Gen V Season 2 Episode 1, 2 and 3 Recap: The Return of the Guardians of Godolkin

The second season of Prime Video’s ‘Gen V’ transports the audience back to the superhero universe of ‘The Boys.’ While there might be some time before we see the Boys again, its spin-off series gives us a glimpse into the Homelander-era of America. Taking place in the aftermath of Season 4’s finale, where the country falls into the hands of fascist Supes, led by an increasingly unhinged Homelander, the second season of ‘Gen V’ brings us back to Godolkin University, where the secrets, lies, and illegal experiments continue to unravel the teenagers who already have too much on their plates. SPOILERS AHEAD.

New Year, New You at Godolkin

The previous season ended with Marie, Andre, Jordan, and Emma being thrown into a facility where there are no doors or windows, indicating that this is where they’ll be trapped for the foreseeable future. This season opens with Jordan and Emma being taken out of Elmira, the rehabilitation facility where errant young Supes are thrown to mend their ways. It turns out that Marie escaped a while back, and Andre didn’t make it out alive. The duo is brought back to Godolkin, where Cate greets them happily. She claims that it was she who made a deal to bring them back to the university, where she believes they will be safe, considering everything. However, when she discovers Andre is dead, she is heartbroken and starts reconsidering her allegiance to Vought. While Jordan is still angry about everything that went down and doesn’t want to go back to Godolkin, Emma points out that they have no other choice.

They are given a script which talks about them being exonerated of all charges and how they were instrumental in helping and protecting other Supes, once again assuming their mantle as the Guardians of Godolkin. Meanwhile, Marie tries to stay in the shadows while looking for her sister, Annabeth, from whom she was separated when she unintentionally killed her parents when her powers unexpectedly activated and she was sent to Red River. Her efforts to stay lowkey are ruined when she helps a group of Starlighters, using her powers to beat up the bullies. However, this turns out to be a mistake because at the same time, she has a bounty hunter named Dogknot on her tail. He smells his way to the motel where she’s staying and almost succeeds in capturing her when Starlight/Annie shows up and saves the day.

While she begins by telling Marie to keep a low profile while on the run, she also suggests that she go back to Godolkin, and it’s not just because she will be the safest there. Annie reveals that she and her team (whom she does not talk about) have found out about something called Project Odessa, which was being developed by Thomas Godolkin, the right-hand man of Frederick Vought and the founder of Godolkin University. She doesn’t know what the project entails, which is why she needs an inside man who can find it out. She also mentions that Odessa is a weapon that must be removed from the equation if they are to win this fight against Homelander and his fascist followers. Despite this, Marie has no intention of going back, and she refuses Annie’s offer to become a spy. She is focused on finding her sister, and that’s all she cares about.

Marie, Jordan, and Emma Reunite

Emma and Jordan struggle to reintegrate into Godolkin, which has a new dean called Cipher. Jordan remembers the man from Elmira, which makes them even more worried about their safety in the university. They are also broken up about Andre’s death, and when Emma expresses the intent to find Marie, they point out that she left them behind and never looked back. Emma also reaches out to Polarity, Andre’s dad, who is reeling from the death of his son. She asks for his help, revealing that something major is going on in Godolkin, and he is one of the only people who can help her and her friends figure out what it is. He, however, is not interested in any of it, and he advises her to run away as far from Godolkin as possible, if she wants to stay alive.

When Emma discovers the video of Marie fighting the bullies, she decides to track her down, and Jordan reluctantly joins her. It doesn’t take much for them to find her, which proves just how careless Marie has been. The reunion is marked by the grief of Andre’s death, which Marie wasn’t aware of. It turns out that when she escaped, Andre thought that there was a way for them to escape as well. However, he refused to leave Emma and Jordan behind, and when the time came, he used all his power to try to break open a heavy metal door. It was too much for him, but he didn’t give up, and the stress eventually led him to collapse and die. While Marie processes this information, Cate shows up. She’d been tasked to find her by Cipher, who is much more ruthless and mysterious than the previous deans and professors of Godolkin.

