This article contains spoilers for the Gen V Season 2 finale, “Guardians of Godolkin.”
After a wild eight episodes, Gen V Season 2 wrapped up its run with a game-changing hour that certainly puts a third season in doubt. Don’t worry, Godolkin U fans: There’s hope for more, which we’ll get into in a moment, as well as the whole future of The Boys universe and how this ties into the Prime Video franchise, directly setting up the final season of The Boys.
But first? A brief bit of recap for context. Kicking off with the huge twist in the penultimate episode that, let’s be frank, most viewers saw coming from a mile away, we discover that (sure enough) Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater) injected himself with Compound V at the same time he was being horribly crispified in 1967 during a lab accident at Project Odessa. It gave him bodily manipulation powers – or meat puppeting, if you’re nasty – as well as making him functionally immortal. As we find out later in the episode, he used V1, a variant that both Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Stormfront (Aya Cash) were given, which grants them all extraordinarily long life as well as their other powers.
The rest of the episode is taken up with Godolkin going a little nuts in order to cull the lower-tier Supes from the Godolkin U campus and power himself up enough to be able to puppet Homelander (Antony Starr). That’s something that brings him in direct conflict with his girlfriend, Sister Sage (Susan Heyward); she needs Homelander for the mysterious Phase 2 that was mentioned in The Boys Season 4 finale, and so ends up letting Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas) attack Godolkin, as Polarity’s magnetic powers are one of the only things that can resist Godolkin’s manipulations.
Meanwhile, Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) backs off from her lone wolf/chosen one stance from the previous few episodes, and good on it, as it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for her character. Instead, she gathers the whole team, and the season shockingly comes together pretty much perfectly in a final battle that uses everyone’s powers. Godolkin is pushing himself by culling the student herd with a series of “seminars” to gain enough power to puppet Marie and then Homelander. That’s until Marie sneaks in, challenges him before he’s ready, and uses a little Trojan Horse technique thanks to ol’ Portal Butt himself, Black Hole (Wyatt Dorion). The rest of the gang falls out of his butt – try and match that plot point, The Crown – and in short order, Emma (Lizze Broadway) grows big of her own accord and kicks him, Ally aka Bushmaster (Georgie Murphy) binds him with her pubes, and Harper (Jessica Clement) steals his powers.
It’s a jaw-droppingly good plan that, in direct contrast to the “Cipher” reveal last episode, was cleverly set up throughout the season, and yet you likely did not see this coordination of powers coming. While the beat-up students get evacuated from the room, Marie confronts Godolkin. “We beat you,” she says. “All of us. Even the useless ones.” It’s a stark rejoinder against the supe supremacy/fascist world that has been pushed throughout the season – Godolkin, after all, is the prime purveyor of genetic superiority – and nails the landing on the season’s thematic elements.
There’s plenty more to go, but the short version is that Godolkin does manage to puppet Marie, Polarity shows up and saves the day, and Marie blows Godolkin to smithereens. “That was for Andre,” she says. “Thanks for the level up, asshole.”
Next, Polarity reveals that “Vought is coming” for them and tells them to get off campus; he’ll stay and make a stand for Andre (Chance Perdomo). As a side note, jumping back towards the beginning of the episode, Cipher aka Doug (Hamish Linklater) tells Polarity that his son was “fucking fearless. He risked everything for the sake of his friends... Your son is the greatest hero I’ve ever seen.” This is mere moments before Doug dies, getting skewered by Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell); RIP Doug. But while we’re big-upping the show, it’s important to note that they didn’t just pay lip service to Andre or Chance Perdomo, who suddenly and shockingly died in real life between seasons; they kept with it all season long, and let both the character and the actor inspire the cast towards greater emotional heights.
They didn’t just pay lip service to Andre or Chance Perdomo; they let both the character and the actor inspire the cast towards greater emotional heights.The kicker here is that Polarity puts a big sprinkling of finality on the series by telling the kids, when asked by Sam (Asa Germann) whether they will come back, “Don’t plan to.” So you’d be forgiven if you heard that and thought that’s it for Gen V.
You’d also be forgiven if you saw the final scene, where the kids are all on the run from Vought when who shows up but Special Guest Star Starlight/Annie January (Erin Moriarty), who welcomes them to the Resistance. And not only does Annie show up, we also get Specialer Guest Star A-Train (Jessie T. Usher), who gets the final line of the season as Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds” bumps up on the soundtrack.
“Okay, this whole thing?” A-Train says. “Everyone’s just standing around shooting the shit in the wide open. This is the first thing I’m putting a bullet in. You guys are fucking rebels now. Let’s act like it.”
Hell yeah! You feeling pumped? We’re feeling pumped! Bring on The Boys Season 5!
Is There a Mid-Credits or End Credits Scene for the Gen V Season 2 Finale?
A quick word about this, as you’re probably wondering: Nope, there’s no scene after A-Train’s big monologue. While The Boys has been inconsistent with end credits scenes, we did get them for Gen V Season 1 and The Boys Season 4, so it’s a little surprising there isn’t anything additional in the credits for Gen V Season 2. Perhaps the secrecy surrounding the final season of The Boys made that a no-go. At the very least, we could have had a check-in with Black Hole. How is his butt doing after pooping out all those students? Good, we hope?
