'Gen V' Season 2 Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained: Did Annabeth Die?

In episode 4 of Gen V Season 2, in order to do some image control after Jordan’s speech at the Godolkin Day event, God U and Vought organized a cage fight between Jordan and Marie. The main purpose of that fight was to get people to forget about Jordan’s words and just focus on her getting beaten up by Marie, symbolically defeating the narrative that Jordan tried to peddle. They had no option but to partake in this event, because if they didn’t, Marie, Jordan, and their friends would be chucked into Elmira. So, instead of pushing back against Cipher’s demands, they accepted his terms. Now, while Cipher was focused on training Marie, Cate and Jordan broke into his house and found out that he had a severely burnt but partially alive man in a hyperbaric chamber in a vault. During the training session, Marie discovered that Cipher didn’t have Compound V in his blood, which meant that he was fully human. During the fight, Cate used these 2 pieces of information to blackmail Cipher and get his confession on a secret camera planted in the pavilion by Emma. Cipher figured out that he was being recorded, and he pocketed the camera. He admitted that the man in the hyperbaric chamber was his father. And then, by telepathically puppeteering Jordan during the fight, Cipher proved that he was in fact a Supe. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

The Aftermath Of The Fight

We get a flashback sequence set one month prior to the events of the show where Cipher is seen taking care of his father. But that session is interrupted by Sister Sage, the smartest Supe in The Boys franchise, who was instrumental in Homelander’s rise to the position of President of the United States of America. Sage is evidently in a relationship with Cipher. But why? Well, I think she wants to have a backup in case Homelander goes berserk, as if he hasn’t already. Once Homelander goes out of control, I think Sage and Cipher will use Marie to publicly execute him and then take his place (I’m just spitballing here). But when did Cipher and Sage become a thing? Was it after her recruitment into Vought? Was she in cahoots with him before Homelander came to her house? I guess we’ll learn more about it in the upcoming episodes. Going back to the present day, both Jordan and Marie are shocked and horrified at how their fight went down. Jordan is disgusted by the fact that they lost control of their body and Cipher controlled them like a puppet. On top of that, Jordan was afraid Marie was going to rip them to pieces like she did to Elon Musk (the goat). Right when their verbal battle in the locker room reaches its peak, to make matters worse, Cipher drops by to share his words of wisdom. 

Cipher appreciates the immense growth that Marie has shown in a matter of days, and he wants to continue the work they had been doing to make Marie the most powerful superhero in the world. Marie doesn’t want to do anything that involves being in the same room with Cipher, but Cipher keeps Marie amenable using the usual “I’ll send you to Elmira” threat. The threat is real, though, because Cate has already been sent to the rehab center for partaking in the “heist” to get some juicy sound bites from Cipher. The rest are allowed to go free because, well, they weren’t in the same room as the secret camera. Also, it’s a way of teaching Cate a lesson for siding with the anarchists, as well as a warning to Emma, Harper, Allie, and Greg about what can happen if they try to go against Cipher. Speaking of Cate, right after entering Elmira, she tries to escape, but a shock collar is put on her, to prevent her from trying anything too heroic, before she is thrown into her cell.

Sam Meets His Parents

Sam reaches the Riordan household to reunite with his parents, Ted and Janet. They are shocked to see Sam before them. Why, though? Well, because Ted and Janet were convinced by Vought that Sam was dead. They even had a funeral for Sam, where an unidentified corpse provided to them by Vought was buried. Soon after that fake death, Luke died for real, and Ted says that it was a major achievement on his and his wife’s part that they kept themselves sane after all this. Then the news of Sam’s shenanigans over the course of the first season reached them, and they heaved a sigh of relief that at least one of their sons was alive. When Ted and Janet inquired of Vought and God U about this, they spun the whole thing as a “misidentification error.” They accepted that narrative and tried to get in touch with Sam, which is when they were told that Sam didn’t want to see his parents. Of course, Sam couldn’t have said anything like that, because he was under Cate’s spell. Either way, after making all those attempts to reunite with their son, Ted and Janet had no option but to give up. Right when Ted is done explaining his and Janet’s side of the story, Sam spots Janet making a call. He instantly assumes that Janet is telling Vought about his location, and even though Janet says that she is ordering a pizza, Sam grabs her phone and destroys it. 