She asks Marie to come back, too, but what makes her even more concerned is when she reads Marie’s mind and realizes she has talked with Starlight. She asks Marie to come clean to Vought, but the latter does not intend to go back. When Cate tries to use her powers of compulsion, Jordan uses their energy blast, which throws Cate against a wall. She hits her head and starts bleeding. While Marie tries to stop the bleeding, she cannot do it without touching her. However, touching her would mean making herself vulnerable to Cate’s powers, and no one wants that. She pleads with Emma to help her, but the trio leaves the scene, believing that she will bleed to death.

Justice Never Forgets and Neither Does Godolkin

Believing that they have killed Cate, Emma comes to the conclusion that the only way to save themselves is by going back to Godolkin, which includes Marie. While Jordan still wants to run away, Emma points out that they’ll be captured within a day and will be sent back to Elmira. She encourages Marie to make a video where she talks about how she wanted a break for her mental health and is now ready to come back to school. After a few attempts, they get the video right, and sure enough, Marie is welcomed back to Godolkin with open arms, though Cipher is under no delusion that she has returned out of desperation. Marie suspects that he knows that she, Emma, and Jordan are behind Cate’s injuries, which is why he mentions that she is in the hospital, recuperating.

He also tells Marie about Andre’s condition, which he shares with his father, where excessive use of their powers leads their brain to break down, which is how Andre died in Elmira. When Jordan finds out about it, they clash with Marie, whom they still haven’t forgiven for abandoning them. However, before they can talk it out, they are called to join a special class called Hero Optimisation. Cipher reveals that only the most promising young Supes have been selected for this class with the intention of helping them understand their powers so they can level up. It is clear that none of them really know how their powers work. For example, while Marie knows she uses blood as a weapon, she has no idea what part of blood she manipulates while using her powers.

In the same vein, Jordan has no idea how and why they can flip between their two forms. The idea is to put them into extenuating situations, which will hopefully help them get a better grip on their powers, while also giving Cipher a chance to study them. Basically, they have to fight their way through a Supe who is capable of killing all of them almost single-handedly. While Jordan eventually achieves the aim set out at the beginning of the challenge, the exercise proves Cipher’s point about all of them being clueless about how they work.

Emma and Polarity Discover the Truth About Odessa

Sam starts to unravel after he finds out about the attack on Cate. Previously, when Emma told him about Andre’s death, he was caught off guard, but Cate compelled him to shut off his emotions, which is how he has been surviving so far. On paper, he is Godolkin’s star student, with an attractive girlfriend and a fan following. However, he is coming apart at the seams, and his situation worsens when Cate goes off the picture. While Godolkin and Vought make it look like she was attacked by Starlighters, it doesn’t take much for Sam to discover that Emma had something to do with it. When he visits Cate in the hospital, she ends up possessing a nurse and calls out for Emma before making the nurse kill the other nurse and then herself.

At school, Sam gets another proof of Emma’s involvement, when a student reveals that she stole his phone and used it to book a cab to the same area where Cate was found fighting for her life. While he struggles with this revelation, Emma teams up with Polarity, who has decided to join Godolkin as faculty in the hopes of avenging his son’s death. She is glad that there is finally an adult to help them through this tough time, and she immediately tells him about Project Odessa. They head to the library to dig into Thomas Godolkin, and after Emma wins over the librarian by revealing that she’s a fan of his show, which was cancelled years ago, they get entry into the archives.

There, they discover a secret lair that mostly houses all the Nazi and KKK memorabilia owned by Godolkin, but that’s also where they find a file about Odessa, which answers a lot of their questions. Meanwhile, Marie and Jordan make up after sharing their heartbreak about Andre’s death. The moment becomes awkward when Marie tells Jordan she loves them, and they are saved from any further awkwardness when they hear the sound of firecrackers. It turns out that Vought used Cate’s attack to kill some Starlighters, one of whom Marie recognises as the guy she saved from bullies when she was on the run. At the same time, Emma comes to them with the Odessa file, which reveals that Marie is Odessa. Or at least, she is the product of the project.

