How the Gen V season 1 finale ending and cameos set up The Boys season 4

“Guardians of Godolkin,” the Gen V season 1 finale, is one of the best episodes of the season so far. It has everything fans could want in a TV episode: intense action, a battle between good vs. evil, tough decisions and moments or our protagonists, an incredible plot twist, and two — yes, TWO — cameos from The Boys.

Let’s start with the recap of what went down in the season finale before we get to the ending, those epic cameos, and what it means for Gen V season 2 and The Boys season 4. There are spoilers for the season 1 finale of Gen V; you’ve been warned!

The eighth episode of the first season begins during the fallout from the seventh episode and Cate murdering Dean Shetty. At Shetty’s house, Cate and Sam make a pact to save the students of the Woods. Sam thinks he is doing something noble to save Emma, Marie, and Jordan from the higher forces of Godolkin. Marie, Emma, and Jordan form a plan to stop them.

Elsewhere, Andre learns that his father’s powers are causing his brain’s neural pathways to die. The doctor asks Andre if he’s suffering the same issues, and it’s clear that Andre is getting lightheaded occasionally and suffering some ticks. His father confesses that he played along and knew all about the Woods to protect Andre. His father urges Andre to stay the course for their family and his future, even though his powers are killing him.

Cate uses her powers and Sam’s brute strength and willingness to kill to free all the students who were trapped in the Woods. Luke returns to Sam’s old room in Sam’s visions, and they have an argument that happens all in Sam’s head. He tries to convince Sam to stop, but Sam closes the door.

Cate and the students from the Woods find the students who have been killed by the virus. Cate uses it to rouse the troops. They start killing all of the non-Supe people on the Godolkin campus. Cate even makes Jeff, the social media guy, put a bomb in his mouth and blow himself up.

Sam nearly kills the director of the Dawn of the Seven, Adam Borke (PJ Byrne), but Emma stops him, and they have a huge fight. Sam tells Emma that she’s not a hero for saving him and that she did it so everyone will like her. It’s pointed criticism, and Emm breaks down in tears… then shrinks to her miniature version, somehow.

As the Supes are killing everyone, Sam is struggling with feelings of guilt. He asks Cate if they are doing the right thing, and she insists they are. She also offers to help him get over these feelings and get back to killing, which he accepts.

Meanwhile, Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie) and the board of directors are at Godolkin trying to pick new members for consideration for the Seven. They’re saved when Marie initiates the lockdown protocol, but it’s quickly destroyed by one of the Supes from the Woods with supersonic powers. Ashley calls Marie and offers her a place in the Seven and a call with her sister if she can stop Cate, Sam, and the rest of the Woods Supes.

Andre arrives just in time to save the Vought helicopter, but it zaps his strength. Cate is also struggling. She’s used her power to control so many people, and she’s continuing to do it. She tells Maverick, the Invisible Supe, to stop Marie, but Marie is able to harness her power, using the conversation she had with Victoria Neuman, and locate Maverick. She knocks him out, and it’s revealed that his non-invisible form is naked and possibly covered in those viral bumps we saw on the Supes in the Woods.

Andre tries to get Cate to call off the battle and join him, but she tries to double-cross him and then sends Sam after him. Andre eventually fights him off.

Marie tries to stop Cate, and she even agrees that there’s no going back from this. “I just want to be a good person,” Marie tells Cate, and then she does the most incredible thing we’ve seen her do in Gen V so far. After saving Jordan from rogue Supes, Marie uses the blood of all the dead people outside, turns the blood into knives, and kills a Supe trying to kill the board or directors hiding in the helicopter.

There’s an epic moment between Marie and Jordan, but Cate ruins it by trying to use her powers to control Jordan. She reaches for Jordan, but Marie blows up Cate’s arm at the elbow!

If the episode ended here with Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre saving the day, I’d be happy, but this is not Marvel or DC. The heroes do not always win or lose in simple terms.

Gen V season 1 ending explained

At the end of “Guardians of Godolkin, everything goes insane. Homelander (Antony Starr) arrives, and he asks Marie what kind of animal she is. He also asks, “Do you like attacking your own kind?” I read this moment as racial profiling on Homelander’s part, but it’s also possible that it’s part of his Make Supes Great Again mission. Maybe, it’s both!

