Gen V Season 2 Review. For all the blood and betrayal, this…

Review 71 — Gen V Season 2 (2025), Showrunner — Michele Fazekas.

This season is just as diabolical as the universe it’s from and also a pretty solid second season. It has its dull moments and frustrating ones but still is able to deliver a solid premise and a strong future.

It’s kind of a full-circle moment for me. When I first started reviewing shows and movies, Gen V was actually the first show. I hadn’t planned on reviewing it back then, but the first season was too good so it was fun to write about.

That review was short, but when I read it now, it captures perfectly that raw feeling of what the show was about. I even called Cate a bitch in that one which was hilarious to revisit.

Let’s get into it

The Past and The Future

Now coming to the second season, it picks up from two directions: the ending of Gen V Season 1 and The Boys Season 4. To sum up the old story: there was a full-scale fight at God U that ended with Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre being sent to a prison called Elmira. Meanwhile, Sam and Cate ended up as Vought’s new poster supes, doing their bidding and playing the corporate game. Over in The Boys, the supe-killing virus that originated in Gen V season 1 became a major weapon, Neuman’s death shook everything, Butcher grew more ruthless than ever, and Homelander effectively took control of the U.S.

Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of all that chaos. Unfortunately, we’re one member short this time, Chance Perdomo, who played Andre, passed away. The show made the right choice by honoring him instead of recasting the role, and it does so gracefully.

Story-wise, Marie escapes Elmira, leaving Jordan, Emma, and Andre behind. The others try to get out too but fail, and Andre dies in the process, a loss that hits the group hard. Jordan and Emma are eventually taken back to God U, now under a new dean named Cipher, who’s determined to reshape the university into a training ground for supe soldiers under Vought’s thumb. Marie also returns eventually, with no real choice left.

Throughout the season, the group investigates Cipher while dealing with the complicated dynamic between themselves, Cate and Sam, the very people who helped put them in prison. Meanwhile, we see the return of Stan Edgar, the former Vought CEO and Neuman’s father, trying to survive amidst the power shifts. The gang later discovers that Thomas Godolkin, the school’s founder, is actually alive but severely burned and hidden away.

Everything builds up to a final confrontation where Marie and her friends, with some help from Polarity (Andre’s father), take down Godolkin and expose more of Vought’s corruption. Marie’s powers evolve in a big way here showing how unique and dangerous she really is.

The season closes on a grim but exciting note: Marie, Jordan, Emma, Sam, and Cate are now fugitives, navigating a world ruled by Homelander’s dominance. They cross paths with familiar faces from The Boys — Starlight and A-Train setting up the next big collision in this twisted superhero universe as we head to the conclusion of it all in Season 5 of The Boys.

Season 2

It’s a season about loss, power, and identity but also about how far these characters have come since their freshman days at God U. While it’s got an intriguing plot, you’re often left to draw your own conclusions or, worse, to delude yourself into justifying a character’s actions. The show doesn’t hand you breadcrumbs or context, it just expects you to accept things as they are and that hurts the storytelling.

Second seasons are always tricky, especially when the first one hit hard. What makes Gen V Season 2 even tougher is that it’s a spin-off, the main story (The Boys) is still running alongside it. That means the writers are juggling two worlds that need to complement each other without either one overshadowing the other or breaking continuity. To their credit, they manage that balance decently in parts, and I’ll cut them some slack for how intertwined the two stories are.

But there are certain things that just can’t be excused like not giving enough reason or emotional weight behind a character’s choices, which can make them come off as foolish rather than conflicted. When character motivation isn’t justified, even the strongest characters can fall apart.

Marie Moreau: The Leading Lady

From the very beginning, Marie has been the undeniable centre of Gen V. Season 2 keeps her firmly in that spotlight while finally giving space for others to grow around her. The biggest reveal is that Marie was conceived as part of Project Odessa — a program where Compound V is introduced at gestation to create even more powerful Supes. Only one other person survived the process: Homelander. That alone raises the stakes of Marie’s existence.

This season shifts the conflict inward. Marie isn’t fighting her powers anymore, she’s fighting herself, the trauma, the guilt, the internalized fear. Her intimate relationship with Jordan (both male and female forms) adds an unexpectedly thoughtful psychological layer. She’s bonding with someone whose identity literally shifts, which grounds her and makes her feel calmer in ways she can’t articulate.

