Refresher: Gen V Season 1 in a Nutshell

For those who have watched Gen V and need a refresher on the characters and events of season 1.

**Mentions of Violence, Suicide, and Eating Disorders**

Note: This season is set chronologically between seasons 3 and 4 of The Boys. For details on earlier seasons of The Boys, check out Refresher: The Boys Season 1 in a Nutshell.

Key Takeaways

God U

• Godolkin University “God U” is a prestigious superhero university that helps next-generation superheroes gain recognition and training.
  • God U is broken into two schools: Crimefighting and Performing Arts.
• There is an intense ranking system for the students that is constantly updated based on popularity and public opinion.
  • Generally, the students in the top 10 are more likely to be offered hero positions, sometimes in The Seven.
• Prominent student Supes include those ranked 1-3 out of the top 10 – Luke “Golden Boy” Riordan (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo), Jordan Li (London Thor & Derek Luh), as well as Luke’s girlfriend Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips).
• Notable freshmen are Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and her roommate Emma Meyer “Little Cricket” (Lizzie Broadway).
• Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn), who is a human, is the dean.
• Richard “Brink” Brinkerhoff (Clancy Brown) is one of the lead professors who runs the Crimefighting division with Jordan as his TA.

The Students

• Luke, the number 1 ranked student, unexpectedly kills Professor Brink and then himself.
  • Marie witnesses Luke kill Brink.
  • During Luke’s pursuit of Marie, Jordan and Andre try to stop their friend.
  • Only Marie and Andre are recognized by the public for attempting to stop Luke before he killed himself, much to Jordan’s dismay.
  • Marie and Andre are initially to be dubbed the Guardians of Godolkin as a duo, but when Andre fails to show up for the live interview, Marie ends up becoming the sole Guardian of Godolkin.
• Marie, Emma, Andre, Jordan, and Cate are drawn into an investigation about why Luke would do this.
  • This leads them to find Luke’s brother Sam (Asa Germann) locked in a place dubbed The Woods beneath the school.
  • Emma helps Sam escape, and the two develop a romantic relationship.
  • Marie and Jordan – who have also developed a romantic relationship – learn about a virus.

The Woods/Virus

• Underneath the university is a secret lab called The Woods, run by Dean Shetty and Dr. Cardosa (Marco Pigossi).
• The Woods holds captured Supe teens, including Luke’s brother Sam.
  • Luke was under the belief that Sam had killed himself 3 years ago.
• The purpose of The Woods turns out to be the development of a virus that only affects Supes.
  • Dr. Cardosa initially believes he is creating the virus as a humane way to keep Supes under control.
  • However, Shetty wants to turn it into a deadly virus that wipes out all Supes.
  • Shetty asks Dr. Cardosa to make the virus contagious and he finds a way through exposure to bodily fluids.
• Shetty informs Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) about the virus and asks for assistance, but Mallory turns her down.
  • Shetty is unaware that Mallory also recorded the conversation.
• In the end, the virus winds up in the hands of Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit), who kills Dr. Cardosa so that it can’t be replicated.

Plot Twists

• After the group all realize parts of their memories have been wiped, they discover Cate has been working with Shetty to hide Sam and keep the others from learning too much.
  • She had also messed with Luke’s memories before he died, causing him to believe Sam was dead.
  • Cate and Luke were dating at the time, but she is now with Andre, who is distraught at this discovery.
  • The group doesn’t trust Cate anymore, but she feels guilty for what she’s done and decides to turn on Shetty.
  • Cate stops taking medication, prescribed by Shetty, which is holding back her powers.
  • Cate forces Shetty to first confess everything she’s been doing to the others, then to kill herself.
  • Marie and the others are upset at witnessing Shetty’s death, but Sam agrees with Cate that Shetty was evil and that the remaining teens locked in The Woods should be freed.
• Cate and Sam break into The Woods, freeing a few teens that haven’t succumbed to the virus.
  • Together these Supes go rogue and wreak havoc on the campus.
  • Marie, Emma, Jordan, and Andre try to stop Sam, Cate, and the teens from The Woods.
  • The 4 friends protect Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) and the Vought board of trustees, who happen to be on campus at the time.
  • To protect Jordan, Marie explodes one of Cate’s arms.
• Ashley had called Homelander (Antony Starr) for help, but he turns on Marie and knocks her out.
  • Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre wake up in hospital gowns in a room with no doors.
  • The news blames these four for the attack, and praises Cate and Sam as heroes for supposedly stopping them and calls them the new Guardians of Godolkin.

