Gen V Review: Season 1, Episode 3 – #ThinkBrink

GenV Season 1 Episode 3 #ThinkBrink
AKA “What Happened to You?” – “Parents.”

Recap

This episode is more about building background and character, rather than propelling the plot forward . . . until things pick up at the end.

We have some flashbacks of Luke and Cate before the events of this season. In the first, Luke and Cate have evidently been called to Sage Grove to help confront Sam, who is having a violent episode. When they arrive, Sam is beating on the walls of his room. He’s made massive dents in the walls and he is continuing to yell. Security guards are standing at the door of his room with weapons trained on him. Apparently, this is the same time that the news has broken about parents injecting their children with CompoundV. Sam asks Luke if he knew about what had happened to them.

“How could Mom and Dad do that to us?” Luke manages to calm Sam down for a moment. He tells his brother, “They thought they were giving us powers.” Sam blames the CompoundV for his mental problems. “I could have just been…regular.”  Luke smiles and tells his brother, “I got news for you. Drug or no drug, you’d still be weird as f*&%. ” Sam huffs out a chuckle, and things seem to have turned for the better, until a guard behind Luke raises his weapon. The brothers are moving together for a bro hug when Sam stiffens and groans. He’s been shot with a tranquilizer dart. Sam pulls out the dart, knocks the gun aside and punches his fist through the guard’s body. Blood splatters. Luke tries to place his hand on Sam’s back, but Sam flings Luke against the wall. Cate walks up behind Sam, gloves off. “Sam, go to sleep.” Sam falls over.

This first flashback turns out to be Cate’s dream. Andre has brought her back to her dorm room after what happened in the stairwell outside the secret lab under Godolkin University. He’s worried about Cate, but she takes some medication and seems better. Andre shows her the picture on his phone that he had taken in Brink’s office. Andre is ready to go back to try to rescue Luke’s brother. Cate begs him to lie low. “I could make you stop,” she says. Andre takes off her glove and links their hands. “You’re not going to,” he says, “Not to me.”  “Please don’t do anything stupid. I can’t lose you, too,” Cate tells him. They draw together and kiss. Then start to take their clothes off frantically.

In the second flashback, Luke is sitting on the floor in his dorm room, obviously despondent. Evidently, he has been told that Sam committed suicide. “I could have stopped him,” he tells Cate, “I could have talked him down. ” Cate tries to comfort him, reminding Luke that Sam was really sick. Luke looks at her. “Tell me to feel better,” he begs.  “I don’t want to feel like this.” Cate looks at him and swallows. “I think this is . . . something you just have to go through. I’m sorry.”

Marie

Marie comes back to her dorm room to find Emma super tiny.

“Food,” Emma begs. We next see a normal-sized Emma sitting on her bed, with wet hair and a fuzzy robe, eating. Marie is watching her. Marie is processing, “So . . . every time, you eat to get big. And to get small,” you . . . Emma gives a small smile. “Yeah.”

Marie and Emma have a charged conversation about the situation Marie found Emma in when she returned. Emma insists that she is fine, but Marie says, “Look. Maybe you should take a break. Talk to someone. Get help.”

Emma is not in the mood to listen to Marie. “Listen, I’m really tired. I’ve been fighting off ants all night, so . . .” When Marie doesn’t let it go, Emma strikes back. “Okay, and you cut yourself. ” Marie argues that it is her power. At the end, they both say that they will not be friends, they will just be roommates. Both girls lie down to go to sleep.

Marie goes to visit Dean Shetty for breakfast. Shetty makes happy-face pancakes for her, because her daughter loved them. Shetty tells Marie that she is proud of her for her performance in last night’s interview. She also invites Marie to join her at the fundraiser that the university is holding for Professor Brink. Marie agrees.

At the fundraiser, Marie walks in with Dean Shetty. Marie is wearing a stunning red dress. Lots of people are handing Marie their cards. Shetty is talking up donors for the university. Jordan walks by one time, looking daggers at Marie. Shetty notices and comments on it.

Marie takes a break from all of the attention to go to the bathroom. She runs into Emma. Emma compliments her on the dress. “How do you pee in it?” Marie asks. Emma smiles, and helps Marie hold her dress in the bathroom stall. Marie and Emma are face-to-face, with yards of red tulle billowing up between them. Marie tells Emma that she is sorry for their fight and she would like for them to be friends. Emma leans up and gives her a hug.

