Gen V – Season 1 Episode 2 “First Day” Recap & Review

First Day

Episode 2 of Gen V opens with Luke’s friends gathering at the site as they mourn his death. Meanwhile, Ashley and the other PR reps fabricate a story to sell to the public, displaying Andre and Marie as the saviors of the day.

They also decide the new rankings, placing Andre first. She also questions Indira about the Woods but receives an indefinite answer. Indira boasts about her success, but Ashley reminds her that this right here is a failure. 

Upon returning home, Emma greets Marie and tries to make her comfortable, but only ends up overwhelming her. Marie pledges to keep her head in the game and heads off to sleep.

The next day, Marie heads out to attend lectures but is constantly bombarded with attention from students. She finds out from a student that she has made it to the top 10, being a freshman. Andre notices he is number 1 and Jordan is number 5.

The next day, Jordan goes to pay her respects to Brink. Cate approaches her to offer sympathy.

The same evening, Marie draws a lot of attention in the cafeteria and gets introduced to God U’s social media director, Jeff. He brings her up to speed with most of the happenings and privileges she has gained. She is astonished to know that the word going around is that she fought and defeated Luke, but she gets appreciated for her modesty.

He drags Marie along for an interview and introduces her to Courtney. At the interview, Andre asks his dad if Luke gave him anything, but his dad misinterprets and encourages Andre to push ahead of the pain because Luke gave him an opportunity.

Courtney tells Marie to stick to the script and hands her an outfit. Andre and Marie go for a photo shoot and proceed with the interview. On the way out, he asks her if Luke told her anything about his dad, and Marie reveals he said “The Woods.”

Andre reveals that Luke mentioned that his dad had it before dying. He asks for her help, as the suicide doesn’t make sense. She claims that she only knew them for a night and declines the offer, claiming that she almost got expelled for the incident at the club. She also points out that she didn’t have any backing like the others did.

Later that day, she heads in for her acting lecture and gets placed in the spotlight for her actions. The lecturer ends the lecture by giving the students an assignment to submit a film with a partner. Post-lecture, Emma asks Liam if they are still a thing, but he introduces her to a new girl. Justine intervenes, guessing he made Emma shrink to make his prick look big. Humiliated, Liam leaves.

Justine introduces herself, and the two team up to do the assignment. Later that day, Jordan confronts Marie for taking credit for fighting Luke and yells at her. Marie reminds Jordan that she rejected her application. Marie also tells her that it is not in her hands and that she is only playing along with the script. She also tells her about almost getting expelled. Jordan switches genders and admits his fault, but he requests that Marie put his name out there during the interview. She reluctantly agrees.

Andre approaches Cate to talk about it, and they discuss that Luke won’t stop until he figures it out. 

Later, Justine and Emma look for scenes to recreate for the project. Justine assures her that she isn’t typecasting her and looks for other scenes. Emma is happy because she doesn’t like getting small, as she has to purge herself into becoming small.

Later that day, Indira calls Marie over for a discussion. She claims to want to help Marie and gives her a long speech to make her open up. Eventually, Marie does and tells her about her sister, who had gotten adopted, but unfortunately, she doesn’t know where from. She also explains that she could probably find her if she was able to earn a good amount of money.

Following that, Indira heads into the chambers where Sam is held down. She tells him that attempting to escape only makes it harder for him. Dr. Edison places a long needle on Sam’s back and hammers it in.

Andre and Cate arrive at Luke’s room and find that all his stuff has been cleared out and the room has been bleached.

Later that day, Emma gets teased by a few students on campus and sees students watching a video of Justine exposing her secret. She storms into Justine’s room, where Justine is shooting a video of another girl licking and sucking her own tail.

Andre recalls Luke saying Andre’s dad has it and goes over to his dad’s statue to check. He uses the open crotch of his father’s statue and pulls out a phone. The two proceed to watch a recording of Luke, where he explains that his brother Sam isn’t dead and that he is under the school in a hospital they call the woods. Andre and Cate recall that Sam had schizophrenia and died in a facility.

The two begin to catch on to the story after initially wondering if Luke also had schizophrenia. Just then, Andre realizes the time and remembers he has to attend the interview. Cate encourages him to go, telling him they can solve the case the next morning.

Marie reads through her scripts and realizes they negate the possibility of anyone else being there from the start. She begins to practice her own script, intending to tell the truth about Jordan’s contributions.

Meanwhile, Andre makes his way to the interview venue but walks past Luke’s memorial and decides to head into Brink’s office to look for clues. He comes across a laptop and uses his powers to access the files. He finds a folder named Woods and a file by the name of Sam, Luke’s brother. Andre realizes it is the same child he had seen running away the previous night. 

He also clicks a picture, but just then, the swat bursts through the door. He manages to hide just in time, but his dad keeps calling him as the interview is about to start without him.

Just as the interview is about to start, Hailey the interviewer mentions that she won’t ask her anything about her sister. She also reveals that they have her email, but Annabeth would not like to maintain any relationship with her.

Hearing that, Marie changes her mind. She goes on to take full credit for stopping Luke and does not keep her promise to Jordan.

Later that day, after reaching home, she sees the messages from Emma but decides to ignore them. She holds her family picture and begins to cry. Emma purges herself to shrink while Marie slits her palm open. Marie revisits Indira and asks her if she knows about her sister. Indira gives her a hug, making Marie burst into tears.

Meanwhile, André follows the guards into a strange stairway. He sees a cleaner accidentally stumble in and have his throat slit by the guards. Right as he is about to move, a guard pops up from behind and spots him. Andre uses his abilities to throw his gun away, but the guard uses a sound device to bring Andre down to the floor. Just then, another guard comes and tells him to turn off the device and begins talking vulgar things to him. Just then, Cate enters and pouches his neck, urging him to do it, and one guard sucks the torch of the other guard.

This lets Andre stand back up, but Cate feels dizzy and faints.

The Episode Review

This episode focuses on chasing the trails and digging up clues, all to reach the woods. That, along with multiple splits in the pathways of the characters. It leaves Andre and Cate chasing the trail, Marie dealing with her predicament, and Emma fighting the negative publicity from leaked personal matters.

The show has a major shift in pace, even though the story seems to take decent strides with plot development. The chapter, however, keeps the show alive by tactfully poking fun at both sides of the political aisle. What makes it even more effective is that the show doesn’t exclusively pick a side and also leaves many situations open for interpretation.

It is also very surprising and unusual that the top rankers aren’t complete douchebags because that generally doesn’t seem to be the case. The chapter inches closer to the objective, which is to find and free Sam from the woods.