In episode 5 of Gen V Season 2, it was revealed that Sister Sage was working with Cipher on his plan to fine-tune Marie’s powers until she was more powerful than Homelander. Marie was focused on rescuing Cate after she’d been imprisoned in Elmira for working with Emma, Harper, Ally, Greg, Marie, and Jordan, trying to get a sting video of Cipher admitting that he was a regular old human being. Emma and Jordan were against it because they thought that, by trying to rescue Cate, they’d be walking into a trap set by Cipher. Well, they weren’t wrong, because as soon as the trio set foot in Elmira, they were captured. After putting them in their separate cages, Cipher approached Marie with an ultimatum: working with him to become the most powerful Supe or watching his friends rot away in prison. When Marie refused to budge, Cipher revealed that he was holding Annabeth captive in Elmira too, which meant that her fate depended on Marie too. Still, Marie refused to comply. Eventually, with some major assistance from Cate, all of them managed to get out of their cells, and Marie opened Annabeth’s room with the intention of freeing her. To her horror and shock, Annabeth’s throat had been slit, and she had bled to death. Unable to accept this outcome, Marie called on every ounce of power that she had and, miraculously enough, brought Annabeth back to life. What happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Marie and Her Friends Escape Elmira
Still reeling from the shock of the miracle that Marie has just performed, Annabeth takes her sister’s hand and begins making her way out of Elmira, along with Emma, Jordan, and Cate. This is where we get the first hint at Annabeth’s powers, as she manages to pinpoint the location where Sam is going to arrive; it’s eventually revealed that she has precognitive abilities, which means that she is able to predict future events. Coming back to Sam though, yes, he decides to finally answer Emma’s request to help her and her friends. No, Sam didn’t randomly find these guys in Elmira. Before going to rescue Cate, Emma had specifically told Sam that they were going to Elmira. Sam refused to join them back then because he was too busy reuniting with his parents. Now that he’s done figuring out that his mental health issues are genetic, I guess he’s okay signing up to be a part of the rescue mission. He arrives at a crucial juncture, by the way, because Marie, Annabeth, Jordan, Cate, and Emma were about to be cornered and recaptured. Sam has also stolen one of Elmira’s security vans, which allows the crew to escape from Elmira without getting shot at. Once they have put some distance between them and their captors, Sam ditches the phones that he has so that they can’t be tracked. The topic of Marie literally resurrecting someone comes up, which is then derailed by an argument about whether they should go into hiding in Canada, go back home, or return to the college.
As their bickering starts making Annabeth anxious, Marie announces that they are not going to do something as drastic as going to Canada or something as stupid as going to Aunt Pam’s place. They’ll look for a place where they can ditch the Elmira security van, get a change of clothes, procure some food, and lay low. Word of Marie and her friends’ escape reaches Cipher’s ears, which causes him to go hog wild on the crispy-fried Godolkin. This reaction makes me think that Cipher is smart, but not that smart. I mean, as underscored by Marie later on, it’s pretty obvious that Cipher or one of his Elmira henchmen slit Annabeth’s throat so that Marie would be compelled to push the horizons of her abilities. After, maybe Cipher expected all of them to be recaptured. However, not only did Jordan prove to be capable enough to keep the guards at bay, but also Sam showed up, thereby causing Cipher to lose his most prized possession as well as the bargaining chip that he had been using so far to control said prized possession. Which proves that Cipher can be thwarted.
Marie And Co. Take Refuge At A Library
Marie and her friends reached the Steuben Community Library to seek refuge there. The library has been abandoned, and since a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 is spotted atop a burnt pile of books, it’s hinted that the show’s version of the USA has reached its book-burning phase of fascism. Thankfully, the box of clothes is still intact, which allows the kids to at least discard their prison uniforms and Annabeth to get out of her blood-soaked dress and freshen up. Emma finds the bathroom. Sam finds some food. And while returning to the main hall where everyone is holed up at, Sam and Emma come across the control room where there’s a working telephone and computer. This generation of kids obviously doesn’t memorize phone numbers, so the telephone is of no use. Emma does remember her Instagram password, so she logs into the desktop version of her Instagram account and sends an SOS message into the group chat that includes Ally and Harper. While she’s doing all that, Sam spots Greg’s messages to Emma and gets a bit jealous.
