Gen V, the new spin-off of Amazon Studios’ The Boys, released this past week and it did not disappoint. The show is set between seasons three and four of The Boys and it really does feel like season 3.5, but with its own unique twist. In episode one of the season, we are introduced to our main character Marie, and quickly find out that she was a “late bloomer”, and her Supe powers did not reveal themselves until puberty. This results in an ultra-violent, shocking scene (a specialty of The Boys), where she accidentally kills both of her parents. Her younger sister, Annabeth, sees the aftermath of these accidental killings and is horrified. This life-event molds the Marie that we meet in the beginning of this season.
In the first three episodes, Marie reveals that her motivation to become a superhero and a member of “The Seven” is to show her sister that she is not a monster. She and her sister became estranged after the incident, and Marie has not heard from her in years. So, this is where our theory comes in.
Where is Annabeth and does she actually hate her sister? We know that Marie believes Annabeth was adopted, but doesn’t know where she currently lives. The only “information” (and I am putting information in quotes) that we really receive in the first three episodes is when the interviewer Hailey Miller tries to shake Marie right before the interview by telling her that they made contact with her sister via email and that her sister wants nothing to do with her. A few scenes later Dean Shetty tells Marie that Hailey Miller lied to her on purpose to rattle her and that she did not actually make contact with Annabeth. So who is telling the truth? Our opinion is that Hailey Miller definitely lied to rattle Marie and that Dean Shetty is telling the truth… but not the whole truth. Our theory is that Annabeth was also given Compound V as a baby, was also a late bloomer, and is currently trapped in the Woods by Vought/Godulkin.
Now BingetownTV doesn’t just throw theories out there without giving you guys a theory breakdown. So let’s do it. Let’s first breakdown the beginning of the theory- that Annabeth was also given Compound V by her parents and was also a late bloomer. Admittedly, there is no concrete evidence for this in the first 3 episodes, but we can make an educated guess based on some details in The Boys and Gen V. A LOT of the parents that we are introduced to in The Boys Universe were exposed as ridiculously selfish when it was revealed that supes were not born with their powers, but “created” by Vought by injecting them with Compound V as infants (without the child’s permission of course). The parents are paid by Vought to inject their child, and giving their permission results in Vought acquiring the rights to these children and their powers. Some examples of parents that we have met in the two shows are Starlight’s mother, Emma’s mother, and Andre’s father. What do these parents all seem to have in common? They are all very overbearing, selfish, and use their children. We are sure that there are some loving parents of supes in The Boys Universe (for example Starlight’s mother does show that she loves her- a positive among her many negatives), but if we are going to generalize based on the information we have been given, we don’t think it is a huge stretch to assume that Marie and Annabeth’s parents may have had these personality traits as well. We even get a scene where Marie is talking with Jordan Li and Cate and she is told that her parents forced Compound V on her and do not deserve her sympathy. If we make this assumption about her parents, it may also be safe to assume that they were willing to inject both of their children with Compound V, especially if they didn’t think Marie was going to show any powers. Annabeth is a few years younger than Marie, so when Marie didn’t show any indication that the injection worked, they may have decided to try again.
Another aspect of this theory is the fact that Marie and Annabeth are sisters. There could be a genetic aspect of Compound V, and if Marie was a late bloomer, Annabeth could have been too. Marie would have been sent to the orphanage and would have never found out if Annabeth reached puberty and revealed her powers. Okay, so now to the meat of the theory. Annabeth is being held captive by Vought/Godulkin in the secret lower level prison/experimental facility that they call “the woods”. We definitely don’t need to convince anyone watching this video that Vought and Godulkin are awful and complete liars. While Dean Shetty has mostly played the part of the “caring” Dean/therapist to Marie well, we have seen her true nature. We know from Luke’s storyline that Vought and Godulkin went as far as faking his brother, Sam’s, death to hide the fact that he was being held in “The Woods”.
Speaking of Luke and Sam, let’s stick with them for a little while. Specifically Sam. So far in the first three episodes of Gen V we find out that Sam was sent to Sage Grove Center because he was suffering from hallucinations and other mental health issues. After Vought faked his death, they secretly moved him to Godulkin’s Woods to hold him captive and perform experiments on him. We don’t know if Sam’s mental health issues are actual mental health issues, side effects of his superhuman ability, or caused somehow by Vought’s experiments. We also haven’t fully been introduced to anyone else that is being held in “The Woods”… but is part of the reason Sam is being held there because he’s too strong and he has these hallucinations and mental issues? If that is so, it is possible that Annabeth was actually deeply affected by the death of her parents and could have taken the same path as Sam. Instead of being adopted, she was sent to Sage Grove Center and then later to “The Woods”. Marie has an overpowered supe ability (Which could give her a role to play in the end game of The Boys’ main storyline, but more on that in another video/blog post), so there is a chance her sister could be overpowered as well… just like Luke and Sam. Marie would have no idea that Annabeth was sent to Sage Grove or ended up becoming a late bloomer supe because she was sent to the orphanage.
A few other quick notes: IF Hailey Miller was indeed lying and Dean Shetty really cared about Marie, why wouldn’t she try to help Marie make contact with her sister? We know that Vought (and Goldulkin by association) have all of the resources in the world at their disposal. The Dean seemed to brush off the Annabeth conversation pretty easily by just stating that Hailey was lying. Is there a reason Dean Shetty isn’t offering her help or even discussing this further with her? Marie hasn’t heard from Annabeth in years. Is it actually because Annabeth wants nothing to do with her? Or is it because she is being held captive and has no way to contact her? Finding out that her sister is being held in “The Woods” and that she has to rescue her makes sense for the main character’s storyline for season 1.
Now this wouldn’t be a true theory breakdown without the counter-arguments. So let’s quickly go through them. The easiest counter argument is that we are thinking too deeply into this and that Annabeth truly is a person with no superhuman abilities, blames her sister for her parents death, and does not want to speak to her. This is a perfectly plausible motivation for Marie throughout season 1. Become a superhero and show Annabeth she isn’t a monster. Something that was noted through episodes 1 through 3 is that Marie always seemed surprised when someone from Godulkin knew her actual backstory. This could be a plus for our theory because it could indicate that she is very overpowered, they have her sister in the woods, and they have been secretly keeping tabs on her for awhile. Or it could easily be that they keep tabs on all of their supes, she was a “nobody” to them until she became social media famous for saving the person’s life at the night club, and then once she became famous used their resources to learn more about her. So what do you guys think? Is Annabeth a normal person who blames her sister for their parents death? Or was she a child who was deeply affected by her parents death, late bloomed into a supe, and then taken to the Woods by Vought? Let us know in the comments.