Ted tries to pacify Sam, but he pushes his dad so hard that he’s sent hurtling across the Riordan household’s backyard. I thought that Ted was a goner, but as confirmed by Janet, he has survived the hit. The topic of their conversation then shifts to the topic of Ted and Janet sending Sam to Sage Grove Center, because they didn’t know how to control a Supe with mental health issues. Sam has been under the impression that Compound V is the reason he’s a schizophrenic. However, Janet reveals that his schizophrenia is actually genetic; Compound V has nothing to do with it. I thought that Sam was going to rage out after learning this, but he handles this piece of information pretty normally. When Janet starts to feel sorry for being the reason Sam has mental health issues—she says that she passed on the faulty genes—Sam actually pacifies her and tells her that she shouldn’t blame herself for something that she didn’t have any control over. Hopefully, this marks the start of Sam’s healing, something he has been in desperate need of for quite a while. If he returns to God U, though, then it’s over, and there’s a pretty good chance that Vought won’t like their IP running around doing self-care. They are probably going to snatch him away from his parents, hurting them in the process, and turn him into a monster again.

Marie Wants to Rescue Cate

Emma arranges drinks for Marie and Jordan to help them get over the disappointment of their failed mission to one-up Cipher. While Jordan is on board with Emma’s plan to drown their sorrows in alcohol, Marie wants to rescue Cate. Emma rejects that proposition immediately because she is of the opinion that Cate needs a taster of what Marie, Emma, Jordan, and Andre had to go through when they were in there. Marie is adamant about performing a rescue mission, though, because she is in there because of them. If they don’t help her out, then how can they even call themselves “superheroes”? Also, it’s not like Cate left them to rot in Elmira. She struck an agreement with Vought and God U to get Emma, Jordan, and Andre out of the rehab center after Marie’s escape. So, doing the same for Cate is the least that they can do. Emma hypothesizes that Cate is bait that has been set up by Cipher; the moment Marie, Emma, and Jordan try anything rebellious, he’ll catch them and put them in cells until they dance to his tune. Marie asks Emma a simple question: Will she be able to live with herself if Cate dies in Elmira because of them? That’s what finally changes Emma’s mind, and she sits down, along with Jordan, to listen to how Marie escaped from Elmira so that they can somehow reverse-engineer that process to save Cate. 

By the way, this is where we see for the first time how Marie escaped from Elmira, and it’s really not that grand. She targeted a guard who probably had a shaving accident and used his blood to incapacitate him. After that, she used the air-conditioning vent to get out. There’s a pretty good chance that Cipher allowed Marie to escape so that, one day, he could use her fear of Elmira against her? It’s possible. Anyway, Jordan and Emma point out that reverse-engineering Marie’s escape plan is a bit stupid because, firstly, the security department of the rehab center must’ve taken measures to prevent any other inmates from repurposing Marie’s technique, and secondly, even if they get Cate and make it all the way to one of the exit routes, they’ll be overwhelmed by guards. Emma tries to recruit Sam for the mission, hoping that he still cares about Cate after their little genocidal outrage. But Sam straight-up rejects the offer because he isn’t under Cate’s spell anymore, and he is busy reconnecting with his roots. Since the clock is ticking, Emma, Jordan, and Marie prepare to leave for Elmira. That’s when they are spotted by Greg, who asks Emma what she and her friends are up to. Emma tells Greg the truth about the rescue mission, but why does she trust this guy so much? It’s evident that she is in love with him, but she doesn’t know enough about him to confide such confidential information in him. What if he is a spy for Cipher? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

The Truth About Andre’s Death

Polarity is seen having lunch with Cipher, where he subtly tries to learn something damning about the dean of God U. Cipher surprises Polarity by revealing that he knows that he and Emma were in the archives section of the college digging up some dirt on him. How does Cipher always know what everyone is up to? I’m sure there are CCTV cameras all across the university, and the security guards keep Cipher updated about what’s going on. But if that’s the case, why aren’t Marie and her friends thinking twice before doing something shady? Why aren’t they disabling the security system before trying to snoop on Cipher? Is there an informant of Cipher’s who has made their way into Marie’s inner circle and is leaking info to him when nobody is looking? Or does Cipher’s telepathic power allow him to peer into somebody’s mind and see what they are thinking? I don’t know for sure; at this stage, your guess is as good as mine. Going back to the conversation between Polarity and Cipher, by the time Polarity can come up with a response to that accusation, Cipher dumps a non-answer about the nature of his job on him. Polarity asks about Marie, but all Cipher reveals is that she is going to change the world. Then the topic of Andre comes up, and Polarity asks Cipher point-blank about the reason behind his son’s death. So far, we’ve been told that Andre tried to push himself a little too hard while trying to help Emma and Jordan escape and died in the process, but that’s apparently not the truth. Cipher says that Andre’s death is a result of all the experiments that he was conducting on him. 

