Over the course of the first 3 episodes of Gen V Season 2 that premiered last week, we learned that Andre had died while trying to help Emma and Jordan escape from the Elmira Adult Rehabilitation Center. Andre’s dying attempt turned out to be quite redundant because Cate made a deal with Vought and God U and got them back to the university under the specific conditions that they’d toe the official line, or else they’d be sent back to prison. Marie had managed to get out of the facility before all that happened, and was spending every waking moment of her life searching for her sister, Annabeth. Vought had sent Dogknott to get her, but Starlight came to her rescue and tasked her with finding out about Project Odessa, whose origins were tied to God U, and putting a stop to it. While Marie contemplated whether she should carry out the task assigned to her by Starlight or not, she was discovered by Jordan, Emma, and Cate. That led to a violent altercation, which ended with Cate suffering a brain injury, which led to the loss of her powers. As a result of that, Sam’s mind, which was under Cate’s spell, began to unravel. In order to avoid being punished for this crime, instead of just running away, Jordan, Emma, and Marie sought shelter at God U, where they tried to get as much dirt as they could on their new principal, Cipher, and Project Odessa. While Cipher was a total mystery, they did learn that Marie was integral to Project Odessa, which probably meant that she was more powerful than Homelander. While all this was going on, Jordan decided to take the blame for Cate’s injury and also inform everyone that Andre had passed away in an institution run by Cipher. What were the repercussions of that announcement? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Marie and Jordan Have to Fight Each Other
As expected, in retaliation for Jordan’s words at the Godolkin Day event, Vought orders Firecracker, Cate, and Justine to put out statements against them and push the agenda that trans people are dangerous—even though Jordan isn’t trans. Furthermore, in order to distract people from the ruckus caused by Jordan’s words, God U brings in Seth Reed, one half of Vought’s insane two-man PR team, to organize a WWE-style battle between Marie and Jordan. Marie is supposed to represent the “good” side of God U, while Jordan is going to represent the “bad.” As per the script, Marie will win the match because Jordan’s defeat will give the people the catharsis that they want, and symbolize the destruction of the anti-Vought and anti-God U narrative that was being peddled by them. Cipher says that even though it sounds like a scripted fight, it won’t be one because he’s that sure that Marie can legitimately defeat Jordan. Marie doesn’t believe that, but Cipher insists that she is more powerful than she thinks she is. This further pushes the theory that Marie is being engineered to replace Homelander.
I also have a feeling that Cipher might be Marie’s actual father; I mean, who doesn’t love a classic “No, I am your father” twist, right? And if Marie and Jordan decide to not engage in a fight, then both Jordan and Emma will be sent back to Elmira. Since Jordan doesn’t want anybody to go to that hellhole, they agree to the deal for now. But after getting back to their dorms, Marie, Jordan, and Emma try to chalk up a plan to stop the fight, find out about Marie’s connection to Project Odessa, and figure out what Cipher’s whole deal is. The best thing that Marie can come up with is getting Cate over to their side and requesting that she use her powers to get Cipher to do the aforementioned tasks. Since that’s their only option at the moment, Jordan and Marie head over to Cate’s room to talk to her, while Emma heads over to Harper’s room to have weed and talk about the pro-Starlight revolution with her and Ally.
Jordan And Cate Find A Body In Cipher’s House
Emma wants Harper to teach her how to control her own powers without emulating people with eating disorders like bulimia, because after mimicking Emma’s powers, Harper managed to alter her size without having to throw up or eat a lot. However, that topic is kind of side-tracked by the revelation that Ally’s powers allow her to manipulate her pubic hair (I think it would have been pretty handy to have a Supe who could manipulate everyone’s pubic hair; think about it). Furthermore, Greg, Ally’s brother, shows up, so they have to put every topic on the back burner and focus on the weed. Later on, Harper and Emma head over to the theater hall to resume their discussion about the latter’s powers and how she can control them. This exercise not only strengthens the girls’ bond, later on in the show, Emma manages to alter her size without using food as a catalyst too. Going back to the bigger issue at hand, Cate reveals that it’s really difficult to get a hold of Cipher and control his mind. So, she points Marie and Jordan in the direction of the newly installed vault in Cipher’s house, and says she thinks that they can investigate that and use whatever’s in there as leverage to bring Cipher under their thumb.
