First Day – The episode opens with everyone reeling from Golden Boy’s suicide (Patrick Schwarzenegger). Ashley Barrett (Colby Minifie), Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn), and the trustees conspire to paint Golden Boy as a chronic drug user who suffered a psychotic break. Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas) thanks the Gods Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo) intervened before suggesting they utilize it to their advantage. Indira points out that Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) who has a high ranking was also present. Ashley snaps at Kyle (Jameson Kraemer) when he recommends mentioning Jordan Li’s (London Thor/ Derek Luh) involvement. Canceling speaker phone, Ashley warns if “The Woods” comes out, it will be a nightmare. Indira reminds her of Vought hiring her because she is a problem solver.
Returning to her dorm, Marie is embraced by Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway) who tries to comfort her with bong hits and alcohol. Marie says Emma is sweet for trying to help but blames herself and suggests they get some sleep for their first day tomorrow. Marie is shocked the next day by all the attention she receives on her way to class. It isn’t until she’s approached by Junior (Daniel Gravelle) that she learns of her being the first freshman to make it into the push top 10 rankings. Elsewhere, Andrea isn’t too enthused about his first-place ranking while Jordan is upset for only being 5th.
At Professor Rich Brinkerhoff’s (Clancy Brown) memorial, Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) tries to comfort Jordan. Once alone, Cate’s attention is drawn to Rufus (Alexander Calvert) and a gathering of other students laughing. She uses her ability to learn that he was joking about Golden Boy killing himself to get away from her. She then orders him to visit Dick’s Sporting Goods, buy a Louisville Slugger, bring it back to campus, and hit himself in the nuts with it every hour on the hour.
Inside Godolkin University Marie continues to receive attention and has an awkward encounter with Jeff (Dan Berine), who introduces himself as the social media director. He gives her a phone and tells her that she also has several other devices waiting in her room. She asks about the special treatment and he attributes it to her fight with Golden Boy. Still confused, she tries to learn more but he rushes her along with the announcement that they are late.
Courtenay Fortney (Jackie Tohn) and Polarity oversee Andre’s photo shoot. She asks her PA (Kate Schroder) about Marie’s ETA. When the shoot wraps up, Polarity says Andre is lucky to be getting such attention. He claims it took rescuing Matchbox Twenty from a nutjob before he got a national interview. Andre asks about Luke’s claims of giving Polarity something before he died. Polarity says that Luke gifted Andre the opportunity to be a national star. Polarity reminds him of the difficult time he had with Andres’s mother’s death, but he pushed through it because that’s what they do. After meeting Courtenay, Marie learns that she and Andre are scheduled for an interview with Hailey Miller (Leigh Bush). Courtenay finds it funny when she has to remind Marie that the interview is scripted. Later, Marie’s confidence grows while she and Andre participate in a dual photo shoot.
After the shoot, Andrea tries to discuss his suspicions of Luke’s death with Marie. When he points out how strange it is that he’s the only one questioning it, she wishes him luck with figuring it out. He accusingly asks if she’s just going to step over Luke’s body to get to the top. She reminds him that she doesn’t have a father like his to fall back on and is already risking expulsion because of what happened at the club. She apologizes and demands to be left out of it.
Emma attends acting class where Adam Bourke (PJ Byrne) tells his students that it is an artist’s job to help humanity make sense of tragedies like Brinks. Before ending the class, he orders them to partner up and be ready to present a scene next week. Liam (Robert Bazzocchi) embarrasses Emma by publically turning down her request to partner up. Justine (Maia Jae Bastidas) intervenes by asking if he made Emma get small when they made love so his member would look bigger. After he makes his awkward exit, Justine and Emma partner up.
Elsewhere on campus, Dean Indira tells the juniors that she’ll be taking over Professor Brink’s classes. She assures them that she’ll attempt to live up to his reputation when Marie interrupts. Indira welcomes her and tells the class that Marie will be auditing because of her courageous intervention with Luke. After the class, Jordan confronts Marie for taking credit for something she didn’t do. Jordan agrees that Marie doesn’t owe them anything but tells Marie she is going to ask for a favor anyway. The favor is to tell the truth during her big interview with Hailey.
Cate and Andre are saddened to learn that Luke’s parents are being harassed for raising a killer. Andre claims that if Luke were alive, he wouldn’t stop until he figured out the truth and suggests that’s what they do.
Emma and Justine bond while getting high and choosing their scene. When Emma mentions several scenes that involve tiny actors and regular-sized actors, Justine reminds her that she didn’t choose her for her ability. She claims she chose Emma because she’s great and could learn from her. Emma ends up revealing that her transformation requires “purging” and is painful. Justine assures her she’ll have a regular-sized role.
In private, Indira gets Marie to open up about her hopes of reuniting with her sister. After their meeting, Indira is shown visiting a lab where Sam (Asa Germann) is being held and experimented on.
Cate and Andre search Luke’s room to find it freshly cleaned with bleach and empty. Outside campus, Emma learns that Justine blabbed on a podcast about her “purging.” In tears, Emma confronts Justine in her dorm room about revealing her secret. Justine accuses Emma of overreacting and says she only wanted to help other girls by sharing Emma’s story. Emma claims to only be interested in growing her following before rushing off. Cate and Andre notice the security cameras that captured Luke’s suicide are melted. Spotting his father’s statue, Andre knows what Luke meant when he said, “Your dad has it.” He makes a call to tell everything he knows about The Woods, Sam, and Brink.
Marie changes the interview script so it tells the truth. Andre sneaks into Brink’s office to find footage of Sam’s detainment. He hides when security arrives. Upset about Andre’s absence, Courtenay yells at Polarity while he desperately tries to reach Andre on the phone. Marie rehearses the updated script when Hailey introduces herself. Hailey claims Annabeth (Maria Nash) wants nothing to do with Marie or the interview. During the interview, Marie boasts of stopping Golden Boy.
Marie sends Emma a text request to chat over vodka. Emma is shown “purging” in the bathroom while Marie studies a photo of her family.
Andre witnesses a guard from Brink’s office cut a campus guard’s throat. Once alone, Andre gets a closer look at the deceased guard when another guard approaches him from behind. He attempts to use his power but discovers it is disabled by a sound device. A female guard approaches to tell Bob (Samy Osman) to disable the device. A verbal dispute reveals that Cate manipulated the female guard’s mind. Cate has a seizure while helping Andre stand up.
The episode ends with Andre screaming Cate’s name.
Gen V Review
Not a bad episode. I can’t deny that a lot of the humor is raunchy and hit-and-miss, but the show works as a whole for me. I find all the characters intriguing and their backstories even more so. With the odds of manipulation and corruption higher around every corner, it’s sometimes hard to tell whose out to cut whose throat and that’s another of the great things. Even Marie got in on the manipulation by taking sole credit for the Golden Boy incident. The one thing that I understand but knock points off for is the subliminal advertisements. The show is absolutely riddled with them. Other than that and the sometimes raunchy humor, I’d give the episode a 5.8 out of 10.
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