Gen V Episode 1 Resurrects The Boys' Most Explicit Scene (And Makes It Worse)
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 of "Gen V."
If you were worried that "The Boys" was running out of ways to make its viewers cringe in disgust, hopefully the series premiere of "Gen V" has put that concern to bed. The spin-off series from Amazon Prime Video features as many novel gross-out moments as it does new characters. Having finally secured the hook-up she spent her first days at Godolkin University pining for, social media sensation Emma Meyer (aka The Cricket, played by Lizze Broadway) is ready to get down with one of her fans. Unfortunately, he's only interested in doing the deed if she'll use her powers to shrink down to Ant-Man size so that a part of him looks bigger by comparison. And, yes, we do mean that part.
As viewers watch Emma hold on to her lover's appendage with all the interest and enthusiasm of a construction worker moving a girder, their minds will likely wander back to "The Boys" Season 3, Episode 1, "Payback," in which another shrinking supe named Termite (Brett Geddes) confronts another massive member. The "Gen V" scene is arguably worse contextually, as it's played as an emotional low point for Emma that stokes self-esteem issues that she struggles with for the rest of the season. The "Gen V" scene is just as uncomfortable to watch as the "Payback" scene on a purely visceral level — "Gen V" shows almost the entire appendage, going so far as to show Cricket stomping on his testes while dangling from the shaft — but doesn't invite us to laugh the same way "The Boys" does with Termite's fatal sneeze.
Even if Termite winds up in a pool of blood by the end of his tryst, "The Boys" fans are far more used to seeing gore than they are giant-sized genitals. That being said, both "The Boys" and "Gen V" sequences are grimly hilarious — the former even more so when you realize how it got made.
The Boys' Termite scene was a technical marvel
When "The Boys'" showrunner Eric Kripke caught wind of a viral "Avengers: Endgame" fan theory — to put it delicately, the one that outlines how Ant-Man could've single-handedly killed Thanos — he knew they had to parody it on the show. As the "Supernatural" creator told DigitalSpy, they aimed to "give the audience what they wanted with Ant-Man but couldn't get from Marvel." There was only one problem — creating the scene exactly would retread old ground.
When Kripke brought the idea to the writers' room, he recalls that someone "hilariously" pointed out they had already killed someone in a very similar manner all the way back in Season 1. After failing to execute Translucent (Alex Hassell) with electrocution alone, The Boys make do by inserting a cluster of plastique up where the sun doesn't shine. The resulting destruction is essentially what Marvel fans envisioned for Thanos. "It's wonderful to work on a show, where an a** explosion is on the table but then someone says, 'We did that,'" Kripke stated bluntly to Entertainment Weekly. "And there's only so many orifices a guy has. So then it became a very logical step."
The show's VFX teams wanted to execute Termite's voyage with practical effects. Thus, they spent a considerable amount of the show's budget to create probably the largest fake penis ever made for television. In all seriousness, it was one of the most impressive props of 2022, and we're glad a producer fought to keep the scene in the Season 3 premiere — even if its legacy turned out to be even gnarlier than we could've imagined.