Gen V Season 2's Secret Villain Has A Surprising Connection To ... SpongeBob SquarePants?

This article contains spoilers for "Gen V" season 2, episode 7 — "Hell Week"

In "Gen V" season 2, the biggest secret has been the true nature of Dean Cipher (Hamish Linklater, "Midnight Mass") and his fascination with Marie Moreau's (Jaz Sinclair, "When the Bough Breaks") bloodbender powers. The penultimate episode finally reveals what Cipher is about ... and true to form, the show has an ace up its sleeve. Instead of acting in his own agency, Cipher is merely a helpless meat puppet, piloted by the season's true big bad: Thomas Godolkin, the God U founder-slash-Cipher's horrendously injured father. 

As it turns out, there's also another, equally fun revelation hiding behind the scenes. Perhaps to offset the character's true nature and importance to the story, the actor playing the secret villain of "Gen V" season 2 is Ethan Slater. A comparatively obscure name whose résumé largely consists of guest star roles in shows like "The Marvelous Ms. Maisel," he doesn't particularly radiate villainy when we first see him in episode 1. In fact, his biggest screen role to date is the magnanimous Munchkin Boq in "Wicked: Part I." However, Slater is a considerably bigger name on Broadway. In 2018, he even landed a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a musical: "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical." Slater's celebrated role? Why, SpongeBob himself, of course.

The casting game of "Gen V" has always been on point. Still, it seems to me that hiding the most ominous villain of the entire franchise behind a terrifying Hamish Linklater and hiring a guy who's best known for playing SpongeBob and a Munchkin to depict him is next level stuff, and should by all rights earn Casting Director Jackie Davies a nice Christmas bonus.  

In Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's "The Boys" comics, Godolkin (whose first name is John there) is an abusive groomer who's a thinly-veiled parody of Marvel's X-Men's founder Charles Xavier, responsible for some of the most controversial moments in "The Boys" comics. "Gen V" has understandably never leaned on this aspect of the Godolkin name, but the body-jacking Project Odessa mad scientist Thomas is still plenty monstrous in his own way. 

The show has dropped hints about Godolkin. Cipher being able to "meat puppet" other people despite apparently being a mere human, his uncanny tolerance for pain, his hints about "me time," and his boasts that other characters have no idea who they're dealing with are all subtle hints that the dean himself is a mere puppet under an outside force's control ... not to mention that wild cameo from Vought's new leader Sister Sage (Susan Heyward, "Vinyl") in episode 5. Even Cipher's obsession with Marie's power is directly linked to Godolkin's wish to improve his situation. With "Gen V" season 2, episode 7 finally revealing him as the power behind the throne (so to speak), Thomas Godolkin is finally revealed as the show's version of Charles Xavier — a super-smart mind controller restrained by the limitations of his own body. 

Funnily enough, the Godolkin-Xavier comparison actually makes Ethan Slater's history as SpongeBob fit right in when you remember some of the characters major Xavier actors have played over the years. Who could forget James McAvoy's turn as Mr. Tumnus the faun in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" (2005), let alone Patrick Stewart's groundbreaking role as Poop in "The Emoji Movie" (2017)? 

"Gen V" season 2 is streaming on Prime Video.