Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of Prime Video’s ‘Gen V’ keeps the audience on its toes by introducing a new villain called Dean Cipher. He remains a mysterious figure, and throughout the season, the more information that comes out about him, the more mysterious he becomes. It is in the penultimate episode that we discover that the man going around as Dean Cipher isn’t really so. He is, as previously guessed by Marie, a human. His name is Doug, and he is a mere puppet of the real Cipher, who is revealed to be none other than Thomas Godolkin. While Godolkin comes back into the picture, Doug’s days are numbered, and the finale gives him a farewell fitting for a character in ‘The Boys’ universe. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Doug’s Inevitable End Comes Swiftly in Gen V Season 2 Finale
The enigmatic and intimidating Cipher, played by Hamish Linklater, turns out to be a normal human being without any sort of powers in the penultimate episode of ‘Gen V’ Season 2. When Marie fixes Thomas Godolkin, aka the real Cipher, he has no need for Doug anymore, and the moment he gives up control of the man’s mind, Doug finds himself on the verge of being killed by Polarity and other students. He begs for mercy, and it doesn’t take long for Polarity to realize that the man in front of him isn’t Cipher. He takes Doug home, where the latter’s situation seems to worsen.
Doug reveals that before him, Godolkin used a different man as his puppet, and when that man turned old, Doug was found to be the perfect replacement. The first thing that Godolkin made Doug do was kill the old man, and it was all downhill from there. The poor man talks about being trapped in his own body and being made to do all the horrible things that have traumatized him for life. Even though it wasn’t him doing it, he feels guilty that his hands were used to commit those crimes, and he repeatedly apologizes to Marie, Polarity, and the others for what he did. What’s more concerning is that he has sustained injuries from the fight. While he recuperates from it, Polarity decides to take him away from the chaos, especially since he fears that Godolkin might want to kill Doug like he did his last puppet.
He asks Doug if he has any friends or family, but it has been decades since Godolkin took over him, and all his personal bonds are broken. He hasn’t spoken to the people he loved in years and doesn’t think that any of them will be particularly welcoming to him. They talk about these possibilities while in Polarity’s car, and in a shocking turn of events, a sword tears through the roof and stabs Doug in the chest, killing him on the spot. It turns out that Sage sent Black Noir to get Polaity and kill Doug because the latter is of no use to her or Godolkin anymore. With this, poor Doug’s story comes to an end.
Doug’s Death Marks the End of Hamish Linklater’s Journey in Gen V
Hamish Linklater’s character is introduced in ‘Gen V’ Season 2 as the main villain, but the twists of the final two episodes rearrange the board, revealing Doug to be nothing more than a pawn. Even if he hadn’t died, Doug had served his purpose in the story and would likely not have appeared in future episodes, since, being a normal human without superpowers, there isn’t much he could have done in the fight against Cipher and other Supes anyway. Still, the show chooses to give him a farewell with a sword ripping through his body, and that confirms that this is the last we’ve seen of Doug. This also means that Hamish Linklater won’t be returning to the show.
Talking about the twist of playing two polar opposites in Cipher and Doug, Linklater said that the opportunity was thrilling, and he was a little nervous about presenting the Doug version to the other cast members. Still, he loved the way Doug’s character was given a proper resolution, wherein he is shown to be carrying the trauma of all the years he spent being manipulated by Godolkin. The actor also expressed his shock over the number of times he had to take his pants off and “the sheer volume of nudity riders” he had to sign for the show. However, he was also excited to be a part of the show that is “in conversation with the present moment.” He said, “The show is super dark and super violent and super current, but it’s also super optimistic, I think, hopeful, and that optimism is in the title. It’s in the next generation. And so hopefully the generation that’s watching ‘Gen V’ will join the resistance.”
Read More: Gen V: Is Thomas Godolkin Cipher?
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