Gen V Season 2, Episode 4: "Bags" Review

Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Gen V Season 2, Episode 4! You can also check out IGN’s full review of Gen V Season 2.

The latest episode of Gen V gives me a valuable opportunity to do that Dr. Doofenshmirtz meme everyone loves so much. Here goes - if I had a nickel for every time a quirky, satirical comedy series delivered an episode revolving around a high-stakes wrestling match where one of the characters is reluctantly nicknamed “The Gender Bender,” I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Yes, it’s hard to ignore the oddly specific similarities between Gen V’s “Bags” and Futurama’s “Raging Bender.” But that aside, this is a fun yet tense episode that begins ramping up the pace of Season 2 and once again makes great use of Hamish Linklater’s Dean Cipher. What’s not to like?

Episode 4 focuses on the buildup to the big fight between London Thor and Derek Luh’s Jordan “The Gender Bender” Li and Jaz Sinclair’s Marie “The Blood Bender” Moreau before arriving at the main event itself. “Bags” opens with another key The Boys cameo, as we again see Valorie Curry reprise her role as muckraking VNN host (and #1 Homelander fangirl) Firecracker. Firecracker is one of those villains you just love to hate, and her presence here really highlights the absurdity and danger of the whole situation. I mentioned in a previous review that Gen V’s social satire is surprisingly ahead of the curve for a series that was filmed many months ago. Seeing Firecracker belittle Jordan and their dual gender dredges up all sorts of uncomfortable but necessary parallels to the current trans panic sweeping several countries.

As always, the series really banks on the strength of its main cast in Episode 4. Thor and Luh are particularly strong in this installment, as they portray Jordan’s quietly mounting frustration at the situation on campus and their deepening romance with Marie. Lizze Broadway’s Emma, meanwhile, once again serves as a much-needed source of levity. This episode works to break Emma away from the main group a bit and allow her to form a secondary friend group and possibly even a new romance, all of which is charming. Somewhat less charming is the shot of her being confronted by “an asshole the size of the sun” while trapped in Cipher’s toilet, but we need our weekly dose of gross-out humor from somewhere.

Even more welcome is the fact that Episode 4 seeks to make up for lost time where Maddie Phillips’ Cate is concerned. The first three episodes didn’t focus enough on Cate (to be fair, in part because the character was hospitalized for part of that stretch), but we get a much greater focus on her this time around. Phillips is great at exploring Cate’s fear and frustration. Despite emerging as one of the ostensible victors of the God U campus massacre, she’s trapped in a very dangerous and delicate situation. It would be easy for the show to paint Cate in an unlikable light, but instead, we can’t help but sympathize with her and fear for her whenever she shares a room with Cipher.

Speaking of Cipher, Episode 4 is another terrific showcase for what is easily one of the best The Boys universe villains to date. Linklater is only becoming more and more magnetic as the maniacal dean who seems perpetually three steps ahead of his students. Linklater gets the chance to chew into some meaty scenes with both Sinclair and Phillips this week, resulting in a lot of tense, enjoyable one-on-one conflicts. And each time it seems like our heroes may have finally gotten the better of him, Cipher throws them another curve ball. He’s just such a fun character, despicable as he is.

Episode 4 gives us plenty of clues as to the true nature of this villain, first with the reveal that he’s hiding a severely burnt body in his home and then the twist that he’s supposedly a human with ordinary red blood flowing through his veins. Yet that second reveal is quickly subverted when we see that, yes, Cipher indeed has powers, and they’re bad news for Marie and the gang. Cipher taking control of Jordan helps give the final battle scene an extreme, needed sense of urgency. Suddenly, Marie isn’t allowed to pull her punches. I nearly expected Jordan to explode above her in the arena like that poor goat. I actually wonder if, for dramatic effect, this episode wouldn’t have been better served ending on a cliffhanger at that point. Regardless, the reveal that Cipher is indeed a superhuman force to be reckoned with is a great way to cap off the first half of Season 2.