Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Gen V Episode 5.
Sam Riordan (Asa Germann) went through a lot At Gen V. Sam has come a long way since escaping his captivity in the top-secret torture hospital beneath Godolkin University known only as “The Woods,” but he’s not quite, shall we say, out of the woods yet. After gaining Emma’s trust (Lizzie Broadway) and confides in her in an earlier episode, he is shocked to find that the Godolkin group that originally came to his aid has been wiped out and no longer remembers him at all. Back at the beginning, Sam finds himself on the run again, trying to pull himself together in a tunnel. Then he starts to hear the puppets.
What happens to Sam in episode 5 of Gen V?
Image via Prime Video
After hearing a cacophony of shrill heckles teasing Sam about his dire situation, he sees a puppet version of Emma. Unlike the other dolls Sam sees, doll Emma flickers as if she were a hologram. Sam has become very attached to Emma since she broke into his cell to save him, but he is still able to distinguish this doll version from the real Emma – until he hears the whir of helicopters in the distance and the sounds of an approaching SWAT team listens. Suddenly Sam himself is a puppet, as are his attackers.
What follows is one of the darkest and most confusing scenes ever The young And Gen V combined – which is saying a lot given the gruesome nature of both shows. The tone changes slightly as we see puppet boots land from the helicopters and watch soldiers approach Puppet Sam. He wastes no time and gets to work. He punches the first soldier in the face as a jet of red sparks comes out, symbolizing blood. The violence only escalates from there, as Sam rips out one soldier’s arms and rips another’s felt head right off his body, with the spine and vertebrae still attached.
Through his puppet form, we get a real sense of Sam’s abilities, as the onslaught of ineffective bullets proves his incredible resilience. Undeterred, Puppet Sam rips off another soldier’s arm and shoves it down the poor puppet’s throat. A soldier pleads for his life, explaining that he is “a single father with two daughters,” but that doesn’t stop Puppet Sam from severing the man’s felt face from his head, let alone doing it to another man Squeezing his brain out of the back of his head like he was unzipping a backpack and throwing away the contents.
There’s some pretty sick violence captured in live action in these shows, but the way Sam mutilates these Vought soldiers might have been too graphic if it wasn’t shown through the lens of a puppet world. After killing every single soldier, Puppet Emma appears again, disappointed by his violence, before we leave the Puppet-verse and see the bloodied human Sam standing alone in a puddle of various body parts and other human shrapnel.
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What makes Sam’s doll massacre in Gen V so disturbing?
Image via Prime Video
Even if the scene were portrayed in live action – even if it would still be incredibly gruesome – it wouldn’t be as effective as if it were using puppets. After three seasons of The young and the madness so far Gen VIt’s safe to say that we as an audience have become quite desensitized to the violence that is so prevalent in the two series. But seeing this grisly, unforgivable massacre through the innocent medium of puppets is a clear wake-up call to how serious the whole thing is. While we admittedly root for Sam in this scene, his actions remain inexcusable and it is perhaps more clear than ever that he has serious mental health issues. However, he views himself and the men he kills as puppets – a common motif for him, as we have seen Jason Ritter and The Deep (Chace Crawford) Puppets in a previous episode – he still causes all this chaos without thinking for a second.
In the same category of tragic, misunderstood characters who cannot properly articulate their feelings belongs Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), the now deceased (though Vought may say otherwise) member of the Seven. In the second half of The young In Season 3, we got to spend some time with the silent but deadly superhero. As we read up on parts of his backstory, we discover that Black Noir is not mute by choice and has severe brain damage as well as horrific burns all over his body due to a disturbing incident in his past when he was a child.Jensen Ackles) Payback team.
Like Sam, Noir is very alone and has hallucinations of his own. But instead of puppets, he imagines the animated crew from the Buster Beaver series. The colorful, cheerfully animated group of animals are his closest friends and confidants with whom he expresses his deepest feelings and fears. The images of a superhuman killer ninja pouring his heart out to colorful cartoon animals offer the same juxtaposition as Sam and the Dolls, and the connection is clear: sometimes the most brutal characters are the most broken inside.
It may be too late for Noir, but as we’ve seen through his genuine connection to Emma, Sam is beyond help. He certainly doesn’t deserve to be locked up and put to the test in The Woods, but he has a lot to balance in his past, present and future. While there is potential for him to do some real good alongside his comrades (or at least find catharsis by taking revenge on his captors), it will take some time before he can be considered stable. Considering Cates (Maddie Phillips), the dynamics within the Godolkin group have recently changed (a whole other thing), she may not be there to calm his outbursts – and with no way to control himself, Sam remains a wild card despite his good intentions .
New episodes of Gen V Premieres Fridays on Prime Video.
Source : collider.com