GEN V Episode 8 Breakdown | THE BOYS Easter Eggs, Theories, Review & Ending Explained

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host, Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down the finale of GEN V.

GEN V EPISODE 8: COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS

The short but sweet episode has a lot going on, and the ending especially teases some major developments. Erik Kripke and the creative team have been discussing this entry for a while and how it’s going to tie into the overall arc. Before the release of episode 7, they teased that this series would lead directly into The Boys season 4, and that show would segue into GEN V season 2.

We will definitely be seeing these characters return, and the way they leave things off teases a lot for the future. Full spoilers ahead for all of that, and in this video, we’re going to be breaking down the ending, Easter eggs, and what we want to see next time. Please click the thumbs-up button one last time for the show, and with that out of the way, let’s get into the video.

Now, we open in the aftermath of Shetty’s death, with Cate dealing with the influx of thoughts coming in from what’s just happened. Interestingly, Sam is the only one who doesn’t really react to it, and I couldn’t hear his voiceover during any of this bit. As we’ve seen, man loves sticking his hand up people like they’re actual puppets, and he’s dealt out way worse deaths than what’s happened here. He’s used to seeing this kind of thing and thus doesn’t react like the others do.

It also explains why he’s so willing to join Cate, and I feel like Shetty’s death will also be pinned on them too. We’ll talk about why this is good for Homelander later on, but Shetty’s death completely fractures the group. Sam and Cate decide to flee the woods while the other side tries to stop them.

Cut to Seven Tower, where we can see the damage from the outside is further along in the repairs. Andre is still sitting, looking over his dad. Assessing that every time he uses his powers, it causes a tear in his brain matter, Andre has been subjected to the same fate. This is all, of course, caused by his father, who made the choice to inject his son with compound V. He was so focused on his son doing what he couldn’t that he forced him down a path of trying to get into the Seven. Polarity was obsessed with being its quote-unquote first black member, but this was taken by A-Train, so he never got to fulfill his dream.

Also, I know every time this gets brought up, people talk about Black Noir and how he was really the first black member in the group. However, we saw what Edgar’s reaction to him wanting to be unmasked in his youth was, and I’m guessing that they completely hid his race. I don’t think it’s an inconsistency; I think it just shows what Vought is like and even with Black Panther, we saw how he was promoted internationally. So yeah, just a side tangent there, but Polarity’s failure made him force his own son to live his life, and the pair now both have the same condition.

Andre says, “You look like you’re made of steel,” which calls back to the saying that the pair have had throughout. He now wants his son to wear the costume and admits to playing along with the woods. The costume is very much a curse now, though, with Andre’s powers slowly killing him. His dad still pushes him to use them and tells him to stay on the straight and narrow and take care of his family.

This is pretty much him telling his son to stay quiet, and though he’ll do the right thing, he really doesn’t want him to be someone that rocks the boat.

Vought has their own problems as well, and we cut to Ashley and the PR team at the God U campus.

All this bad publicity has caused applications to drop, and they now want to catapult a student into the Seven to buy some good publicity. Pulling out Andre’s profile, we see some pretty interesting stuff on it, including the risks that he might act out as a way to rebel against his dad and the brand. They also have his additional skills as being that he can do a British accent, and Chance Perdermo, who plays him, holds dual citizenship after moving to Southampton when he was a kid.

The name Andre Anderson also carries the alliteration that a lot of comic book characters have. They argue over his skin color, and it’s what I imagine a lot of corporate boards to be like, even though they push the ideas of being inclusive and diverse.

Cut to the woods, and we see several of the students trapped in their cells, all of which are unleashed by Cate. We really get some messed-up murders on screen, with Sam ripping out a guy named Bob’s face, and Cate getting another to eat his hands. We see the students fully unleashing their abilities throughout and

catch the fire supe that got teased earlier in the series.

Man hasn’t seen the sun since 2012, all the way back when Gangnam Style was released. He’s also dripping with sweat too, since his power centers around heating up.

Going back to his cell, Sam sees a vision of his brother, much in the same way his brother’s vision used to haunt him earlier in the season. He sort of acts as Sam’s conscience throughout the entry, but ultimately Sam turns away from his better judgment.

