Gen V (The Boys)

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Penultimate episode... some let-downs in the writing compared to the rest of the series, but sets up the final battle ep properly...

Spoiler

• Political rally was not subtle. If Homelander (and the unsubtle red-hat fandom) are setting up a Supe v Humans (and supe allies) race war, supes can and will still lose.
• Nice cameo from Grace and backref for Billy. 
• Shetty's backstory comes to light - again, quite a blunt piece of writing, but they were trying to pack a lot into this episode. Even if Shetty genuinely loved her, Cate was her cute little blonde monster that eventually turned. Little disappointing she didn't have some wider ambitions. There could have been more to her final exit as well if Cate (or the writers) had been a bit more creatively nasty.
• Neuman: not just FBSA head, she's the mysterious headsploding assassin from earlier seasons of the Boys, with a complex relationship with Homelander. So what is she up to with that Big Damn Can Of Virus?
• Note to self. If ever I become a Mad Scientist, retain sufficient degrees of trust issues in anyone, and always have an insurance policy.
• Tragic ending time: Cate and Sam and the Homelanders vs the human-loving commie crew. Friends against friends. 

 

[Mr. Vee]

6 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Penultimate episode... some let-downs in the writing compared to the rest of the series, but sets up the final battle ep properly...

Spoiler

I'm not entirely sold on Shetty being dead. It's possible Cate could've leveled up enough without the drugs to have created the scenario for the full group without touch (specifically triggering Marie as an added feint).

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• Shetty's backstory comes to light - again, quite a blunt piece of writing, but they were trying to pack a lot into this episode. Even if Shetty genuinely loved her, Cate was her cute little blonde monster that eventually turned. Little disappointing she didn't have some wider ambitions. There could have been more to her final exit as well if Cate (or the writers) had been a bit more creatively nasty.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Mr. Vee

[InvaderStych]

15 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:

Penultimate episode... some let-downs in the writing compared to the rest of the series, but sets up the final battle ep properly...

 

Agreed.

 

Most of the episode felt like one of those moments where either the writing team completely changed, completely changed their minds about what they were doing, or were told to do so from upon high. More likely they were constrained by the number of episodes available (I didn't know it was only 8?) and had to get extremely expository while also making some heavy-handed leaps with respect to putting the show in context with TB.

 

Re: The Rally: Disappointingly blunt. Could have just slotted that into a regular episode of the TB. Only interesting bit is that I was left wondering who was responsible for Polarity Sr.'s malfunction. While I've lost some faith in the writing team (more on that below), I suspect foul play involved in getting him off the table as a moderator.

 

Re: Shetty's motivations: Ok, family being killed by supes, sure, no problem. But the show(s) must not being doing a good job of representing elapsed time. TB moved pretty quickly, so if her motivation was the plane crash how did she get herself into position and get the program so far along so quickly? Seems like a lazy tie-in rather than writing up some other previously unknown sin of the supes. And why would Shetty out herself to Grace? That doesn't make much sense. Too much risk. The reference to Butcher was nice, but I don't think that's who Grace had listening in on the phone.

 

Re: Shetty and Cate: More questions than answers here, imo. @Mr. Vee makes a good point, might have been possible to fake the whole scene. I was left wondering if Shetty decided to martyr herself for some unknown reason and ordered Cate to instruct her to take her own life. By and large though I've not got faith that we're going to get much beyond what was shown - but I'd be happy to be surprised by the finale.

 

Re: Neumann: Why do I get the feeling that the virus is just going to become the big red herring of the season? Remember Cindy? The locked up supe who could also make heads explode and walked off into obscurity during TB? Her whole existence as a character was to give folks a false sense of who was exploding the heads and then she was completely dropped. Really hope the virus story line doesn't suffer the same fate.

 

On the other hand, the Dr. specified in dialog that the virus in its current state requires contact with bodily fluids. In that case we've got two characters with the potential to become infection vectors if a way can be found to render them as unaffected carriers. Could be what Neumann is hoping to accomplish.

 

Re: Frenemies: Yup. And watching Emma and Sam take sides against each other is going to tough for me to watch.