Hell Week
Season 2
Episode 7
Editor’s Rating
3 stars
***
Most of “Hell Week” is about clarifying the Cipher problem once and for all with Marie setting out to find the decrepit Thomas Godolkin like Stan Edgar wanted.
Photo: Jasper Savage/Prime
At 36 minutes before credits, the penultimate episode of Gen V’s second season is its shortest yet. And while it does everything it sets out to do, setting up a new version of an old threat just in time for the season finale, it could use a little more meat on its bones. I was fairly entertained watching this episode, but it’s all starting to feel a bit perfunctory, especially for those who figured out the big Cipher twist a while ago.
Most of “Hell Week” is about clarifying the Cipher problem once and for all with Marie setting out to find the decrepit Thomas Godolkin like Stan Edgar wanted. She and Cate make for a good team, but they’d be unstoppable if Marie could get over her distrust of Cate and heal her. (That’s the main secondary conflict of the episode.) Unfortunately, even after a monologue in which Cate promises never to use her powers on the gang again, Marie can’t quite believe she has fundamentally changed.
When the two arrive at Cipher’s house, he and his “father” are gone. Polarity is there, though, and he knows he can exploit Cipher’s otherwise effortless mind-control abilities with his own electromagnetic pulses. And he’s even more powerful after Marie heals him during one of his seizures, curing him of his tremors altogether. Sean Patrick Thomas gets another great acting moment here with Polarity’s tearful relief at feeling healthy again.
It’s too bad Cate is denied that same catharsis for now. She and Marie get into yet another fight about her loyalties, and Marie really unloads, blaming her for what happened to Andre. At this point, what character hasn’t gotten the blame for his death? Polarity himself chimes in to defend Cate and blame himself, since he never told his son about the fatal condition he’d passed down. Before they can reach any real resolution, though, Cipher is calling them from the training room, reiterating his offer: Marie can come and train with him to become the most powerful being on earth. If she doesn’t, she and all her friends are fucked along with the other supes Cipher wants to cull.
While all this is going on, the rest of the gang is splitting up to find Marie and warn her about Annabeth’s nightmare-premonition of her bloodied, motionless body. On the drive back to campus, Annabeth opens up a bit to Jordan about her powers. When she asks if they and Marie are dating, Jordan replies, “I thought we were.” Even if everyone makes it out of this one alive, it might be hard for Jordan to trust Marie going forward. She insists she doesn’t want to be a “chosen one,” yet she acts exactly like a typical self-sacrificial hero, slipping out in the dead of night and doing what needs to be done.
After an episode and a half away from campus, it’s good to see everyone back. The college setting is what makes Gen V stand out; R-rated Sky High is just an irresistible premise. That said, I’m not crazy about this episode’s titular hazing subplot, which saddles Sam with a pledge named Hemple to follow him around and be his “bondage baby” for the day. It’s just not that amusing, and “Hell Week” isn’t necessarily calling for some goofy comic relief at this point.
I would’ve rather spent more time with Sam and Emma, or Sam and Greg. I can’t tell exactly what the show wants me to feel about this love triangle; I assume I should be rooting for Emma to choose Sam over nice-guy Greg, given their deep bond and history in season one (and given the fact that we barely know Greg), but that’s not my reaction. Sam’s jealousy of Greg doesn’t make me yearn for a reconciliation with Emma. I still want to see where Emma and Greg could go. Look at the way they look at each other! I’m genuinely not sure where the finale will leave this love triangle, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the boys doesn’t make it to season three.
Everyone intercepts Marie on her way to find Thomas Godolkin, and Annabeth warns her about the premonition. She also establishes her future-seeing credentials by dropping this bombshell: She had a vision of their parents dying before it happened! She hated herself for not saving them but chose to hate her sister instead. It’s nice to see her finally stop being a brat and acknowledge her projecting, but I’d love for one character on this show not to blame themselves for a loved one’s death.
Marie still insists on going through with her plan, and she even stops the gang from intervening by levitating them like she did to Jordan. (Getting levitated for a second time might be a breakup-worthy offense.) She could accept Cate’s help and heal her, but she wants to do everything herself. She knows her own power now, and we know from her prior encounters with Cipher that some part of her enjoys getting stronger.
Of course, the gang wouldn’t just let Marie go off alone. While Polarity, Greg, Sam, and Jordan keep Cipher distracted, Emma, Cate, and Annabeth go looking for her. When they find her, she has already found Godolkin and healed him, transforming the old man into the guy we saw in the season’s opening flashback (played by Ethan Slater). He’s spry now, and deeply grateful to Marie for taking his pain away. But it’s Cate who sees Godolkin and recognizes the full truth: He’s the real Cipher. The man we knew as Cipher was just a human pawn, a helpless normie named Doug who became a host for a powerful supe. Polarity and the others learn this when “Cipher” collapses on the floor and says, “He’s finally out of my head.”
Next week’s episode will explore the full ramifications of this reveal, but I have to say, I’m bummed at the idea that Hamish Linklater is gone now, that the season finale belongs to Ethan Slater. He’s good and menacing in that final scene, beginning his planned culling by forcing Hemple to choke himself to death with his chain, but Linklater fully owned this season, and I’m doubtful that Slater can pull off the same oddball charisma. The success of the finale might come down to how the show handles the characters we’re actually rooting for. Will Marie reach her full potential as a hero, or is the possibility of becoming an apex predator just too tempting?
• Hemple is introduced via a frat guy shitting him out, something I’m completely desensitized to now after watching The Boys and this show. Can we think of a new supe kink other than people cramming themselves into each other’s anuses? (That might be one of the worst sentences I’ve ever typed.)
• Sam’s monologue about feeling things is interesting in theory, but I wish we’d seen more of the actual getting-medicated process. I really liked his visit to his parents’ house, but that episode had to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of selling Sam’s mental-health journey and road to recovery/redemption.
• The “whack-a-mole” fight with Cipher mind-controlling his attackers into hurting each other is pretty fun.
• The last time I was annoyed at a show for swapping out an actor I loved for a much less charming version of the same villain was while watching The Flash on the CW. Matt Letscher’s Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash has his moments, but he just isn’t nearly as fun as Tom Cavanagh’s take on the same character (given the name “Harrison Wells” in the first season). Even the show understood that eventually.
• The ending song to soundtrack Thomas walking across campus: “Young at Heart,” by Frank Sinatra. Nice.
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