What I love about the show is you can kinda see things from his side too, as he’s been locked up and experimented on just for being himself. All of these supes have been rejected and oppressed, and the next obvious step is for them to cause an uprising.

Cut to the campus grounds, where we see Rufus recording a reaction to Desperado. Avoiding attacking supes, the woods’ prisoners move through the campus, killing humans, and metaphorically, it acts as a school shooting spree. I think there are clear allusions to how security footage from them has been presented, with it being one of the darkest things that both shows have tackled. It’s pretty graphic, with Cate even getting the social media manager to use an explosive on himself. It’s revealed that he’s undercover, working for the woods, and we see him busting out the same sonic device that the guards had earlier in the season. Sonics were shown to even be powerful enough to stop Homelander, and it manages to stop the supe he encounters.

However, Cate’s way more powerful and catches him off guard, leading to the fatal livestream that gets more publicity for the massacre.

Back in the board room, we see them debating whether to enlist Maverick, with them talking about how he could be a pervert like his dad. As we know, Translucent hung around bathrooms, and we know that Maverick is hanging out the back of Sloan.

Anyway, in the theater society, we see Adam Bourke watching an audition. This is a monologue from his film Dawn of the Seven, with it being something he loves due to his own ego. Attacked by Sam, he ends up fleeing, and, gonna be honest, mate, I was sweating for him, thinking Bourke might not make it.

He’s saved by Emma arriving, and Sam ends up going off on one about how this is what normal looks like when he’s been treated the way they have been. Sam says Emma wants what’s best for her and that she’s just doing things so people like her. Gotta disagree, man, and when she was going on the run to save Sam, she truly seemed like she’d give it all up. But the popularity definitely ended up costing her, however, this is easily her lowest point.

Now, at this point, she shrinks down, showing that her size is more to do with her mood than what she eats and vomits out. Clearly having to make herself sick to shrink caused her a lot of emotional turmoil, but she and her mother wrongly assumed that it was tied to the food. Instead, this shows that it’s actually linked with how she is mentally, and this low point has made her go to a low point.

We’ll talk about how this could impact the ending, but this does change the dynamics.

Now, because of this, Emma’s clothes don’t fit her, but she could get some new ones at the Heavy Spoilers merch store. Right now, we’re selling t-shirts inspired by Loki, Ahsoka, and even our own dumb sayings like theory time, so definitely go below the video to check them out. We’ve also just launched a VS top with two of the most iconic villains in pop culture, which is now part of our classic movie breakdown brand. All the money helps videos like this get made, and a huge thank you to everyone who has bought one.

Cate continues to try and recruit Andre, and we see as she offers to make Sam a soulless killer. He takes her up on this offer to make his brother go away and stop hating himself. He says goodbye to the personification of his brother and allows Cate to make him feel nothing. At this point, he’s truly lost, and it’s such a tragic arc for the character. I actually wonder if he could end up being in the Seven, and they might make him take over the position of Black Noir.

I think the whole twist they do with him is too well-known to make it shocking in the show, and they could end up using Sam instead. So far, Vought has kept his death under wraps, and they might end up keeping it hush-hush, so things don’t get exposed.

Now, across the campus, we see as things get locked down, and the bars drop in place. This is something we’ve had teased throughout the show, with even the first episode highlighting this is a makeshift prison. Sonic alarms are also played across campus and we see Marie running under a painting of the seven. This is on the ceiling like the Sistine Chapel with the art style being similar to how it is in the comics.

Cut to Ashley, which is when we hear Bourke shouting. They also did something similar at the Dawn of the Seven premiere, which continued the whole ripping out her hair thing. This was actually a nod to the comics with the Patsy CEO doing the same thing when the blame fell on them.

LINKING GEN V AND THE BOYS: EASTER EGGS AND THEORIES

Now the sonics are destroyed by a sonic supe who lets out a scream like Banshee from the X-Men. At this point, Ashley asks for Homelander and a helicopter to be called, which sets up what happens as the episode ramps up. Ashley offers Marie a position in the Seven and also the chance for her to have a meeting with her sister. After her parents’ death, she was shoved off to Red River and has desperately been trying to get back to her sister. The only other goal has been getting in the Seven, and here she has those two things offered on a platter. However, as with all things Vought, it’s just a superficial status symbol rather than being something without any depth. Just in the same way that the school’s been a fraud, the Seven itself is also this too.

