In episode 6 of Gen V Season 2, Marie, Emma, Annabeth, Jordan, and Cate were able to escape from Elmira thanks to Sam. They sought shelter at the Steuben Community Library and decided to regain their bearings, find a change of clothes, and eat some food before deciding what they should do next. Emma contacted Harper for help and even told her the location where she and her friends were holed up at. By the time Harper contacted Polarity to convey this information, Cipher had hijacked his mind, and hence Harper inadvertently ended up revealing her friends’ hiding spot to Cipher. Moments later, Vikor showed up at the library, and the young Supes were no match for him. Thankfully, they were rescued by Zoe and Stan and taken to a highly protected safe house, where they sat down to figure out what exactly Cipher wanted and how they could stop his Supe Supremacist mission. When Cate and Jordan theorized that Cipher was keeping Thomas Godolkin hostage in a vault in his residence, Stan opined that they should get to him because he might be the key to taking down Cipher. Since Marie didn’t want anyone to get hurt, she left the safe house in the dead of night to deal with Godolkin and Cipher on her own. The only other person who went with her was Cate, because she hoped that siding with Marie would compel her to fix her brain and restore her powers. What happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Marie and Cate Team Up With Polarity
Episode 7 of Gen V Season 2 starts things off with a vision of the future that Annabeth is seeing, where Marie is lying in a pool of blood. This causes her to wake up and look for Marie in the safe house. When she doesn’t find her, as well as Cate, she wakes everyone up and tells them about her vision and why she feels that Marie is walking towards her own death. Jordan tells Zoe to ask Stan if they can borrow his car and get to Marie and Cate before they do anything stupid. By the way, that’s the only scene where Zoe shows up, and Stan remains a no-show throughout the episode. Why? I don’t really know. Maybe Giancarlo Esposito wasn’t available the day this scene was shot, or maybe the producers didn’t want to burn money on Esposito for just one brief scene; take your pick. Going back to the plot, Cate and Marie park their car, which they have supposedly stolen, near Cipher’s residence. Cate warns Marie that if they try to infiltrate Cipher’s house without restoring her powers, they might be overpowered by him. No matter what Cate says, Marie doesn’t trust her. So, she just changes the topic and says that they should get out of their Elmira uniforms before going about their mission. Yes, because it’s important to look good while you’re ridding the world of the most powerful mind-controller.
When they do get to Cipher’s residence, they find out that neither Cipher nor Godolkin is in there. The only person that’s in that house is actually Polarity. He tells them about Cipher’s plans to “cull the herd” and kill any Supe that he deems “weak.” Also, Polarity says that his powers allow him to push back against Cipher’s mind-controlling capabilities. The episode briefly cuts away to Cipher and Godolkin, who are in the basement of God U, and Cipher can be heard mumbling to himself about the magnetic pulses coursing through Polarity’s brain protecting him from being mind-controlled easily. Then he prepares to kill Godolkin because he thinks that there’s no way for him to come back from this little setback. But that’s when he gets a notification from the CCTV cameras installed in his house, and he sees Marie in there with Cate and Polarity. He exclaims that Marie has returned just like Sage had predicted, and he starts believing in his plan again.
Going back to Cipher’s residence, Marie tells Polarity about their theory that Cipher is holding Godolkin hostage, and if they free Godolkin, he’ll help them take down Cipher. Polarity hypothesizes that Godolkin might be more dangerous than Cipher or Homelander, and freeing him from the pain he’s suffering due to his charred body might backfire on them. Hence, Polarity thinks that they should deal with Cipher on their own. Marie and Cate can’t help but point out the fact that, firstly, they won’t be able to deflect Cipher’s mind-controlling shenanigans, and secondly, even if Polarity can avoid becoming his puppet, there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to keep himself stable enough to allow Marie and Cate to defeat Cipher. Polarity tries to prove that he can hold his own, but that’s when he suffers one of his infamous seizures. Marie steps in and heals his brain, and Polarity can’t stop expressing how grateful he is for having Marie by his side. It’s unclear if Polarity has been permanently fixed or if his mind will come undone if he starts using his powers again. That said, for now, Polarity has become his formidable self again.
