Gen V Season 1 Episode 2 Review: First Day
Denis Kimathi
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Even if the Gen V series premiere was fast-paced, with a lot happening, the decision to introduce the season-long conflict did not turn out to be a bad one.
Gen V Season 1 Episode 2 built on the events of the series premiere and, for that reason, cemented the narrative as something worth following, even for people who weren't the biggest fans of the show based on the series premiere.
We dealt with the aftermath of Luke's suicide, as the show tried to convey what would happen when someone as important as Golden Boy leaves the picture abruptly, leaving a vast vacuum and the people who would rise to occupy that.
None of the characters on the show deserve what they have, whether good or bad.
All the powers they gained by sheer luck, but one can't deny that they've paid the price for having them, and some continue to pay that price to this day.
Whether it is Emma, who has to make herself vomit to activate her powers, or Andre, whose father is an absolute tool trying to relive his past glory through his son, this denies Andre any room for growth.
But for some reason, even if she did pay the price after killing her parents by accident, it somehow felt like Marie deserved nothing she had happening to her.
In her first few days at God U, attention had shifted to her in a never-seen-before way, and that didn't seem to be going away soon.
She seemed to have a lot of good luck, and in a world where people must fight for their place, she felt like a grifter.
Luke's death and the vacuum it created saw different factions try to come up with something to fill it.
Ashley was on top of the matter and was disappointed that she wouldn't get to sell the merch she had explicitly made to introduce Golden Boy to the world as part of The Seven.
Seeing Golden Boy die when he had started to grow on me was not fun, and little sense came from his death.
Something was amiss at God U, and many people were trying to cover it up.
Kyle: What about Jordan Li? They're the one who actually fought Golden Boy.
Ashley: Oh, a bi-gender Asian with pronoun fuckery. Great fucking idea, Kyle. Try selling that to Dallas and Fort Lauderdale. We lead with Andre and this Marie chick. Score some points with the NAACP. Figure out the rest later.
There were some mysteries and questions from Gen V Season 1 Episode 1 that needed answers, and even if the episode didn't provide any answers to any, it confirmed a lot of what we had been suspecting. Luke's death was not purely suicide.
Luke had been dreaming a lot about his brother, troubling him. On the one hand, he believed his brother was dead, but on the other, there was evidence that Sam was alive.
Given what we saw Shetty and the doctors in The Woods do to Sam, there was good reason to believe they wouldn't want that information out.
It also begged the question of what they were doing and why they were doing it. Were they trying to extract Compound V from supes, hoping to sell it with the guarantee that the person who injects it will become a supe?
With the many powerful supes they had in the school, why Sam?
The episode dived into Emma and Jordan and exposed the pitfalls of their powers.
Emma: I purge
Justine: Purge?
Emma: To get small.
Justine: Like [gestures purging].
Emma: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I got a little smaller each time. It takes a while. It's not fun. It's gross. Kinda hate myself for it.
Emma had kept the trick of her shrinking to herself because it was disturbing, given the implication of an eating disorder that might entail.
Jordan was discriminated against because of their gender, where they weren't considered marketable enough to the general population, given the hard line many people take on binary gender.
Both characters seemed to have a bigger story, and the hope was that they would be explored.
For a show set in a learning institution, there didn't seem to be a lot of academic activity going on, but maybe supe schools operate differently?
There was a nod toward that direction as Emma attended a performing arts class while Marie finally got accepted to the school of crime fighting.
Even if a lot of learning didn't happen in the sessions, they were introduced to the topics the classes would cover. I hope they are taught something because I'm curious how writers create make-believe lessons.
After the death of his "best friend" (I still don't think they were best friends), Andre decided to leave no stone unturned to discover the truth, and even if they end up being best friends, I'll feel like they are the kind of best friends one would root for.
Andre seemed genuinely shaken about Luke's death and wanted to make sense of the situation. He went off to investigate independently, even at the expense of his career.
Something peculiar happened with Cate based on her actions.
She seemed too interested in what Andre was up to and made a point of attaching herself to him to keep tabs on him.
When he would discover something related to Luke and Sam, for example, the phone in his father's crotch, Cate would attempt to dissuade him from following it.
You can't trust anyone, and Cate was not trustworthy.
For someone who could tell a guy to whack his balls repeatedly while yelling Jumanji and the guy does that, what else could she make people forget?
Cate: Do you like baseball?
Rufus: Baseball? Yeah.
Cate: You're gonna take a little jog over to Dick's Sporting Goods, buy yourself a nice Louisville Slugger, bring it right back to the quad, and swing that bat as hard as you can into your nuts. Every hour, on the hour, and every time you swing, yell, "Jumanji!" Sound good?
Rufus: Sounds fucking great.
"First Day" was a deeper dive into the story, and even if a lot didn't make sense, it felt justified, and there was a level of trust the show developed as it promised to reveal everything in due time.
Intrusive Thoughts
- The social media manager for God U is hilarious. His jokes might be crude and shocking, but that's the beauty of Gen V.
- While there weren't any penises shown, the references were still very present, and if this is how people who are sensitive to the overuse of the word "pussy” in general media feel, I can't imagine how they survive.
- What was Golden Boy doing with a drawer full of dildos? Was Andre party to the usage of those dildos by any chance? Oh, they were not best friends, methinks.
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I miss him.
Andre
- Shetty is as evil as they come; don't let that proper accent fool you. There is a strong chance that The Woods is her solo endeavor.
- Shetty must have leaked Marie's weakness about her sister to the interviewer to manipulate her emotionally.
The Boys Universe has a talent for making fun of a specific group of people without them even realizing it. Who did you clock being made fun of?
What did you think?
Chime in in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on X.