When Marie returns to the gala, Shetty gives a speech and puts Marie in the spotlight, urging the donors to give generously. Shetty compliments Marie again at the end of the night. She tells Marie that she’s caused the donors to open their wallets. Marie just feels used. She takes off her token ribbon (a symbol for support for the night) and throws it on the table.

Jordan

Jordan’s day starts with her complaining about the student rankings while having sex with a guy. They are interrupted by a knock at the door. It’s her parents. Luckily, her partner has superpowers, so he can just walk through the walls, naked, to get away. Jordan hurriedly sweeps makeup and brushes into a drawer, throws beer or booze bottles into a bag in the closet, and gets dressed. By the time Jordan opens the door, he’s a male.  “Surprise!” mom says. “Surprised is a word that I’d use, yeah,” says Jordan.

At the gala, Jordan (m) is trying to talk himself up to one of the donors. The man isn’t too impressed. Jordan’s parents walk up. Jordan’s dad starts telling the donor a story about young Jordan chasing a girl around the playground. Jordan reaches down for a glass of champagne, and sits up as a female. Jordan’s dad apologizes and says, “He can get dramatic.”

The donor leaves. Jordan and her dad talk. Paul, the dad, tells Jordan, “Sometimes I think you change into a girl just to spite me. Jordan says, “I’ve never changed dad. I’ve always just been me.” She sniffles, then gets up and leaves.

Jordan runs into Cate at the bar. Cate uses her power to get the bartender to give them some expensive vodka and two glasses. When Marie starts to leave the gala, Jordan sees her walking out. She calls out to Marie. Marie comes over, telling Jordan she is not in the mood. Jordan says, “Brown noser. One-upper. Mommy and Daddy’s perfect little hero.”

Marie stops walking and turns back. “Yeah, well, that’s definitely not me, because my parents are dead. Because I killed them. You happy?” She then tells Jordan and Cate the story of how her powers manifested and how her parents died. At the end of the story, Cate pulls out a chair from their table and pats it. Marie sits down. Cate tells her own story. Cate’s family had gone camping. While her parents were setting up the tent, her little brother kept kicking her. “I grabbed him by the arm and I told him to go away and never come back. So he did. He just walked right into the woods. That was the first time my powers showed up.” Cate adds, “My mom never touched me again . . . Neither did my dad.” Cate tells Marie, it was not her fault.

Jordan adds to the conversation, “I killed my grandpa with my powers.” Cate and Marie look at her. Cate says, “No, you didn’t.”Jordan replies, “Yeah, I know. I was just feeling left out.” It breaks the tension and they all laugh.

Andre

After leaving Cate’s dorm room, Andre visits a Media Training class with his father, Polarity. The professor, Ibarra, is critiquing Marie’s performance in her interview. Ibarra calls Marie “a natural” and is complimentary of her interview. Polarity watches from an alcove, seething. “That should be you up there,” he tells Andre. Andre is penitent. “I let you down. I’m sorry.” Polarity tells Andre that they will be going to the gala together, and he expects his son to impress the donors. Andre is chastised, but he asks, “Dad . . um, If I could do something . . heroic, like actually help people, that’ll be good, right?”

Andre clearly still has what he has found out about Sam on his mind as he and his father shake hands and talk to the bigwigs. He runs into Cate just after she arrives, and they have an awkward moment in which the subject of their morning interlude comes up. Cate wants to talk, and Andre promises that they will, but later. Leaving Cate, he goes out onto the patio to meet Emma.

Emma

Emma has not had a good day (not a good week, really). After her fight with Marie, Justine accosts her walking across the campus. Justine claims to want to apologize to Emma, but Emma glances over and sees a girl filming them. Justine’s apology is merely more fodder for her social media. Emma walks away from Justine only to be chased down by a smiling woman, “Honey!” It’s Emma’s mom. She has an invitation for the gala for herself and her daughter. Emma’s mother, whose name is Tiffany, makes comments about Emma’s eating. “Are you keeping your food log?” and “You look an inch or two shorter than usual . . .I’m just gonna check your height. (opening her purse) I have a measuring tape in here somewhere.” Emma emphatically says, “Mom, do not measure me.”

