This text comprises spoilers for “Gen V” season 2, episode 4, “Baggage.”
“Gen V” season 2, episode 4 (“Baggage”) ends with a giant and much-advertised struggle between the gender-swapping Jordan Li (London Thor and Derek Luh) and the present’s mysterious protagonist Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair). Dean Cipher (Hamish Linklater) has his personal causes for organising the match (particularly, he is punishing Jordan by casting them within the villain position and forcing Marie to outdo herself towards a stronger opponent), nevertheless it’s clear from the start that such superhero fights are a longstanding custom amongst Godolkin College’s highest-ranked college students. Vought has discovered to commercialize these clashes like large UFC occasions or boxing championship showdowns, too. Intricate hype vignettes of the battle not solely introduce the 2 contestants to the viewers, however additionally they spotlight earlier fights.
An attention-grabbing level in regards to the advert: One character decidedly does not slot in with the others right here. The earlier contestants named within the struggle advert are Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), the Deep (Chace Crawford), Eagle the Archer (Langston Kerman), and Blindspot (Chris Mark). Simply because the viewer begins imagining the form of superb curb-stomping Maeve will need to have given to the Deep of their “Battle of the Sexes” tussle, the advert lumps franchise huge unhealthy Homelander (Antony Starr) in with the capes who participated within the God U supe vs. supe brawls whereas learning there.
Curiously, the graphic avoids revealing who, if anybody, Homelander fought. As an alternative, it exhibits him all by his lonesome, with the voiceover framing him as a “hero who turned a god”. In different phrases, it appears that evidently Vought is actively making an attempt to affiliate Homelander with God U’s greatest and brightest … however why? Did he really go to the college? Or is there one thing else at play right here? Let’s discover out.
Homelander is a lab experiment who nearly actually did not spend a single day at God U
Homelander’s tutorial historical past, or lack thereof, is not delved into a lot on both “Gen V” or “The Boys.” Nevertheless, different elements of his adolescence very a lot are.
The important thing moments of younger Homelander’s improvement unfold in “The Boys” season 4, episode 4 (“Knowledge of the Ages”) and “The Boys: Diabolical” season 1, episode 8 (“One Plus One Equals Two”). Their occasions affirm that Homelander by no means had a traditional childhood. As an alternative, he grew up in tightly-controlled laboratory circumstances the place he was consistently subjected to merciless and painful exams to seek out out his limits. The extent of his training does not get a lot consideration, however contemplating the high-security nature of his existence, it is extremely unlikely that he was allowed to go away the lab on college days. As an alternative, no matter Vought-mandated training he has is probably going the results of rigorously supervised homeschooling.
As such, Homelander nearly actually didn’t go to God U and is simply associating himself with the college for clout. The push to affiliate him with the college, very like the statue of him in entrance of the primary constructing, is probably going simply propaganda for the twin function of inspiring the scholars and making Homelander himself look higher. This, in fact, is simply par for the course for the character, who’s lengthy since remodeled right into a self-aggrandizing Donald Trump parody.
“Gen V” season 2 is streaming on Prime Video.