“Gen V” draws a bloody line to “The Boys” with the Victoria Neuman reveal
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Warning: This article contains spoilers from Gen V season 1, episode 7, "Sick."
The penultimate episode of Gen V's freshman season gave fans the biggest connection to the mothership show yet.
The Boys star Claudia Doumit arrives on Godolkin campus as Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, who's making a pit stop on her presidential campaign. After MAGA-esque supe student protestors devolve into a fatal frenzy during her live interview with the Fox News cypher that is Cameron Coleman (Matthew Edison), Neuman runs into Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair), who's trying to warn her about Dean Shetty's (Shelley Conn) plans to wipe out supes with an engineered virus.
During their one-on-one, Neuman reveals a number of things to Marie: she's secretly a supe, they share the same powers to manipulate blood, and she's been Marie's secret benefactor at Godolkin this whole time. "We didn't intend on having this be the episode that connects to The Boys," showrunner Michele Fazekas tells EW. "It's just how everything converged."
Brooke Palmer/Prime Video (2) Claudia Doumit as Congresswoman Victoria Neuman and Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau on 'Gen V'
All we knew of Neuman's abilities prior was that she could explode people's limbs — with the head being her favored target. Fazekas says this expansion to the character didn't even come from Eric Kripke, The Boys showrunner, but rather the Gen V writers' room. "The only thing that Kripke suggested was, 'It'd be cool if Victoria Neuman could come and speak on campus.' That would happen," she notes of how political candidates often speak at universities.
The other big links forged between Gen V and The Boys on this episode include the reveal that Shetty's family died on Transoceanic Flight 37, which Homelander (Antony Starr) let crash back on The Boys season 1. Then there's the return of The Boys figurehead Grace Mallory (Laila Robins), who has her own private meeting with Shetty. Speaking of the latter, Fazekas reveals, "There was a version of that scene in the Tek Knight episode. We'd always wanted to do something with Shetty and Mallory, and I adore that scene. I think all of these things came out of the room at the end of the day, and then we of course will knock it back and forth with Eric."
Heading into next week's finale, the campus feels more volatile than ever. Neuman's presence whipped the student body into a fevered frenzy, with Sam (Asa Germann) slowly being seduced by the anti-human, pro-supe rhetoric. And Cate (Maddie Phillips), after killing Shetty, is ready to unleash the once-captive supes in the Woods onto Godolkin.
"What that scene symbolizes for me is the anger that everyone hears everywhere and the vitriol," Fazekas says of the political-stunt-gone-wrong. "Anger is so much easier to go to than if you're sad or depressed. It's a lot more fun to be yelling at somebody than to be home crying. It's why Sam is susceptible to people like that. Not only the fact that he's been literally tortured by humans, so you understand the choices that he makes, but it did a really good job of showing how public discourse is just people screaming at each other sometimes."
Gen V's season 1 finale will stream on Prime Video starting Friday, Nov. 3.
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