Gen V
Season 2 Review
Amazon Prime
Warning! Spoilers!
THEY’RE BACK. The superhero college gang who sometimes
attend class but mainly are on the run from whatever evil mastermind has been
appointed to run Godolkin University (aka God-U) this time.
This spin-off of the superhero sensation The Boys is a
whole lotta fun, and you can tell the creators and cast are having the time of
their lives making it. We’ve got the Head of Student Life who appears to be a perfectly
normal girl albeit with a giant bee stinger that would bring instant death to
anyone who touches it (including herself), we’ve got Modesty Monarch lecturing
budding superheroes on the importance of personal brand on social media, and of
course no one will forget Black Hole whose superpower is…yah, can’t go
there.
The end of last season even saw the appearance of Homelander
(the sublime Anthony Starr), who in no way mirrors current political events π, manipulating two of the gang Kate and Sam
into enforcing a new terrifying status quo at God-U where Super-enabled are
supreme and humans are inferior. Season 2 immediately dives headfirst into the
aftermath of the uprising while navigating the extremely tragic passing of lead
actor Chase Perdomo, who died in a motorcycle accident during shooting. The
void left by Chase’s Andre, with his casual humor and light-heartedness hiding
the pain of losing his dearest friend, not to mention a heck of a power with
his ability to manipulate magnetic objects, is addressed head-on with the gang
floundering without him and accusing each other for his death. It is revealed that
after Homelander squashed the uprising at God-U, Marie and her friends were
thrown into a horrible lab and experimented on. Marie is able to use her ability
to manipulate blood to escape without her friends, but Chase endeavors to rescue
them all, trying to bring down a prison wall that ultimately leads to his heart
giving out.
Without Andre, Jordan steps up to center stage with Marie,
the two attempting to build a relationship that keeps getting knocked down as
Marie, however well-intentioned, continues to shut Jordan out, fixated on a
cat-and-mouse game with the sinister new leader of God-U, Dean Cipher, who
fills Marie’s head with delusions of grandeur over the god-like level of her
powers. You really can’t blame Marie – Cipher is played by the brooding Hamish
Linklater (Netflix’s Midnight Mass), and every line is delivered
pitch-perfect with devilish gusto. The mystery builds around who is this stranger intent on staging cage matches with the students and what he wants with Marie. Kate can’t mind control him and Marie can’t
detect V in his blood. The big reveal is great with all the little hints
dropped along the way, but man, does it feel like we should have had two episodes
at the finale to really let all the characters have their time to shine.
It's a lot. Don’t forget we’ve got Sam trying to process who
he is and how much of his schizophrenia is him and how much is the V, Emma trying
to learn how to control her powers without self-harm and leading a mini-revolution
against the human hate group taking over God-U, and Polarity trying to find
meaning with his son lost and his own heart going the same way. Kate as well
undergoes a mini-redemption arc which is highly welcome, but again, it’s all an
incredibly fast pace—the biggest bomb dropped is finally the appearance of
Marie’s long-lost sister, estranged from Marie ever since the horrific night
she accidentally killed their parents, and damn if that doesn’t need some time
to unpackage.
Overall, Gen V Season 2 is a solid instant watch with
all the grotesque over-the-top bodily fluids and twisted deaths shenanigans you’ve
come to expect from The Boys universe, but it’s a huge cast now,
especially with the official crossover. A big part of how successful the final 2026
season of The Boys will be is who it chooses to focus on to allow
a satisfying emotional payoff.
As for bets on who will it finally be to take down
Homelander? Can’t deny Ryan and Butcher are first in line, but it would be very
poetic for Marie to purge Homelander’s blood of V and leave him a little ol’
human at the mercy of the global savagery he's amplified. Or Stinger could make
the heroic sacrifice. Either way, with creator Eric Kripke fulfilling the
reunion dreams of Supernatural fans everywhere with an appearance by
Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins in Season 5, you can be sure this will
be one helluva way to end a series.
