‘Gen V’ Episode 4 Recap: “The Whole Truth”

If Vought really wanted to keep The Woods under wraps, maybe the evil giganto-corp at the  center of everything in the Gen V/Boys universe shouldn’t have built its secret facility rife with human rights violations in the bowels of its accredited university. Especially an accredited university with an undergraduate population consisting entirely of students who, whether it was their choice or not, have superpowers as a lifetime elective. That shit was bound to be discovered. But in keeping with Jordan’s deep cut reference in Gen V Episode 4 (“The Whole Truth”), infamous Nazi SS doctor Joseph Mengele’s cat is now out of the bag. Sam escaped The Woods, leaving a trail of destroyed security dude bodies in his wake, and Dean Shetty is left to examine the aftermath of Emma’s impromptu ear canal drilling. “That’s the sum total of your searing insight?” she spits at her own Mengele, Dr. Edison Cardosa (Marco Pigossi), gesturing to the corpse with two new holes in its head. “That Sam skull-fucked Bob here?” And in the understatement of the year, Cardosa says he doesn’t know how to contain this kind of power. “Sam is stronger than Golden Boy ever was.”

Gen V has done well to establish that its core crew of kids aren’t immediately friends. Just like real college, there are factions, and as they stand in the crater left behind by Sam’s escape, Marie has to remind Jordan of her roommate and friend Emma’s real name while everyone agrees that Andre’s impulse to involve Little Pickle at all was a big mistake. (He had to do something? Marie scoffs at that. “You didn’t do anything.”) and Cate summarizes the situation from the group’s perspective. “This girl could be dead. We’re in over our heads.”

“Every mystery…scattered clues…and hidden corners of darkness. I’m Tek Knight. And I won’t stop searching until I’ve found…The Whole Truth.” Tek Knight (Derek Wilson) is a character from the Boys comics, and he’s also been mentioned in passing on that series adaptation. But this is the first time he’s appeared in live action, and he’s been sent by Vought ostensibly to host a segment on the violence rocking Goldokin’s campus. Ostensibly, because he’s not just a walking trench coat trying to be Keith Morrison. Tek Knight’s powers allow him to perceive any lie, and that puts everyone on Vought’s radar – Andre, Cate, Marie, Jordan; even Indira Shetty. Vought wants the bad publicity of Golden Boy and The Woods escape muzzled, and Tek Knight’s here to sniff out a scapegoat.

Which makes for a ton of tension on campus, especially within our core group, who are still missing Emma and Sam and getting increasingly uneasy about the secrets of God U. But Shetty saw how Tek Knight looked at the hole in his bagel. The dean might not be a supe, but she knows how to dig up dirt. Shetty shows the smarmy host a surveillance video supercut of his unique sexual proclivity – basically, he’ll stick his dick in any hole available, even in a skull – and it’s all due to a brain tumor he didn’t tell his bosses about. And because this is Gen V, this isn’t the only side bit in this episode that involves dicks…

…Marie went to Rufus (Alexander Calvert) for help finding Emma because he’s a psychic, can astral project, is clairvoyant, etc. – which, as it turns out, he also deploys as a repugnant sexual predator. But let’s not dwell on that “dickless piece of shit.” Let’s discuss instead the moment Jordan and Marie share soon after their “tag team cocksplosion.” The rankings are out again, and Marie’s moving up while Jordan is stuck at #5. And yet, all of this is getting a lot crazier and scarier than just competing for campus clout and rankings. Jordan looks Marie in the eyes. “I’m so fucking scared,” they finally admit. “Don’t be,” she offers, and Jordan transforms into their male self before the two former frenemies kiss.     

When Sam escaped The Woods, Emma went with, and it became her job to sadly break the news about Luke, because while he was locked up and being experimented upon, of course Shetty/Vought didn’t tell him his own brother committed suicide. Hiding out in an old bowling alley the boys used to visit as kids, Sam and Emma get closer, though he also experiences an episode of mental trauma. Sam ends up arguing with Jason Ritter as the host of an imaginary children’s show, whose sidekick is a bizarro Muppet version of The Deep. “Letter ‘K’ for KILL CARDOSA!” the vision demands of Sam, and he lights out for the Woods doctor’s home, determined to exact retribution. 

It’s worth questioning how Cardoso rectifies his morally bankrupt experiments on captive supes to his husband and adorable daughter. But there’s no time to consider that, or even what’s in his mother’s famous tomato sauce, because Sam breaks down the doctor’s door and destroys the kitchen in a mix of justified rage and manic episode. By now, the crew has sorted out Cardoso’s connection, and they arrive at the house, too. And they try to convince Sam that they’re his allies, but of course he’s never met any of them besides Emma, and won’t listen to reason. “Get the fuck out of here! You’re all fucking puppets!” Their powers are no match for Sam’s strength, and that’s when Emma notices the big bowl of sauce…

…now an entire story tall – Little Pickle who? – Emma is able to subdue him. “You’re all right, you’re OK. Wherever we go, we promise we’re in this together.” And the crew, after taking a second to get over the new wrinkle of Emma’s power, chimes in to offer Sam their support. Luke was their friend; they owe Sam their help. He’s also their best link yet to proving and stopping Vought’s deceit and the horrible experiments in The Woods. Marie promises him they’ll ma—

Fade to black. 

Now what sort of power just cut this episode off mid-sentence? In Gen V, maybe that’s what happens when you get too close to The Whole Truth.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.