“Gen V” finale recap: Surprise cameo shakes up huge supe battle
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Ding dong, Shetty's dead! Last episode saw Cate (Maddie Phillips) use her powers to make Dean Shetty (Shelley Conn) slit her own throat. This didn't sit too well with the rest of the crew, and they're not super down with Cate's next idea either.
She now wants to liberate the Woods. Sam (Asa Germann) is obvs down, but Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh), and Emma (Lizze Broadway) are totes not. They feel for the students in the Woods, but also fear what could happen if unstable supes are suddenly set loose. Unfortunately, Cate and Sam can't be swayed, so they head for the Woods.
prime studios Maddie Phillips on 'Gen V'
We catch up with Andre (Chance Perdomo) at the hospital with his dad (Sean Patrick Thomas), who receives some bad news – using his powers is destroying his brain. And it's not just Polarity who's got to worry about this; it's a risk for Andre too. But complicating this is the fact that Andre's dad now asks him to take up his mantle and be the new Polarity.
Meanwhile, Cate and Sam follow through on their plan, freeing the test subjects in the Woods… and giving them a mission: kill everyone who's not a supe. Sam, emboldened by years of torture, is fully onboard with this, and leads the now-free supes on a rampage through campus, killing any non-supe they can find. It is a terrifying and absolutely brutal sequence, and feels particularly bone-chilling given what's going on in the world right now.
As the murder spree continues, Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), Vaught's CEO, is caught in the crossfire after calling a meeting with the Godolkin board of directors to discuss elevating a student to the Seven. Barricading themselves in a conference room, Ashley and the directors call Marie and a dozen other supe students, offering them a spot in the Seven if they take out Cate and Sam.
prime studios Colby Minifie on 'Gen V'
Specifically, Ashley tells Marie to "Cancel them! Cancel them from planet Earth!", which is one of the more hilarious lines in this episode that masterfully balances action, horror, and comedy. In the midst of all this chaos, a number of season-long relationship arcs build to a climax.
Emma finds Sam and tries to talk him out of perpetuating this bloodbath, but he's immovable. Sam finally feels like he's in control of his life, and he won't stop for anyone – not even Emma. She's left heartbroken as he leaves her behind with one final, cutting insult: "You're not a hero."
Cate tries to convince Andre to join her, playing on their burgeoning romance, but Andre won't budge. He turns it around, trying to bring Cate back to reality, but it's no use. She sics Sam on him, and Andre's nearly killed before he's able to grab a taser and zap Sam unconscious.
Marie finds Jordan overpowered by a group of psychotic Woods-supes on the quad, about to get their face burned off, until Marie and uses her blood powers to save Jordan. They're now firmly a couple, with both admitting that they're stronger together.
prime studios Jaz Sinclair on 'Gen V'
Arguably the most powerful moment of the episode comes from Marie. Her whole life, Marie had been cutting herself to create blood she could turn into a weapon, but now she realizes that she doesn't need to hurt herself to use her powers… because everyone's got blood, so she can just use theirs.
We see Marie move past her self-harm tendencies by detonating the beating heart of a supe attacking Jordan — and blowing Cate's arm off when she tries to touch her. And just when it seems like Marie & Co. have everything under control… Homelander (Antony Starr) shows up. For a beat, it seems like he's going to help Marie, but then he chastises her for attacking her own kind, blasting her in the chest with a laser beam as we cut to black.
Some time later, Homelander watches a Vought News broadcast that paints Marie, Jordan, Andre, and Emma as the ones who perpetrated the massacre at God U, hailing Cate and Sam as the heroes who put a stop to them — the new Guardians of Godolkin.
From here, we cut to a sterile, window and door-less room, where Marie wakes up in a hospital gown; Jordan, Andre, and Emma with her. They're trapped here, it seems. But where is here?
As the credits roll, my immediate instinct is to Google "when does The Boys Season 4 air", but it turns out we won't have to wait long at all, at least not for a quick hello to a fan favorite character as a mid-credits scene shows Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) creeping through the empty Woods facility and delivering one of his trademark quips: "What a buncha c***s."
Stray Observations:
* I'm intrigued by the expansion/alteration of Emma's powers in this episode. After Sam broke up with her, Emma started to cry, then suddenly found herself shrunk to fun-size. Was it the tears? Heartbreak? Unclear. But an interesting development nonetheless.
* Line of the episode goes to canceled film director Adam Bourke, who convinces Ashley Barrett to let him into the conference room by threatening to: "Tell everyone what we did in the bathroom at the pediatric cancer fundraiser."Please do, Adam. We must know.
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