This story contains spoilers for Gen V.
Look, ever since Gen V was announced as the college-era spin-off of the brutal superhero satire The Boys, we've said something seriously shady was going on at Godolkin U. Not only is the real college system in America extremely exploitative and ripe for satirizing, but the fictional academy is also under the thumb of The Boys' evil corporation, Vought. So, basically we weren't surprised when it was revealed that the college was a cover for the brutal medical facility known as the Woods. While we've had plenty of theories about what they're up to down there we've finally had confirmation of just what those experiments are for. So we're jumping straight into the wild reveal that introduces a game-changing threat to the world of The Boys.
Gen V Episode 6 Episode Ending Explained
After a wild ride through Cate's (Maddie Phillips) mind the kids return to the real world just in time for Sam (Asa German) and Emma (Lizze Broadway) to return to the party house and reunite with the others who now know the truth: Sam was being used to give his brother Luke (Patrick Schwarzenegger) powers and that Cate was being used to cover it up. But if you think that's the biggest reveal the episode has for then boy are you wrong. Because while that would be a good answer to the show's central mystery "what are they doing in the woods?" The answer is far more sinister, Dean Shetty (Shelley Conn) and Dr. Cardosa (Marco Pigossi) have been creating a virus to depower superheroes. But as Shetty reveals in the final moments, she's actually planning to kill them using the virus Cardosa has created. And she doesn't just want to kill a few, she wants to make it a contagious disease that'll kill anyone who uses Compound V.
Why Does Dean Shetty Want to Kill All Supes?
This is the biggest question. In a previous piece we've explored the possibility that she may have lost a loved one to supes — maybe A-Train's victim from the very first episode of The Boys? — and is on a tear for revenge, but this plan to make an infectious virus to wipe out all supes seems like more than just a personal vendetta. If Shetty was trying to take down Vought, wiping out their army of superpowered celebrities would be a fantastic way to do it. It would not only take away their weaponry but also wipe out their stock value, plus it would turn Compound V into a death sentence. If Shetty’s plan is to take down Vought, this is as sound a strategy as they come. But it also puts a massive target on her back.
Another option is this isn't about any personal feelings towards Supes and is instead all about profit. There are plenty of people who would want to buy a supe-killing virus, from corporate raiders who want to dethrone Vought to international power players who want to dethrone America as the land of the Supe. For any of those parties a virus like this would be a valuable thing to have. Could Shetty have been utilizing Vought money and resources to ultimately rip them off and create a powerful-anti-supe weapon to sell to the highest bidder? If so, that'd be one of the most impressively villainous acts that we've seen in a show full of very bad people.
Now that we know Shetty is the big bad of the series, the big question now is how that'll play out over the last two episodes. We can expect to see the kids realize that she's behind it all, while potentially discovering the truth about the virus. There's also a chance that they'll enlist other super-kids from Godolkin to fight against the Woods. After the very gross and hilarious Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) cameo this week, we might see some other Supes show up too.
How Could the Virus Affect the Wider The Boys Universe?
We're talking about a world-changing (or possibly ending) situation if Shetty achieves her goal of making a contagious version of the virus that she and Cardosa have been cooking up. As we saw, in small doses it can limit the powers of supes, which is probably why Vought was involved with the Woods. They would definitely be interested in putting a leash on out of control heroes like Homelander. But, Vought could also be none the wiser to the virus and just have been funding the Woods so that they could power up their future Seven members with other imprisoned hero's powers like they were doing with Golden Boy.
If Shetty succeeds in creating a supe-killing virus, we could see the economy and society as we know it in the show implode. Plus, that would potentially open its denizens up to even more brutality, especially as we know that children are given Compound V from birth, meaning there could be a lot of infant casualties if she unleashes the virus. There's also a shocking outcome where someone like Billy the Butcher (Karl Urban) knows about or wants a virus like this to exist, turning our "heroes" into antagonists. It would hardly be the first time that the titular Boys did something terrible, but that would be quite the grim twist. Of course, perhaps our kids will stop Shetty and Cardosa, but that seems like it would be far too much of a missed opportunity when it would be such a fantastic and terrible spanner to throw into The Boys Season 4.
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
