The Boys And Gen V Timelines Are Starting To Sync Up
This post contains spoilers for season 1 of "Gen V."
Since "Gen V" premiered, it became amply clear that there was something nefarious about The Woods, which seemed like an open secret among the adults occupying the ranks in Vought. As for the young adults, the weight of the truth was too much to bear: Luke/Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger) ended up dying by suicide due to the trauma of being mentally toyed with, while his brother Sam (Asa Germann) is currently unable to escape radical indoctrination despite being free. The others — Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Andre (Chance Perdomo), Jordan (London Thor/David Luh), Cate (Maddie Philips), and Emma (Lizze Broadway) — wrestle their inner demons over the course of the episodes, trying to help uncover the unsavory secrets that lie beneath Godolkin. Until one of them goes rogue.
Last week's episode ended with a shocking revelation: Dean Shetty (Shelley Conn), along with Dr. Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) have perfected a virus capable of killing Supes. While Cardosa initially believes that the virus is meant to be used as an emergency measure when Supes becomes difficult to manage/control, Shetty reveals that she wants the virus to be airborne, so that it can kill Supes rapidly. Coerced into doing Shetty's bidding, Cardosa is able to distill the airborne mutation of the virus into a canister, right before it is used to infect a room full of Supes, who are seen developing full-body boils and painful mutations before imminent death.
This fresh development allows "Gen V" to organically tie into "The Boys," where the events in both worlds mesh and collide. Something as serious as a genocide-triggering virus is bound to attract bigger players, including the likes of Victoria Neuman (who makes an appearance during a GodU campus debate) and, of course, The Seven.
More than one blood-bender
When Marie's powers were first introduced, they seemed unique, in the sense that no other Supe was known to possess similar abilities. As Marie is often made to feel that her powers are gross and alienating, she becomes desperate to prove herself while shouldering the guilt of her childhood trauma. In a rather dark turn of events in episode 7, Cate ends up killing Shetty by making her slit her own throat and prevents Marie from helping, which re-triggers her trauma, as she is forced to witness yet another person bleed to death.
Cate's frankly disappointing turn (where she goes from a conflicted, complex teen to a "girlboss" with a megalomaniac savior complex) requires more in-depth discussion, but her actions lead Marie to reach out to someone she thinks can help rein in the crisis: Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit). This meet-up reveals that Neuman is also a blood-bender like Marie, which adds greater insight into her mystifying ability to pop heads without having to move a muscle. Greater ties between Marie and Neuman are established: both grew up at the Red River Orphanage, and Neuman was the one to facilitate Marie's acceptance at GodU.
These parallels are essential, as there lies a gap between how Neuman is perceived and who she truly is, and her complicated motivations evoke a stark contrast with Marie, despite their apparent similarities. From Marie's perspective, Neuman is trustworthy, as she appears to be the only person in power capable of thwarting Vought from within. Once Neuman reveals the truth about her blood-bending powers, she essentially manipulates Marie into blindly trusting her. Trusting Neuman is a mistake several grown adults have made before, including Hughie (Jack Quaid) and Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), who were rattled by her brutality in "The Boys."
Deeper truths and an extremely airborne virus
Once Neuman establishes a baseline of trust with Marie, the latter tells her about Shetty's plans for the virus and mentions the involvement of Dr. Cardosa. Neuman says that she will "handle it," and dismisses Marie's insistence that the news must be publicized to expose Vought's rotten core. This leaves Cardosa completely exposed, but before we talk about his bloody fate, let's talk about Shetty's motivations behind The Woods and the truth about GodU.
It is important to acknowledge that Shetty was a cruel manipulator through and through, as she emotionally lured vulnerable teens into confiding in her, and used them as pawns in her own game. However, her motivations are granted some substance when Marie and Jordan find out that Shetty's family was aboard the Transoceanic Flight 37 — yes, the same flight that Homelander actively allowed to crash in a horrid display of callous incompetence. As Shetty is aware of the truth about the "crash," she wants all Supes dead, as she believes that they only leave destruction in their wake. While she is not completely wrong, what she was planning with the airborne virus is genocide, a fact bluntly pointed out by Grace Mallory (Laila Robins), who refuses to help Shetty when approached early on in the episode.
Before dying, Shetty reveals that GodU was never meant to be safe haven, but a breeding ground for Supe-experimentation and subjugation. Keeping this in mind, the virus seems like an extreme outcome of GodU's reason for existing, and right now, the only canister of the airborne virus is in Neuman's hands, thanks to a gullible Dr. Cardosa, whose brains lie scattered in a random parking lot. As Neuman has access to such a deadly weapon, surely The Boys will be involved soon?