Marie’s expanded power set this season is genuinely exciting. The fact that she can now heal something as fatal as a slit throat and essentially bring people back to life adds a whole new dimension to her character. It proves that her abilities were never just about manipulation of blood, they were about control, precision, and untapped depth. making her infinitely more interesting.

We also meet her sister, Annabeth. On paper, their reunion should be emotionally explosive: two sisters separated after their parents’ death due to Marie. But in execution, it feels flat. Annabeth’s scenes are soaked in understandable anger but they’re not impactful.

Meanwhile, Godolkin, through Cipher pushes Marie to refine her powers. And she does. She’s not portrayed as the strongest Supe in existence, but she is unquestionably a force. Her breakthroughs come from a place of protection, not aggression and her arc here has real emotional weight.

But the execution? Messy.

Throughout the season, Marie’s attitude frequently skewers into this bullish, dismissive mode. Some of it stems from genuine skepticism, but unless you’re actively thinking like her, it just reads abrasive. The finale really exposes the cracks: when she goes to confront Godolkin and her friends show up, her instinct is to push them away not emotionally, but unnescarily aggressive. Lines like “this is my fight” and “this is my fault” are tired tropes, placeholders for deeper writing that never arrives. Her turning on her own friends feels off-brand and avoidable. She could’ve outsmarted them, distracted them, delegated anything other than downright choking them.

This instability between calm reflection and sudden aggression happens every time she deals with Cate too. Yes, the mistrust is justified, Cate manipulated her and everyone else but we never really get the world from Marie’s POV. We’re told she’s struggling, but we’re not shown it. And that lack of perspective keeps her arc from landing as cleanly as it deserves.

Despite that, Marie remains one of the strongest and most compelling characters in the entire universe. Her arc is powerful even when the storytelling around her stumbles. Her evolution, her abilities, and her emotional centre all carry the season. Jaz Sinclair delivers yet another strong performance and she’s still the heart of the show and hopefully, she stays that way. And hopefully, she survives.

The Plot

Surprisingly, the plot as a whole is strong. I’ve criticised it for not going as deep as it could, but that’s the extra mile, the layer that enriches storytelling, not the foundation. As a base, the plot works: it’s mysterious, darkly funny, and packed with action and a lot of nudity. People online guessed the Cipher–Godolkin twist early and used that to claim the writing was weak. But as a viewer who likes theories but doesn’t live and breathe them, the twist genuinely landed.

Sage’s involvement ties everything together in an unexpectedly smart way. Introduced in The Boys Season 4 with the power of being ridiculously intelligent, she ends up being Godolkin’s strategic backbone. With her guidance, she plants the idea that ultimately pushes Marie into reviving him. The chain of events is clever, not showy, not flashy, but calculated.

Then Godolkin goes rogue. He abandons what Sage envisioned, forcing her to pivot entirely and shift into a backup plan that indirectly leads to his death. People argue she’s “not that smart” because Plan A didn’t work, but that’s not how intelligence functions. Being smart isn’t about Plan A succeeding, it’s about having Plans B through Z ready for when it doesn’t. That’s the tricky part of writing a character like Sage: her intelligence is always capped by the writers’ own capabilities and by what the audience can realistically follow. The fact that she had a contingency for Godolkin’s meltdown only reinforces how well she thinks ahead.

I love characters who are too smart for the room. Sage’s choices are easy to misinterpret if you’re not zooming in, but once you connect the dots, her moves are sharp. When Godolkin goes rogue and Homelander is calling her to find out what is going, the quickness with which she cuts the call is unknowngly hilarious.

Beyond the core Cipher–Godolkin mystery, the plot is driven largely by character development and world exploration. The season dives deeper into what it means to be a non-Supe in a world built to worship Supes. It mirrors real-world themes, racism, sexism, propaganda, systemic inequality through the lens of superhero absurdity, and that parody is what makes this universe so effective. It exaggerates reality just enough to show the truth more clearly.

The plot stays solid all the way through. It may feel short, but it’s surprisingly tight, filled with rich world-building and chaotic energy that keeps you hooked.