Tiffany changes the subject. She tells Emma that she’s seen Justine’s video. “How are you doing?” Emma that she’s “Had better days.” Tiffany tells her about a project that Justine was fired from. Emma tries to act like she is above the gossip, but she gives a small smile. Emma also admits to her mother that, “I just want to . . . curl up and die. I mean everyone just, (pauses, her voice drops to a whisper) stares at me.” Tiffany gives Emma a pep talk that seems to be more about Tiffany than Emma.

Later, Emma and her mom appear at the gala. Emma looks beautiful in a sequined evening gown. She is looking around wistfully at Marie, Andre and others, but she is alone. Her mother walks up with the producer who had been on campus for the interview. Tiffany has pitched her a great idea for Emma. They want her to star in a reality show. Emma is hopeful, eyes wide. Then she hears what they want it to be about. Courtenay (the producer) throws around words like “body image” and “eating disorder.” Emma deflates. “Isn’t that stuff all a little personal?” Courtenay insists that they will be, “pulling it all out of the shadows.” Emma smiles and nods, but it is clear that she is unhappy. She excuses herself to go to the bathroom. (Where she meets Marie and
they make their truce.)

After helping Marie in the bathroom, Emma goes back to her mother and Courtenay. She tells them that she does not like their pitch because it is exploiting her. She makes her own pitch for a show. She’d like to be inspirational, “I mean like Queen Maeve, you know?” Tiffany replies to her daughter, steel in her tone, “I think in the real world, everybody uses everyone. And I think that this could help you in a million ways.” Emma takes a long pause, then tells Courtenay that her mother was the one who taught her, “how to stick my fingers down my throat. Until I vomited bile.” Emma stalks away from them, right by Polarity and Andre.

Now Things Come to a Head

From this point on, the action picks up. Andre walks out to the patio and finds Emma smoking (apparently marijuana, she’ll mention it later.) Andre shows her the picture of Sam that he has on his phone, and tells Emma about the secret lab underground. Emma is dumbfounded.

“What are they doing down there? Could they do that to us, too?” Andre wants to get into the lab to get more information. Without actually saying it, he is asking Emma to sneak in. Emma agrees to his plan. Andre does have a moment where he hesitates. “‘Cause it is, like, life-or-death dangerous. And you’re a freshman and you are not even on the crimefighting track. You know what, just forget I said anything.” Emma leans over and nudges him. “Yes.”

Next we see Andre and tiny Emma in the gray stairwell outside the lab. that he has a GPS tag on her that is connected to his phone. He cautions her, hero sh*&.” If she sees anything suspicious, just run. Emma is still game. Andre explains “No tiny action.” “Get it, got it, good.” Andre asks if she is all right. “Yeah, I’m just still stoned.” says Emma, who then crawls into a crack in the wall.

We see the interior of the facility, with the forest scenes on the walls. An orderly is passing out meals, slipping trays through hinged flaps in the doors. Sam is sitting on his bed when his tray is pushed in. Emma crawls out from under his plate. She looks around the room. There are huge dents in the walls, which are also decorated with superhero movie posters. She looks over the edge of the tray. It’s a long way down for her. She looks up to see Sam looking at her. Emma tries to run, but Sam turns over an empty plastic cup on his tray and she is caught. Sam looks at her through the cup. “Are you real?” he asks.

Back at the gala, Andre is starting to worry. He is looking at the GPS tracker on his phone. “Emma, why are you still down there?” His father wants to know what is going on with him. Andre finally decides to tell the truth to his father. “I’m trying to be a hero, Dad.” Polarityasks what he is talking about, and Andre starts talking about why Luke killed Brink, and the underground hospital, and . . Polarity grabs his son and hisses at him,“Who else have you told?” He also tells Andre not to say another word. Andre pulls back, shocked,“Y-You know?”

