SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for the most recent episode of Gen V Season 2. If you’re not currently caught up with the show, proceed at your own risk!
Audiences have seen a lot of great dual performances in 2025, but Gen V put a bit of a twist on that approach in the penultimate episode of Season 2 – which is now available to stream with an Amazon Prime subscription. While fans of the Boys spin-off have spent the majority of the recent run seeing Hamish Linklater play the sinister and mysterious Cipher, a special truth has been revealed: “Cipher” is actually Dr. Thomas Godolkin, who has spent years puppeting around an innocent man named Doug Brightbill.
Cipher and Doug are extremely different personalities, which adds a lot of fun to the big reveal in the show – but when I asked Hamish Linklater about it last month during the Gen V Season 2 press day in Los Angeles, he explained how it was an acting opportunity that filled him with nerves. As captured in the video above, he explained,
Well, it was such a thrill that they gave me the opportunity to play two parts. And man, was I sweating it, though, before the first time I sort of auditioned him in front of the crew. And I was like, 'Is this gonna be good enough? Is this gonna be weird enough? Is this gonna be fun?' But Doug's Doug, man. Doug is Doug.
If one were to assemble a list of adjectives to describe Cipher, “confidence” would be near the top, as the man emanates both self-assurance and superiority (ultimately to extremely dangerous levels). But that’s just Godolkin speaking through Doug… who is, in a word, shattered. He has spent a lot of time as merely a passenger in his own mind (a part of Cipher’s powers teased earlier in the season), and that has meant helplessly watching his body carry out a wide assortment of nightmares.
Doug is ultimately an innocent in Godolkin’s evil scheming – the villain’s goal being to cull all of the supes enrolled at Godolkin University that he deems as lesser – but what’s fascinating about the character is how much guilt he carries. Despite his lack of responsibility, his most often repeated line in the upcoming Gen V Season 2 finale is, “I’m sorry,” and Hamish Linklater both recognizes and appreciates what that means for Doug:
I love that they decided that he really carried the trauma of what he did for it. What is it? The body keeps the score, or something like that? I mean, I thought that was like really a beautiful idea. And they really did give me I don't know, some full circle situation.
So are you ready for the finale? The last episode of Gen V Season 2 will be dropping on Prime Video this Wednesday, October 22 – and I can promise you right now that the show has not run out of ways to both shock and gross out its audience. After you check out the episode, be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend for more from my interviews with the show’s cast.
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