Now outside, Cate commands that the helicopter be taken down, and we see Andre still doing the right thing, even though it’s costing him. It makes me wonder whether the V is going to cause all the supes to go like this, as we had the brain thing happening with Cate as well when she was using her powers. Also, massive shoutouts to our editor Matt for pointing out the aesthetic of this episode being like the X-Men. The name Gen-V was, of course, a play off the Gen-X movie they made, with Goldokins school in the comics being like the one for gifted youngsters. Beyond that, though, Cate and Marie are like Magneto and Professor X with their ideologies lining up almost exactly. Cate wants to wipe all humanity out, and this is because they tried to commit genocide. Marie, on the other hand, doesn’t want to do that, but she also doesn’t really have any out-and-out solutions.

Commanding Maverick to take Cate out, we see her going toe-to-toe with a major test. With Golden Boy, she ended up running away, but here she has to prove that she’s actually a hero. Love the way that she starts trying to give a motivational talk and, yeah man, so many comic book movies devolve into this in a third act. “Reach inside yourself,” just to see it failing like this is hilarious, and she’s the one who has to dig inside herself to make Maverick’s blood appear. Taking him out, the school starts to crumble while Jordan tries to save the CEOs. I’m kinda surprised that they don’t side with the guardians at the end, but it clearly shows how much Homelander’s now in control. That shot of him in the Seven Tower almost makes it seem like he’s giving approval to the story because his propaganda wing is controlling the narrative. The PR teams are probably scared that the truth will come out, and this is why the guardians are locked up in a Vought facility. We will talk about it later in the video, but this move was clearly done for a reason.

Now, after rejecting Cate’s call, Andre and Sam go head-to-head, which leads to the former using a stun stick on him. This somewhat has a sense of irony to it, as it’s what weapon would’ve been used on him in the woods. Leading to a face-off between Cate and Marie, I kinda feel bad for the predicament they’re in. “You’re not a person, you’re a product,” and to be honest, Cate is kinda right. Vought is going to use her to get what they want, and if she tries to stand up for herself, they’re not going to care. They just see Marie as a commodity, and in the end, even though she helps, she’s still betrayed. Channeling her powers, she saves the higher-ups once more and ends up blowing off Cate’s arm to stop her using her powers.

Now the episode ends with Homelander arriving, and you can totally feel the entire tone of the episode shift. Speaking of tones shifting, I love how the music does too, with the heroic entrance kind of droning out. Now what he says here is extremely important, and even though she’s respectful, he sees Supe on Supe crime as being indefensible. To him, the real war is between Superhuman and human, and this plays his hand for what the real plan is. I want to talk about some comic spoilers in just a bit, but I’ll save that for its own section in case you want to duck out. That also involves what happens with the Butcher scene, but they’re clearly heading in a similar direction.

As for the Guardians, the news is running with the story that they were behind the murder spree, with even Emma being roped into it.

The new guardians have been elected, with Cate and Sam being pushed as heroes. What Homelander’s really got, though, is two complete psychopaths who can easily be accepted into the public. However, what they really are, though, is people who can be controlled, which symbolically has been shown in the characters themselves. Cate’s pusher powers allow her to somewhat puppet someone, and Sam himself sees people like that. Looking at the subtext, this was obviously done on purpose to add a sense of irony to what’s about to happen. Homelander is no doubt going to control them, and he’s got two extremely powerful supes now operating under him.

