Gen V Episode 8 Ending Explained

11/03/2023 03:28 pm EDT

Gen V episode 8 has wrapped up the first season of the series, but its ending, like some previous episodes, has left viewers with questions. Though much of Gen V season 1 was all about the mystery of The Woods, that mystery was quickly resolved for viewers, but the ending of the season tied it all together. Not only did Gen V episode 8's ending bring the entire narrative of the season together but connected it more to The Boys even bigger than before. Here's what went down in Gen V episode 8:

 Things pick up immediately after the events of Gen V episode 7, with Dean Shetty dead at the hands of Cate. She reveals her plan to her fellow Godolkin students, revealing she and Sam will release the supes imprisoned in The Woods as a means for getting revenge on Vought and the School. As a result, things get chaotic immediately at God U

Gen V Episode 8 Ending Explained

• Things pick up immediately after the events of Gen V episode 7, with Dean Shetty dead at the hands of Cate. She reveals her plan to her fellow Godolkin students, revealing she and Sam will release the supes imprisoned in The Woods as a means for getting revenge on Vought and the School. 
• As a result, things get chaotic immediately at God U. Cate and Sam have freed all the supes from inside The Woods and are taking of Godolkin University, attacking the supes on campus and the regular people alike. 
• Marie Moreau, Andre Anderson, Emma Meyer, and Jordan Li all work together, as "The Guardians of Godolkin," to stop them. The problem is that this fight isn't strictly a physical fight, but a theological one as well. 
• Marie wants to be a hero, a good person, someone her sister could have been proud of.
  
• Cate however is hinging her entire uprising to make her fellow God U supes realize that they're just products to Vought and not thought of as people.
• Marie then uses her powers and channels them to the biggest degree that she's managed ever, lifting up the blood from the corpses littered around campus and turning them into knives to stop one of The Woods supes from hurting anyone else. 
• When Cate then attempts to use her powers on Jordan Li however Marie is forced to act quickly, exploding her arm and leaving her with a bloody stump while the viscera flies.
• That's when the clouds part and none other than Homelander makes his grand entrance. Marie attempts to speak with him and explain, but he wags his finger and asks, "What kind of animal are you? Do you like attacking your own kind?" He then commands everyone to "stay back," and blasts Marie with his heat vision.

Gen V's Cliffhanger Ending Explained

From there things are short and sweet. A news broadcast on Vought's network reveals that they've put the blame of the entire massacre on Marie, Emma, Jordan, and Andre. Not only that but they've dubbed both Cate and Sam the "New" Guardians of Godolkin. Marie wakes up in a hospital room surrounded by her "Godolkin 4" collaborators, all dressed in gowns and sitting in hospital beds. There's something unique about this room though....there are no doors. Are they trapped in their minds? In a deep Vought vault somewhere? Clearly everyone else but Marie knows....but as for now, we're in the dark.

That's not where Gen V ends though, there's one more scene...

Gen V Episode 8 post-credit scene explained

In a dark hallway a door opens, and a flashlight reveals that someone is exploring the abandoned facility that was The Woods. Footsteps walk down the hallway and we finally see who is the one looking into what happened here, it's Karl Urban's Billy Butcher, he makes a vulgar remark as he is want to do, and the first season of Gen V ends.

This scene was set-up in the last episode, when Dean Shetty revealed to Grace Mallory what her intentions were with The Woods and how they were developing a supe-killing virus in the lab. As that scene ended, Mallory picks up her cell phone from her pocket and asks, "Did you get all that?" Now we know not only was she talking to Urban's Billy Butcher, but that he is aware of the supe-killing virus developed by Dean Shetty.

Will there be a season 2 of Gen V?

Gen V has already been renewed for a second season on Prime Video. The streaming service announced Gen V has been renewed after just five episodes of the series, with another batch of eight episodes scheduled to debut later with no official release date just yet.

"We couldn't be happier to make a second season of 'Gen V,'" showrunner Michele Fazekas and executive producer Eric Kripke  said in a statement. "These are characters and stories we've grown to love, and we are thrilled to know people feel the same! The writers are already working on the new season—sophomore year is gonna be wild, with all the twists, heart, satire, and exploding genitalia you've come to expect from the show."  

Gen V is the first live-action spinoff of The Boys, the hit Prime Video series based on the Dynamite Comics series. Set in Godolkin University, originally a parody of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters from Marvel's X-Men comics, the series is described as "Hunger Games" at a college and the cutthroat world of young supes trying their best to get on one of Vought's super teams, including The Seven. Former Marvel's Agent Carter showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters showrun the new series, which is executive produced by The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke and Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg.  

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.