Summary
Gen V Season 2’s ending is surprisingly straightforward, dealing with the new Big Bad in a conclusive way. It might seem a little too easy, but the implications for the final season of The Boys give it some extra zing.
I’m not sure I’d consider the climax of Gen V Season 2 to be a “good” ending in the traditional sense of the term. Sure, it’s all-action, has fun crossover cameos with The Boys, and builds to a pretty exciting conclusion that has serious implications for the final season of that parent show. But it’s nonetheless a little weird to see how easily the season’s Big Bad is defeated, especially given the Big Bad’s entire scheme turns out to have been controlling Homelander, which would have been a fun idea to take into The Boys. And given that all of the major revelations have already occurred, there’s nothing in this finale that’s especially surprising beyond how quickly and easily it’s all resolved.
I say “all resolved”, which is clearly a bit of an overstatement, but you know what I mean. A ton of fuss was made about Godolkin being the true villain who had been controlling Cipher this entire time to his own nefarious ends, and a big deal is made about the scope of his powers. But ultimately, the means of taking him down are Marie’s very vaguely defined abilities and the fact that Polarity can nullify his mind control – two things that had already been brought up and displayed in previous episodes.
I don’t know what to make of it, that’s all I’m saying. But let’s break it down all the same, since there’s still plenty to talk about, and many implications for the future of the franchise.
Godolkin’s Cull
Despite Godolkin’s ultimate intention being to control Marie, and thus confirm that he can control Homelander since they’re both products of the Odessa Project, his means of achieving that are wiping out all of the other Supes in God U to enhance his own powers and fulfill his long-term objective of culling the herd.
To accomplish this, Godolkin reveals himself to the student body and announces he’ll be hosting a seminar to allow everyone the opportunity to establish themselves in the newly reset hero rankings. Naturally, it’s all a ruse. As soon as they get there, he just berates them about having useless and embarrassing powers and mind-controls them into killing each other.
Sister Sage isn’t keen on all this, since she’s expecting Godolkin to move in with her and be introduced to Homelander as an unthreatening acquaintance so he can surreptitiously take control of him, but Godolkin’s ego is running away with him, threatening their long-term plan.
How Godolkin Became A Supe
This finale also reveals what most of us had figured out, which is how he became a Supe in the first place. Naturally, he injected himself with Compound V in the lab fire that kicked off the season premiere. This allowed him to survive the flames, albeit with some extreme physical damage, and gave him his mind-control powers.
A newly free Cipher, aka Doug, clarifies that he took the same version of Compound V as Soldier Boy and Stormfront, meaning he doesn’t age at all. Doug does, though, but he’s the second puppet – the first one died at his hands, through Godolkin’s influence. Hamish Linklater does a really understated job of giving Doug an entirely different but eerily recognisable persona from the Cipher we’ve become familiar with.
He also reveals some more key information, such as the fact that Godolkin had already previously tried to take over Marie’s mind while she was in Elmira, but was unable to do so, seemingly proving she’s a uniquely powerful Supe, despite not quite having enough energy left after healing Godolkin to give Doug the same courtesy.
Sister Sage Turns On Godolkin
Sister Sage obviously has the long game all planned out, but Godolkin going off-script to massacre all the God U students and enhance his own powers with the ultimate intention of taking control of Homelander directly was absolutely not on the agenda. But she’s not totally capable of stopping him on her own, so she needs an ally, and there are very few available ones who could be useful.
The solution turns out to be Polarity. While he’s transporting Doug, whose health is rapidly worsening, to a friend who can potentially help, they’re ambushed by Black Noir, and Doug is messily killed. Polarity, meanwhile, is taken prisoner. So, he’s ready and waiting when Sister Sage decides extreme action needs to be taken, and she frees him since she knows his powers will prevent Godolkin from being able to control the students.
Superpowered Smackdown
The highlight of Gen V Season 2’s ending is undoubtedly a totally bonkers action set-piece in which all the main cast team up to take on Godolkin during his “seminar”. Since this is Gen V, it involves sneaking inside through Black Hole’s quantum singularity backside while Cate, whose powers have been repaired by Marie, brainwashes Vance into letting Marie inside. And the fight is on.
The fight is fun, no doubt about that. It’s always cool when the Supes get to unleash their powers en masse, and this setup means that we get to see a lot of interesting combinations as the students work together to try and nullify Godolkin’s powers. It seems to be working, too. He was already weak from manipulating so many students at once, and was visibly intimidated by Marie’s arrival, so when she finally manages to levitate him in the air with his own blood, it seems like she has saved the day.
But not quite. Godolkin is finally able to get inside Marie’s mind and turn her against her friends, but it lasts all of 30 seconds before Polarity arrives and severs their connection. Taking her opportunity, Marie blows Godolkin’s head up from within. And just like that, he’s dead.
Some Last-Minute Cameos
The end of Godolkin doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the story, of course. Vought remains a serious problem, and now that Marie and her friends have murdered the dean of God U, they’re going to be on the run. Polarity remains behind, since, as the highest-ranking remaining faculty member, he can try to smooth things over with Vought.
Marie, Annabeth, Cate, Jordan, Sam, and Emma – not Greg, noticeably, since he doesn’t want to leave without his sister, but Emma gives him a goodbye kiss and he didn’t turn on the group, so maybe my suspicions about him were wrong – all leave God U. After a short while, they meet up with Starlight and A-Train to join up with them against Homelander and Vought.
I guess we’ll be seeing the God U students again in the final season of The Boys.