Major Characters

Marie Moreau

Powers: Bloodbending

Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) learned she was a Supe when she got her period for the first time and accidentally turned the blood into a projectile, inadvertently killing her parents. She spent the rest of her teen years in Vought’s Red River Institute, separated from her little sister Annabeth (Maria Nash) who hates her and blames her for the death of their parents. Marie enrolls in God U in hopes of proving she is a hero and reuniting and reconciling with Annabeth. She shares a room with Emma and the two quickly become best friends. After a tumultuous start at the school, she soon gains fame when she saves a woman’s life and is believed to have fought Luke during his rampage, though it was actually Jordan who fought him. Marie is taken under Dean Shetty’s wing and becomes known as the Guardian of Godolkin.

Marie and Jordan bicker for a while because Marie took the credit for the incident while Jordan was completely overlooked, but eventually Marie admits the truth. The two then develop a romantic relationship, which is hindered when their memories are temporarily wiped, but they are able to work it out. Together, they discover Dean Shetty has been using The Woods to create a virus that can kill Supes. Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) visits the campus for a presentation, and Marie speaks with her privately to tell her about the virus, hoping she will be someone they can trust to handle it. To her surprise, Neuman knows who she is and reveals that she helped Marie get accepted into the university because she, too, is a bloodbender who grew up at Red River. Neuman helps Marie develop her powers further, and Marie can now sense the presence of others and whether or not someone has Compound V in their blood.

When Cate and Sam attack the campus with several Supe teens from The Woods, Marie fights them and explodes one of Cate’s arms. Homelander (Antony Starr) arrives to stop the chaos but turns on Marie for attacking other Supes and blasts her with his eye lasers, knocking her unconscious. She wakes up in a room with no doors along with Emma, Jordan, and Andre.

Emma Meyer/Little Cricket

Powers: Size changing

Emma Meyer (Lizzie Broadway) is Marie’s roommate and part of the Performing Arts division of God U. Before enrolling, she had a popular web show called “Fun Sized with Little Cricket”, where she would shrink down to the size of a cricket. She confesses to a classmate that in order to shrink, she has to vomit, and the classmate shares her secret with the whole school. Many believe she has an eating disorder, but Emma insists this is solely to control her powers. She can return to normal size by eating, and can also grow giant if she eats extra food.

Andre asks Emma for help exploring The Woods, since she can get in undetected. She sneaks into Sam’s room, but he notices her and they end up bonding romantically. Emma helps Sam escape and tells Marie and the others about him. She is the only one Sam listens to when he becomes upset. However, when Emma disagrees with Sam’s decision to help Cate bring down The Woods, Sam won’t be dissuaded. He leaves her while saying hurtful things. In her sadness, Emma realizes she has shrunk for the first time without vomiting. After the final confrontation, she is captured along with Marie, Jordan, and Andre.

Andre Anderson

Powers: Magnetism

Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo) is the son of Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas), a famous superhero, and both can control metal with magnetism. Before the start of the show, Andre was already friends with Cate and Jordan, and his best friend was Luke. Polarity keeps pushing Andre to take his place and become famous, especially since Andre moves into the top-ranked spot after Luke dies, but Andre becomes obsessed with figuring out why Luke would kill himself. Andre prioritizes solving this issue over being introduced to the public as one of the Guardians of Godolkin, angering Polarity for skipping the press interview. Later, Polarity suffers brain damage caused by years of using his powers, and Andre is advised to monitor his health for similar effects.

Andre seeks comfort and help from Cate, who was dating Luke before he died. Together, they learn of Luke’s brother Sam and The Woods, and Andre enlists Emma’s help in freeing Sam. After the group’s minds are temporarily wiped, Andre is angered to learn Cate is responsible because she has known about Sam all along. When Cate and Sam attack the campus, Andre helps in the fight against them and is captured along with Marie, Emma, and Jordan.

**Note: Unfortunately, just before the filming of Season 2 began, Chance Perdomo passed away in an accident. Season 2 has been drastically rewritten around this, rather than recasting the role.

Cate Dunlap

Powers: Mind control (must touch the person with her hands), telepathy

Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) discovered her powers at age 9 when she accidentally told her brother to go away and never come back. Her mother locked her in a room for the next 9 years until Dean Shetty recruited her, winning her trust by treating Cate like a daughter. Cate worked with Shetty for a few years while dating Luke, often using her powers to make him forget about Sam. When Andre, Marie, Jordan, and Emma begin investigating The Woods, Cate feigns ignorance and misdirects them whenever possible. After learning too much, she wipes their memories of Sam and The Woods, but it doesn’t take long for them to notice things are amiss, so she ultimately gives the memories back. Having used too much of her power, she passes out and draws Andre, Marie, and Jordan into her mind, where she reveals their darkest secrets to each other. Marie is able to get through to Cate and convince her to let them go and stop blaming herself.

