This recap will contain spoilers for Gen V Season 2 Episode 6, “Cooking Lessons.”

Welcome back! This week, some theories were confirmed, others were spawned, and emotions were high. So let’s dive into it.

Previously on Gen V, Cate’s powers were glitchy, Cipher was trying to push Marie to be the best blood bender she can be, Marie, Jordan, and Emma tried to break Cate out of Elmira but ended up getting caught again themselves, and Marie’s sister Annabeth died BUT Marie used her powers to bring her back to life.

We pick up where we left off: in Annabeth’s cell, Annabeth freshly alive and the alarms going off everywhere. They manage to convince a very shaken Annabeth to come with them, and they all take off, Jordan taking care of some guards and their sound beam weapons. Annabeth pauses for a moment and leads her very confused sister and company through a restricted access door, and just when it looks like she was just disoriented and led them to a dead end, Sam busts through the wall and helps them escape in an Elmira van he stole.

“It’s the future I can see, it’s so mysterious to me.” 🎶

In the van, Marie tries to talk to Annabeth, but she’s still shook. Emma calls what Marie did a miracle, but Marie isn’t a fan of that word…though she does have to admit that Cipher might have been right about her powers. She is more powerful than she realized, and his training did weirdly help her.

Someone mentions something about how long it will take to get to Canada, but not everyone is on board with that plan, especially Annabeth, who doesn’t want to go to “a foreign country with strangers.” Emma tries her best to reassure her in that chipper way of hers, but Annabeth doesn’t quite buy it.

Emma’s little asides are like finding a disco ball in an abandoned factory and I love her for it.

Marie says they need to take things one step at a time: They need a new car and to regroup and make a plan. She promises Annabeth that she’s safe, but Annabeth hasn’t felt safe with Marie in a decade, and she sure isn’t about to start now.

Meanwhile, Cipher is exercising the burned man in his home when he gets a call from Elmira about the escapees, and he is none too pleased. He tells them that he wants Moreau back and doesn’t care about the rest, and it was only now, hearing Marie’s last name out of context after not hearing it for a while, that I realized perhaps we always should have known she was some kind of science experiment with a name like that.

When he hangs up, Cipher is so mad he starts beating up the burned man a little before then mindlessly going back to exercising the burned man’s legs like nothing happened.

Marie & Co. break into a closed-down library (which looks like it was the victim of a book burning, a testament to the politically tense times they live in) and make a list of what they need: a new car, food, money, and a phone to call Polaris. But all they find at first are clothes, which they didn’t list but they do in fact need, because half of them are in prison jumpsuits and Annabeth is covered in blood. Sam goes off to see if there’s any food left to salvage, and Marie and Jordan take a minute to chat.

Jordan says that everything is different, now that they know Marie is one of the, if not THEE, most powerful supe in the world. They say nothing will ever be the same, but Marie insists THEY are the same, what they have between them. Marie still loves them, that hasn’t changed. Marie tries to hug them to reassure them but Jordan doesn’t look as sure about all this as Marie does.

I don’t like the way they’ve been looking at Marie this episode…

After scavenging some snacks from the vending machines, Sam and Emma find a phone that they try to use to call Polarity, but Emma doesn’t have her cell phone and doesn’t remember any numbers. Honestly, she remembers more of it than I would if I were asked to call anyone but my parents, but alas it is not enough. Luckily the computer mysteriously has internet, so she signs into Instagram and messages Harper and Ally for help.

Meanwhile, Marie tries to talk to Annabeth, who is still resistant. Marie says she knows Annabeth is a supe, but Annabeth says no one, not even Aunt Pam, knows about her powers. Marie asks when she was given Compound V, but Annabeth snaps back that her parents died before she could ask, which is a slap in her sister’s face.

It breaks my heart that Marie thought she was fighting for a glorious reunion while Annabeth was just around the corner hating her guts.

Marie is going to leave her alone after that, but Annabeth stops her by offering more information. She says that she gets these senses about things, and sometimes they come true and sometimes they don’t. Cate, who had been nearby finding a new hat to cover her scars, chimes in and says it sounds like Annabeth is a precog.