The Gang

Jordan

Jordan once again finds themselves wrestling with identity and the trauma of losing Andre, and it makes them one of the most layered characters this season. Gender fluidity in real life is its own experience, but literally being able to switch forms depending on comfort or avoidance is a fascinating narrative device. Choosing the female form when feeling safe and the male form when trying to distance themselves adds so much depth to how personas shift under emotional pressure. Jordan finally gets the deeper dive they deserved, and both Derek Luh and London Thor absolutely kill their performances. I hope they survive, this show and I need them.

Emma

Emma’s journey is honestly, an excursion. She’s still dealing with the familiar tug-of-war of shrinking and growing, but this time she refuses to be the one constantly sacrificing herself. She calls more of her own shots and unexpectedly becomes the emotional center of their storyline. She’s funny, relatable, and her dynamic with Sam is one of the more honest looks at trauma-affected relationships. Lizzie Broadway is phenomenal again.

Cate

I called her a bitch last time and while she still has those moments, she’s not the monster she once seemed. Cate is complicated because mind control powers automatically put you on a razor-thin moral line. Used for good or bad, the cost is always high. She’s been chewed up by the Vought propaganda machine, and now she’s slowly untangling herself from it.

I don’t blame her entirely for what she did, at her core, she just wants to be happy. This season shows her trying to protect without controlling, trying to rebuild trust in a world where she isn’t trusted. When she temporarily loses her powers, those moments of raw vulnerability make her arc land harder. And when Marie heals her in the finale, it feels full-circle, earned, and emotionally grounded. Maddie Phelps delivers what is easily one of the strongest performances of the season.

Sam

Sam, like Cate, is another product of Vought’s nightmare factory. He’s less central this season, but the trauma is still present. His visit to his parents, who believed him dead, is a small but meaningful thread. He’s trying to be good, even if he doesn’t always know how. This season there just wasn’t time to explore him so I do hope it’s done in future projects,.

Polarity

Reprising his role from Season 1, Polarity (Andre’s father) is a metal-manipulating Supe drowning in grief and neurodegenerative decline. Season 1 established his fractured relationship with Andre, Season 2 builds on the aftermath of losing him entirely.

Initially reluctant, Polarity eventually helps Emma crack the mystery, and through that gain, he gets a teaching position at God U, perfect for infiltrating the system. He becomes an unexpected mentor figure, juggling grief, illness, and responsibility. During the fight at Godolkin’s house, Marie heals him. His disease vanishes. He feels reborn.

With his renewed strength and amplified EMP-like abilities that was able to disable Godolkins powers were just the kick the character needed. He helps the gang take down Godolkin. It’s a genuinely great arc that is messy, emotional, and overflowing with the kind of depth that sticks.

Cipher

Cipher is fascinating because even though he’s basically a puppet for Godolkin, Hamish Linklater’s performance is outstanding. That quiet, sinister charm is perfect. And when Cipher is finally freed from Godolkin’s control, for a brief moment, we meet Doug, the actual person beneath the mask. He’s sweet, funny, soft-hearted. And then he dies. RIP Doug, you deserved so much better.

The Rest of the Cast

Thomas Godolkin: murderous psychopath. Not much to add. He serves his purpose as a season villain, dangerous enough to matter and avoid filler, small enough not to overshadow the narrative of The Boys Season 5.

Stan Edgar: the former Vought CEO and Victoria Neuman’s father. He appears briefly, drops crucial information like a main-quest NPC, and disappears. I hope he’s in The Boys S5 his power has always been his mind, not his abilities.

Zoe: Stan’s granddaughter. Her tentacle-mouth powers get a brief but effective emotional moment when she opens up about her mother. Small scene, surprisingly impactful.

Stacey Ferrera: a honeybee Supe with a stinger sticking out. She was absolutely destined to die in the most ridiculous manner possible, but scheduling conflicts with the actor mean she will keep buzzing.

Final Thoughts

Despite the sheer amount of gore and there’s a lot, it never feels gratuitous. The CGI is solid, the cinematography is moody and atmospheric, the sound design unsettling in all the right ways. It’s a well-produced superhero show that bends the genre in every direction.

The story could use more depth, but what’s here is enough to make you excited for the endgame coming next year in The Boys Season 5. With Seasons 3 and 4 acting as setup, and with this show filling out the edges, we’re heading toward a feast. And I’ll be there.

After all the blood and betrayal, Gen V Season 2 still manages to keep its edge, its chaos, and its heart.

7/10 — For the world, the characters, and the ride.