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“The plan is crazy and I hate it… but I love you guys more.”
Plan A for Team Marie (Jaz Sinclair) was to expose Dean Cypher (Hamish Linklater) as a non-Supe, but when that backfired spectacularly, the Gen V crew were left reeling from the fallout of crossing the wrong man. Now, they’re forced to launch a ‘Mission Impossible’-style Plan B: rescuing a friend who’s made to take the fall for their actions.
Quick Recap of Gen V Season 2 Episode 4:
Dean Cypher corners Marie and Jordan (played alternately by London Thor and Derek Li), blackmailing them into a sensationalized duel, hilariously marketed as “Gender Bender vs. Blood Bender”, to crown God-U’s new number one. Desperate for leverage, they turn to Cate (Maddie Phillips) for help. So, Cate and Jordan break into Cypher’s home and uncover a hidden chamber containing a hyperbaric pod with a frail old man inside (possibly Godolkin himself, though his identity remains a mystery). Meanwhile, Marie trains under Cypher, honing her powers and discovering a new technique. In the process, she realizes he doesn’t have Compound V in his system, concluding he must be powerless.
Emboldened, the group devises a plan: Cate will secretly record Cypher admitting he’s human. With Emma’s (Lizze Broadway) help, along with Harper (Jessica Clement) and Ally (Georgie Murphy), they smuggle a recording device into his quarters. But just when their plan seems airtight, the ‘Gen V’ episode drops a shocking twist, Cypher does have powers. He hijacks Jordan’s body and forces Marie into a brutal showdown during the staged match.
Titled “The Kids Are Not All Right,” Episode 5 of Gen V Season 2 opens with a one-month-old flashback featuring Dean Cypher alongside a Supe first introduced in The Boys Season 4. As I’ve mentioned before, watching ‘The Boys‘ is almost essential to fully grasp what’s happening this season, since both shows share the same universe and timeline.
In the present timeline, Marie wins the match against Jordan and makes headlines, but there’s no real glory in the victory. Instead, everyone is left shaken by Dean Cypher’s powers and his unnerving ability to know everything. To make matters worse, the Dean punishes Cate, prompting Marie to persuade Jordan and Emma to help rescue her. This episode, then, zeroes in on their attempts to strategize and pull off a threadbare plan to save Cate. Which goes terribly wrong pretty quickly.
Sam Riordan (Asa Germann), who was mostly absent in the previous episode, pays a visit to his parents in this chapter of ‘Gen V‘, resulting in some of the season’s most nerve-jangling moments. With his volatile mind, bizarre hallucinations, long-standing hatred toward his parents, and crazy super powers, most scenes with him feel like they could erupt in violence at any second. Brownie points to Asa Germann for pulling off a performance that gives off a chilling, junior-Homelander kind of menace.
An intriguing revelation about Sam surfaces in this chapter, hinting it could either sharpen his control over his powers, or push him further off balance. With Dean Cypher relentlessly driving every student past their breaking point, his ultimate plan remains unclear. Yet, by testing Marie too hard, he may have signed his own death sentence. Hamish Linklater is consistently proving to be a formidable villain for this season as the evil new dean.
The final minute of this ‘Gen V’ episode sees Marie wielding her abilities in a fierce, unpredictable new way, leaving her and everyone nearby reeling. It’s left ambiguous whether this chaotic display was her own breakthrough or a trap carefully staged by Cypher, who openly calls the supes his “meat puppets.” Despite a few uneven beats, the episode delivers solid tension and spectacle.
Stream ‘Gen V’ on Prime Video.
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