Odessa Leads Marie to Dig Into Her Past

With the Odessa file in their hands, it becomes clear that Marie is connected to it. Polarity concludes that perhaps she is the weapon Starlight had been talking about. However, Marie finds it difficult to process all this information. To get to the bottom of the truth, she decides to reach out to Aunt Pam, her mom’s best friend, with whom she hasn’t talked since she accidentally killed her parents. If the anxiety of reuniting with her wasn’t enough, she is also worried about Jordan’s reaction to her telling them she loves them. When she tells them she was a virgin before they got intimate, Jordan points out that one shouldn’t say “I love you” to the first person they sleep with. Before they can discuss it any further, Jordan is told that they have ranked number 1 in Godolkin, and that comes with some perks and some responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Marie meets up with Aunt Pam, who welcomes her with some hesitation. To keep things to the point, Marie asks her about Odessa, and while Pam doesn’t know about it, she does know that Marie’s parents had trouble conceiving. While they could have gone with IVF and other methods of conception, Vought showed up to give them another option. They would have a child, but it would have to be a Supe. Her parents didn’t care about it because all they wanted was a child, and so, Marie was conceived. A more shocking revelation reveals that Cipher was the doctor who delivered her, which confirms that he knows much more than he is letting on.

The conversation takes a better turn as tension subsides between Marie and Pam, and they start to look at old pictures of her parents. By the end, Marie feels much better. Before leaving, she uses the restroom, which leads her to discover a room that is clearly inhabited by her sister, Annabeth. It turns out that Pam succeeded in adopting Annabeth, but she kept it a secret from Marie. This revelation leads to an argument where Pam points out that she and Annabeth were scared of her because she had massacred her parents. Marie counters that she never asked for these powers, and what happened happened because of the choices her parents made. She wishes for Annabeth not to see her as a monster, but Pam reveals that it is Annabeth’s choice not to see her.

Sam Breaks Down While Emma Finds New Allies

Things get more tense at Godolkin as Cate returns. While she is angry at Marie, Jordan, and Emma, she cannot do anything about it because Vought has chosen to blame Starlighters for the crime. Cate argues against it with Cipher, but he makes it clear that she has no choice in the matter. Before leaving his office, she notices a secret vault-like door, which suggests that he has been hiding his secrets there. At the Hero Optimisation Class, young Supes are pitted against each other all over again. Marie succeeds in winning her battle, but Cipher points out that perhaps the lack of understanding of her powers is leading her to self-harm. He says it in the context of her cutting herself to draw blood, but she says that it’s her way to make her own weapon rather than waiting for someone else to bleed. However, deep inside, she knows Cipher is right.

Sam starts to break down, and this time, Cate cannot help her because she is still recovering from his injuries and has been advised not to use her powers for a while. This is bad news for Sam, who starts to see the animated version of things again and is haunted by the memories of all the bad things he’s done in the past few months. Meanwhile, a human employee at the Godolkin cafe is tormented by a Supe who keeps putting up pro-Starlight fliers. The girl is threatened by several Supes, accused of being a Starlighter, but every time she pulls down the flyer, another appears in the next moment. When Emma finds out about it, she decides to track down the Supe. At first, she follows the Supe, who seems to have super speed. But later, she discovers that it is Harper, who has chameleon powers that allow her to borrow others’ powers for a minute.

Emma discovers that Harper and another girl have been putting up the flyers and the graffiti in Starlight’s support. She encourages them to take it a step further, and when they hesitate, she encourages them just like Andre encouraged her. Meanwhile, as the school celebrates Godolkin Day, Jordan is called on stage to give a speech about how much they owe being in God U. Before this, they profess their love to Marie, confessing that it was difficult for them to say it back at first because they’ve never said it before to anyone else. When they get on the stage, they start by following the script given to them, but they eventually decide to drop the bombshell about Andre’s death as well as the fact that they were the ones to attack Cate, while Vought lied about Starlighters and killed them for no reason.