Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Gen V Season 2 Episode 8! You can also check out our spoiler-free review of the entire season.
Apparently, it’s becoming tradition for Gen V to wrap up each season with a gory massacre on the campus of Godolkin University. This time around, we’re seeing the seeds of Thomas Godolkin’s (Ethan Slater) pledge to “cull the herd” bear fruit, as Marie (Jaz Sinclair) and the gang make one last, desperate stand against the bloodthirsty dean. If the scope of the finale isn’t quite as huge as it could have been, the episode nonetheless serves as a fitting capper to an overall enjoyable sophomore season. It even works as a solid series finale, should it come to that (but we’ll get there).
Assuming you didn’t figure out the big Cipher/Godolkin twist ahead of time, you’re probably still reeling from the reveal that Hamish Linklater’s character was nothing more than a puppet for the true villain of the season. That was certainly a great way to ramp up the tension in Episode 7, and that twist helps give the finale an early momentum it doesn’t squander.
Again, the scope of this episode turns out to be a bit smaller than expected. Given how Episode 7 ended, I half-expected this chapter to open with Godolkin continuing to lay psychic waste to the students he so clearly despises. Instead, Godolkin’s murder spree is confined to the handful of students attending his seminar later in the episode. It’s almost as if there was a fear of letting the pot boil over too much and then having to explain why Antony Starr’s Homelander isn’t showing up to intervene.
Ultimately, the quieter, more intimate approach works to the show’s benefit. The early focus on Godolkin and Susan Heyward’s Sister Sage helps paint a vivid psychological portrait of a man who can’t help but become his own worst enemy. Early on in this episode, Godolkin has truly won; he got exactly what he wanted by tricking Marie into healing him. He’s free to be with Sage and reclaim his place in the upper echelons of Vought International. He has everything, yet he can’t stop himself from being tripped up by this foolish obsession with separating the wheat from the chaff. Godolkin is arrogant enough to believe that he knows better than the smartest person in the world, and we see where that gets him in the end.
Half the fun of “Guardians of Godolkin” is in seeing Slater really sink his teeth into a role that had been Hamish Linklater’s up to this point. Slater succeeds in making this feel like the same character without simply echoing Linklater’s performance; the sardonic wit and cold menace are there in full effect, but tinged by a certain degree of manic abandon. Again, this is what happens when Cipher gets a taste of what he craves and loses the plot. Even Sinclair gets a fun scene where she gets to play Marie possessed by Godolkin.
Thankfully, Linklater isn’t totally relegated to the background, even if he’s effectively now playing a completely different role as Doug. Linklater gets two great scenes – one which gives us a taste of just how awful it is to live as Godolkin’s meat puppet, and the other that provides an added bit of closure for the late Chance Perdomo’s Andre. I wish Doug were given more to do beyond those two scenes; given everything he’s endured, it feels like the character deserved better than to be abruptly killed off by Black Noir.
As for Sage, the series continues to make inspired use of the character in her recurring guest role. We get to see a very different side of Sage here, where she’s in love and clearly out of her depth because of it. There’s a great vulnerability to Sage during her bedside chat with Godolkin, followed by a wounded sense of grief when she visits Sean Patrick Thomas’ Polarity and realizes that her boyfriend has squandered everything they worked for. As much as Godolkin is his own worst enemy in this episode, he probably still would have won the day if not for his all-seeing lover.
The final showdown between our heroes and Godolkin doesn’t disappoint. If Godolkin’s killing spree proves surprisingly contained, there’s still a macabre glee in watching him lay waste to his class and then promptly force them to dance for his amusement. It’s equally satisfying to see how integral God U’s weakest and lamest students are in toppling the almighty dean, proving Sage’s point that the most dangerous enemies are the ones with nothing to lose. And Godolkin’s final death scene is every bit as gory and disgusting as fans of the series have come to expect – a fitting end for a guy who got way too high on his own supply by the end.
With that, it’s worth digging into the final scene a bit, and the question of whether there’s still a future for Gen V. I certainly wasn’t expecting Season 2 to close out by so directly laying the foundation for The Boys Season 5, but that’s what happens, as Erin Moriarty’s Starlight and Jesse T. Usher’s A-Train both stop by to formally invite Marie and her friends to join “the resistance.” It’s a great way of capping off Season 2 and acknowledging that these characters are ready to join the big leagues now; plus, a good NiN needle drop never hurts.
But should we take this to mean that there’s not going to be a Gen V Season 3? Are we effectively watching the series finale here? Possibly. It’s really a question of what state this universe is going to be in by the end of The Boys Season 5. Will there still be a Vought, much less a Vought-sponsored superhuman college? How many of these characters will still be alive by then? As much as I’d love to see more Gen V, this isn’t a bad way to cap off the show…if that’s indeed the goal. This finale closes out one era and opens the door to an exciting crossover; if nothing else, fans are certainly going to be rewarded for having watched this spinoff when The Boys finally makes its return.
Riforma delle patenti: guida già a 17 anni, ma solo se accompagnati