Gen V – First Day review S1 E2

First Day was a solid second episode for Gen V, one that further established the characters and the intriguing mystery.

Following the tragedy with Golden Boy, the Vought higher ups are scrambling do damage control. That includes Ashley calling in to chew out Indira Shetty who has to fill in for Prof. Brinkerhoff as the head of Godolkin University.

The first step? Identify the heroes who courageously took down the psychotic Golden Boy.  Andre and Marie get nominated despite Jordan actually being the one to step up and battle toe to toe with Golden Boy. While Andre is the new top-rated student, Marie makes a shocking arrival as No. 8, an unprecedented feat for a freshman. With Brinkerhoff killed, nobody knows he was planning to expel her anyway.

Jordan finds that no good deed goes unpunished as they’re shunted down the Top 10 instead of moving up from No. 2. And now Marie gets to audit into the superhero track she wanted to pursue when she enrolled. It’s all coming up roses for Marie’s first day of school.

Marie feels guilty accepting the acclaim and credit that should go to Jordan but upsetting this newly fabricated status quo could get her expelled. Sorry Jordan, mum’s the word for Marie. This subplot is really strong and could go a number of ways. Marie can eventually say screw it and reveal the truth. Jordan could get so enraged and being dismissed that they become a supervillain. Or they can both just play along to get along.

In addition to being the new big woman on campus, Marie’s getting the full popularity surge treatment complete with a cell phone, tablet, photo shoot and social media handler (Dan Bierne). And a hero profile interview with Vought propaganda puppet Hailey Miller (Leigh Bush).

Jordan pleads with Marie to tell Hailey what actually happened, but Marie takes a largely understandably selfish approach. If she rocks the boat again, Marie might never get the chance to be part of The Seven. Or convince her sister that she’s not a monster.

Indira takes the slow burn approach appealing to Marie on a personal level as the mother figure she’d long ago lost. It’s standard Vought manipulation and it’s almost infuriating how well it continues to work.

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Andre is right alongside Marie. He’s got the added “bonus” of his father, the super formerly known as Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas), advising him. So far Gen V is hitting on so many elements of young adulthood. Peer pressure, career path uncertainty, self-image issues and the quest for popularity. Now we’ve got parent pressure.

This is a solid role for Thomas, who adeptly fills the role of the father who pushes a bit too hard. It’s clear why Andre welcomes the chance to get away from the pressure by partying with his crew.

Emma’s subplot is also very strong. She reveals to classmate Justine (Maia Jae Bastidas) that she can only shrink by purging. Justine seems to unintentionally spill the news on her livestream as she’s condemning the “male gaze.” It’ll be interesting to see if Justine is a vapid would-be influencer or a legit friend for Emma.

Cate and Andre start sharing notes about Luke’s death hoping to find some answers in his shocking suicide. They start going down a winding rabbit hole where Vought keeps all of its dirty secrets. The biggest being Luke’s presumed dead brother, Sam, is actually still alive.

Worse, he was the escapee Andre and Marie helped slow down in the first episode. That was kind of a reverse Spider-Man origin in that the hero characters did what they thought was the right thing. It’s just that act aided the bad guys almost as much as letting the robber flee the police.

Andre and Cate uncover a hidden message from Luke that implicates a lot of the God U higher ups including Professor Brinkenhoff. To get some answers, Andre blows off the Hailey interview and finds a corridor that leads to the infamous “Woods.” That’s apparently the underground facility at God U for the less controllable students. Cate helped save Andre from getting killed, but pushing her powers to the limit puts her in a bad position.

First Day laid out a tremendous conspiracy, showed some welcome layers to the characters with some of that quality Vought spin job.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Amazon

Check out Gen V: First Day on Amazon Prime.

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