Spoilers

“The Guardians of Godolkin”

Man, the Gen V finale was brutal.

It was also tough because of the connection to the school shootings that have been a stain on our country over the last couple decades plus. However, the use of superpowers instead of guns did help make it less horrific.

Still very brutal, however.

Cate and Sam lead an assault on the Godolkin campus, killing a ton of people and using her mind control ability to make other super powered students aid them in the slaughter as well as those super powered kids from The Woods that Cate and Sam freed.

This all led to a massive showdown between Cate and Marie, where Marie exploded the blood from her arm as she reached to control Jordan. Then, a shocker…

Homelander!

And not only was there Homelander, but he blasted Marie. The news ended up treating Cate and Sam as the new Guardians of the Godolkin and that Marie, Andre, Emma and Jordan were the ones who were doing the attacks. They end up in a room with no doors and captured. There is no way to know what is planned for these characters who are now seen as the terrorists that have attacked Godolkin.

Then, in a mid-credit scene… Billy Butcher!

This is clearly heading into the next season of The Boys. I am curious to see how this group of characters from Gen V fit into the next season.

Spoilers

“Sick”

Episode 7 of Gen V made some massive shifts in the story that I did not see coming.

We found out last week that Dean Indira Shetty had been ordering Doctor Edison Cardosa of the Woods to create this virus that kills supes and she wanted it to be contagious. They revealed this episode (or at I think it was this episode. I don’t remember this before..) that Shetty’s husband and daughter in the plane crash that Homelander caused.

However, the virus storyline took a twist when Cate got involved. The show made us think that Shetty was manipulating Cate once again, but when the others arrived at Shetty’s house, she forced Shetty to tell the truth and then slit her own throat. Cate prevented Marie from saving her.

Earlier, Marie had gone to see Victoria Neuman, making a cameo from The Boys, and she revealed everything about the virus. Neuman told Marie that she would handle it. That meant that she contacted Cardosa, had him bring the virus, and then exploded his head as she did to many others on The Boys.

I do not know if that virus storyline will be picked up again in The Boys since Victoria left with it, but it feels as if it is over on Gen V.

This is the penultimate episode of the season with next week’s finale coming. But with the virus seemingly done, Shetty dead… what is left? Is it a showdown with Cate? Maybe it is the increasingly agitated Sam, who is started to embrace the philosophy of Homelander.

This has been a solid first season and a great addition to the universe of The Boys.

Spoilers

“Jumanji”

Gen V sixth episode was a really great one.

Fallout from last week involving Kate and her mental manipulation of her friends was the main storyline of the show. We got to see a lot of the hidden back stories of Kate as well as the others who wound up inside Kate’s mind.

We saw more involving Golden Boy, including a disturbing realization that Andre and Kate had been having an affair before Golden Boy died.

We saw how Jordan had become Professor Brink’s assistant as she helped stop Golden Boy.

We saw more about Marie and her sister moments after she had accidentally killed her parents.

We saw more about Kate’s background and how she came to be with Dean Shetty.

Oh, and there was a Soldier boy cameo.

But the story of Kate was not the only thing we got tonight. We got Emma and Sam back together and making love.

And we find out that Dean Shetty’s plans were to develop a virus that could kill supes and she wants it contagious.

Whoa.

Gen V has been very compelling and getting better every week. Even week four, which felt like an initial back step for the show, turned out to be better in retrospect.

And with the potential deadly virus being created in the Woods, this could have major impact in the Boys world.

Spoilers

“Welcome to the Monster Club”

Last week’s Gen V had an ending that really detracted from that episode and left me feeling, for the first time, that perhaps this was not as great of a series as it seemed. However, with this week’s offering, I feel as if the negatives were all negated and changed my opinion of the end of last week’s show.

The show goes into the world of mental powers as Marie, Andre, Jordan and Emma had been mindwiped and the reason it was such a sudden cut,

The show then played with our own perception as we believed that this was connected to Rufus, who we met last week, using his mental powers to try an rape Marie (which led to her exploding his penis). However, the twist that it was not Rufus, but instead was Kate who did the mindwiping, betraying her friends.

Why Kate why? She is a fascinating character whose backstory is clearly at issue with her. She has a background of abuse and being manipulated and Dean Indira Shetty is using her and her powers, including by manipulating the mind of Golden Boy to keep forgetting his brother.

Emma had been mindwiped to forget about Sam completely, which, when he came back, threw him off. He went to hide out and have delusions about fighting puppets and ripping them apart. Of course, they were not actual puppets and it was an awesome way to make a incredibly brutal scene in a less than R rated manner.