Going back to Marie and Annabeth, she asks the question that everybody has on their minds: when did Annabeth become a Supe? Until Marie’s visit to Pam’s house, we knew that only Marie was given Compound V; after that, her powers manifested, she killed Malcolm and Jackie Moreau, and then she was separated from Annabeth. That turned out to be a lie because it was revealed that Malcolm and Jackie went to a Vought fertility clinic to conceive Marie, who was delivered to Cipher. Compound V was either given to Malcolm and Jackie to help with having Marie, or Marie was given the drug right after she was born. Pam claimed that no such thing was done when it came to Annabeth. However, Annabeth’s precognitive abilities are proof that she got Compound V at some stage in her life. Annabeth doesn’t remember that phase of her life, and she obviously couldn’t ask her parents about it because they were accidentally killed by Marie. Despite living with Pam for a long time, Annabeth has kept her powers a secret from her and never asked her if she knows anything about her powers. Given how Pam never brought it up, she’s either in the dark about the Compound V that was given to Annabeth, or she has been feigning ignorance to avoid discussing it. The main point is that Annabeth has powers, and nobody really knows how; well, maybe Cipher does because he knows everything.
Now, instead of getting to the bottom of this whole mystery, Annabeth just wants to return to Pam, but Marie points out that as soon as she gets to Pam’s house, or maybe when she is en route to Pam’s house, Vought or Elmira will capture her and then use her to get Marie and the others. So, regardless of how angsty and emo Annabeth wants to be, her strategy is completely idiotic. Also, I don’t understand why Annabeth keeps blaming Marie for “everything bad that has happened in her life.” She is not the one who got Compound V injected into them; their parents did. She seems old enough to understand that, and yet she keeps guilt-tripping Marie for that incident. In fact, I can’t even blame Malcolm and Jackie for relying on Vought to help them conceive a baby; it’s Vought that should be blamed for everything. At least Annabeth has Marie to help her face the pitfalls of whatever form of capitalism this is; most of us don’t have a sibling like that. Well, maybe it is the trauma of coming back from the dead that’s causing her to act irrationally.
Stan and Zoe Rescue Marie and Her Friends
Cipher rocks up to Polarity’s house because he expects Marie to call him any second. When she does, Cipher wants Polarity to convey the message to her that if she returns to the campus to work with him, then he’ll let her friends and sister live. Polarity obviously refuses to help. So, Cipher brings up Andre’s death yet again, telling him that he tried to reverse the damage done to his brain with the help of science. That’s when he learned that science has its limits, and hence, he couldn’t save Andre. Cipher believes that Marie is that miracle who can actually solve things like brain damage; to be specific, she can probably fix the damage that’s been done to Polarity’s brain through overuse of his powers. Therefore, if Polarity doesn’t want to die because of the occasional seizures that he’s suffering from, he’ll do exactly what Cipher wants him to. Polarity puts the safety of Marie and her friends over his own health and refuses to do Cipher’s bidding. That’s why when Harper calls Polarity—after being directed to call for help by Emma—Cipher takes control of Polarity’s body and mind and uses him to extract the information about Marie and her friends’ location from Harper.
Going back to the Steuben Community Library, Annabeth is seen suffering a panic attack, and Marie rushes to her aid. When Annabeth calms down, it becomes apparent she is slowly warming up to Marie. However, as soon as Annabeth and Marie begin to make some kind of progress, Vikor breaks into the library, which means that Harper did reveal their location to Cipher (thinking that she was just talking to Polarity). As Vikor begins assaulting everyone in his vicinity, Cate, Annabeth, and Emma are advised to hide because their powers are kind of useless in the face of the Supe-Viking. Marie, Jordan, and Sam try their best to subdue Vikor, but they are no match for him. And just when it seems like it’s “game over” for Marie and her friends, Zoe Neuman and Stan Edgar show up literally out of nowhere, and Zoe uses her tentacles to kill Vikor.
