Gen V – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

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Episode 1 of Gen V begins with young Marie Moreau playing with her sister while her parents watch the A-Train on the news. Marie has a sudden pain in her abdomen and goes to the washroom. Her mother follows to make sure she’s all right, but Marie shuts the door. Not knowing what a period is, she is disgusted by the sight of blood. Moments later, she freaks out seeing the blood levitating and drops the furniture.

Her mother pushes down the door and sees the blood levitating. The blood jets toward her and makes a cut on the side of her neck, causing her to bleed out and fall to the floor. Hearing the commotion her dad also rushes in. Looking at the blood, Marie screams, causing a huge blood explosion and killing her father as well. Her sister arrives to see both her parents sprawled on the floor covered in blood.

The scene switches to the present day where Marie wakes up in her shelter, ready to check the updates on her admission to Godolkin University. She goes about with her routine, eagerly waiting for 4 pm. She also goes through her superpower practice, demonstrating her mastery of controlling blood. She sees a girl with superpowers being forcefully taken away by the authorities.

4 pm finally arrives and she logs in to discover she’s made it into Godolkin University. She has a word with Vanessa regarding the admission and she reluctantly lets her go. A commercial rolls in virtue signalling and singing the praise of Godolkin University, claiming to make the superheroes of tomorrow. Marie begins her first day at the university witnessing multiple supes on the campus.

Meanwhile, Emma Meyer is in her room, shrunk down to miniature size, and shoots a video for a YouTube channel. Just then, Marie enters the room and is surprised to see a miniature person. Emma goes away to get back to normal size and returns to properly greet Marie. She brings Marie up to speed with her pet, YouTube channel and the rest of the room.

Emma takes Marie to the Godolkin Stadium to see the top rankers compete. She shows Marie the Golden Boy and expresses her lust. Luke Riordan tells his girlfriend Cate Dunlap about the nightmares and they begin making out on the track until Luke’s first opponent shows up.

The fight begins and Luke beats his opponent up relentlessly. Marie expresses she wants to be down in the arena someday, but hesitates when she sees Luke rip his opponent’s arms away from his body. After the match, Marie checks her schedule through Emma’s phone and realizes something isn’t right.

She goes to meet the professor, but instead meets Jordan who tells her she hasn’t been selected for Intro to Crime Fighting. The two begin to argue before the professor walks in. Mare tries convincing him, but he rejects her request as well, telling her to stick to performing arts.

She leaves disheartened and suddenly sees a student running with multiple police chasing after him. She is told he is a meth addict and uses her superpower to trip the guy. She hears the boy screaming that he is not going back to the woods before the police catch him and arrest him.

The next day, she tells Emma about the incident, but all Emma can think of is the social media attention she could have milked out of it. She also encourages Marie to make friends, but later Marie withdraws from the conversation after realizing she cannot fit in. Marie and Emma discuss their intentions of being in Godolkin and realize how different their goals are.

Luke meets up with Brink and they have a conversation recalling the first time they met. Brink shows Luke his new superhero suit made from hafnium carbide alloy to prevent it from burning away. He gets offered to take Mayve’s old department or Starlight’s. Luke is offered to enter the Seven. Suddenly Luke hears a voice calling his name.

Later that day, Andre Anderson approaches Marie and claims to recognize her from the incident that happened the previous night. He invites her out with his friends, including Luke, but she rejects the offer. He tells her to show up at the Crime Fighting building if she decides to change her mind.

Later that night Emma tries to change her mind and convinces Marie to go. Marie borrows some clothes from Emma and heads out to the outing. Luke, Cate, Jordan and Andre head out for the party. Emma rests at home checking her YouTube comments and gets a message from Liam asking her to hang out.

Jordan and the others hang out on the terrace of a building while Marie gazes far in the distance. Luke hops over to have a conversation with her and they get to know more about each other. He asks her about how she found out about her powers and she admits to lying. She then goes on to tell him about her parents and he also tells her about his brother. He uncovers the dark side of being a hero.

Emma has Liam over and they get ready to make love. He asks her to get tiny to satisfy a kink and she reluctantly agrees. She heads over to the bathroom to get ready and puke everything out and shrink.

Marie and her friends enter the club by using Cate’s powers to trick the bouncer. Meanwhile, Emma and Liam try some kinky things and Liam’s insecurities only manifest themselves. Luke, Andre and  Jordan are speaking about the ranking system and Brink, trying to map out the next few days. Meanwhile, Cate and Marie dance on the floor.

Luke heads out and suddenly sees visions of his brother stuck in the woods begging him to help him. Andre heads over to talk to a girl and impress her. He tosses a coin and transforms it into a bird. On request, he uses telekinesis to take the bird towards an old man’s glass and drop it there. Unfortunately, during this, he gets nudged by someone and this leads to the bird poking into a woman’s vein causing her to bleed profusely.

The club erupts in panic with blood spraying everywhere. Luke and the others flee the scene, but Marie stays behind. She has flashbacks of her mother’s death but uses her superpower to control blood and make the bleeding stop. Everyone in the club records her and appreciates her efforts.

The next morning Maverick comes over to send her over to Brink’s office. On arrival, her act is appreciated, but is also unfairly blamed for slitting the throat of the woman. She also gets to know that she has been expelled, but Golden Boy, Andre, and the others won’t be affected by it as they are being protected by the university.

She disappointedly walks away with all of her dreams shattered. Leaving the building, she runs into Emma and blames her for sending her out that night. Luke hears the voice calling out to him once again. Opening the doors he finds him inside the woods with his brother Sam approaching him and begging for his help.

Marie takes a moment as she stops behind a building to process everything that is happening while she tries to collect herself. She decides to go back to Brink’s office and have a word with him once again. She sees Jordan and throws a temper tantrum and proceeds to make her way to Brink’s office.

Reaching there she sees Luke on fire hugging Brink to death. Marie is taken aback by the scene but agrees to keep it a secret. Luke doesn’t trust her and begins chasing after her. Marie once again comes across Jordan who tries to defend her and keep Luke from destroying his image. Luke thinks Jordan is in on Brink’s plan too and a fight erupts between them.

Luke knocks down Jordan and chases Marie outside into the campus where many students can see him. Just then, Andre intervenes and tries to calm Luke down and the two hug it out. Luke feels overwhelmed by everything that is happening and takes off for the sky. He then hovers in the sky and explodes, causing blood and human flesh to cover the entire area.

The Episode Review

Episode 1 of Gen V opens with a familiar face, establishing its links with The Boys. What better character to associate with other than A-Train himself? The episode capitalizes on what’s familiar to fans of The Boys and maintains several structural attributes, including dubious characters, the attention on social dynamics, big heartless corporation rules, and many other factors.

Keeping these in check, it also maximizes a few attributes like gore, blood and violence, and given these are university students, a ton of sex. The first episode does a great job introducing the main character of the show, Marie Moreau. It’s almost like taking a person from the real world and dumping her into a world where the show is a reality. She does a fair job of connecting with the audience.

The insanity of the other characters also seems to be underwater for now, but surely, it won’t be long before the entire thing turns into a freak show. It is, however, notable that the Amazon Original show doesn’t paint most of Luke’s friends as snide/predatory and could possibly be likeable characters through the show.

The first episode is also quite underwhelming as it simply introduces characters to each other and hints at a plot based around the “Woods”. Seriously, the woods just seem like Upside Down from Stranger Things. The first chapter also sees the suicide of a prominent character and associates it with the woods, giving us something to latch onto for the next episode.