Our “Guardians” are now stuck in the middle of a prison meant to keep supes at bay. We’ve also seen Marie (Jaz Sinclair) use her powers to bring her sister, Annabeth (Keeya King), back from the dead, which opens a bunch of new questions. Did she hurt her friends in the process? Will it continue to hurt other supes if she uses her powers like this? Perhaps strangest of all, why does Cipher (Hamish Linklater) want her to have this ability? “Cooking Lessons” starts to unravel some (but not all) of the mystery.
Gen V — “Cooking Lessons” Recap
After Annabeth comes to, the group is attacked by soldiers from Vought. Marie, Jordan (London Thor, Derek Luh), Cate (Maddie Phillips), and Emma (Lizze Broadway) fight off the first batch, and the group runs to escape. Annabeth tells them to go to a seemingly dead end, but suddenly Sam (Asa Germann) bursts through the wall with an escape van. In the process, Marie realizes that Annabeth has powers of her own.
As the group drives away, Marie apologizes to her sister for getting her caught up in everything. However, everyone realizes that Marie’s powers are far more powerful than they realized. Annabeth has a mental breakdown over the group’s decision to drive to Canada. However, they have no other choice.
Cipher receives the phone call about Marie’s escape while he’s stretching out the Burned Man. After he tells Vought that only Marie matters, he starts slapping the burnt body. Marie and the team arrive at an old school, where they stop to change clothes and eat. Emma finds a computer and DMs Polarity for help. While she does, Sam sees “Greg” in her contacts list and starts poking fun at her.
Marie talks to Annabelle about the V in her blood. She does not know when it happened, and no one else knows. Annabelle is a precog with limited visions of the future. She cannot control it, but she wants to get back to her life. Marie apologizes for everything that’s happened, but she cannot let Annabeth go back. Vought will kill her. Annabeth tells her that everything bad in her life has been because of Marie.
Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas) wakes up in his bedroom but discovers Cipher sitting in the corner. Cipher asks what happened the night before and tries to explain how he was hoping to help Andre with his treatment. Cipher believes Marie can help cure Polarity’s own medical issues. Polarity refuses to help, but when a phone call comes in from Harper (Jessica Clement), Cipher uses his powers to possess Polarity and answer the call. He asks Harper where Emma and Marie are hiding.
Annabeth has a panic attack while sitting in the other room, causing everyone to worry that something is wrong. Marie helps calm her down and tells Annabeth she’s happy with the life Pam gave her. Marie promises to do anything she can to put things back to normal. Suddenly, Viktor (Tait Fletcher) bursts through the walls with his hammer. After throwing Marie outside, he fights with Sam, eventually knocking him down too.
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Viktor tries to attack Marie again when Zoe Neuman (Olivia Morandin) walks up to him. Not realizing the danger, he taunts her, but she lets her eels out of her mouth, and they tear his head in half. She calls out to Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), who walks up to the team to introduce himself. Zoe reveals that Victoria Neuman was her mom, which convinces Marie about his intentions. She will go with Edgar if he offers safety to the entire team. He agrees.
Edgar takes Marie and her friends to a safe bunker. While on the elevator down, Marie and Zoe bond over Victoria’s death. Once they reach the bunker, Edgar reveals that Viktor had a tracking chip, which is how he found them. Marie asks Edgar why he is so interested in her, and while he cooks for them, he begins to explain the Odessa Project. It was started by Godolkin as a way to build the best superheroes. However, the project failed for years until it ultimately succeeded twice: once for Marie and once for Homelander.
Emma and Sam talk about the past, and Sam apologizes for what he did to her. He knows he is responsible for his choices, and he misses her. He hopes to try again, but Emma is not sure she can trust him. Sam tries to make a move, but Emma turns him down.
Edgar continues to tell Marie, Jordan, and Cate about Cipher. When it’s revealed that his body was never recovered and he’d be very old at this point, Jordan raises a new possibility: the Burned Man is Godolkin. If that’s the case, Cipher might be using Godolkin to further his research, and Edgar could control all superheroes using Godolkin (if given the chance).
Annabelle speaks to Zoe about their parentage. While Annabelle still seems uncomfortable with her powers, Zoe thinks she can use her powers to protect her grandfather. Annabelle opens up about the good moments she had with Marie.
Edgar shows Marie some of the research Godolkin had created on how to control superheroes. He was the one who invented high-frequency whistles and the metal collars that nuke their powers. Edgar wants Marie to embrace her power, and they could stop Cipher. They could potentially even stop Homelander. Marie and Jordan fall asleep together.
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Cipher gets bad news about Marie’s whereabouts, causing him to lash out at Polarity. He finally reveals his grand plan: he wants to eliminate 75% of all the students at God U. With fewer “weak” superpowered individuals, the stronger students will rise even higher. When he’s about to hurt Polarity more, the superhero fights back, throwing him through a window. Polarity looks outside, and Cipher is gone.
Marie wakes up alone and leaves the bunker alone. However, before she can get too far away, Cate asks Marie to use her powers on her brain. If she does it right, Cate could use her powers to fight back against Cipher with her. They walk wordlessly down the road together.
Is “Cooking Lessons” worth watching?
Yes, and “Cooking Lessons” will be especially cool for fans of The Boys. It’s clear that Prime Video is advancing that narrative with individual characters in every episode of Gen V. While it started with nice cameos, Sister Sage, Starlight, and Edgar’s appearances show that this will be a far more integral part of the puzzle for The Boys Season 5. At this rate, it seems inevitable that these characters will also crossover into the main series.
“Cooking Lessons” really functions on two tracks. On one side, Marie struggles with what her powers can do and who they can help. She brought her sister back from the dead but destroyed her life. Meanwhile, Cate needs help to regain her powers, and Edgar believes Marie could open new opportunities for anti-Homelander resistance.
The other side of the story revolves around Cipher. His plans are slowly coming into view, and they’re even more dangerous than expected. His extermination plan is simple, and given the series already showed KKK robes and Nazi materials in a room dedicated to Godolkin’s work, it’s pretty clear where his actual ideology has come from.
It was nice to see Annabelle actually share the screen with her sister. That alone was a huge reveal last week, but now that she has powers of her own, she might have more knowledge than we know. Her precog abilities might only happen occasionally, but it’s quite a powerful skill to see the future. However, it’s not always right, which could suggest future episodes will have her seeing Marie growing out of control. Will her sister actually lose her mind for having so much power, or will she be able to stay grounded?
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Finally, do we think the “Cooking Lesson” plan, for Marie to confront Cipher, is actually a good one? My gut tells me that their intuition is off. Frankly, it seems to indicate that Marie was once right about Cipher. He does not feel the pain of being stabbed (like he did to himself at dinner with Polarity), and he does not have V in his blood because Cipher is not the one with powers. It is Godolokin.
It seems like Godolkin does have them, and his abilities could easily be centered around possessing others. If he possesses Cipher, he can then use Cipher’s body to possess another. The chain link could explain why Jordan felt pain, especially if Godolkin is burned all over his body. This might be off, but we’re feeling pretty good about this theory.
Watch Gen V on Prime Video. New episodes release every Wednesday. “Cooking Lessons” was released on October 8, 2025.