The bubble broken, Annabeth retreats back into her shell, saying “thanks for the resurrection or whatever” but she doesn’t feel like she owes Marie anything and doesn’t want to keep going with her, she just wants to go home to Aunt Pam’s. Marie explains it’s not safe to do that, and Annabeth blames Marie for “ruining” her life again.

That one stung!

This poor sweet traumatized girl doesn’t realize that all Marie wants is for Annabeth to be safe and happy, and she that she’s spend the better part of a decade looking for her to try to apologize and make sure she’s exactly that. But Annabeth looks at everything bad that’s happened in her life and sees a solid line leading straight back to Marie.

I blame Pam for this. Annabeth was just a scared kid, if anyone had reassured her it was an accident (because it WAS) we wouldn’t be here!!

Back on campus, Polarity wakes up after his…episode and finds Cipher sitting in his house. He knows Marie & Co. will contact him eventually for help, and he wants to pass on the message that he just wants Marie to come back to the school for training, and if she does, he’ll leave the rest of her friends and her sister alone. Polarity says he won’t lie for Cipher, but he pokes at Polarity’s wounds, pointing out that his brain is deteriorating like his son’s was, and that Marie can be the miracle they were waiting for to fix it. But Polarity won’t back down. Unfortunately, that’s when Harper happens to call Polarity, so Cipher puppeteers Polarity’s body to answer the phone and get the information about where Marie is.

At the library, Marie is taking a moment to herself in the bathroom to try to reckon with all this new information when she hears her friends calling her name. She comes out to find her sister in the middle of a panic attack, and talks her through breathing until she calms down. Annabeth says she hasn’t had one of those in a long time, and Marie is glad that this means Aunt Pam gave her a good life.

Probably better than the Red River Institute but could have done without the anti-sister propaganda!

At this moment, Marie decides she’s going to do whatever it takes to let her get back to it, even though it’s not safe to do so yet. Annabeth hates being a supe and all the drama and trauma that comes with, and almost as if the universe was saying “are you sure about that?”, her supe-y senses tingle in time to warn them about an incoming attack and Jordan is able to save them from an incoming hammer, thrown by Vikor from their training sessions at school.

Marie sends some of them to hide with Annabeth while they fight, but Annabeth doesn’t understand why Cate and Emma are hiding with her instead of helping. They’re supes, aren’t they? Cate tells Emma to get big but she hasn’t mastered that yet. She asks Cate to say something nice about her to help and Cate says, “Like what?” and Emma responds, “Fuck you,” and I know everything is stressful but this tickled me.

I really believe Cate’s doing her best to be good now, but sometimes that mean girl still shines through

Despite Jordan and Sam going after him too, Vikor is laser focused on Marie and chases her outside. A little girl shows up and Vikor tries to shoo her away…but instead, she tentacles his face off. His entire head, actually. It’s little Zoe Neuman, Victoria Neuman’s daughter.

Just the happiest little murder baby in all the land.

She’s there with her grandfather, Stan Edgar, who has heard great things about Marie and thinks they can help each other. His mentioning Victoria softens Marie to him, but she says she’ll only go with him if her friends can come too. He agrees, and so, they leave for somewhere safe, together.

Stan takes Marie & Co. to his underground bunker, which is zinc-reinforced to prevent x-ray vision from finding them, that Stan made specifically to protect himself during the rise of Homelander. On the way up, Marie tells Zoe that her mother made her feel special, and she’s sorry for what happened to her. Zoe seems to feel an instant kinship with Marie, which is great, because Marie is very powerful, but I still wouldn’t want her to be on the wrong side of those tentacles.

When they get into the bunker, Stan has Zoe show Sam, Emma, and Annabeth around while Marie, Cate, and Jordan stay back to get some answers while Stan makes them food.

I’m sorry but their stolen library gear looks so silly and I love them so much.

Stan tells them that Cipher didn’t originally make Odessa, Godolkin did, and the goal was to make god-tier supes. The difference is, Godolkin couldn’t get it to work but Cipher did. Twice. Once with Marie…and once with Homelander.

Marie, however, takes great offense to being compared to Homelander. “I’m not a fucking monster,” she declares.

I would also be deeply offended if someone tried to compare me to Homelander.

Though Jordan looks a little more alarmed by the comparison, like they’re noticing something they hadn’t before. Jordan tries to understand where Stan was going with this, saying, “If Marie is like Homelander…” but Marie once again declares she is nothing like him. Stan agrees this time, saying she’s not a deep abyss of sociopathy like he is, hence why she is sitting in his private safety bunker with him and all his blood. But Jordan continues their point: what is Cipher’s end game? Stan explains that while Godolkin wanted to control supes, Cipher wants to empower them. He wants what we’ve seen him sewing all this time: supe supremacy.

And Stan is who shut down Odessa in the first place, after Marie was born. Stan tells them that Cipher somehow put together all of Godolkin’s research after Godolkin supposedly died in a fire. When they hear the theory about how Godolkin could theoretically be alive, very old, and very crispy, Cate tells him about the burned man they found in Cipher’s house.

“No he didn’t go to Burning Man he HAS a burned man.”

Stan says he could have been keeping Godolkin prisoner and forcing the information out of him and says this information changes everything, though Marie isn’t sure how. Stan says he was ready to offer Marie comfort and safety in exchange for her service once he took back over at Vought — which he fully intends to do — but now he knows the answer to controlling supes could be in Godolkin’s head, potentially for him to access.
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Elsewhere in the bunker, Emma and Sam are reconnecting, Sam saying he’s on new meds and better than ever, and apologizing for how he treated Emma. He says he knows they can’t go back to how they were — and Emma agrees; they’ve both changed too much — but he’s hoping maybe they can try again someday.

After showing her around, Zoe bonds with Annabeth about how they’re both orphans now.

I don’t think Zoe is okay, psychologically, but gosh she’s sweet.

Zoe asks what it’s like having a big sister, and Annabeth remembers a time before their parents died, when she was too shy for Trick or Treating, so Marie would go out all night and then split her candy with her. She seems to soften, remembering this happy memory of the sister she’s spent so long villainizing.

Marie literally abandoned her friends and the love of her life in prison for you, girl!

Back in the main part of the bunker, Marie asks how Stan knows that Godolkin can help them, but the truth is he doesn’t. He shows her some of Godolkin’s research he’s salvaged, and she sees blueprints for the collars and sound blasters Cipher uses in Elmira. And Marie is starting to believe that maybe he could help them stop Cipher. But Stan is thinking bigger. He thinks Godolkin can help them stop Homelander.

Marie is ready to jump right in, but it sounds like Stan might not want her in this fight. He says, “Those who remain will reshape the world.” Which is cryptic and creepy but at least means he’s invested in Marie’s survival, so I’m here for it.

That night, Marie and Jordan are in bed together, and says they are with Marie, no matter what.

They’re a little more convincing this time, that they actually support Marie, even if she’s scarily powerful and it means Jordan will never be #1 again.

They say they should try to get some sleep, and Marie unconvincingly says maybe all this will make sense in the morning.

Back at GodU, Cipher is getting increasingly pissed he can’t find Marie now that Vikor was taken out of the equation. He plays “stop hitting yourself” with Polarity’s body for a while, doing a villain speech about culling supes, saying those like the guy with a gaping black hole in his ass aren’t going to be shepherding them into his supe supremacy future. He says by the time he’s done, the GodU population will be cut by at least 75%. He says the strong will survive and the rest will go the way of Andre. This pisses Polarity enough that he is able to wrest control of his body away from Cipher…and yeets Cipher out the window.

Back at the bunker, Marie sneaks out of bed, checks on Annabeth, then sneaks out of the bunker. She doesn’t get far before Cate catches up to her and offers to come with, but Marie resists. Cate then asks her to fix her brain, fix her powers, like she fixed Annabeth.

These two would be quite the formidable duo if they can start to trust each other.

Cate also thinks if she does, she can help Marie keep Cipher out of her head. This time, Marie doesn’t protest, and just turns around and keeps walking. Cate takes this silence as acquiescence and follows her into the night.

And so, some questions were answered, but still more go unanswered. Mysteries abound, and I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of friends from The Boys before this season is over.

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