Gen V Showrunner Reveals Earlier Clues That Pointed to Episode 5's Shocking Twist

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Gen V Episode 5. Read at your own risk!]

All is not what it seems at Godolkin University. While that did not take long for us to realize — I mean, the campus was founded by Vought International — it did take a good five episodes before Gen V made what is arguably its biggest reveal so far. All is not what it seems at God U largely because of Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) and her mind control powers.

In Gen V Episode 5, Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and her friends wake up after having their memories from the past few days entirely wiped. They don't remember digging into the secret laboratory called The Woods or fighting Golden Boy's (Patrick Schwarzenegger) brother Sam (Asa Germann) (heck, some of them don't even remember meeting Sam in the first place). And while our supes originally believed the telepathic Rufus (Alexander Calvert) to be the one warping their thoughts, the truth soon comes crashing down. Just as Andre (Chance Perdomo) appears to be about to kill Rufus, Cate appears and says it was her all along. This comes after an earlier confrontation where Marie realized Cate was responsible for the memory loss — only she did not get to share it with the others because Cate wiped her once again.

Over Zoom and email, Gen V showrunner Michele Fazekas discussed Cate's motivation for using her powers on her friends and shared hints from the earlier episodes that pointed to this reveal. Fazekas also shared more about the supes' powers and how they serve as metaphors for real-life issues.

I have to start by asking about the twist — Cate is the one who wiped their memories! What were discussions like about how you wanted that moment of truth between her and Marie in the dorm to unfold?
Michele Fazekas: What was the most important thing for us was, we really wanted to see Cate's grief and regret about it. And I think Maddie did such a nice job conveying them. [Cate] is not just [an] evil bad guy. You don't know why she's doing this yet or what she's up to. But I think even that moment you realize, this is the last thing she wanted to do. 

Does Cate believe she was helping her friends? Dean Shetty (Shelley Conn) tells her, "You're the only one who can keep [them] safe."
Fazekas: I think she really does. She feels like she can protect them, and she's now caught between her love for her friends, and she really does love Shetty. Shetty stepped into that maternal role. Cate is now in this vise of: I can't keep all these plates [spinning], I can't keep everyone happy anymore.

Were there hints you dropped in the past four episodes that pointed to this reveal?
Fazekas: We wanted to be very careful about not tipping that Cate was involved with Shetty and the overall mystery — her power is so strong that she would be a likely suspect. So we didn't drop hints as much as made sure her attitudes and actions were consistent with the truth of her involvement. Cate's general approach to anyone that asks too many questions is to distract and redirect. In the pilot, Golden Boy tells Cate that he's having nightmares — about trees — and Cate seems concerned and caring. But she doesn't really ask questions about it — just offers to help him forget with some great sex. And he stops talking about it. Mission accomplished. 

Cate was always very cautious about looking into Golden Boy's death. She seemed to readily accept that he was just mentally ill and under stress — sure, makes sense, right? Then after she and Andre found the strange video from Golden Boy she made Andre promise not to do anything crazy — in other words, don't look into it. So when Andre convinces Emma (Lizze Broadway) to break into The Woods in Episode 3, Cate is furious. Which of course tracks with what is happening — now Emma and Sam are missing, and who knows what has happened. She's upset — just not for the reasons we think she is. Remember Tek Knight's (Derek Wilson) interrogation? Cate was very nervous about him finding out the truth — going so far as to take off her glove, an incredibly aggressive move, but understandable as her secret is much bigger than just Sam.  

When the gang fights Sam at Dr. Cardosa's (Marco Pigossi) house, we get the biggest hint that Cate is involved. Sam screams at her about not letting her touch him again. Now, it tracks with what we know about their past — Cate and Golden Boy visited Sam years ago and she essentially put him to sleep while he was having a breakdown. But is that what Sam was talking about? Or was he talking about all the times Cate wiped his mind, his brother's mind? In Episode 5 — when everyone has blacked out the previous night — Cate is the one who puts them onto the notion that this was Rufus' doing. Her story about Rufus assaulting her freshman year is real — but she didn't calculate how angry Andre would be. His rage, and his willingness to essentially murder Rufus, is ultimately what makes Cate have to finally tell the truth.

Thank you for sharing that. Separately, I wanted to talk about Emma's powers — Marie asked whether she knew she was capable of turning big. How much of Emma not turning big was tied to her mom's control over her life?
Fazekas: A lot of Emma's storyline comes from being a people pleaser. And her mom is like a stage mom and really wanted to control and monetize what Emma can do which a lot of these kids are going through in different way. She's been told, "Don't show that part of yourself; that part is gross." So there's some growth into realizing, Oh, people don't think it's gross, people kind of like that. It's part of her journey of life. 

In the room, we have a phrase that one of our writers brought to the room, which was "filling your own cup." If you're always seeking for other people to fill your cup, you're always seeking external validation. And my want for Emma and her journey is can she validate herself? Can she separate herself from the opinions of others?

By now it's clear that many of the supes' powers are tied to issues that teens today face — Marie cutting herself, Jordan being bi-gender. What were the writers hoping to convey with the portrayal of these powers?
Fazekas: They're a metaphor. Emma's is a metaphor for an eating disorder and Sam's is a metaphor for mental illness. And what I also love about the powers is they all have a cost. It's not just, I'm gonna fly through the air. It's like, I'm going to be able to control blood, but I have to cut myself to get it. Or I'm going to be able to control my size, but I have to either binge or vomit to do that. I really like that it exacts a price on them. It all represents the different psychological and emotional things that an adolescent is going through.

New episodes of Gen V stream Fridays on Prime Video.