Marie, Cate, and Polarity reach Cipher’s office in God U, without getting stopped, might I add, and realize that he isn’t in there. Marie says that even if she tries to track Cipher or Godolkin’s heartbeats, she’ll fail because there are just too many people on the campus. Polarity advises Marie to restore Cate’s powers so that she can read everyone’s minds and see if anybody knows about Cipher carrying a suspiciously large piece of cargo. Marie discards that advice because she might be desperate to stop Cipher and get to Godolkin, but she is clearly not stupid enough to trust Cate again, which brings them back to square one. While they wait to find out a way to locate Cipher, the man of the hour rings up the telephone on his desk, because he knows that the trio is in there, and invites Marie to the Hero Optimization Seminar to train with him, as that’ll guarantee her friends’ freedom. Marie and Cipher get into an argument about how he killed Annabeth just to accentuate Marie’s powers, but then Cipher brings her back to the topic of training under him to save her friends and hangs up.
Sam, Jordan, Emma, and Annabeth Look for Marie and Cate
Jordan and Annabeth are seen hurtling towards God U in Stan’s car. They use this little road trip to bond with each other, learn about when they discovered their powers, and just have a better understanding of who they are as human beings. Meanwhile, Emma shrinks and gets into Sam’s pocket, and Sam flies into God U. I don’t really understand why they chose to arrive at the same destination separately. I guess it’s to avoid getting stopped at the security check. But the thing is, Jordan sneaks Annabeth into God U without getting stopped. So, what would have happened if all four of them had arrived there by car and waltzed in through the front gate of the college? It doesn’t seem like Vought, God U, and Elmira run an extremely tight ship, and all three of these institutes are always in sync with each other. They just have a robust PR system, which is why when anything goes wrong, they can do a good cover-up. So, yeah, this divide and enter plan didn’t really make sense to me.
Anyway, as soon as Sam lands in God U, he is cornered by Rufus and Black Hole, and Sam is tasked by Rufus to partake in Hell Week by torturing the hell out of a fresher named Hample. Where does Hample appear from? Black Hole’s butt. We have seen small displays of Black Hole’s power, but this is where it becomes apparent that this Supe’s name is pretty literal; he has an infinite amount of space in his posterior, and he is supposedly carrying freshmen in there as a part of their humiliation ritual. Hample is the one who gets freedom from Black Hole’s butt, only to be forced to follow Sam wherever he goes, as if he is a dog and Sam is his owner. However, Sam has other things to worry about, namely how Emma and Greg are falling for each other as well as the fact that they have to find Marie before she does something drastic. Emma tells Greg to fly around the campus and see if he can spot Marie. But before leaving Emma’s side temporarily, Greg casts suspicion on Sam’s allegiance and says that he is probably very loyal to Vought. I have had my suspicions about Greg, but the fact that he says this makes me doubt his allegiances even more. Emma assures Greg that Sam is fine and that Greg should focus on finding Marie. Emma then tells Sam and his pet to check out the theater room, while she goes to the dorms to see if she can find Marie and Cate.
Right when Annabeth steps foot in God U, she sees the same vision that she had seen previously, but this time she and Jordan manage to figure out that Marie will probably meet her demise if she goes to the Hero Optimization Seminar. So, Annabeth and Jordan rush to Marie before she walks into Cipher’s trap. Greg spots Annabeth and reports back to Emma and Sam, and they run towards the seminar hall too. And, well, yeah, all of them are correct; Polarity, Marie, and Cate are standing right in front of the seminar building, and Marie has seemingly figured out that Godolkin is in its basement. Emma, Sam, Greg, Jordan, Annabeth, and even Hample reach the trio and dissuade Marie from going to Cipher. Annabeth explains her vision once again, but Marie is too hellbent on getting to Godolkin to listen to her sister.
Annabeth reveals—and I have seen this theory doing the rounds of the internet—that she knew that her parents were going to die right before Marie accidentally killed them. However, back then, she couldn’t explain her visions properly, and that’s why she couldn’t stop Marie from doing what she did. She has carried that guilt all these years, and she has masked that by putting all the blame on Marie. Now, after all these years, she can actually use her powers to save Marie from the inevitable, and she feels that if she can’t do that, and Marie dies, she won’t be able to live with herself anymore. Marie totally empathizes with her. She even understands how much her friends care for her. That said, she is too determined to cure Godolkin, as she feels that that’ll stop Cipher and eventually bring down even Homelander. Hence, she incapacitates Sam, Greg, Emma, and Jordan, and then goes into the seminar building. She tells Polarity to keep Cipher busy while she locates Godolkin.
