‘Gen V’ Episode 6 Could Be the Beginning of the End for ‘The Boys'

If you've had Wandavision withdrawals since the first season ended over 2 1/2 years ago, episode 6 of this Gen V season gave you all the grief-induced matter manipulation you yearn for. In the episode, mind-controller Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) attempts to redeem herself with her friends after revealing she's been wiping their memories in service of the sneaky Dean Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) in episode 5's twist. But restoring all of their memories comes at a cost for Cate as she falls into a catatonic state that only worsens for the Gen V supes as the episode progresses.

Without Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Andre (Chance Perdomo), Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh), and former Godolkin University student Dusty (Andy Walken) realizing it, Cate's psychic abilities knocked them out and trapped their minds in nightmares of her past traumas. They see how Dean Shetty (better known as Dean Sheisty) preyed on a young, scared Cate who was banished to her room for nine years after inadvertently using her powers to send her brother away from the family. They got to see Cate subdue and wipe the memory of Golden Boy in The Woods at the behest of the duplicitous dean. That's just scratching the surface of the entrapping powers of arguably the strongest supe in Gen V.

The four teens are only in Cate's mind because she's in theirs, making their most traumatic events and fears fair game. They quickly discover they aren't invisible observers of Cate's memories when an enraged Golden Boy attempts to kill Andre for hooking up with Cate behind his back. Marie faces her scared younger sister Annabeth Moreau (Maria Nash) in the bathroom where Marie accidentally killed her parents. Since these are manifestations of what scares each of them the most, Marie has to endure the younger sister she's still searching for, berating her for intentionally killing their parents and always being considered a murderer by Annabeth.

Cate eventually returns from her coma, and the team regains consciousness. But, the fact Cate can trap people in her mind and kill them with their nightmares is probably reason #23424 why the dean devised a truly genocidal plan.

What Happened At The End Of Gen V Episode 6?

For most of the season, we've been trying to answer one question: What in the world is The Woods for? All we've seen are young supes barricaded in a prison. At first, it appeared to be a supermax juvenile detention center for the most unstable supes, which still may be part of the truth. But, at the end of this episode, we learn The Woods is an experimental lab where a supe-specific virus is being created.

At the beginning of the episode, Dr. Edison Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) informs Dean Shetty that Betsy (Briana-Lynn Brieiro), a superhuman chained to her bed, was injected with a virus that attacks the Compound V in supes' blood. Within two days of the injection, she could barely create electric sparks in her hands. We can only assume her powers used to be a lot more devastating. According to Dr. Cardosa, this turn of events proves their efforts to "compassionately control" supes were successful. Moreover, he attributes the breakthrough to his work with Golden Boy's brother Sam (Asa Germann).

We also find out that Vought created The Woods to determine how to control supes. Too bad the person who let us know that was Dr. Cardosa, who begins to learn he wasn't filled in on the whole reason for his research. After Dean Shetty instructs Dr. Cardosa to concentrate the dose of the virus to "see how sick we can make her," Betsy dies from the virus. While not on the cataclysmic level of the Scarlet Witch vanquishing over 90% of the mutant race in Marvel's House of M #7 comic by uttering "no more mutants," the sheisty dean does ask if the doctor can make the supe-killing virus contagious.

Yes, we have finally reached the point where killing supes on a massive scale is possible in The Boys'universe.

What Does It Mean For The Boys?

We don't fully know if Vought's intentions for the research done in The Woods were strictly for developing a virus to help them control supes or to kill them. After Golden Boy's unexpected suicide and Homelander killing a protester with his laser rays in The Boys Season 3, controlling the supes they still use would benefit Vought. However, killing supes could come in handy in The Boys in a few ways.

In Season 3 of The Boys, disgraced former Vought International CEO Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) did want the pharmaceutical company to completely stop using supes in favor of injecting soldiers with a temporary version of Compound-V called V-24 so they can fight superhuman enemies on the battlefield. Season 3 is also when we discovered there were super-terrorists worldwide that could overwhelm a regular military. Vought could be looking for a contingency plan in case V-24 doesn't work, and a contagious virus that can kill super-terrorists in a matter of days would be perfect.

Then, there's Homelander, a superhero who has murdered Vought's former Senior Vice President of Hero Management Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue), fellow The Seven member Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), and is reaching dictatorial levels of hubris after being showered with cheers by hundreds of people after burning the head off of a protester's body in front of everyone at the end of Season 3. He would not take too kindly to Vought abandoning their use of superheroes, so it may behoove them to have a fool-proof way of killing the strongest supe in existence before he tears the company down one bloody limb at a time.

No matter what, creating a virus that can kill superhumans is opening Pandora's box or creating the atomic bomb. The world will never be the same, nor will the next season of The Boys or the rest of Gen V.

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