Gen V: The Hole Truth About Tek Knight Goes Deeper Than You Think

Of all the wonderful (and wonderfully awful) characters introduced in Amazon Prime Video's "Gen V," none were as memorably bizarre as Tek Knight. Derek Wilson's duplicitous true crime icon did what every great "The Boys" guest star should do: bluster in, create as much chaos as possible, and leave having raised more questions than they've answered.

Tek Knight certainly delivered on that last point, having been forced out of Godolkin University by Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) after she successfully blackmails him with video evidence of ... well, the hole truth. No, not "The Whole Truth," his Vought+ docuseries, but security footage of him performing unspeakable acts with anything and everything displaying an obvious opening. That's about as much as we can explain while keeping things PG here at Looper.

Tek Knight's obsession could well be a side-effect of his hyper-observance, if it's not merely exacerbated by it (it's not like he can simply ignore holes, after all). Originally, however, this grossly comedic weakness was somehow even stranger.

In the original "The Boys" comic book series (created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson), Tek Knight looks and acts different in many ways from his portrayal on "Gen V" — save for the fact that he's still plagued by a compulsion to copulate with odd objects. He doesn't exhibit the same specific 'trypophelia' that his "Gen V" counterpart does, but the broader nature of his addiction may have something to do with its tragic root cause.

Both versions of Tek Knight suffer from an inoperable brain tumor that, while small enough to be benign, puts pressure on a certain portion of his brain that causes such paraphilia (it's not an exact science, but, hey, that's comics for you). Tek Knight seeks help for this condition in the comics but is unfortunately unsuccessful in finding effective treatment before it's too late.

The shame created by his illness ultimately led to him sending his sidekick, Laddio, away for fear that he would one day lose control around the young hero. He was then killed shortly after the illness was made public and destroyed his career. And though a wheelbarrow of bricks truly killed Tek Knight, the tumor causes him to hallucinate that he sacrifices himself to save the world from a meteor — by having sex with it.