We’re officially approaching Gen V's endgame. The Boys spinoff has already gone off the rails with violence, government conspiracies, and loads of NSFW moments—but what is it all building toward? Will Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) use her weird blood powers for good? Will the school rid itself of the secret prison where they house the most dangerous students? Will any character inspire hope?

They're all tough questions to answer, because our heroes are at their breaking point. At the end of last week's episode, the gang learned that one of their own turned on them. Cate (Maddie Phillips) can control your mind if she touches you—and she's been wiping her friends' memories. The reveal sent our heroes into a tailspin, but it’s also a major distraction from the real problems at hand. Sure, Cate is manipulating them. Thats sucks. But did we forget about the superhero prison? Apparently, they did! Regretting her place in this whole kerfuffle, Cate gives our heroes all their memories back.

Related Story

Important disclaimer: If Cate overuses her powers, she has a seizure, and her body completely shuts down. She's able to let her friends into her mind, however, where she shows everyone a vision from her past. This segment features a guest appearance from The Boys' Soldier Boy, who was an antagonist in Season Three. He warns the group that they may become trapped in Cate’s mind if they don’t help her recover, and then he disappears.

Since we’re talking to old characters via memories, Golden Boy can have another scene. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son was killed in the debut episode—Golden Boy exploded, remember?—but he returns (as a figment of Cate's memory) to fight Andre (Chance Perdomo) for sleeping with his girlfriend. We also view entire scenes that Cate never saw, including the time Golden Boy tried and failed to kill Professor Brink—before Jordan (London Thor/Derek Luh) saved him. “Wait, that was my memory,” Jordan says, puzzled. Yeah, I’m trying to figure out just what the hell is going on here, too. Cate’s clearly the Jean Grey of this X-Men parody bunch, and these visions are trying to help them all realize that none of this is their fault. Cate eventually lets them back into the real world.

Marie is lost in the Gen V sauce.

Meanwhile, it turns out that the virus brewing in the superhero student prison—known as the Woods—isn't built to control minds, as we thought last week. The virus actually makes superheroes sick. It could even kill them, and it’s not contagious to normal humans. Sam (Asa Germann), who escaped from the Woods, is seemingly uninfected. Away from the group, he and Emma (Lizzie Broadway) have normal sex for a change... until his mind views her as a puppet. It’s his, um, power, I think? I'm still not entirely sure. “I’m messed up, Emma,” Sam tells her. “You should be with someone who isn’t.” Emma doesn’t care, but she also doesn’t know that he often goes on murder sprees. She also doesn't know about the puppet thing.

So, Emma is a little shocked when she brings Sam to meet her friends and he immediately punches them through walls. Somehow, she’s able to calm him down. This world might have hurt him, but “you don’t have to hurt them back,” she says. Now that they’re all together, the crew can work on collectively shutting down the Woods and getting revenge—whatever that entails.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pr%2FQrqCrnV6YvK57xKernqqklravucSnq2ispmSudYGUb2prbWFktKa6jK9knqiZqLylsYxvZKudk5a9cA%3D%3D