Eager to get the heck out of Godolkin, she calls upon the big bad of The Boys, Homelander (Antony Starr), to neutralize the situation after her desperate pleas to Godolkin’s top students fall on deaf ears. As Marie faces off against different obstacles, she gets a helping hand from Andre (Chance Perdomo) as they reinhabit their “Guardians of Godolkin” dynamic to stave off Cate’s attacks.

In a moment where Marie lets her guard down, Cate begins reaching out to Jordan, in an attempted power move that’s halted by Marie’s bloody abilities, which take Cate’s hand clean off her body. Unfortunately for Marie, Homelander is approaching at this exact moment and decides she’s the threat that needs to be neutralized, lasering her in the chest.

As the finale reaches its final moments, Marie wakes in a contained hospital-like room alongside Andre, Jordan, and Emma with no knowledge of where they are and how they got there. A newsreel reveals they’ve been publicly identified as the killers on campus, while Sam and Cate are now being called the “Guardians of Godolkin.” Adding to the finale’s shocking moments is a brief appearance by Karl Urban‘s Billy Butcher as he walks the halls of “The Woods.” So, what could it all mean? TV Insider caught up with showrunner Michele Fazekas who is breaking it all down, below.

Homelander is called in to neutralize the threats at Godolkin by Ashley. Was his choice to laser Marie his own or directed by Ashley?

Michele Fazekas: He’s there to sort of save her ass, but he’s also pissed. [Marie] is the real threat as far as he’s concerned.

Is that because of miscommunication, or does he genuinely think Marie is the villain in this scenario?

No, he understands, but he’s on Cate’s side. Eric [Kripke] put it in a really funny way. It’s like Superman shows up to save the day, but Superman’s on the villain side, he thinks Cate is a hundred percent correct. Yes, Cate should open up the woods. Yes, Cate should kill humans because the humans here were torturing and incarcerating us and they deserve to die.

Speaking to that, when Homelander approaches Marie, he asks her what kind of animal she is for harming her own kind. The language feels very pointed and derogatory. Is he even more radicalized since the last time fans saw him in Season 3 of The Boys?

I certainly think it is in keeping with his character arc. And I mean, this is a person who was in love with a Nazi. It’s not a really long way to go for that. So yeah. I can’t talk about The Boys and what’s coming for The Boys, but we are in line with what’s going on in Homelander’s head.

Gen V has been renewed for Season 2, but considering the way the stories for Godolkin University’s students ended, I was wondering if you’re planning to set future seasons beyond the confines of the school?

No. I’ve got to say I’m not super interested in that because The Boys has that covered. The Boys is huge storytelling, with the president of the United States and Victoria Neuman. So they’re telling these really big awesome global stories and then we get this ground level at this school and these are the kids who haven’t been corrupted yet. They haven’t chosen their path yet.”

You see what happens to Cate. But Cate’s path, I don’t even necessarily know that she’s chosen that path. It happens to her. It’s like she almost had no choice, but I don’t blame her, even though she’s made terrible choices. Could you blame her after everything that’s happened to her? No. Obviously, the things from the larger world will impact us and the world will be different when we come back in Season 2 because we will have an entire season of The Boys between the first season and the second season. That will also have to play into our story.

The overall [answer to the] question, is no, this is a college show, college superheroes, and so let’s tell that story. Yeah, we don’t need it to be bigger. I like the story.

Is Cate fully evil at this point? Or is there still room for redemption?

Well, I think what you should feel about Cate is she got broken after everything that’s happened. [But] she did not have to cut Shetty’s throat. That didn’t have to happen. That happened because she wanted it to happen. And I think what we wanted to show there is, “Oh, she got broken. But is she irretrievably broken?” I don’t know. Is anybody ever irretrievably broken? Maybe or maybe not, but she does cross a line and that’s going to be very hard to walk back. She just was squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and she kept trying to do the right thing, but the right thing kept getting narrower and narrower.

Sam makes a similar choice to stand against his friends to defend Supes. Is he on the same level as Cate?

Well, there was a moment there where he was sort of hallucinating Luke, and then Cate was the one who stopped that. Your takeaway should be that there’s still something good in there.

Speaking of Sam, he had some harsh words for Emma that ultimately led her to shrink without purging. Are there new discoveries to be made with these Supes and how their powers manifest?

Yeah. Especially because they’re kids and they’re evolving. I really like the idea that even Marie’s evolved. She’s learning, she doesn’t know everything about her powers, and so yeah, I think looking at ways that they can learn more about themselves and refine how they use their powers is great.

In the final moments, Marie, Andre, Emma, and Jordan find themselves trapped in a hospital-like room, but they don’t seem too worried. Should they be? Can you tease anything about where they are?

I think the first order of business is sort of the last question, which is where are we? So I don’t think they even know because it’s kind of a hospital and so someone’s taking care of them. But they don’t even know what they should be afraid of. I feel like they have no idea what’s coming.

I know you can’t say much about The Boys, but we do see Billy Butcher enter The Woods during a mid-credit scene. Are the challenges these young Supes went through in Gen V going to have any carry-over into the flagship show?

This is our handoff to The Boys Season 4, which is nice. The stories are going to talk to each other in a way. It’s like you can watch The Boys Season 4 and have never seen Season 1 of Gen V and be totally fine, but if you watch both, there’s a nice little payoff for you.