Warning: This article contains full spoilers for The Boys Season 2, Episode 5!
One of the nice things about Gen V is that the series doesn’t feel walled off from its parent series, The Boys. Season 2 has been packed with cameos from familiar The Boys characters like Erin Moriarty’s Starlight and Chace Crawford’s The Deep. Episode 5 ups the ante by delivering the show’s most intriguing and pivotal cameo yet, as Susan Heyward’s Sister Sage steps into the spotlight.
Sage’s return marks the point where things get really interesting for the show’s second season. What exactly is her connection to Hamish Linklater’s demented Dean Cipher, and what do these characters actually want? Let’s break down what we’ve learned and why this supervillain alliance is the best thing to happen to the series so far.
Sister Sage in Gen V Season 2
Sister Sage debuts in the opening sequence of Episode 5, which is set a month before the main events of Season 2. Cipher, having just recently taken on the job of dean at Godolkin University, is busy taking care of the mysterious burned man (Cipher's father, so he claims) living in his posh new home. Sage arrives to interrupt Cipher’s careful routine, bearing a housewarming gift and eager for some physical affection. The two quickly engage in sex while the burn victim watches approvingly.
It’s a slightly odd scene (if hardly out of character for this sordid universe), but one that tells us a lot about Sage and her connection to Cipher. Sage relied on her fling with The Deep in The Boys Season 4 as a sort of physical escape, even resorting to temporarily lobotomizing herself to briefly ease the burden of her superhuman intelligence. But with Cipher, Sage seems to have a partner who exists on more equal footing. This is a more serious relationship for her.
Whatever Cipher’s ultimate goal for his God U students, Sage is clearly all-in. Her presence may help explain why Cipher always seems to be several steps ahead of Jaz Sinclair’s Marie Moreau and her friends. He’s got the benefit of a supe who can see all the angles and predict everyone’s actions with terrifying accuracy. Cipher was already a terrific villain and a highlight of Season 2. Combine him with the compelling intellectual menace that is Sister Sage, and you’ve got a truly special supervillain Dynamic Duo.
Later in the episode, Sage returns as Cipher watches over Marie and friends in the Elmira prison. Here, we learn more important details, including the revelation that Sage has replaced the disgraced Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) as CEO of Vought International. That’s certainly a sobering tease of things to come in The Boys Season 5. With this ever-present corporate juggernaut in the hands of an amoral super-genius, there’s no telling to what new depths Vought will sink.
We also learn that Sage seems to be actively plotting with Cipher against Homelander. Sage helped Homelander reach new levels of popularity and power in The Boys Season 4. What’s more, she seemed motivated by little more than sheer boredom and the desire to see if she could do it. But she also clearly recognizes that Homelander is a dangerous, unstable weapon that can all too easily be turned against her. She and Cipher want to control the one person whose power rivals Homelander’s, even if she’s still coming to grips with that power.
Marie Moreau’s True Power Revealed
Cipher may be a real enigma of a character, but he’s never disguised the fact that his goal is to force Marie to reach her full superhuman potential by any means. He got closer to that goal in Episode 4 when he forced Marie to overpower London Thor and Derek Luh’s Jordan in the arena. But it turns out to be Sage who unlocks the real secret to pushing Marie past her mental limits.
In her second appearance, Sage comes bearing another gift. We don’t immediately see what that gift is, but it’s eventually revealed to be Marie’s sister, Annabeth (Keeya King). Sage helps Cipher arrange things so that Marie and friends make their escape, only to stumble across Annabeth’s body. Wracked with equal parts guilt and rage, Marie digs deeper than ever before and manages to do the impossible, healing her sister’s wound and resurrecting her.
Finally, we see what Cipher has been seeing in Marie all along. Frankly, Marie’s hemokinetic powers never seemed all that special before now. Sure, it’s handy being able to turn fresh blood into spikes, ropes, and other instruments, but she’s not exactly going to be overpowering Homelander with them. Not to mention that the more blood weapons she creates, the more Marie risks passing out from blood loss.
But here, we see just how deep her ability to control blood goes. Turning blood into physical weapons is just a crude side effect of her true power to manipulate blood and either heal or obliterate her enemies. We’re starting to see why Cipher and Sage have taken such a keen interest in Marie. How far does this healing power extend? Does Marie have total power over life and death? Is she going to be the one to finally give Homelander the goopy, gory death he so richly deserves?
Plenty of questions still remain as Season 5 unfolds. We still don’t fully understand Cipher’s powers, nor what his exact connection to the mysterious burn victim is. But with Sage now in the picture, the already compelling Cipher has only grown more fascinating. Things are really starting to heat up in Season 2.
And even beyond the Ci[pher of it all, it’s great to see the series making such significant use of Sister Sage given that The Boys Season 4 didn’t always use her to the fullest. Season 4 was a case of a show trying to keep too many plates spinning at once. But now Sage finally seems to be getting her proper due. She’s not only stepping into a juicy supporting villain role in Gen V, she’s being positioned for bigger and better things in The Boys Season 5, to boot. The Boys fans who aren’t watching this spinoff series are really missing out.
For more, check out IGN’s review of Gen V Season 2 and see what we know about Cipher’s powers.
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