In Sam’s room, Sam is pondering Emma. He pours her out of the cup and onto his bed. “A tiny girl is such an interesting choice. Why would I do that? What does it mean?” Emma doesn’t understand for a minute, but Sam believes that she is a hallucination or a manifestation. Emma protests that she is real. Sam insists that she prove it, and asks her a bunch of questions, “How did I break my arm in second grade?” and “What’s the name of the stuffed animal I loved more than anything when I was little?” “Who knows, man?” says Emma. When he asks about his favorite movie, Emma rolls her eyes and says, “Well you’re a white guy, so. . . Godfather, Star Wars, or Shawshank.” Sam tells her that his favorite movie is Waterworld. Emma laughs at him. “You know this is the dumbest test ever, right?” Sam finally believes that Emma is real, and she tells him that she is scouting for a way to get Sam out of the facility. Sam is reluctant. “I’ve tried to get out before, but people get hurt.” Emma is desperate to convince him, so she blurts out, “Your brother sent me!” When he hears this, Sam tells Emma that he knows the security codes to all the doors. Sam eats his meal and talks to Emma. They make plans to break Sam out, and Emma is preparing to escape on the tray, the way she came in, but an alarm starts blaring. Sam says, “They know you’re here.”

At the gala, Andre has left his father and finds Cate, Marie and Jordan at their table. “Guys, I fu%$d up.” he says. It’s about Marie’s roommate, “I think she’s stuck.” he says. “Where?” asks Cate. “You know where,” Andre says.

Back in Sam’s room, Sam is hiding Emma on a small bookshelf. A buzzing sound begins, and Sam jerks. The floor has become electrified. He falls down to the floor. A guard comes in, clothed in black, with a helmet covering his face. He tosses aside the covers on Sam’s bed. While he’s searching, Sam groans and starts to turn over. The guard hits a button and the sizzling, buzzing sound starts again. Emma’s face hardens. She runs and jumps from the bookshelf to the guard’s shoulder. He starts to swat at her. Then he rips his helmet off. “No, no, no, no, no” he mutters. He starts pushing at his ear. We see a close-up of his face and hear squishy noises. Blood drops from his ear. The guard falls over next to Sam.

With the alarm still blaring, Sam struggles to get up. We hear muffled tiny groans. The earpiece starts to push up from the guard’s ear. Emma comes out of his earhole, covered in blood and coughing. “Oh, god! This is the grossest thing possible!” she pants. Footsteps approach and three more guards with guns come in. “Fu%$!” yells Emma. And we fade to credits.

Reaction

I hope Emma gets to meet Queen Maeve by the end of the series.

Brink had his favorite – it was Golden Boy. Shetty appears to be trying to “collect” a standout with Marie. Which reminds me of Professor Slughorn in Harry Potter.

Related to the above – Why is Shetty taking Marie under her wing? (We find out later.)

Still getting those Supernatural vibes – when Luke tries to calm Sam down during the flashback, Sam says,“I could ‘a just been . . . regular.” (Sam Winchester had the same hope.). And Luke answers him,  “I got news for you. Drug or no drug, you’d still be weird as fu&^.”

That line could have come from Dean Winchester, except he usually would call his Sam a freak.

In the second flashback, Luke asks Cate to tell him not to feel anything. Cate doesn’t grant his request. Remember that for later.

Shetty made smiley face pancakes for her daughter. Remember for later.

Polarity makes a comment about Marie’s powers. “Unsanitary blood powers that, mark my words, are a lawsuit waiting to happen. What if she has hep-C?”  Just the “blood powers” phrase stuck out to me. The accusation that Jewish people would engage in blood rituals is a very old anti-Semitic trope, and also anti-female.

Marie lies to the donors at the gala about her parents. It seems to be her go-to reaction, except she also seemed to have talked to Shetty about not telling the truth. If she hadn’t felt badly about lying all night, she might not have told Jordan and Cate the truth about her parents.

When Emma is talking to her mother and Courtenay about the reality show, she glances over and sees Justine nearby. Her mother is trying to exploit her, just like Justine did. The assumption is that Polarity gave the warning about Emma being with Sam. We see Andre make his confession to his father, and later we see the alarms start to go off. (SPOILER) There is another possibility.

The X-ray notes during the show talk about the costume design for Emma when she is small. The designer notes that she wanted Emma’s costume to look “plastic” like doll’s clothing just pops on. And they had a five foot prosthetic ear built for Lizzie Broadway to climb out of for the ending scene.