Gen V: The Whole Truth review S1 E4
Every season of The Boys there’s an episode that goes full Scarface and pushes it to the limit with way too much of everything. It’s almost like the writers don’t trust the subplots they’ve built up over the course of a season so they lean on Boys Outrageousness (TM) to bring some levity to darker storylines.
Gen V found it’s good, but needlessly distraction heavy and way too over the top episode with The Whole Truth.
Like its predecessor, Gen V‘s scathing random send ups of Disney and Warner Bros. is often very funny. This dig features a show on Vought+ with former God U alumni, Tek Knight (Derek Wilson, Billions), running an Unsolved Mysteries style show.
Trek’s hyper senses allow him to detect even the slightest lie and leave his interview subjects blubbering messes or threatening to kill him. With all the secrets at God U, the arrival of this kind of character was intriguing especially with Wilson bringing some strong douchebag energy.
Vought called him in to “crack” the case of Golden Boy’s murder. Specifically, frame a patsy for driving Golden Boy over the edge so people will move on.
Indira is already hot that Sam has escaped — with only a tiny shoe left behind as a clue — now she has to keep Tek from breaking all her students.
Marie tries to get some help to find Emma by asking the resident God U student psychic Rufus (Alexander Calvert). Next thing Marie wakes up to find Rufus wearing a robe but nothing else. Jordan arrives to help Marie but her blood powers causes his penis to massively swell and explode.
This felt like the most gratuitous possible way to tease Jordan is looking out for Marie and there might be some sparks between them. College kids aren’t all great, but the writers are leaning too hard on the crazy sex jokes to get a rise — oh great now they’ve got me doing it — out of viewers.
It’s basically when in doubt throw in some nudity and blood, they’ll eat it up. A little subtlety would be a legit game changer for this show.
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Emma and Sam bond at the local drive-in while they ponder their next move. They have a nice chemistry and come off very likable. She’s even able to help him work through the grief of learning Luke is dead.
The next day, Sam starts hallucinating and seeing an evil take of Sesame Street complete with unassuming Jason Ritter and a Muppet version of The Deep — right down to moveable fluffy gills — telling him to kill Dr. Cardosa.
Tek is on a roll getting Andre to crack about hooking up with Cate and for Marie to confess that Jordan was the hero that stood up against Golden Boy, not her. Indira isn’t happy, but Tek could care less. Besides, he’s found his patsy — Indira, who no one will miss as she’s only human.
This is a juicy subplot with some interesting layers. Indira isn’t exactly a hero and is clearly locking onto Marie as she rises up the rankings. She’s implicit in The Woods but doesn’t seem completely horrible either.
Instead of letting this build over 2-3 episodes, Indira sets up a clandestine meeting to show Tek she’s got video of him screwing anything with a hole from a safety cone, tree, dryer, to a gas tank. This was a silly way to resolve the threat of a snarky and welcome genuinely mean character.
And just to fully remove any trace of danger from Tek, as he films his video verifying the company line of Golden Boy’s death he starts lusting after a hole in a tree. Sigh.
Rushing a development that would have benefited from an episode that wasn’t quite so jam packed, Jordan kisses Marie in dude form and Marie responds. So, would this make Marie bisexual?
This doesn’t get long to play out as Emma arrives asking for their help to stop Sam from killing Cardosa. By the time Marie, Andre, Jordan, Emma and Cate arrive, Sam is closing in on Cardosa.
He wants nothing to do with Cate, who he recognizes from her earlier venture in The Woods. Andre registered that but can’t act on it since Sam remembers he and Marie helping to stop him from escaping earlier.
It’s Emma who saves the day this time, growing giant size to calm Sam down.
Marie assures Sam they’ll make everything right before everything fades to black. Next thing wakes up in bed with a naked Jordan. Hey, where was Cate for most of that fight?
The Whole Truth had too much going on, rushing through one intriguing new relationship and squandering a compelling potential bad guy. While featuring a good cliffhanger, it needed a tighter focus.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Photo Credit: Amazon Studios
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