Then why are Emma and Jordan saying that Andre died trying to help them out? Well, it’s possible that Cipher allowed the trio to escape to see how far Andre was ready to push himself for the sake of his friends. When he reached his limit, Cipher probably took over his body and forced him to go too far, thereby killing him. This revelation causes Polarity to get angry, and he almost kills Cipher with a carving knife. However, Cipher grabs the knife and stabs his own hand to prove that he isn’t afraid of Polarity. Then he goes off to have a Zoom call with Dana White—I like the fact that the writers are aware of which real-life celebrities will side with God U and Vought—and tells Polarity to leave the room after finishing his lunch. By the way, does Cipher only have smoothies? Is that a hint at something? Feel free to let me know in the comments. Going back to the plot, Polarity suffers a seizure while looking through the photos of his family. It’s unclear if this is finally going to turn him into a vegetable or if he is going to bounce back. But one thing is for sure: Polarity is on his last legs, and someone who knows that he is going to die can be very dangerous.

Marie Resurrects Annabeth

Emma, Marie, and Jordan break into Elmira, and they immediately find out that the air-conditioning vent that Marie used to escape has been filled in with cement. Why is the vent still there, though? So that in the time it takes for the trio to realize how badly they have messed up, they can be stunned and captured by the security guards. Cate is shocked at this revelation, because she wasn’t expecting that the people who she had betrayed would come to save her. As Cate expresses her gratitude, the focus of the episode shifts to the CCTV control room, where Cipher is watching over his guinea pigs. Sage joins him, and Cipher congratulates her for becoming the CEO of Vought. Then they get to the topic of Cipher’s master plan, and this conversation is a little vague, but it seems like these two are actually planning to overthrow Homelander. Why? As mentioned before, Homelander cannot be controlled. Prior to the events of Season 4 of The Boys, Homelander was a slave to his need to be appreciated by the public. Since he doesn’t need that anymore, because the crowd is on his side anyway, maybe one day he’ll decide that he doesn’t need Sage anymore and fire her. Hence, Sage needs a backup plan, and that backup plan is Marie. Going back to the anarchists, in order to help her newfound friends, Cate takes out one of the surgical stapler pins from her skull and fashions it into a key to open her shock collar. While she’s doing that, Cipher pays Marie a visit and asks her once again to work with him or watch her friends rot away and die in Elmira. Of course, Marie rejects the proposal. So, Cipher takes Marie out of her cell and takes her to a cell where Annabeth is being held captive. Cipher knows that that’s Marie’s weakest point, and she’ll do anything to get her out of that hellhole. When Marie immediately tries to fight her way out of there, her shock collar is activated, and she is chucked back into her cell. At the end of Gen V Season 2, episode 5, Cate deactivates her shock collar and escapes out of her cell. She frees the rest of her friends, and they all reach Annabeth’s cell. When they open it, they find out that Annabeth’s throat has been slit, and she is dead. This triggers Marie enough to use her powers to fix Annabeth’s wound—which hurts everyone in her vicinity—and brings her back to life. So, I think I have to address a few things here. 

Firstly, I don’t think Annabeth’s capture is a big mystery. She could’ve been sold out by Aunt Pam, or maybe she was kidnapped while walking over to the grocery store. Secondly, did Marie and her friends escape purely off the backs of their elite skills, or were they allowed to do so? Well, it’s pretty evident that Cipher allowed that to happen so that Marie experiences a sense of euphoria and hope right before seeing her sister’s dead body. That euphoria and hope fuel Marie’s desperation, and she pushes herself more than she has ever done before to resurrect Annabeth. Thirdly, is Marie a god? Technically anyone who can control the natural laws of the universe should be considered a god. And if Marie can bring the dead back to life, and that too without turning them into a zombie, then I suppose she is a god. That does make her more powerful than any other Supe in the world. Think about the possibilities. Vought can promote her to the public as a deity who can bring their loved ones back for a huge sum of money. They can use her to keep a leash on all the Supes, because killing a god would draw the ire of the general public, and that’s something that no Supe would want. Last but not least, Vought knows that they’ll always have a grip on Marie because of Annabeth, and they can rule over her with fear. The issue with fear, though, is that it’s not everlasting; one day Marie will reach her limit, and she’ll turn against her oppressors. Anyway, the show has taken a pretty interesting turn, and I can’t wait to see what it does next. What are your thoughts on the episode? Feel free to share them in the comments section below.

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