Our supes-in-training fight to the finish as Amazon Prime Video’s “Gen V’s” first season comes to a thrilling end and leaves fans wanting more. Airing on Sept. 29, this spinoff series of “The Boys” gained the attention of new and old fans alike. According to Deadline, “Gen V” attracted 374 million minutes of viewing during the release of the first three episodes and was notably renewed for a second season before the finale aired.
The show focuses on Godolkin University’s (GodU) new student, Marie Moreau, as she tries to redeem herself and her family name when she kills her parents after realizing her powers to manipulate blood. At GodU, Marie meets students Cate, Emma, Andre, brothers Luke and Sam and Jordan, who all come to the realization that their college is nothing more than a trap to superheroes and kill them with a deadly virus.
This season is supposed to be the bridge between seasons three and four of “The Boys” and I was immediately hooked during my first watch. This is a show that anyone can get into even with little-to no knowledge of the original series.
There will be spoilers mentioned below, so read at your own risk!
As a new fan of “Gen V” and “The Boys,” I was pretty impressed with this season’s finale and how everything seemingly came together. With that being said, I do wish that the episodes as a whole were longer throughout the whole season because, with the finale only being 39 minutes, it felt rushed at times when the big fight scenes between Cate and Marie were happening.
They would have seconds of witty dialogue, fight back and forth, and then have another cutscene that redirected us to something else. In a final episode, you want more drama than you’re used to, so this series should have definitely taken a page out of “The Boys’” book and made the finale up to an hour long.
Despite the pacing of the episode, I really enjoyed watching everything pan out almost exactly as I thought it would. It was very obvious that Sam and Cate were going to break apart from the group, having gone through years of manipulation from Dean Shetty and torture in The Woods.
What made it even better was seeing Sam’s dead brother Luke in visions as he developed conflicted feelings of what he was doing with Cate and if killing humans was the right thing to do. I think it was important to see Sam go through this hero metamorphosis because it showed us how far he is willing to hurt those who have tried many times to help him, like Emma or Marie, and go towards the point of no return.
After Cate attempts to harm Jordan, Marie does the unthinkable: uses her powers to blow up Cate’s hand. After talking with Victoria Neuman, a supe-in-disguise in “The Boys,” I had the feeling Marie would tap into the powers they both share, Neuman giving the ammunition for Marie to realize just how powerful she is and use it to get into Vought’s team, The Seven.
Just when it couldn’t get any worse, Homelander appears to save the day and instead lashes out on Marie, calling her an animal for turning her back on her “own kind.” Anthony Starr’s portrayal of the complicated villain is both comical and horrifying. His knowing smirk drives home he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Even on X, users live-tweeted the finale and shared their combined amazement and fear of Homelander. The episode ends with Andre, Jordan, Marie and Emma alive after Homelander attacks Marie, but are held in an undisclosed location.
The finale does a great job of setting things up for season four of “The Boys,” which I believe will be a remarkable season of television. It’s recently been reported by showrunner Eric Kripke that the new season will take place a few days after this finale. Knowing this does change my perspective of the finale, despite how short it was, and that the show’s predecessor will be more detailed as to how Marie and her friends will get out of their cell and what will happen to the new Guardians of Goldolkin.
4/5 stars
rarchibe@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @genv, Instagram