Since they are out in the open, their chances of being spotted by Vought are high. Therefore, Stan advises everyone to come with him to his safe house and promises to answer all of their questions as soon as they are out of the danger zone. Once all of them begin going down the elevator of said safe house, Stan gives a brief explainer of the establishment: it’s located 90 feet underground, and it’s impervious to X-ray vision or anyone with power that rivals the neutron bomb, which basically means that they are all safe. In addition to that, we learn that, after Butcher killed Victoria, Zoe was placed at the Red River Institute, much like Victoria and Marie themselves, before being freed from that institution by Stan. In case you need a reminder, Stan was freed from prison by the Boys in the hopes that he’d help them secure the Supe Virus. When he failed, he was taken back to jail. That’s when his convoy was attacked by Victoria, and he was freed by her. While we know that Victoria died soon after that, it’s unclear how exactly Stan managed to get ahold of Zoe after she was placed in Red River. That doesn’t even matter though, because the most important topics are how Stan found Marie and what he wants from her.
Marie And Homelander Are Connected
Firstly, Stan learned about Marie from Victoria. Secondly, Stan tracked Vikor to get to Marie (and her friends). And thirdly, Stan is interested in Marie because she is the second living subject of Project Odessa, the first being Homelander. As per Stan, Godolkin, not Cipher, was the original creator of Project Odessa. He started the program in the ‘60s with the aim of producing God-tier superheroes. The results were not savory. But with the arrival of in vitro fertilization, instead of waiting for a fully formed baby, Compound V was introduced to Odessa’s test subjects at the blastocyst phase—which is when the embryo is just a hollow mass of cells. Again, that wasn’t a total success. Only 2 survived: one was Homelander in the ‘80s, and then Marie in the 2000s. Naturally, this puts Marie on par with Homelander, but does that mean she will become as fascist as Homelander? Well, there’s no way that right now. It’s only after Marie gains as much control as Homelander does that we’ll know if she is capable of being a dictator or not.
Thomas Godolkin May Be Alive
For now, the relatively important question is what Cipher wants from Marie, other than using her as an all-purpose medicine for every kind of internal and external physical injury. Stan says that Cipher agrees with Godolkin’s studies on almost every aspect but one: while Godolkin aimed to control Supes, Cipher wants to create some kind of Supe Supremacist utopia. Stan knew about Project Odessa as well, but when Marie didn’t exhibit any powers, Stan himself shut it down. When Marie killed her parents, it became evident that Project Odessa had produced a positive result. After that, Vought and maybe Cipher began working on Godolkin University so that Marie could be brought in as a student and turned into the next Homelander. In addition to all this, Stan says that in order to (accidentally) create Marie, Cipher had to meticulously recreate all of Godolkin’s work, which had been destroyed in the fire that supposedly killed him. This reminds Cate and Jordan of the fact that they have actually seen the real Godolkin, since he has been kept in a hyperbaric chamber in Cipher’s residence. Yes, that’s not Cipher’s real dad; it’s the real Thomas Godolkin who we saw getting burnt in the opening scene of the first episode of Gen V Season 2.