Godolkin Is Actually Cipher
At the end of Gen V Season 2 episode 7, Polarity, Greg, Sam, and Jordan attempt to take down Cipher in the seminar hall, while Emma, Cate, and Annabeth go to the basement to find Marie as she attempts to make Godolkin whole again. As expected, Cipher begins puppeteering Sam, Greg, and Jordan in order to beat the living hell out of Polarity. In the meantime, Marie begins healing Godolkin. Right when Marie’s work is done, Polarity lets out a massive magnetic pulse, knocking everyone down, including Cipher. As he picks up a sword from the seminar hall’s weapons cache and approaches Cipher to behead him, “Cipher” reveals that he is actually Doug, and he has been a vessel of Godolkin all this while. It seems like “Cipher” is trying to bluff Polarity so as to avoid getting killed, but he is telling the truth. The reason why Doug doesn’t have Compound V in his veins is because he is actually human, and Godolkin has been puppeteering him all this while.
Back at the basement, Godolkin gets off the stretcher and begins rambling in front of Marie, Cate, Emma, and Annabeth about Sage’s plan, experiencing pain for such a long time, and how Marie has freed him so that he can carry out his plan of “culling the herd.” That’s when Cate comes to the realization that Godolkin is Cipher, and they need to get away from him before his sense of gratitude towards Marie begins to wane. Right after Godolkin comes out of the basement, he encounters Hample, and he asks him what his powers are. Hample innocently says that he can turn his feet into hands. Godolkin labels him as one of the worst superheroes in existence and compels Hample to kill himself. Then he walks into the playground of God U with the intention of killing more of these non-essential Supes. Okay, now I must talk about a bunch of things. Firstly, congrats to the internet, which had figured this plot twist out a long time ago. Secondly, Godolkin is insanely powerful. Despite being in that charred state, he was puppeteering Doug from afar. When Doug was at that Supe-UFC event between Marie and Jordan, Godolkin was using Doug to puppeteer Jordan. He did the same thing when Doug went into Polarity’s house, and “Cipher” was thwarted, and also during the fight between “Cipher,” Polarity, Sam, Greg, and Jordan. He has been healed by Marie now. So how much more power is he going to exhibit? I don’t know.
Initially, I thought that Godolkin had transferred his consciousness to Doug. That’s why he didn’t need to be around Doug to control him. But it’s clear that Godolkin was just puppeteering Doug because distance isn’t an issue for him. Thirdly, why did Godolkin allow Marie, Cate, Emma, and Annabeth to leave? Well, it’s possible that he has already put his mind virus in one of them. Therefore, he’ll always have an idea what Marie and her friends—which includes Stan, by the way—are up to while he goes about his plan to exterminate the bad Supes. Who knows? Maybe the secret mole will be Marie herself. In addition to that, he didn’t know about Emma, Cate, and Annabeth’s powerset. Hence, he didn’t want to kill someone who could be beneficial to his campaign. He knows that if he wants any of them, he’ll be able to manipulate them and bring them over to their side. But if they are dead, then he’ll have to search for an alternative, which is time-consuming and pointless.
With all that said, the question still remains: will Godolkin join hands with Homelander, or is he going to replace him as the president of the country? Well, until and unless Godolkin is unceremoniously killed in the finale of this season, I suppose he’ll play an important role in The Boys Season 5. Homelander is a fascist, and I think his political ideology will align with that of Godolkin’s. However, given how Homelander was weirded out by Stormfront’s Third Reich dreams, I don’t know if he’ll vibe with Godolkin. In that case, there’s a good chance that Homelander will temporarily side with the Boys to secure the fate of Supes. This is just speculation, though. To get some real answers about what lies in the future of Gen V and The Boys, we have to wait till next week. What are your thoughts on this episode, though? Did the “Godolkin is Cipher” twist surprise you, or did you see this coming from a mile away? Let me know in the comments section below.
