The new season of Gen V has long established its importance to The Boys universe, but its latest episode sets up this franchise’s endgame in a major way. The college-set spinoff is doing much more to accelerate the plot of The Boys than The Boys itself. With the original series headed toward its final season, the downfall of its biggest villain, Homelander (Antony Starr), is imminent. But it may not be Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) or Annie January (Erin Moriarty) leading the charge against him: instead, Gen V is rolling out the red carpet for a very different, much more powerful supe.
As Gen V Season 2 progressed, it positioned a handful of characters into the upper echelon. For a moment, it seemed like Cipher (Hamish Linklater), the mysterious new dean of students at Godolkin University, could be the one to defeat Homelander once and for all. His puppetmaster powers are unlike any supe we’ve seen in the Boys-verse — but his reluctant protege, Marie Moreau, has also been coming into her own this season. Under Cipher’s training, Marie has surpassed all expectations and learned to control her blood-manipulating abilities. But it’s not enough to achieve equilibrium: Cipher wants Marie to “ascend.” He wants to position her as the savior of all supe-kind... and he resorts to some dark means to push her to greatness.
