In Gen V Season 2 Episode 1, we learned that Marie, Andre, Emma, and Jordan had been held captive in the Elmira Adult Rehabilitation Center. Marie had managed to escape and was living life in incognito mode in order to search for her estranged sister, Annabeth. Andre had died trying to create an escape route for Emma, Jordan, and himself. Cate struck some kind of a deal with Vought, Godolkin University, and Elmira that allowed Emma and Jordan to leave that prison, but only if they parroted some PR-mandated statement that echoed Homelander’s anti-human and anti-race-traitor sentiments. Of course, Emma and Jordan accepted that deal, but the first chance that they got to get out of the university and reunite with Marie, they took it. Before they could get to Marie, though, Dogknott got to her, and he tried to take her back to Vought or Elmira. Starlight came to her rescue and advised her to go back to God U because that was the safest place for her. Also, she needed Marie to look into Project Odessa, whose origins are linked to the guy after whom God U is named. Marie rejected the proposal, but later that night, she ran into Emma, Jordan, and Cate. Things got heated, and Jordan ended up hurting Cate pretty badly. To avoid getting manipulated by Cate, Marie chose not to heal her, and fled the scene of the crime with Emma and Jordan. Where will they go? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Cate Is Hospitalized
Gen V Season 2, Episode 2 opens with Emma recording a video of Marie where she is giving a speech that’ll allow her to re-enter God U and seek refuge from, well, everyone who is trying to hunt her down and give her immunity from all kinds of scrutiny regarding her involvement in the Woods incident. Jordan is of the opinion that they should all just run away, but Emma points out that it won’t take Vought much effort to recapture them. Their best option is to go back to college and hunker down until the storm has passed. Eventually, Marie finishes recording that video, it goes viral, and instead of hiding in yet another motel, Marie finds herself in Cipher’s chambers. Under the garb of having a heated conversation about the circumstances that Marie is in, we get a recap of the events that have happened so far, specifically Andre’s death, because the showrunners really want to blur the line between Chance and his character’s passing. Once all that’s done, Cipher advises Marie to keep an eye on Emma and Jordan, especially after the attack on Cate. It’s kind of obvious that Cipher knows that those three were involved in the attack on Cate, but he wants to let that threat of them being outed as the ones who attacked a Guardian of Godolkin dangle over their heads for as long as possible. The same news is spread to the rest of the campus via Firecracker’s TV news show called The Thbomb (I don’t know what that means. Truth bomb? The bomb? I don’t know).
Sam notices that Marie is back, along with Emma and Jordan, and given the timing of these two events, he begins to suspect that the trio is behind the attack on Cate. Hilariously enough, Emma wants to dispel anyone’s suspicions about their hand in Cate’s injury by actually killing her—which is an idea that is immediately shot down by Marie. Jordan still thinks that they should run, but Emma thinks that they should stay and look into Project Odessa, which is a prospect that’s subtly entertained by Marie. While all this is going on, Sam decides to pay Cate a visit while she is recuperating, and, well, things go horribly wrong. Cate grabs the hand of one of the attendants, turning her into one of her puppets, and makes her attack everyone in her vicinity. The only somewhat valuable piece of information that Cate conveys to Sam before going crazy is that Emma is responsible for the state that she is in. I say “somewhat” because Emma isn’t the one who attacked her; Jordan did. But since Sam has more of a bond with Emma than with Jordan, the plot required Cate to utter Emma’s name instead of Jordan’s. But, yeah, this sets the stage for a conflict between Emma and Sam. After attending an induction ceremony conducted by The Deep, Sam asks the aquatic Supe if he has any idea who attacked Cate. Then he questions the last two guys who had interacted with Emma and learns that she’d gone to Weehawken, New Jersey, which is supposedly where Cate was found.
Marie and Jordan fight Vikor
Polarity actually takes Emma’s advice and takes on the role of Associate Dean at God U so that he can look into Cipher and see what he was doing at Elmira, which eventually led to Andre’s death. Cipher tries to get a read on whether Polarity’s decision to join as a part of the faculty is genuine or if he has any ulterior motives—I am probably wrong, but maybe Cipher’s powers are similar to Tek Knight’s—but as soon as he confirms that Polarity is in the clear, he gives him the keys to his chamber and takes his leave. Emma, during one of those “How to Be a Social Media Super-Influencer” classes, learns the real reason why she has been brought back to God U: Vought wants to use Emma’s social media following to further their anti-Starlighter agenda and paint them as the ones who have attacked Cate. Marie has clearly understood that assignment and is spending her every waking minute creating videos dedicated to Cate. Once she is done doing that, she heads back to her room, only to find Jordan reading Andre’s case files that Cipher had given to Marie. Just when they are getting somewhere, in regard to their feelings about Andre’s death, Stacey barges into Marie’s room, gives her her daily schedule, and orders both Marie and Jordan to head for their Hero Optimization Seminar. What exactly does this program entail?