How Does the Gen V Season 2 Finale Set Up The Boys Season 5?
As with the hand-off from Gen V Season 1 to The Boys Season 4 right back to Gen V Season 2, this season will lead almost directly into The Boys’ final season (Season 5). Specifically, as The Boys franchise steward Eric Kripke explained in an interview, The Boys Season 5 will take place “about six months after Gen V Season 2 ends.”
Why six months? We’ll see, but it’s likely the amount of time Sister Sage needs to get Phase 2 rolling in earnest…whatever Phase 2 is. It’s also more than enough time for the Gen V kids to be rocking and rolling with the Resistance (“We kind of already have a resistance?” Emma tells Starlight in the finale. “But yeah, no, some sort of merger.”), though we don’t know as of this writing how much the kids will play into the final season. It’s likely they’ll occupy the same amount of real estate as Sam and Cate (Maddie Phillips) did in The Boys Season 4, popping up in a few episodes in supporting roles. Not to give our Gen V-ers short shrift, but there is a lot that needs to happen in the already overpacked final season of The Boys.
Given Marie’s power-up, while it’s possible she could be the final bullet in the gun that kills Homelander, that doesn’t seem likely. Despite the interconnected nature of the universe, we want the final conflict to come down to The Boys versus Homelander, and even more specifically, Butcher (Karl Urban) versus Homelander. So regardless of all the Project Odessa talk in Gen V Season 2, and how Marie and Homelander were the only two successful outcomes of the experiment, it’s likely Marie will play her part but not deliver the killing blow.
There’s one more element of Gen V Season 2 that will definitely pop up in some fashion: Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) is gunning for his old Vought CEO job back. It’s extremely unlikely that won’t play directly into The Boys Season 5, though whether he’ll pause to offer to make more frittatas for the Gen V kids is unknown at this point.
What’s Next for The Boys Universe? And Will There Be a Gen V Season 3?
We’re talking way in the future at this point, but you’re probably wondering whether you just watched the series finale of Gen V. The answer is “maybe,” though there are plans for a third season if the show does get renewed.
The reason for the ‘maybe’ is that it all depends on viewership. Prime Video is looking at the numbers for Season 2 and making sure Season 3 is financially viable, and given massive changes in the corporate structure there, it’s not too much of a stretch to think they’re looking more closely at those numbers than ever before.
Still, if they are picked up, Kripke and company have a plan. “As long as there’s an interesting story to tell and new facets to reveal, I’m in,” Kripke said. “Without spoiling anything, I think the universe post-The Boys Season 5 is such a fascinating universe, there’s a lot to explore. It’s so much more of the wild west in terms of, like, f–king anything goes – without giving anything away. And I think that would be a blast to put the Gen V kids in the middle of.”
As for The Boys Season 5, the premiere date for that eight-episode season is TBA, but likely in 2026. In addition to the regular cast, it features the return of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Butcher’s imaginary friend Joe Kessler, Ackles as Soldier Boy, Paul Reiser as The Legend, and London Thor reprising her role from Gen V as Jordan Li, as seen in footage at San Diego Comic-Con.
In addition, Daveed Diggs is popping up in a mystery role. But the big news is the not-so-stealth Supernatural reunion. Alongside Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins will also be appearing in the final season of The Boys. Will they also be reunited with Winchester daddy Morgan, who nobody but Butcher can see? Probably not…but maybe!
Beyond that, though, we do have Vought Rising to look forward to. The spin-off series is set in the 1950s, and focuses on Soldier Boy and Stormfront as well as a new character called Bombsight (Mason Dye), who will also appear in the final season of The Boys. Other cast members in what is described as “a twisted murder mystery about the origins of Vought” include Mark Pellegrino and Cecily Strong. There’s no debut date, but expect it to come after The Boys Season 5, as the show is still in production until December, and Kripke notes that they “have plans for a Season 2, if we can,” again depending on viewership numbers.
But wait, there’s more! The Boys: Mexico is in development from writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, who is working on a pilot script. At least as of 2023, Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal were executive producing and planning on taking non-main roles in the show, which – you guessed it – will be set in Mexico.
But wait, there’s less! The Boys Presents: Diabolical, an (excellent) animated anthology series, will not be moving forward. “It’s not for lack of us pushing,” Kripke explained. “I think ultimately the viewer numbers weren’t there to justify a second season, sadly.” Despite that, both Kripke and showrunner Simon Racioppa (who has since moved on to co-showrun Invincible) are up for more Diabolical if the opportunity arises.
…And maybe more again? Back in 2024, before Vought Rising was announced, Kripke teased that there were “a couple other things we have in development” beyond The Boys: Mexico, “but we’re not ready to announce anything yet.” While Vought Rising is definitely one of those things, “a couple” is more than one. So is there another secret show in development? Or more?
Whatever Kripke meant, it’s clear that The Boys universe – and Gen V by extension – are far from done as Homelander and Butcher come crashing together in The Boys series finale, with Marie and the Gen V kids possibly caught in the middle.
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