Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Gen V Season 2, Episode 7!
From the beginning, all the biggest mysteries in Gen V Season 2 have revolved around Hamish Linklater’s Dean Cipher. Who is he, really? Is he truly a supe, and if so, how do his powers work? What is Cipher’s connection to the burned man hidden away in his lavish home? At long last, the penultimate episode has given us the answers to these burning questions, and our minds are blown.
Let’s break down exactly what we learn about Cipher in “Hell Week” and why the real enemy of Season 2 was hiding in plain sight the whole time.
Cipher’s Powers Revealed
Episode 7 sees Jaz Sinclair’s Marie Moreau and friends flee the relative sanctuary of Stan Edgar’s hidden bunker to return to the God U campus. Marie is determined to confront Cipher and end their conflict once and for all. Moreover, she’s determined to do so without putting her friends in danger, even if she has to force them to remain on the sidelines. But with Annabeth (Keeya King) seeing visions of Marie bathed in blood, they’re not about to quietly stand by.
As for Cipher, he spends Episode 7 teetering between giving up and abandoning his plans and nearing total victory. Having fled Polarity’s home and returned to campus with the burned man in tow, at one point Cipher contemplates killing his charge and calling the whole game off. But ultimately, he gets exactly what he wants when Marie tracks down the burned man (whom we learn is indeed Thomas Godolkin) and does the impossible. She heals his burns and restores him to full health. And that’s where things go off the rails.
It quickly becomes clear that something is amiss when Cipher drops all pretense of being a demented, ruthless college dean and begins begging for his life. He claims to be Doug, an ordinary man finally free of the ever-present voice in his head. That’s about the time when it becomes clear that “Cipher” was never the one in charge. Godolkin is the one with the mind-control powers. All along, Godolkin has been controlling Doug like a puppet. Godolkin’s entire plan was to manipulate Marie into curing him so he could finally walk free again and stop living vicariously through Doug.
Looking back at the opening flashback scene from the Season 1 premiere, we can infer that Godolkin gained superhuman powers when he was caught in the lab fire. He gained the ability to control others (along with some degree of immortality, it seems), but that didn’t save him from getting horrifically burned, Darth Vader-style. In the decades since, Godolkin has been confined to a hyperbaric chamber, forced to carry on his work using Doug as a proxy.
In hindsight, a lot of scenes involving Godolkin make more sense now. We can certainly understand why Cipher deigned to take care of a helpless burn victim for so long, and why he referred to Godolkin as his “father.” This also resolves the mystery of whether Cipher is a supe or not. Doug isn’t. He’s just a guy through whom the real supe can pour his power and will. Meanwhile, Doug is so helpless that he can do nothing but sit and blandly smile when Godolkin makes him stab his own hand to prove a point.
That Cipher/Sister Sage sex scene also makes more sense now, as Sage was clearly performing for Godolkin’s benefit. And now we understand that Godolkin was actively contemplating suicide in this episode, up until the moment when Marie’s return offered him the salvation he craved. God U’s student body, and the world at large, might have been much better off if Marie had simply stayed hidden.
What Will Happen in the Gen V Season 2 Finale?
Cipher may have turned out to be one huge red herring of a character, but his larger plan remains intact. Godolkin made it clear in Episode 6 that he views much of the superhuman community with contempt (not to mention his lingering jealousy of anyone with the freedom to walk around and enjoy life under their own power). He wants to “cull the herd,” eliminating the supes with unimpressive powers so that the strong, worthy few will remain.
As we see in the final scene of Episode 7, Godolkin is wasting no time in carrying out that mission. He forces the “Bondage Baby” to choke himself, the first in what will surely be a campus-wide massacre to put even Season 1’s finale to shame.
Clearly, Marie and her friends will have to track down and confront Godolkin before he can murder dozens, if not hundreds, of students. But as we’ve already seen, fighting Godolkin is easier said than done when he can turn anyone in the room into his personal bodyguard. Marie made the mistake of trying to go it alone, and look where that got her. She played right into Godolkin’s hands. She’ll have to quickly learn to rely on her friends, even if it means putting them in harm’s way.
Then there’s the lingering issue of Annabeth’s visions. We haven’t seen that loose end pay off just yet. Is Annabeth seeing her sister’s inevitable death? Or are these visions teasing some new development with Marie’s rapidly evolving powers?
There’s also the question of what role, if any, Linklater will play in the finale. Now that the truth behind Cipher stands revealed, is there still a place for Doug in all of this? Given how prominently Linlater has been featured in Season 2, it seems hard to imagine him completely stepping out of the spotlight in Episode 8. Doug deserves some sort of payback for everything he’s endured.
And what of Marie’s powers? Now that she’s finally reached the level Cipher always envisioned for her, what happens next? Is she truly powerful enough to rival Homelander? Will she factor into the final conflict between Billy Butcher, his scattered team members, and Vought in The Boys Season 5? A lot depends on how the Gen V Season 2 finale plays out. Whether this series itself even has a future may well depend on how much of the school remains standing following the final battle with Godolkin.
In short, the stakes have certainly risen leading into the Season 2 finale. We’re still reeling from the big Cipher reveal, as past scenes from Season 2 suddenly take on new meaning and significance now that we know the true villain lurking behind it all. Check back next week for our full-spoiler review of Gen V Season 2, Episode 8 and our breakdown of the ending.
Until then, find out what Stan Edgar’s return means for The Boys Season 5 and read our spoiler-free review of Gen V Season 2.
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