Cate feels guilty about everything Shetty has convinced her to do and stops taking the medication Shetty has been giving her since they first met. Cate realizes the meds were dampening her powers, and she can now hear people’s thoughts. She turns on Shetty, forcing her to confess everything to the group and then kill herself. Although Sam is initially angry with Cate for the years of manipulation, he agrees with her that Shetty deserved to die and together they free the teens from The Woods and take a stand against the campus. Cate also uses her powers to instruct Sam to no longer feel anything. One of Cate’s arms is blown off by Marie before Marie is knocked out. The news calls Cate and Sam as heroes for stopping Marie and the others, who are blamed for the attack instead. Cate and Sam are labeled the new Guardians of Godolkin.

Jordan Li

Powers: Gender swapping–male form is nearly indestructible, female form can shoot energy blasts and is highly agile

Jordan Li (female: London Thor, male: Derek Luh) is a TA for Professor Brink and good friends with Luke, Andre, and Cate. When Luke kills Brink, Jordan fights him, but everyone believes Marie is the one who fought him. Jordan was ranked number 2 at the start, largely due to Brink’s influence, and drops in rank after Brink’s death because others struggle with the fact that Jordan is a bigender POC. They tend to stay in female form more often than male form, much to the chagrin of their parents who constantly treat them like a boy only. They are at first angry with Marie for not telling the truth, but after Marie admits Jordan is the true hero, the two become romantic. Jordan initially assumes Marie only wants to be physical with Jordan in male form and tries to distance themself from the relationship, but realizes they have not confirmed with Marie how she feels. The two are able to get to a good standing with their relationship.

When Jordan, Marie, and Andre are drawn into Cate’s mind, Cate reveals that Jordan was somewhat aware of some of Brink’s secrets regarding Luke, but they remained willingly ignorant of the true dark nature of Brink’s secrets because Brink was nice to them. They use their TA access to help Marie spy on Shetty and together they learn about the virus. They join Marie and Andre against Cate and Sam in the final confrontation, going out of their way to protect Ashley and the Vought board of trustees, but in the end, they are captured and blamed for the attack.

Sam Riordan

Powers: Super strength

Sam Riordan (Asa German) is Luke’s younger brother. He is mentally unstable and has been locked in The Woods for many years, where he has been subjected to many experiments and torture. He often hallucinates people in the form of puppets. He briefly escapes but is captured by Marie and Andre, who don’t realize who he is at the time. After Andre figures out that he’s Luke’s brother, he sends Emma into The Woods to find him. Sam notices Emma even though she’s in small form and they quickly become close. Emma helps Sam escape and becomes the only person who can talk him down when he begins to lose control. When Emma’s memories are temporarily wiped, she doesn’t remember Sam, but his explanation about the memory wipe helps lead Emma and Marie to undo it.

Sam hides in Emma’s room, where he is instructed to stay hidden, but while she’s gone, he finds himself joining other students in festivities, experiencing fun for the first time in a long time. He joins Cate in her mission to free the remaining teens from The Woods despite Emma’s protests. During the attack, Cate uses her powers to take away Sam’s feelings. He, along with Cate, are labeled the new Guardians of Godolkin.

Luke Riordan/Golden Boy

Powers: Fire

Luke Rioardan (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is a promising new hero and top ranked member at God U where he’s known as Golden Boy. He’s in the process of getting drafted for The Seven when he unexpectedly kills Professor Brink and then himself. Though dead for most of the season, his memory plays a large role in the plot as the others look into the cause of his suicide. As it turns out, his brother, Sam, was being kept in The Woods and used to enhance Luke’s powers. Luke kept finding this out, only to have his memories wiped by his girlfriend, Cate. Eventually he figured it out again, and that was why he killed Brink. When he realized he was going to be stopped, he then killed himself.

Indira Shetty

Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) is not a Supe, but is the dean of God U. She pretends to love Supes, but secretly hates them due to her husband and daughter dying in the plane incident from The Boys Season 1 by Homelander’s hand. Using a secret lab under the university called The Woods, Shetty is developing a virus with Dr. Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) that only infects Supes. Dr. Cardosa was under the impression this was to be a humane and harmless way to keep Supes subdued, but Shetty intends to turn it deadly. Shetty asks Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) for help, but Mallory refuses, cautioning her about her obsession and likening it to Butcher (Karl Urban). (Note: in the mid-credits scene of the final episode, Butcher is shown arriving at The Woods to take a look around.)

Dr. Cardosa makes the virus contagious via bodily fluids, and Shetty asks him to make it airborne, intending to wipe out all Supes. Dr. Cardosa disagrees with this call and gives the virus to Neuman in its current state, hoping she feels the same way he does about the matter. Neuman explodes his head so he cannot replicate the virus. 

Shetty has been using Cate to help her hide The Woods. When Cate confronts her about everything, Shetty claims she will protect Cate and loves her like a daughter. Nevertheless, Cate uses her powers to force Shetty to confess everything to the main group of students and then cut her own throat.

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