They have to do this while Cipher is focused on training Marie for the upcoming fight. Once everyone is in agreement, Marie heads over to her Hero Optimization Seminar with Cipher—where she kills a goat called Elon Musk and then proceeds to see if she can levitate a goat called Julia Fox, the actress from Uncut Gems, without exploding it—while Jordan and Cate try to get into Cipher’s house. This is where it’s revealed that Cate can manipulate minds again, but the one whose mind has been manipulated doesn’t act exactly how Cate wants them to. So, when Cate tries to get Cipher’s residential security guard to give her the keys to the house, he ends up performing sexual acts on the garden gnome. Cate makes the best of that uncomfortable situation by extracting the keys from the guard’s pocket while he is busy, thereby allowing her and Jordan to enter Cipher’s house and then access the vault. What they find in there is a hyperbaric chamber with a badly bruised person in it. When Jordan takes a picture of that person on their phone, the bruised person wakes up, which causes Jordan and Cate to freak out and bolt out of the house.
Cate Tries To Get A Confession Out Of Cipher
Cipher apparently knows that Marie has found out that he is the one who brought her into this world, and that she is a part of Project Odessa. He goes on to explain that God U’s main purpose is to make someone stronger than Homelander, who is largely considered the most powerful Supe out there, and he truly believes that Marie is the one. If Gen V Season 2 is following the themes of the first season, then it’s possible that Cipher wants to take on the Seven for some personal reason. As per Marie, Cipher doesn’t have Compound V in his blood. He is a normal human being, and Marie’s hypothesis makes it seem like, much like Indira, his family (Cipher’s father is the guy who is in that hyperbaric chamber) was harmed by the Supes, and he wants to get his revenge by grooming a superpowered student to do his bidding. Since Cipher knows that Cate and Jordan broke into his house, he wants to meet her, and Marie wants to use this opportunity to get a confession out of him.
Emma says that she’ll plant a hidden camera in the room where Cate and Cipher will be having their conversation while spectating the fight between Marie and Jordan. After that, Cate’s job will be to coax him into admitting that he is a normal human being without superpowers. Once that footage is leaked all over the college, the anti-human sentiment that Cipher has been trying to peddle to appease Vought will backfire on him, and he’ll either be killed or sacked. Since that seems like a plausible plan, the heroes break up into three units. There’s Cate, who will be with Cipher. Harper, Greg, and Ally will help Emma use the water pipes to get to Cate and Cipher. And Marie and Jordan will serve as the grand distraction from this heist. The plan goes relatively fine. Emma somehow manages to plant a camera in the room that Cipher and Cate are in, and Cate does manage to get Cipher to talk about whether or not he is human. And while everyone is expecting Cipher to admit that he has no powers, he reveals that he actually is a Supe.
Cipher Is A Supe
At the end of Gen V Season 2 Episode 4, after detecting and pocketing the hidden camera, Cipher goes on to manipulate Jordan’s mind from afar. Yeah, Marie and Jordan had stopped the fight, and in order to send the message that it’s important to make love, not war, they even kissed each other in front of all the people that were there to watch them go for their jugulars. But in order to flex his abilities, Cipher twiddles his fingers and puppeteers Jordan to attack Marie. Hence, Marie has no option but to fight back and eventually incapacitate Jordan, thereby inadvertently sticking to the script provided by Vought. This raises the question: how is Cipher a Supe without having Compound V coursing through his veins? I don’t think Marie made a mistake while analyzing Cipher’s blood. She is correct that Cipher doesn’t have Compound V in his veins. Additionally, you are free to theorize that maybe Cipher is merely playing at being a Supe, while there’s someone else behind the proverbial curtain doing the puppeteering for him, thereby making it seem like Cipher actually has superpowers. That said, since that sounds like a stretch, allow me to consider that Cipher is a “pure-blooded” superhero.
Yes, it’s true that Frederick Vought made Compound V, which led to the creation of Supes like Homelander. But how did he come across the formula to create superheroes? Is there a possibility that superheroes existed way before Vought started working on that serum and he killed Cipher’s family to get their blood and then replicated their powers? If so, Cipher has stayed on the sidelines, figuring out a way to bring down this Supe-making industrial complex, and since there are so many impressionable minds in God U, he’s probably trying to groom enough warriors to take down Vought. He has taken a liking to Marie because, much like him, she doesn’t have Compound V coursing through her veins. She is a natural superhero. And, here’s the kicker: Cipher probably intends to kill all the Supes manufactured by Vought and ensure that the only superheroes to walk on this planet are the natural ones. It’s the master race theory; it’s just that Cipher might out-Nazi the products of a Nazi. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on this episode of the show. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to use the comments section to let me know.
