“Gen V” recap: Dean Shetty's secret scheme in the Woods is revealed
Last week saw Marie (Jaz Sinclair) and her supe squad learn the truth about Cate (Maddie Phillips) – she's been working with Dean Shetty (Shelley Conn) for god knows how long to wipe the memories of Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and the rest of her friends to keep them away from the Woods, the top-secret prison/lab beneath the school.
Now that her betrayal's been revealed, Cate restores the memories she took from her friends, who are… not thrilled with her. No one's more pissed than Andre (Chance Perdomo), who now finds himself questioning whether his love for Cate is real or just a mind trick. But Andre's rage quickly turns into concern when Cate falls to the floor and starts seizing.
Turns out Cate pushed her mind-control powers too far in restoring her friend's memories all at once, and now she's on death's door. Marie notices her heart rate slowing, and at Andre's insistence, she uses her blood powers to speed it back up, stabilizing her.
prime studios Jaz Sinclair as Marie
As Marie & Co. try to plan their next move, Cate suddenly wakes up… and disappears into thin air. Huh? Thought Cate just had mind-control powers. The supes are as confused as I was… but as they exit the room where they're holed up and find themselves not on campus but in a forest, it becomes clear that this is all an illusion. And soon they realize it's not just an illusion.
They're trapped in Cate's memories. Back in the real world, we see Cate, Marie, Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh) and Andre lying unconscious, all trapped in this trippy situation.
Marie, Jordan, and Andre watch Cate's most traumatic memory play out in front of them – the moment her brother disappeared. Cate, before knowing she had these powers, got mad at her little brother and told him to "leave and never come back." He did just that, and now they witness the aftermath – Cate's mother freaking out, telling a police officer that she doesn't feel safe around her daughter and asking him to take her away.
While this trip plays out, there's another major storyline playing out in the real world – Sam (Asa Germann) losing his virginity to Emma (Lizze Broadway). With her memories restored, Emma finds Sam in the drive-in theater and they quickly get busy. Sam reveals to Emma that he's never done this before, and asks her to teach him. Hot.
Emma does just that, and throughout the episode we see them grow closer than ever before. Sam's concerned that he's too crazy for Emma, and encourages her to find someone normal, but Emma doesn't want that. She wants him. And who could say no to Little Cricket??
prime studios Lizze Broadway as Emma
Back in Cate's head, as Marie, Andre, and Jordan fight back feelings of empathy for Cate, they run into a familiar character – Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles). If you watched The Boys, you'll know and probably love to hate Soldier Boy, the crude, misogynistic, racist supe-star of the WWII generation. Soldier Boy is in Cate's memories because he was her imaginary friend growing up. Well… "friend" is one way to put it… as he claims he was basically the figure of her sexual fantasies who kept her company in her darkest and most… intimate moments.
But Soldier Boy's not just here to brag about his conquests, he's here to tell our crew that Cate's brain is still overloading, and unless they find a way to wake Cate up soon – she will become a vegetable, and as a result, so will they.
As Marie, Andre, and Jordan are transported from one of Cate's memories to the next, it becomes clear just how messed up Cate's childhood was. They see her as a teenager, having been locked in her room behind a thick metal security door for nine years straight, her mom refusing to look at her or go anywhere near her. Yeesh.
prime studios Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy
Cate is visited in her "cell" by Dean Shetty, who offers her a way to control her powers – a pill she claims will help calm the "voices in her head" and help her focus and manage her abilities. Shetty seems to be the first person who treats Cate like a human being, and even gives her a hug. Awww! And now it becomes clear how Shetty roped Cate into working for her – by giving Cate the thing she most desired: trust, empathy, and human connection.
We move from Cate's bedroom to a God U classroom, where Andre watches through teary eyes as Golden Boy, his departed BFF, appears before him. We see the moment Cate and Golden Boy first met… and Andre turns to leave, overwhelmed. But before he can go, Golden Boy looks right at him and stops him from leaving. The bros share a tender moment where they confess how much they miss each other, and then Golden Boy drops a bomb on the crew:
Andre and Cate have been sleeping together for years, behind Golden Boy's back. It seems they're now not just in Cate's head, but dipping into their own psyches as well. Andre admits to Marie and Jordan that it's true – he and Cate had a years-long affair they kept from Golden Boy.
As our crew reels from that reveal, we jump now into one of Jordan's memories – of Golden Boy confronting Professor Brink (Clancy Brown) about his resurfacing memories of Sam. Jordan, who happened to be visiting Brink's office when this happened, helps Brink slip a mask over GB's face and gas him unconscious, landing a job as Brink's TA in exchange for their silence.
Betrayals all around! And now they all start to understand why they're here – Cate's trying to show them that yes, she totally f—ed them over, but they're all screwed up, they've all got demons, and they've all been forced to do whatever they had to do to look out for themselves.
Finally, we find ourselves in Marie's most wrought memory – the moment after she accidentally killed her parents. Marie finds her sister sitting in her misery and her parents' blood, insisting that she will never forgive Marie, that she's to blame for their death. As Marie tries to convince her sister and herself that she's not a monster, this Charlie Kauffman-esque trip comes to a climax… as they come face-to-face with Cate.
Cate doesn't want to leave this place. She wants to end her life, but Andre steps up and talks her out of it. He doesn't forgive her, but he still loves her, despite himself, and he certainly doesn't want to see her dead. Cate accepts this… and they all wake up back in reality.
prime studios Derek Luh as Jordan, Jaz Sinclair as Marie, Chance Perdomo as Andre
And now that the truth has finally come to light, they know what they have to do. Dean Shetty is up to something real shady in the Woods, and they have to stop her. As the team finally comes together, with everything out in the open, we hop over to God U, where we learn exactly what Dean Shetty's been doing. The research Dr. Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) has been doing is not purely academic: he's been using the imprisoned supes to develop a virus that's capable of killing every supe on the planet.
Stray Observations:
Really loved seeing Soldier Boy back in action. It's strange to have so much fun watching such a despicable character, but lines like "I fart the star-spangled banner" certainly make his presence easier to swallow.
Sam hallucinating Emma as a muppet while losing his virginity was somehow both disturbing and… kinda sweet? The whole muppets thing is not only funny but also really emotional… exposing the fact that Sam is still basically a child.
Feels like where Marie started off as the clear protagonist, she's sinking deeper and deeper into the background of the series as it progresses. Her "memory" this episode was by far the least interesting of the bunch, probably 'cause we've already seen it, and it was the only one that didn't fit the thematic throughline of a character consciously betraying her friends for her own gain.
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