Gen V Boss Breaks Down Those Major Boys Connections, Tragic Twist and [Spoiler]’s ‘Point of No Return’
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Warning: The following contains spoilers for Gen V Episode 7. Proceed at your own risk!
As Gen V approached the end of its freshman run, Season 1’s penultimate episode delivered several significant The Boys tie-ins, as well as two deaths, one of which will divide the young supes at the center of the Prime Video drama.
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In Friday’s installment, Cate compelled Shetty to reveal her agenda to Marie & Co.: She wants to use the virus to kill all supes because Homelander let her family die in the Transoceanic Flight 37 crash. Shetty believes their species leaves destruction in their wake, and her final assignment for Cate was to kill everyone in The Woods before taking off with her surrogate daughter. But instead, Cate opted to mind-control Shetty into confessing all… and then slitting her own throat. When Marie stepped forward, Cate compelled her not to help, leaving Shetty to bleed out on the floor. While Marie, Jordan and Emma were distraught at the sight, Sam called it justice.
Prior to that, Marie met VP hopeful Victoria Neuman after a diasterious Godolkin Town Hall. Victoria encouraged Marie to use her power to decipher that Victoria, too, is a supe with similar abilities. Victoria then revealed that she also grew up in Red River and helped Marie get into God U. After Marie shared about the virus, Victoria told Marie to go back to being a student and that she would handle the situation. There are two roads Marie can go down, but the one where she’s the first Black woman in The Seven and is friends with the VP is the one where she has real power, Victoria argued.
Which brings us to the hour’s other casualty: Dr. Cardosa gave the deadly virus to Victoria with the hope of keeping it out of the wrong hands, in exchange for witness protection. Victoria called him a patriotic hero, then promptly exploded his head (to the spot-on music cue of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll”).
Below, co-showrunner Michele Fazekas talks about incorporating The Boys into the spinoff, why Cate is the real threat and how her decision will set the stage for next week’s season finale.
TVLINE | This episode had the most significant connections to The Boys that we’ve seen thus far on Gen V with Transoceanic Flight 37, Mallory and Victoria. Why did you decide to connect Shetty’s backstory and her motivation for killing supes specifically to that flight and Homelander and Queen Maeve from Season 1 of The Boys?
It was a pitch that came out of the [writers] room. I think Jessica Chou, who was a writer on The Boys, as well, had suggested that. We were trying to give Shetty real sort of understandable motivations why would you want to, essentially, commit genocide against superheroes, and something that horrific felt… As soon as it was pitched, it was like, “Oh, that would be great,” and it’s a little bit of an investigative thing for Marie to look into. And we didn’t set out to have this episode be the, “And this is where the show connects to The Boys…” It’s interesting. It’s just sort of where the characters took us. I love that Mallory scene so much, and I think the plane crash sort of led to thinking about, “Well, let’s do a scene with Mallory.” So, yeah, it was sort of organic in the room.
TVLINE | You also have Victoria playing a pretty pivotal role in this episode. Between that and the flight, were there any discussions or concerns about how much you could connect the two shows and whether you really wanted to connect them that much? Did you and [The Boys showrunner] Eric Kripke discuss that at all?
There was not a concern about it. We certainly talked about how to connect them. My own concern is always as long as you understand within the context of the episode what is happening, and that you don’t need to have watched The Boys to understand what’s going on. So, really, all you know in the show is, “OK, this woman’s running for vice president. She has a special interest in Marie, and she’s a secret supe, and she has a similar power to Marie.” So you can completely get something out of that story without ever having watched The Boys. As long as these stories stand [on their own]… Everything is connected. The whole conceit of both these shows, they take place in the same universe So, in some ways, they’re 100% connected.
TVLINE | You’ve tied Marie’s story and powers very much to Victoria. What made Victoria the right person for Marie to connect with in this episode?
It really started out with Eric made a pitched, “Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if Victoria Neuman came and spoke on campus?” So that was the beginning of the pitch. The connection to Marie and the interest in Marie, that came out of the room, sort of the question like, “Well, how can we make this not just, oh, she’s here speaking on campus? Like, how can we really connect this with our characters?”
TVLINE | The episode also featured the second most significant death after Luke, when Cate made Shetty kill herself. What did you want to accomplish with her death in that scene with Cate?
It is such a point of no return for Cate. You at least understand why Cate is acting this way, but you really have to see it’s like, “Oh, she got broken,” and she has chosen her path that she now can’t get off.
TVLINE | One of the interesting things that comes out of that scene is that you start to see a divide between the characters. Can you talk about how Cate’s decision in that particular moment is going to affect the relationships within the friend group and how that sets the stage for the finale?
It completely sets everyone on a different trajectory. For so long, Cate and Marie had so much in common because of their sort of similar history. Cate is revealed as having betrayed them, but had started to sort of earn their trust again. But I think it sort of shows how damaged they are, how damaged they’ve all been by Vought. And so, this is the outcome, and I don’t even necessarily blame her entirely for the choices that she makes, because this is what was done to her.
TVLINE | There’s been so much talk on the show about how powerful Marie is, Sam is, Luke when he was alive, and the dangers of The Woods. But looking ahead at the finale, is Cate actually the most dangerous and powerful character on this show?
She is, and I knew that as soon as I read the pilot. I was like, “Oh, she is the most powerful person. She just doesn’t know it.” She’s just sort of being held down. But as soon as I read that pilot, I was like, “If she actually existed, you’d have to kill her or confine her,” because there’s no way that that could exist. That’s so much power to have.
TVLINE | And now Sam is siding with her, which feels like a real turning point for his character.
Understandable, though, isn’t it?
TVLINE | Yeah, I get where he’s coming from. But it also makes me very concerned about what he’s going to do and how that’s going to impact him and Emma. Is there anything you can tease about that relationship?
Listen, I think Sam has been confined and tortured by humans for most of his life or half of his life, and he’s really angry, and he’s also grappling with untreated mental illness. So at least the journey that he’s on for the short term is not going to be rainbows and unicorns. It’s going to be tough.
TVLINE | Victoria now has this deadly virus in her hands. What kind of discussions have you and Eric had about how that part of the Gen V story is going to play into The Boys Season 4?
I will say we’ve discussed everything with Eric.
Gen V/The Boys fans, what did you think of the episode’s crossover connections? And are you terrified of Cate? Hit the comments!
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