Gen V confirmed several characters from The Boys would cross over into Season 2 of the spinoff series, including Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and The Deep (Chace Crawford). Other characters were quietly confirmed, though not officially announced. One of them demonstrates not only how well Gen V and The Boys tie together within the same universe and timeline but also who might be pulling the strings behind the scenes. Spoiler alert: It’s not Dean Cipher (Hamish Linklater). In Season 2, Episode 5, “The Kids Are Now All Right,” Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) makes her way to the Prime Video spinoff series.
Sister Sage Is Back and as Cunning as Ever
In Gen V Season 2, Episode 5, we get a glimpse into Dean Cipher’s life from when he first moved into the house a month prior and took on the job as the new Dean of Godolkin University. The mysterious charred body he keeps in a chamber has been with him since he moved in, and likely even longer. He cleans the still-alive person (or Supe?), feeds them, bathes them, and tends to them like a baby. This person is clearly very important to him.
The big surprise comes when he receives a visitor. It’s Sister Sage, in one of many crossover character appearances, who brings him a housewarming gift. They engage in intelligent discourse about Einstein, proving she has not lobotomized herself. That’s something she did on occasion in The Boys as the only means of temporarily giving herself and her forever regenerating brain a break. However, things take a turn for the weird.
She slaps him repeatedly as he begs for her to do so harder. They engage in sexual activity, the charred person looking on with an impression that is tough to interpret behind all the burns. Fans who know Sister Sage from her time on The Boys understand that she’s in charge, whether someone thinks so or not. She manipulated the vulnerable Homelander (Antony Starr) and is likely to do the same to Cipher.
Later in the episode, she arrives at Elmira to advise Cipher that she has delivered him a gift. This is presumably one month after that first encounter. He comments on her accepting the job as Vought CEO and how he never saw her as being the corporate type. That event occurred in Episode 3 of Season 4 of The Boys, providing a clearer understanding of the timeline. Since Starlight has already escaped and approached Marie (Jaz Sinclair) for her help at the beginning of this series, it appears as though all the events in The Boys Season 4 happen within this one month. Cipher hadn’t seen Sister Sage since that first steamy meeting to congratulate her on the appointment immediately after it happened.
The gift she brings him is likely Marie’s sister, Annabeth. Later, he brings Marie to Annabeth, using her as leverage to force Marie to continue her training. Later, Marie and the other captured students find Annabeth dead in the cell, and Marie brings her back to life, proving she does indeed have the power to perform miracles, as Dean Cipher thought all along. Sister Sage tells Cipher that they are going to get everything they want, quelling his worries about how Homelander might feel about how powerful Marie truly is. Sage is managing both these men with a greater plan that might not even include either of them.
The Plan Will Likely See ‘The Boys’ and ‘Gen V’ Converge
Considering everything Sister Sage accomplished in The Boys, her reference to beginning Phase 2 at the end of Season 4 likely has something to do with Marie and Cipher. She has already been working on this phase, but to what purpose remains to be seen. She has been a vocal hater of humans ever since doctors ignored her potential cure for cancer that left her grandmother dead. She feels they serve no purpose, so rallying behind Homelander and Marie could fit into her plan to wipe humans from the Earth. Based on her track record, she is capable of doing it.
Let’s consider how her plan worked out in The Boys once Homelander went to her for help. First, she had him brutally murder three of his biggest supporters, then forced A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) to plant their bodies in front of a group of Starlight supporters to pin the murders on them. That helped incite even more hatred of that group.
She then made calculated moves to push Ashley (Colbie Minifie) out and insert herself as the CEO of Vought. She hired Firecracker, then planted a story with her about Starlight’s abortion, knowing Starlight would retaliate angrily, capturing the attack on camera to further paint her as the villain. She tried to negotiate a deal with Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) to grant Supes legal authority over the police. She sat back as A-Train betrayed them, claiming to have known all along that he was the leak, but needing him to do what he did.
Just when Homelander lost faith in her, Sage showed him exactly how the plan came together. With Victoria now dead, Robert Singer (Jim Beaver) implicated for ordering the murder based on the capture of incriminating (and misleading) audio, and Steve Calhoun (David Andrews) in line to be president, Homelander is set up like gold. He is deputized and standing right by the president’s side as citizens cheer him on as their supposed savior. Why did she do it? She claims it was merely to see if she could. This makes Sister Sage more dangerous than anyone anticipated, and the person Marie must truly watch out for.
Dean Cipher Is a Pawn in Her Game
How it all plays out remains to be seen. But it appears that, as powerful as Dean Cipher seems, he’s not the one calling the shots. He is submissive when she’s around, as though he’s following her every order. Based on his use of words like miracle, ascension, salvation, and power, he might be completely brainwashed, a fanatical thinker who truly believes that Marie is the answer to humanity’s problem and to eliminating all humans from Earth and starting over anew. Sister Sage is likely to capitalize on that like a cult leader would, encouraging him that he will get everything he wants if he follows her orders.
But what does Sister Sage want? Chances are, she doesn’t plan to sit back and let Homelander lead, though the more she accomplishes for him, the more he would rely on her to pull his strings, even if he doesn’t realize she’s doing it. The question has always been, who is the most powerful Supe, Homelander or Marie? But despite having no discernible physical powers, it could be Sister Sage who has them both beat.
If so, it serves as a stark commentary on the power of influence and manufactured thought in today’s world. Sister Sage can accomplish more without lifting a single fist than any Supe can with tremendous physical power. That’s downright terrifying and will have implications across both shows. Stream Gen V on Prime Video.
- Release Date
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September 28, 2023
- Network
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Prime Video
- Directors
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Nelson Cragg, Clare Kilner, Philip Sgriccia, Sanaa Hamri, Shana Stein, Steve Boyum
- Writers
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Craig Rosenberg
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Jaz Sinclair
Marie Moreau
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Lizze Broadway
Emma Meyer / Little Cricket