There’s also the possibility that even if things are brought to the surface, no one is going to believe them. “You think they’re going to believe a black girl and a bigender Asian supe?” As for the gang, they’re holed up in a hospital room with no doors or windows. A nice little detail on the gowns themselves is that they have Vs on them because, yeah… Vought. Now, Marie survived the blast because we know the supes have super strength, and even Stormfront could survive getting lasered in her chest like that. “Laser my f**king t**s.” As for where they are, I actually think this is Elmira, which has been teased at throughout the show. So far, we’ve seen Sage Grove and The Woods, but this is the one place that hasn’t been shown to us so far. Now, there obviously will be doors, but they’ll be flush with the wall, and this is so that the guardians can be kept prisoner. I actually think, right, I think Emma’s going to be how they escape, as her powers go beyond being activated when she’s sick or eats too much. Just in the same way Ant-Man kickstarted Endgame, I think that Emma will be the one who solves all this. Her breaking into the woods shows she has the capabilities to break facilities like this, and only Shetty suspected her involvement, which I’m guessing these have overlooked. As for what they’re there for, I don’t think that Vought will want them around anytime soon, and instead, they might be used to juice up other supes, just like how Sam was. Either way, though, this is clearly a Vought facility, so it makes sense that they would want to keep a close eye on them.

Now the episode ends with a major mid-credits scene that sees Butcher discovering the woods. Though last week Victoria took the canister of the virus, Billy could easily reverse engineer it due to the corpse that we know was left there. He was given less than two years to live at the end of season 3, with him swearing to take Victoria out. Thus, him going there could be getting the virus too, which may be where things all head off to.

To the sound of “Kids in America,” we close out wondering what’s going to happen next, but I have a pretty fair idea.

Full spoilers ahead for the comic books, so if you don’t want to know what happens, then please turn off now.

Anyway, Homelander is clearly putting his people in place to take over everything, which is what ends up playing out in the comics. At Herogasm, he hires a woman of the night to distract the Vought CEO and goes to give a speech telling them to mount up. However, just before delivering it, the CEO returns, having sussed out the situation. Burned by this, Homelander still continues his cause, and he begins to get the supes to all side with him in his rebellion.

Going to the White House, he ends up killing the president, who at this point is Victor Neuman. Vic had infiltrated the White House as the vice president, but once the man in charge was killed, he got the position. I think that this is something that will happen with Victoria, and that she’ll take over from Singer when something no doubt happens to him.

Now, Homelander at this point sits in the Oval Office, which is when Butcher’s sent in to take him out. At this point, we get the reveal that Black Noir’s a clone of him, and he kills Homelander before Butcher finishes him. Butcher then goes on to kill all the boys, and he attempts to wipe out every supe through using a radio frequency that detonates V.

Now, personally, I think they’ll condense these plotlines into one to make it so that Victoria is killed by Homelander, and that Butcher then unleashes the disease. This will take out not only him but also supes across the world, resetting the power balance and taking it away from Vought. Now, this would lead to a lot of supe deaths, and potentially someone like Marie can help control the disease. In the end, Butcher failed with his plan, and thus Hughie and Annie were able to have a life together. Still, though I think that going this direction would mean that they bring all these elements together into one cohesive plot.

I love how all these strands are fitting together, and the cameo by Butcher tops it off perfectly. This was actually teased to us last week with the line.

GEN V EPISODE 8: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Now Homelander being brought in too shows how he’s starting to handle the situation and that he truly aligns with Cate’s ideals to wipe humanity out. I think it could really make things ramp up into something spectacular, and I can’t wait to see where they go with it. As for my thoughts on the season, this was a really strong show that was way better than what my expectations for it were. I thought this was going to be some CW kind of spin-off that watered things down, but it really elevated The Boys for me in a way I thought it never could. Seeing this world from a teenager’s perspective added a lot, and there were so many great twists and turns here.

Every episode was better than the last, and it kept growing in quality each and every week. I do feel like the ending of the finale was kinda… just very short, and I would’ve ideally liked to have seen a bit more.

I hate when stuff just randomly cuts to black without having a proper ending, and yeah, I think that final scene could’ve been a bit longer, even if I was enjoying seeing Homelander show up.

It is a nitpick in what’s been a really strong show, and I also hope that you’ve enjoyed our coverage of it.

Obviously, I’d also love to hear your comments, so make sure you drop them below.

Please drop a like on the video, and if you want to support the channel as a member of the Spoiler Society, then please click the join button.

You’ll get early access to videos every week, and it goes such a long way to helping us.

Now, if you want something else to watch, we have a video on screen right now.

With that out of the way, a huge thank you for sitting through the video. I’ve been your host, and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace.