Gen V Season 2 Episode 8 Ups the Ante: The Guardians of Godolkin — Spoiler Recap and Review

Short version: the kids at Godolkin just unleashed something awful, and now they have to clean it up. Long version: buckle up. This one is messy, gory, occasionally clever, and very obviously steering the spinoff straight into The Boys proper. Yes, full spoilers ahead for Gen V Season 2, all of The Boys, and apparently where The Boys is headed next.

How we got a new monster professor

Flash back to 1967: Godolkin (Ethan Slater) wakes up in the blaze that wiped out his lab and, with no other option, jabs himself with Compound V. Not the polished stuff — V1. The same early recipe that juiced up Stormfront and Soldier Boy and conveniently froze their ages in time. It keeps him alive, even while he burns.

Jump to now: the crew hunts the man they knew as Cipher. Doug (Hamish Linklater) finally lays it out — Godolkin took V1, hijacked Doug’s body to commit crimes, killed his previous host, and tried more than once to take over Marie (Jaz Sinclair) back at Elmira. Doug is grateful to be free, clearly needs a hospital, and is rattled enough to admit just how deep the control went.

Sister Sage has a plan — Godolkin wants a class

Godolkin holes up with Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), bingeing food and booze while thanking her for a very long game that included dropping the Odessa Project in Starlight’s lap and conveniently bringing Annabeth (Keeya King) back into Marie’s orbit. Sage invites him to move into Vought Tower with her. He says sure — after one last lesson.

"I need to teach one more class."

The hospital run that does not end well

Doug and Polarity are en route to the ER, and Doug is weirdly chatty, reminiscing about Andre’s hijinks — including the time Andre peed in a coffee Godolkin was about to drink — before calling Andre the greatest hero he’s ever seen. Then a sword drops through the car roof and skewers Doug. A gas grenade follows. Black Noir II (Nathan Mitchell) snatches Polarity. It’s a brutal pivot.

Marie pulls herself together, mostly

Back in the dorm, Marie is spiraling. Emma (Lizze Broadway) and Cate (Maddie Phillips) shut down the pity party, and when Emma and Annabeth step out, Marie restores Cate’s powers. Meanwhile, Godolkin pops up on social, announces he’s alive, resets campus rankings, and dangles invites to his seminar: make it to the right button, earn a shot at the Top 10. Marie screams into the timeline to stay away. Sam (Asa Germann) and Emma try to block their frat from going. Rufus wipes their memories for their trouble, and they come to with genitals Sharpied on their faces. College!

Open mic night at the slaughterhouse

Godolkin’s seminar is a trap for students he calls campus failures, including Rufus. Homelander tries to call Sage about this whole problem; she rejects the call. Then Godolkin makes the room play his favorite game: stop him from reaching a big red button. He mind-controls them into attacking each other. He hits the button intact; most of the room is bleeding out. One survivor sprints across the quad, screaming his name.

Marie tells Jordan she’s going after Godolkin. She apologizes; Jordan says they’re done. They don’t work, period. Timing could be better, but okay.

Sage vs ego, and a door left ajar

Between rounds, Godolkin chugs water and his skin starts sliding back toward its charred default. Sage tries to pull him off the ledge. He’s convinced if he can take Marie’s mind, he can take Homelander’s next — and that Homelander is weak because he won’t tolerate real competition inside the Seven. Sage begs him to follow her plan. He goes with his ego.

Elsewhere, Polarity listens to Noir II critique one of Polarity’s old blockbusters until Sage barges in and orders Noir to go. She tells Polarity trusting people has made him weaker — having Marie heal him was a mistake — and then very deliberately leaves the door open behind her. She wants him to walk.

The ambush

Godolkin sets up for another seminar and Marie walks in. He zeroes in on her. That’s the cue: the frat guy who can hide people in his butt has smuggled the rest of the Guardians into the room. Harper (Jessica Clement) jumps in to siphon Godolkin’s powers long enough for the crew to bail. Marie decides to finish it now — and that snap decision is exactly what he needed. He breaks through, puppets Marie, and turns her blood-bending on her own friends. Everyone gets pinned, and it’s about to be a massacre.

Polarity blows through the door, knocks Godolkin off balance, and Marie detonates him. Boom. Problem solved, sort of.

• Butt-portal infiltration, power siphon via Harper, Godolkin levels up by hijacking Marie, Polarity saves the moment, Marie explodes him. Yes, it’s as deranged as it sounds.

Run now, join the revolution later

Polarity says Vought is inbound and orders everyone to scatter. Marie wants to stand her ground; he shuts that down, warning Homelander already thinks they’re Starlighters. The team bolts, Polarity stays behind and promises to be in touch.

During a bathroom pit stop, Annabeth and Marie patch things up and decide to stick together. Starlight (Erin Moriarty) arrives to thank them for taking down Godolkin and invites them to join the resistance. A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) zips in to note, helpfully, that rebels shouldn’t just hang out in public. The Guardians agree to join up.

Does the finale work?

Kind of, but mostly because of what it sets up for The Boys, not for itself. As a capper to this season, it’s surprisingly flat. The stakes have been climbing for weeks, but the show keeps choosing the least interesting routes, banking on our investment in the flagship instead of the students we’ve been following.

The big swing — swapping in Ethan Slater as the final-form villain — plays awkward. Nothing against Slater; he’s just a lighter presence than Hamish Linklater, who carried the menace all season. We only get around 70 minutes total of Slater as the Big Bad, and then he’s gone. If the idea was to seed him for future seasons, he needed time to leave a specific imprint. Season 1 stuck the landing by making Cate the villain; that emotionally paid off. This time, not so much. And if the stunt was meant to juice viewership, that’s a strange bet — it’s tough to imagine Broadway diehards or Ariana Grande stans parachuting in just for this.

Where this leaves Gen V (and The Boys)

By the end, the handoff is official: Starlight and A-Train recruit the campus crew, which felt inevitable given how many Seven-adjacent faces — Black Noir II, the Deep, Sister Sage, Firecracker — have wandered through the season. Still, it’s a frustrating move. The early-season fear was that Gen V would turn into a delivery system for The Boys. Here we are. Instead of carving out its own weird, scrappy path — think a 70s Hulk road show mashed with Ultimate X-Men problems-of-the-week — our students are now joining an already-in-progress war without the personal stakes Gen V spent time building.

Worst case, the Gen V kids siphon screen time in The Boys while not getting enough of their own to grow. With The Boys allegedly in its endgame, this is a rough moment to bolt on a massive crossover. I hope I’m wrong.

Gen V drops Wednesdays on Prime Video. The Guardians of Godolkin aired October 22, 2025.