Episode Review: Gen V 1x2 - "First Day"

Welcome back to the blog readers. Well, that was a pretty interesting way to start your show. Gen V (2023-), a series set in the universe of The Boys (2019-26), started out as wild and intense as an episode of its parent show. I think we got some pretty interesting characters and a pretty intriguing story, although I am not quite sure where the show is going to lead us in the future. We could start by talking about this second episode, titled "First Day," written by Zak Schwartz and Brant Englestein, and directed by Nelson Cragg. Would this episode be another worthy addition in the show's promising start? Stick around to find out.

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I think the last episode had a real issue in not really catching its stride, which is something that almost every show has in common with each other. But it also had something that I really liked, and that was the promise of a show that would not take long to find its own identity. It only took two episodes, but this show has absolutely found its stride. I found myself gravitating towards more performances this time around (but I will only be talking about the ones of Jaz Sinclair and Chance Perdomo), and the story is starting to make strides in getting me to watch this show.

I want to start this review off by talking about a more familiar face in that of Jaz Sinclair and her performance in this episode. In my review of the previous episode, I praised her ability to combine confidence and nervousness to make her character of Marie Moreau one of the best new characters in a new show I have ever seen. And god damn it, she did it again in this episode. I felt myself feeling for her more than I did last time, and it is all because Sinclair is able to tap into what makes her such a gifted performer in the first place. In this episode, I saw regret, I saw untapped trauma, and I saw a masterclass in tapping into emotion that solidifies my previous claim that she is going places. I really hope she is able to keep up this level of performance for the rest of the series.

I next want to talk about the performance of the late Chance Perdomo. Perdomo is someone that obviously never got the chance to grow and shine and become what he was meant to become, but his minor roles in the After (2021-23) film series and his main role in the series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-20) put him on the radar enough to get him cast in this series. And I think what he was able to do in this second episode was some phenomenal stuff. He is able to capture some of the same trauma and PTSD that Jaz Sinclair did last episode, and he was just as phenomenal in channeling the same level of depression that comes with losing your best friend and not knowing what to do so well. It just sucks that after this season, we will never see this character again.

And now we have to get into the story, because what we got this time around sold me much more than the first episode did. We begin in the aftermath of Luke Riordan's outburst and suicide that night, where Marie Moreau and Andre Anderson are still reeling, as is Luke's former girlfriend Cate Dunlap. While they are moping, Godolkin dean Indira Shetty is meeting with the staff of the school and getting an earful from Ashley Barrett (played by special guest Colby Minifie) of Vought, claiming they have to dump their millions of dollars in Golden Boy merchandise and imploring Godolkin to find a cover-up for the incident, leading them to suggest Luke was an avid drug user and had a psychotic break that led to violence. Ashley reveals she knows about the "Woods" and pressures Shetty into keeping it silent. Shetty and her colleagues concoct a solution to the other kids: put everybody on the rankings of the top 10, with Andre showing up at 1, Marie showing up at 8 (making her the first freshman to ever appear on the top 10 of students), and Jordan Li being 5 (pissing them off since they actually fought Luke). Andre and Marie are scheduled for a photo shoot and an interview with Vought News correspondent Hailey Miller. The constant attention is beginning to disturb Marie, who is placed in 300-level crimefighting with Shetty as the new instructor after the death of Brink.

Marie is introduced to Godolkin's head of social media and she is given a phone (to which she comically learns to use throughout the episode), while Cate and Jordan reconcile over Brink's death. Marie and Andre are introduced to Hailey and Andre tries to ask Marie if Luke left her with anything before he committed suicide, but all she can mention is the "Woods." Marie is told that she will be telling a story in which she defeated Luke and when she counters that she does not know what to say, a script is presented to her. Andre is pressured by his father to take advantage of the momentum that Luke's death has presented him. When Andre tries to get Marie to help him get to the bottom of Luke's death and the "Woods," Marie respectfully declines since she only went out with them one night and does not know them like Luke did, and reveals she was almost expelled for what he did in the club. She apologizes and wishes him luck in getting closure for Luke and Brink. Meanwhile, in her performing arts class, Marie's roommate Emma is partnered for an assignment with a young woman named Justine, and Emma confides in Justine the secret in how she gets small, only for Justine to tell all of Godolkin and not apologize for it later, leading Emma to have a depressive episode where she repeatedly vomits to make herself smaller and smaller.

Jordan confronts Marie about her being ranked on the leaderboard, and taking credit for fighting and defeating Luke. Marie reminds Jordan that they rejected her for the crimefighting school and that she is only playing along with the script she was given, while also revealing to her of her near-expulsion. Jordan begs Marie to give her credit as the person who fought Luke when she goes for her interview, and Marie decides to acquiesce. Meanwhile, Andre approaches Cate and is able to secure her help in figuring out what is going on. Andre expresses that he does not know what to do, and Cate tells him to put himself in Luke's shoes, leading Andre to claim that Luke would not stop until he got to the bottom of this. While all this is happening, Shetty invites Marie into her office and gives her a speech talking about her past that gets Marie to open up about her sister (who got adopted after what happened), and Shetty is able to get Marie on her side by claiming that she can help find her sister. After this, Shetty goes into an underground section of the college where she confronts the kid who was taken off the campus last episode. He is strapped on a table and told that escape will make things harder for him as a doctor puts a long needle in the boy's spine lumbar puncture style.

Andre uses his powers to force him and Cate into Luke's room, which has since been barricaded and restricted to everyone, but they find all of his stuff had been cleared out and the room was bleached. Later that night, he remembers what Luke's final words to him were: "your dad has it." He realizes that it may have something to do with the statue of his father on the campus grounds. Andre uses his powers to pry open the crotch of this statue and uncover a phone. When him and Cate are alone, they realize it is Luke's phone, and he had recorded a video claiming his thought-to-be-deceased brother Sam is still alive and being held at a facility underneath the school called the "Woods," and that Brink was in on the Woods. The two recall that Sam was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was "confirmed" to die in a facility. Andre decides to infiltrate Brink's office and hack his computer, leading him to realize the kid that he and Marie help to apprehend was Sam. He is able to snap a picture of his findings before being forced to hide from armed soldiers that raid the office and take the computer.

Marie is getting ready for her interview with Miller, preparing to credit Jordan for their part in stopping Luke, and Andre's father is getting more frustrated that his son is going to miss the interview. Miller drops a bombshell that she was able to get in contact with Marie's sister to add something for the interview, but she also reveals her sister wants nothing to do with her when Marie asks for her number. Deflated, Marie decides against her better judgment to follow the script that was given that gives her credit for fighting and defeating Luke, leading her afterwards to shrug off Emma's messages and cry in her dorm room. Meanwhile, Andre is caught by the same armed soldiers and tries to fight them off, but Cate makes her presence known and overuses her powers to get the soldiers to perform lewd acts on each other, causing her to pass out from exhaustion as Andre consoles her to end the episode.

Gen V packs a punch with its second episode, giving us more emotion, more mystery, and more batshit crazy scenes in its parent universe. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.