There is a lot more talk about the Odessa Project in Gen V season 2, episode 3, and it all leads to one suspicion. Is Marie the Chosen One to take down Homelander? It certainly seems to be playing out that way.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Gen V season 2, episode 3.
After learning in Gen V season 2, episode 2 that there was a project where babies were tested on and died, Marie, Jordan, and Emma head to Polarity’s house to delve further into the Odessa Project files. Meanwhile, Marie finally learns where her little sister was taken.
Marie is the only survivor of Project Odessa
It turns out that Marie was part of the Odessa Project when she was a baby, and to top it all off, she was the only survivor. After that, the project was dropped, and it’s possible that this is due to the fact that Marie is a Black woman.
Remember that Vought and its followers were (and many still are) Nazis. Odessa was a project back in the day that allowed Nazis to work without consequence of their actions during World War II, and there’s no way that the Nazis would want to admit that someone who doesn’t fit their agenda is the Super Soldier they wanted to create.
The discussion of Odessa keeps coming up throughout the episode, including during one of Cipher’s Hero classes, where Marie is the only one to show any improvement. Cipher does tell Marie that she needs to find a way to control her powers without cutting her hands open, which confuses her at first. Jordan wonders if it’s because Cipher knows that she is the only Odessa survivor.
Marie finally finds out where Annabeth is (sort of)
Meanwhile, Marie hears from Pam, the woman who ended up taking Annabeth in. Pam has come up since she was in a Project Odessa photo with Marie’s parents. Pam has no idea where Annabeth is now, and she also has no idea about Project Odessa.
All she can share is that Marie’s parents struggled to naturally conceive Marie, and IVF was too expensive for them. God U just happened to swoop in and help them conceive Marie, and Cipher was the one to deliver her. The plot thickens!
Annabeth, meanwhile, was conceived through natural means.
This does somewhat take out the idea that Odessa didn’t want their Chosen One to be a Black woman. After all, why would Nazis help out a Black couple? There are a lot of questions that come from this revelation.
Marie doesn’t focus too much on this, though. She wants to know where her sister is, and she’s angry that Pam is gatekeeping the information. Pam has no right to not even pass on to Annabeth that Marie has been looking for her. Sure, what Annabeth went through was absolutely traumatizing, but Marie also went through something just as traumatizing, if not more! Annabeth at least should have a choice in meeting with her big sister.
Cate confronts the wrong classmate
As all this is going on, Cate has returned to school, but she admits that she thinks her powers are gone. She’s angry at Emma at a coffee shop, where we can see that tensions between Supes and humans are growing, and Emma points out that this is all karma for Cate putting her own friends into Elmira.
On top of that, Cate is angry with the wrong person. Jordan attacked her, and Marie refused to help her. Emma had nothing to do with it, and Cate realizes that she’s right.
Emma does get involved in another fight and mystery in Gen V season 2, episode 3. A human barista is struggling with someone putting pro-Starlighter stuff everywhere, and this is leading to a lot of the Supes attacking her and other baristas. The barista shares that President Homelander has made it impossible to live and work as a human, and Emma naturally feels for her.
Well, Emma realizes that Harper is the “speedster” who has spraypainted the pro-Starlight message. Harper is able to mimic people’s powers after touching them, so she’s not actually a speedster. She’s also not alone in the protests, with her roommate Ali joining in. Emma points out that their current actions are stupid and causing grief for the barista. They need to think bigger and better in their protests.
As for Cate, she goes to see Cipher to tell him that the true attackers need to be taken to Vought. Cipher isn’t going to do that, as that would mean admitting that her powers are gone. She needs to get them back, or she’ll be thrown out of God U.
It’s not going well for Cate—who sees a weird hidden room that could be connected to Cipher’s powers—who ends up with Sam ambushing her for help as her mind control wears off. That’s not going to happen, but it’s Jordan to the rescue.
Jordan goes off script in Gen V season 2, episode 3
After getting Sam high to help him, Jordan realizes that they need to tell Marie that they love her. That happens just ahead of their speech at God U, where Jordan admits that they attacked Cate. They talk about how Vought and God U are twisting and manipulating the narrative.
Naturally, the students turn against Jordan, but can Vought get out of this one? Is there a way to take out Jordan without causing more uprising from the pro-Starlighters? What can they do to Jordan after they already gave them a pardon? This is certainly setting up for an exciting rest of the season.
Gen V airs on Wednesdays on Prime Video.