Marie has a second of clarity. She’s going down for this, and Homelander uses his laser powers on Marie before it cuts to a news story about how Emma, Marie, Jordan, and Andre massacred everyone at Godolkin. Cate and Sam are dubbed the New Guardians of Godolkin. Ugh, puke.

Finally, we learn that Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre are alive. They’re being kept in hospital beds in a room with no doors, likely in some Vought facility. This is not good.

That appears to be where The Boys season 4 will begin, but there’s a post-credits scene at the end of Gen V season 1!

It’s short, but it features a fan-favorite from The Boys, Butcher (Karl Urban), walking through what’s left of the Woods and dropping an epic one-liner — “What a bunch of ****s” — before the credits roll again.

What an incredible plot twist and cliffhanger ending! We’re led to believe, for the last several episodes of the season, that Marie, Emma, Jordan, and Andre are the Guardians of Godolkin. They’re going to be the heroes that save the day. They’ll get in deeper with Vought, and that’s where the series was going to move in season 2.

Obviously, that was not the case. After stopping Cate’s Supe attack at Godolkin, Homelander, who was always awful but is somehow becoming even more awful, and Vought decide to pin this massacre on the four students who went out of their way to save everyone. It flips the story on its head, and it changes everything heading into The Boys season 4 and Gen V season 2.

How Homelander and Butcher cameos set up The Boys season 4

So, how has everything changed? Gen V season 1 positions Vought as an even more dangerous organization. Homelander has fully embraced his new populist, pro-Supes position. Supe superiority seems even more likely in the future than ever before, and it figures to be a decisive topic during the upcoming election that Victoria Neuman is directly involved in.

For Homelander, his appearance at Godolkin and how the story is twisted with the media is more proof that he’s not an incredibly destructive path. Vought has always covered up his crimes and spun them in a way that helps him, but that unchecked has only empowered Homelander, who is well on the path of Stormfront, and the literal Nazis who supported her.

The kicker is the further Homelander goes, the more people become directly involved. It was relatively easy for Vought to look the other way so many times, but this is just another example of the corporation covering for his crimes. We saw how one person (Dean Shetty) from Homelander’s path almost single-handedly created a weapon that could kill all the Supes. Do we think that Marie, Emma, Andre, and Jordan are going to go down without a fight? Of course not! Are Sam and Cate going to bend to Vought’s will? I think we know that Cate will, eventually, but will Sam? The kernels of regret are already there. I think those questions will be explored at length in Gen V season 2. We should see the “perpetrators” of the Godolkin 4 Massacre fighting their way out.

Wouldn’t they all make great members of the Boys? I think so, and there might be even someone more important who feels like that, too.

As for Butcher and The Boys season 4, there’s one person who is not afraid to destroy all of Supe kind with a deadly virus, it’s Butcher. Based on the post-credits scene, it appears he’s looking into what happened at Godolkin. So, he either knows all about the Woods, the virus, Dr. Cardosa, Dean Shetty, and all of that, or he’s about to find out.

The events of “Sick,” the seventh episode of Gen V season 1, will loom large in The Boys season 4. Yes, we’re still going to get Homelander and the Seven vs. the Boys plus the Supes who are on their side, but the weapon to winning the war is already available. Butcher just has to find it.

And, remember, Dean Shetty pitched Grace Mallory, someone close to Butcher, on distributing this virus. Mallory rebuffed her, but will she always feel that way? Will she let that intel slip to Butcher? That’s one way this could all go down.

Furthermore, we know the virus is in the hands of Victoria Neuman, who is not above doing whatever it takes to advance herself in this world. Could she create an antidote to save herself and the Supes she deems worthy and wipe out the likes of Homelander? Will she work with Vought to create a vaccine to save Supekind and ride her way to an election win in the process? There are so many possibilities. We’ll just have to find out in The Boys season 4!

Unfortunately, it’s probably going to be a long wait for The Boys season 4 and Gen V season 2. Stay tuned for more news about the new seasons.