Marie and Jordan, along with several other students, have to figure out how exactly their powers work. So far, they’ve done so by depending on their instincts, but, as per Cipher, in order to become as good as the Seven, they have to fine-tune their skills. The first level of this process involves taking on a Supe named Vikor; the students will start at one end of a sealed room and make their way to the other end. Once they get there, they have to press a button, and the session will end. It’s more complicated than it sounds though, simply because Viktor is the epitome of physical strength. I mean, at one point Marie tries to stop Vikor’s heart from beating, and he punches his chest to counter Marie’s blood-manipulating maneuver. Thankfully, while Vikor is busy doing that, Jordan goes and hits the button and saves all of them from becoming irreparably damaged. At this point, Cipher re-enters the room and tells them that this is how all of their classes are going to go, because he thinks that all of them, except for the one wearing the K-pop t-shirt, have the potential to be something more than they think they are. Marie and Jordan head back to the former’s room to chill out, and one thing leads to another, and they get freaky with each other. When Marie professes her love for Jordan, though, the latter gets weirded out. Fortunately, before Jordan has to explain where they stand, fireworks begin going off outside their hostel room window, which distracts both of them.
Emma Finds A File On Project Odessa
Emma goes to the cafeteria and spots Rufus harassing the barista because there’s a Starlight pamphlet there and tells him to buzz off, which he does. While waiting in the queue for her coffee, Emma starts popping pills, which is interrupted by Polarity, who takes her to his chamber to discuss their plan going forward. Once Polarity is done venting his feelings on how much he wants to kill Cipher and burn God U to the ground, they get to the topic of Project Odessa. Since Polarity has access to classified documents, they head over to the Archives department to do some research on Cipher and God U’s secrets. They don’t get anything in the documents present there, but Emma, whose senses have been heightened by the pill she popped, or maybe she just has enhanced hearing powers, does discover a secret room in the Archives department. Polarity uses his metal-bending powers to open the door, and it turns out to be a Nazi-White-Supremacy glorification shrine. It doesn’t take too long for Polarity and Emma to get over it because they have seen Stormfront call for a Third Reich, and they see Homelander spew fascist rhetoric every day. To be honest, I think this trope needs to be retired. The Boys, The Gentlemen, Watchmen, Peacemaker, and now Gen V Season 2 have done this twist, and it doesn’t seem shocking anymore. It may seem relevant because of present-day events. However, I feel they need to push further and add some more genocidal freaks into the mix. The show is supposed to be provocative.
Nazism and White supremacy have become so normalized now that this is going to irk nobody. I am sure the writers know the xenophobic cult that they need to critique through this show in order to really get on people’s nerves; it just remains to be seen if they’ll ever have the guts to do it. Going back to the plot, in that secret room, Emma finds a folder related to Project Odessa and notices a bunch of birth certificates and death certificates of babies. As Emma is about to arrive at a conclusion, I think the drugs in her system go into overdrive and turn her into a giant. Once she returns to her normal size and gets her hands on a fresh pair of clothes, she probably tries to get to Marie and Jordan but is stopped in her tracks by Sam. When Sam tries to chastise Emma for putting Cate in the hospital, Emma points out that he isn’t thinking straight and he needs to wake up from the slumber that Cate has put him in. As the realization sets in for Sam, Emma walks away, and she finally finds Marie and Jordan. Emma hands over the Project Odessa file that she had extracted from the Nazi-White-Supremacist secret room to Marie, and when she looks into it, she finds her birth certificate in it. I don’t know if this is a surprise because, at this point, it’s common knowledge that every superpowered kid was injected with Compound V as a child. Now, if they want someone like Marie to be the next Homelander, then I suppose it’ll be something worth thinking about. In addition to that, Marie learns that Dogknott has killed the Starlighter, who she protected from those pro-Homelander bullies, and framed him as Cate’s killer. Technically, this has cleared Emma, Jordan, and Marie’s names, but whether or not they’ll be able to digest the fact that their freedom is built on an innocent person’s body is something that remains to be seen.