As I said, this was a big step back towards where this show started off and really did help to redeem last week’s seeming misstep (that wasn’t).

Spoilers

“The Whole Truth”

The fourth episode of The Boys spinoff, Gen V, dropped on Amazon Prime Thursday night and the series showed us the ramifications of Emma’s rescue attempt. The trail of dead bodies and the massive dents in the wall revealed to us that it was not just Emma who was involved. Sam came to and went feral on the guards.

I will say that I thought this episode took a bit of a step back from the first three episodes. I still enjoyed it a lot, but this felt lesser in my opinion.

However, the chemistry between Emma and Sam was not one of the issues. They were great together and, in just a few scenes, they have become a couple worth rooting for. Everything involving these two, especially the attack on the doctor’s home, was epic.

I guess my issue stems with the inclusion of Tek-Knight, a super hero detective who arrived at Godolkin University to film an expose on the ‘truth’ about the suicide of Golden Boy. He was a horrible person, clearly, as he used some kind of super power to interrogate the interviewees. The problem was, they spent the first two-thirds of the episode making this guy seem to be so sinister, so dangerous only to turn him into a dick joke. Was it funny? Sure. It just felt like the waste of a threat.

It did help elevate Dean Indira Shetty, showing that she was not to be underestimated just because she did not have any powers. Still, I feel that they could have done the same without completely destroying that character that could have been something special.

There was also some surprises with Marie and Jordan as they end up in bed at the end (which, by the way, was a very weird edit/cut). The end of the episode felt off too and it left out some seemingly important things.

I still enjoyed this a lot, but there is no doubt in my mind that this was not the same level as the first three of the series. It’s not as if I think it is going to suddenly be a disappointment, but I do hope this will not fall into these techniques regularly.

Spoilers

E2: “First Day”

E3: “#ThinkBrink”

With three episodes in to the new spin-off of The Boys, Gen V, I have enjoyed this new show. Much like The Boys, there is a shock factor involved, with unbelievable things happening.. for example the amazing start to episode two with a haunting version of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters as the pieces of Golden Boy are being swept up and his blood is being mopped up. However, that shock factor is not done just for shock. It is important to character or to the story. It is extremely well done.

These two episodes took Marie in a really different way. She battled with her own conflicts over her rankings and taking advantage of what happened with Golden Boy and how it made her look worse. It seemed as if she was moving toward becoming the corrupt ‘hero’ much like the Seven. Still, she was able to not succumb to the evil of the world.

Emma also has a great arc during these two episodes as we discovered the horrors of her powers, and how she gets taken advantage of by another influencer. She had a fall out with Marie and then they made up. Andre Anderson begins to look into the truth of the woods and discovered that Golden Boy’s brother Sam was still alive and held in the underground ‘hospital’ known as the woods. Andre talked Emma into going small and sneaking in to find Sam.

She did that and she and Sam bonded a bit. Of course, Emma lied to him about Luke having sent her in to see him. That ended with Emma crawling into a guard’s ear and climbing through his brain.

We get more with Kate in these two episodes, who is dealing with Luke’s suicide as well as her own feelings with Andre. Mental powers are always questionable and they are clearly taking a price on her.

These characters of Gen V have been awesome so far. They have gone into great details and character arcs to create deeper people and allowing me to be invested in the show. And I really am invested after the first three episodes.

Spoilers

“God U”

So this was awesome.

The new series from the world of The Boys, Gen V premiered on Prime with the first three episodes dropped this past Thursday evening. I was not able to see episodes two and three, but I did see the first episode and I found it great.

A group of new, cool characters attending a school preparing them to be the next members of the Seven. It’s called Godolkin University and there are some clear questions about what is going on around the college.

We meet a young Marie Moreau and see when her blood control powers started, in one of the most shocking and tragic origins I have seen, her power led to the death of both of her parents and the estrangement of her sister.

Marie was the focus of the story and she was a wonderful new character. So was her roommate, Emma Meyer, a new shrinking character who had a YouTube channel and was desperate to do what she could to advance. Literally some of the sex scenes with Emma were something that I never thought I would see on TV.

Golden Boy Luke Riordan looked to have everything. It looked like he had his ticket punched to the Seven. However, his murderous rampage against Brink and his attempt to kill Marie would lead to his own death, exploding across the area. It was clear that the show had that same feel as The Boys did as you were never sure what could possibly happen.

Then, there is a mystery brewing with the woods that I am definitely interest with. It feels like it is some kind of psychological problem with the woods.

This started off really strong and I will be watching the other two available episodes this weekend.