This new piece of information causes Stan to change his hypothesis that Cipher had “painfully recreated” all of Godolkin’s work to Cipher must have tortured Godolkin into spelling out how Project Odessa could be recreated. It also brings about a change in Stan’s plans. Stan initially wanted to offer Marie (and her friends) safety in exchange for her undying loyalty once Stan became the CEO of Vought again. But now, after learning that Godolkin is alive, Stan wants to gain access to Godolkin and learn how to control all the Supes. He has access to some of Godolkin’s research on how to make a Supe-controlling device—which is some combination of a high-frequency whistle, a shock collar, and halothane—but learning from the horse’s mouth will be better. All of this still doesn’t explain why Cipher suddenly woke up one day and decided to become a Supe supremacist and how Stan expects Marie or her friends to help him in his endeavor to get to Godolkin and control Supes when they know that Stan might misuse that power and control them. I guess we’ll learn later on. Amidst all these serious, plot-heavy discussions, we get a scene of Emma bonding (again) with Sam (since he’s apologetic for everything he said to Emma under the influence of Cate’s spell), one where Annabeth and Zoe bond over their respective loss of innocence, and one where Jordan and Marie talk about whether or not Stan can be trusted.
Marie Leaves Stan’s Shelter
At the end of Gen V Season 2 Episode 6, Cipher gets word of the fact that Vikor has failed to capture Marie, and she is nowhere to be found. After letting off a little steam by making Polarity hurt himself repeatedly, Cipher gives us a peek into his ideology and why he wants this Supe Supremacy that Stan, Marie, and the others were talking about. He says that, as a child, Cipher and his biological dad used to go to Australia a lot. There, he learned that even though the kangaroo is Australia’s national animal, hunters are allowed to kill them en masse so as to “protect the strength of the herd.” Technically, it’s a method of controlling overpopulation, but sure, I guess through Cipher’s demented perspective, he saw some kind of supremacist ideology in it. When it comes to God U, he sees the same issue with these new-age Supes: there are not a lot of prime-grade Supes, and there are way too many mediocre ones. Hence, Cipher wants to “cull the herd.” He literally says that he wants to reduce the population of the school by 75 percent. How does he intend to do that? Well, we don’t learn because Polarity and Cipher get into a bit of a fight, and Polarity flings Cipher through the window of his house. When he gets up to check where he has landed, Cipher is nowhere to be seen.
Until Cipher explains his culling program, I’m just going to guess that he wants to put everyone through that Hero Optimization Seminar and see who survives. Preferably, he’d like to have everyone face off with Marie, because that’s who he wants by his side while taking on Homelander. But until she chooses to side with him, I suppose he’ll use anyone who is slightly more powerful than the students to do his culling. If you are wondering about how he is going to hide the deaths of almost 75 percent of his university’s population, this is Vought we are talking about; they can brush anything under the rug. By the way, after this particular altercation, do I think that Polarity is going to return to God U and try to save as many students as he can? Well, he can try, but we all know that’ll be futile because all of those students consume Vought propaganda all the time, and if they hear Polarity telling them to do something that they’ve not been ordered to do by Vought, they’ll turn against Polarity. It’ll be better for him to either look for Marie and her friends or target Godolkin (because that’s Cipher’s weak spot).
Well, there’s a good chance that he’ll end up crossing paths with Marie and Cate because they have left Stan’s hideout to probably get to Godolkin before Stan does and learn about Cipher’s endgame before things get worse. I mean, that’s possibly what Marie wants to do; Cate just wants to hang around with Marie until she agrees to use her healing powers to fix her brain and restore her powers. Is that something that Marie will actually do? I think it’ll be handy to have a mind-controller on your side when your biggest enemy can literally puppeteer anyone they want. However, there’s still the question of whether or not Marie trusts Cate. Yes, Cate has been by her side all this while, but how much of that feeling of friendship is genuine, and how much of it is just her being an opportunist—that continues to be a big question mark. An even bigger question mark is the origin of Cipher’s superpowers. Many had speculated that he was just the vessel for Godolkin and he didn’t have any powers of his own, which is why the V in his blood wasn’t visible. But we saw in this episode that Cipher was very far away from Godolkin, and yet he was effortlessly exhibiting his puppeteering skills. That leads me to think he is a rare naturally born Supe, which is why he has this idea of creating a Supe Supremacist utopia. If you think otherwise, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
