“For Chance.” A simple, solemn tribute at the the top of Gen V Season 2 remembers Chance Perdomo, whose role as metal-manipulating young supe Andre Anderson was not re-cast after his death in a motorcycle accident at age 27. We’ll never know what might have been, but Andre’s courage – and his crew – continue on. Season 2 of Gen V will feed into the upcoming fifth and final season of The Boys, which means Homelander is now running America, Hamish Linklater is the new dean of Godolkin University, and young supes like Emma (Lizze Broadway) and Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh), who know the down is up truth that Homelander and Vought and the rest are evil as hell, are forced back to campus after Season 1’s bloody finale. Their loyalty tests to the new regime will be made in public.
Opening Shot: Gen V Season 2 opens with a flashback to a mysterious lab in 1967, and we’re familiar with how things work in Gen V/Boys universe, so these white male scientists in their neckties and short-sleeve dress shirts probably shouldn’t plunge those syringes full of blue goo into their forearms. But they don’t listen as a young scientist bangs on the lab’s door. “Wait! It’s not ready!”
The Gist: For Emma (Broadway) and Jordan (Thor and Luh), getting suddenly sprung from the infamous Elmira Adult Rehabilitation Center is no consolation. They’re still prisoners of Vought, while supes like Cate (Maddie Phillips) and Sam (Asa Germann), who used their powers to kill innocent humans, are elevated to “Guardians of Godolkin” hero status. Cate, not reading the room, greets Emma and Jordan warmly upon her former friends’ return to campus. But she wonders: where are Andre and Marie (Jaz Sinclair)? In their male form, Jordan cuts Cate down in the choice language this TV universe prefers. “Why don’t you read my mind, cunt?”
What happened to Andre is actually on everyone’s mind, especially that of his father, the metal-wielding supe Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas), who is drinking away his sorrows. But Marie’s location is the bigger question for Emma and Jordan, one Cipher (Linklater), a supe himself (powers unknown) and the new God U dean, seems particularly interested in. Cipher and Vought want all these agitators under their control, because it’s part of their plan to Make America Super Again. Get a load of the God U recruitment spiel. The school for supes offers “freedom from human constraints and the woke agenda,” and as dean, Cipher is pushing his supe student body to prepare to be soldiers in a coming war against humanity.
As Season 2 of Gen V builds on its mystery – what went down in that lab from the 60s, Emma finding clues to something called “Project Odessa,” and even its first cameo from the cast of The Boys – the series also retains its yen to shock. On campus, Rufus (Alexander Calvert) runs a fraternity full of supe depravity. And elsewhere, as she lives on the lam, Marie’s blood powers are growing ever stronger. She will eventually reunite with Emma and Jordan. (And Marie’s romantic spark with the latter is still sparking.) But Andre’s gone, Cate and Sam have the entirety of God U on their side, and Cipher is a serious new threat. Is there any way they can stop the agenda of Vought and its evil propaganda?
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Season 2 of Gen V is its own thing…and fully in setup mode for Season 5 of The Boys, which besides rule by a Homelander regime will also feature a Supernatural cast reunion. (All three series were created and/or developed by Eric Kripke.) Peacemaker has also returned for Season 2, and with it James Gunn’s freewheeling, sometimes twisted approach to superhero stuff. And in the recent Daredevil: Born Again, Matt Murdock had to contest with Wilson Fisk, his most powerful criminal adversary, becoming mayor of New York City.
Our Take: At the end of Gen V Season 1, the situation was already impossible. Sure, Marie, Emma, Jordan, and Andre had uncovered a vast Vought conspiracy, with supes like Sam Riordan being used as lab rats in a “Joseph Mengele health facility” – thanks for that incisive reference point, Jordan – and they did their best to expose it. But once Homelander dropped out of the sky and started wasting people on the God U diag, it was obvious our supe heroes were outnumbered and outgunned against a seemingly-unstoppable onslaught. And if you saw the ensuing season of The Boys, then you know it’s only gotten worse.
So now it’s Gen V Season 2, Andre’s gone, and our little team is being watched as they find their footing at a Cipher-controlled Godolkin University. With what help will they face a brand-new conspiracy only they can uncover? They remain outnumbered.
To that question we say: Power UP. The first season of Gen V was all about our core group finding themselves and their powers. They often weren’t sure about the scope of them, how to use them – all of it. (This is something Emma still struggles with, as with her journey toward gettin’ big.) But the new season is already highlighting greater development and confidence of use with their super skills, which is exciting and cool. If they’re gonna have to rely on themselves once again, at least it’s with a better sense of how and when to start kicking ass.
There is also the fact that they’re college kids, and generally horny. As it continues to skewer the politics and society of real-life America, Gen V also keeps up its crackling writing – covering gender fluidity, the debate between hookups and romance, and leaning into these topics by tossing wild, wacky, or otherwise outrageous superpowers into the mix.
Sex and Skin: In Gen V land, like with The Boys, skin is typically of the exploding variety. (When Rufus tried to assault Marie in Gen V Season 1, his junk promptly went boom.) But it can also be played for laughs, like when Emma trades getting small for growing into a naked 20-foot-tall party animal.
Parting Shot: Like other superhero things, whether anyone permanently dies in Gen V can be a matter of plot convenience. The first episode of Season 2 concludes with another example of this.
Sleeper Star: On the newly-seen supe front this season, Zach McGowan is on the scent as Dogknott the Bounty Hunter. McGowan knows well how to play a villainous type with weird charisma – on Black Sails, he regularly held court as the swaggering pirate Charles Vane. (All of Black Sails is on Netflix, and you should watch it.)
Most Pilot-y Line: It’s back to school for Season 2 of Gen V, but in no way does that mean stability or normalcy. As Jordan says to Emma, “We went from one Vought hellscape to another.”
Our Call: Stream It! We bonded with the core crew of Gen V in its first season, even as their supe group splintered, and we’ll miss Chance Perdomo as Andre. But we’re hyped to see how our heroes will confront the latest Vought threat. Confidence in themselves and their powers is growing.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.