Gen V: Who Is The Mesmerizer And Why Is He Familiar To Fans Of The Boys?

Contains spoilers for "Gen V" Season 1, Episode 5 — "Welcome to the Monster Club"

While "The Boys" spin-off "Gen V" features a number of diabolical surprise appearances from the mother ship series, it's likely no one expected this most recent cameo – particularly because the character in question has been dead since "The Boys" Season 1. In "Gen V" Season 1, Episode 5, "Welcome to the Monster Club," Cate (Maddie Phillips) asks Andre (Chance Perdomo) to unwind with her by watching one of the TV shows they used to enjoy with her now-dead boyfriend, Luke, aka Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger).

Aside from the awkwardness of these two waxing nostalgic about their lost companion despite having slept together mere days after his death, fans may have noticed that the show they're watching is "The Mesmerizer," a supernatural crime procedural starring a young version of the "real" superhero Mesmer (actual child star Haley Joel Osment, who is best known for playing the little boy in "The Sixth Sense").

In "The Boys" Season 1, Mesmer is haunted by his relationship with his estranged daughter, as well as the lavish life he lost after being found guilty of insider trading. Realizing he has no prospects of rectifying the former failure, he makes a desperate attempt to mend the latter by betraying Butcher (Karl Urban) and his crew in exchange for a chance to return to Vought. Once Butcher becomes aware of this, he tracks Mesmer down and brutally beats him to death in a public restroom.

In terms of Vought-produced projects, "The Mesmerizer" most closely resembles the "Terminal Beauty" film series, which stars Mesmer's Teenage Kix teammate Popclaw (Brittany Allen). Both appear to be pulpy and crowd-pleasing — far from the evil levels of corporate sanitization and propaganda other Vought projects perpetrate.

"Red Thunder," a Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) vehicle released in the 1980s, embodies the hamfisted jingoism and Red Scare slant that would almost certainly alienate those who didn't grow up with it (much like its clear real-world inspiration, "Red Dawn"). Arguably far worse, however, is "Citizen Starlight," a reality series starring Annie January (Erin Moriarty) specifically crafted to capitalize on the Deep's (Chace Crawford) criminal behavior while minimizing Vought's obviously horrific workplace environment as a brief outlier already dealt with.

Speaking of the Deep, it doesn't take long for him to spin his "cancellation" into a sickening tale of redemption with the docudrama "Not Without My Dolphin." Vought further distorts reality with "Super in America," best known for presenting an entirely fabricated Homelander (Antony Starr) origin story to the public. But perhaps worst of all is "Dawn of the Seven," the Zack Snyder-inspired, Adam Bourke (P.J. Byrne)-directed tentpole that is reshot at the last minute to whitewash Homelander's relationship with a literal Nazi. Suffice it to say, there are certainly worse easy-viewing options Cate and Andre could have chosen.