. Edison.
“The Boys” creator Eric Kripke previously told TheWrap that it was his idea to have Butcher be the connection between “The Boys” and the Supe-killing virus introduced in “Gen V.”
“We were pretty deep into the Season 4 break by the time we were around [the ‘Gen V’] finale, and we sort of knew how we were picking up the ball,” Kripke explained. “We talked about, ‘Well, we should start the first step of that story’ — it’s only a mild spoiler to say that, because it’s obvious, based on the [‘Gen V’] finale, but when Butcher is in Season 4 of ‘The Boys,’ he’s very aware of this virus, and we knew that we were writing to it. Then the question came up of like, ‘Well, how is he aware, and when did he find out about it?’ We started saying, ‘Well, let’s actually show [viewers] when it’s really happening, which is over the course of ‘Gen V.’ So it came pretty organically out of that.”
