Gen V 2×04 review: “Bags”

The Godolkin Guardians think they’ve figured out their enigmatic Dean Cipher, Marie manipulates blood bags, and Emma gets an unpleasant eyeful in this twisted episode of Gen V.

Season 2 of Gen V continues! “Bags” is an appropriate, if understated, title for an episode about a face-off between our adorable queer couple Marie and Jordan. This episode is full of bags. Normal bags and…other ones.

First, the obvious: Marie is training with Cipher to improve her powers, which involves manipulating actual blood bags, like you’d get during a hospital transfusion. Cipher thinks Marie will become the most powerful supe if she can master her abilities. Marie is skeptical. “More powerful than Homelander?” When Cipher gives her a steady look, there’s an eerie sting of music that suggests…yes. More powerful than Homelander.

In the last seasons of The Boys, “more powerful than Homelander” is certainly a compliment–though not an unimaginable one. At the end of the second season, Queen Maeve took him one-on-one and did a pretty good job of it. Soldier Boy and suped-up Butcher could have feasibly taken him.

If we consider Marie might be more powerful than season one Homelander, watch out. He was a terrifying figure. Unpredictable, inhuman, and at least as powerful as Superman, Homelander was total nightmare fuel. It was so effective that they had to nerf him later on.

Without an easy answer for managing his powers, they wrote in a lot of humanistic flaws. A soft underbelly of insecure narcissism cultivated by Vought scientists. This made me think that a Homelander takedown would ultimately have to play to this human side (which he hates).

Instead, we appear to be angling toward a takedown that is powers-versus-powers.

Homelander has blood. Marie controls blood. What could he possibly do to Marie if she’s in full control of his blood, and therefore his body? Even season one Homelander doesn’t stand a chance. No degree of unhinged cruelty paired with Superman powers matters if someone else can seize control of his body.

That takes us to our second, less-obvious bags: Body bags. Not the kind you put the dead inside!

We meet a goat named Elon Musk (it’s easier to kill them when they’re named after “assh—s,” according to Cipher). The dean identifies the goat as another kind of blood bag. Marie proves she can manipulate it, too.

While handling Elon Musk (rip), Marie also takes a look at Cipher and comes to a surprising conclusion.

Even though Cipher has a near-omniscent understanding of everything happening around his school and home, Marie can’t find any Compound V in his system.

The episode seems to suggest that the attractive dean is puppeted by a creepy old guy in a hyperbaric chamber–the actual Cipher. Cipher’s powers are definitely controlling other people. The only way Jordan fights Marie is when Cipher takes control of Jordan, putting his words into their mouth.

Marie manages not to explode Jordan in self-defense. I was both relieved and disappointed. Again, I think Jordan Li is the closest thing to representing my bisexual chaos life I’ve ever seen on TV. I don’t want anything to happen to them. That said, it seemed like it was building up to kill Jordan–pulling back is a little soft for The Boys universe. The stakes of their powers seem a little less serious for a show that started with our heroine accidentally killing her parents with her first period.

Maybe I like it softer, though. I love all these main characters way too much.

They still find plenty of chances for edgy humor, like revealing that one side character’s power is hair manipulation. Not like Medusa. Not with the hair on her head. (She ends up named Bushmaster in this episode).

Emma’s still running around forming her own super-team in this one, which does include Bushmaster and our tailed copycat. She’s got the third bag of the episode: a tiny Barbie bag she uses to smuggle a camera for spying on Dean Cipher. The only thing she really gets to spy on is Cipher’s, uh, bag–and a “butthole the size of the sun.”

Cipher’s sharp wits mean they don’t catch him admitting to anything on camera.

That leaves Cate holding the metaphor-only bag, alone with Cipher when he reveals his terrifying ability to control others. Since her daunting touch-psychic powers have also been nerfed this season, our problematic Jean Gray is more vulnerable than ever. She’s also more endearing. As much as she squabbles with the Godolkin Guardians, she’s clearly invested in their survival. It’s deeply relatable.

What’s going to happen now that we’ve learned Cipher is scarier than Cate? I suspect he’s hoping to get Marie’s powers under control so he can puppeteer her next.

Marie survived the fighting ring, but she isn’t out of danger yet–by far–and if she’s not safe, then nobody is.

Gen V season 2 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Author: SM Reine

Half-Tellarite SM Reine is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy. She’s been publishing since 2011 and a nerd since forever.

Twitter Facebook

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary