{"id":695197,"date":"2025-10-16T21:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T18:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gen-v-star-maddie-phillips-on-redemption-and-why-cate-is-really-broken\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T21:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T18:15:15","slug":"gen-v-star-maddie-phillips-on-redemption-and-why-cate-is-really-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gen-v-star-maddie-phillips-on-redemption-and-why-cate-is-really-broken\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gen V\u2019 Star Maddie Phillips on Redemption and Why Cate Is Really Broken"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t[This story contains spoilers from Gen V <\/em>episode seven, season two, \u201cHell Week.\u201d]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIn Gen V<\/em>\u2019s latest episode, supes emerge and converge to set the stage for a major finale showdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEpisode seven, \u201cHell Week,\u201d sees Marie (Jaz Sinclair) venturing back to God U with Cate (Maddie Phillips) in tow to face Cipher (Hamish Linklater) and find Godolkin (Ethan Slater). There, she discovers that Polarity, now armed with the ability to kick Cipher out of his own and potentially others\u2019 heads, has also come looking for Dr. Good, too. As the trio makes moves to take him down\u2014 the God U dean is still disoriented from his swatting by Polarity \u2014 Marie restores Polarity\u2019s powers in the same breath she denies Cate the same treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Cipher has discovered that Marie, Cate and Polarity are in the dean\u2019s mansion, and calls upon Marie to come to him as the rest of the crew \u2014 Jordan (Derek Luh and London Thor), Annabeth (Keeya King), Emma (Lizze Broadway) and Sam (Asa Germann) \u2014 use various modes of transportation (super- and gas-powered) to find Marie and Cate at the school. They arrive just as Marie heads to face off with Cipher and, in an unsettling confrontation that sees Annabeth and Jordan trying to swear Marie off from going in alone, she turns her powers on the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPolarity and Cate successfully stop Marie before venturing into the school, where Polarity heads towards Cipher as Marie heads to the burned body that Dr. Gold has been dragging around with him. As Marie works her healing powers on the body \u2014 with some moral support from Annabeth, Cate and Emma, who have since caught up to her \u2014 Polarity, Jordan, Sam and Emma\u2019s maybe beau Greg (Stephen Kalyn) have joined Polarity in a head-to-head that gets messy as Cipher begins to take control of everyone\u2019s bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSoon, Marie successfully heals the burned body, producing Goldokin in the flesh and a diaper. But to Cate\u2019s quick realization, the man wasn\u2019t being controlled by Cipher; he is Cipher, and she works to help get Marie and the others away from him. Meanwhile, Polarity \u2014 on the verge of taking out Cipher \u2014 is surprised to discover that the man on the ground in front of him is just a regular human whose body was being puppeteered this whole time. The episode\u2019s final moments are of Godolkin walking the campus, draped in a blanket, murdering a student and ready to enact his ultimate plan for the future of supes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHell Week\u201d delivers the answer to an episode-long twist, around which theories have flown all season. But it\u2019s also a key moment for several of Gen V<\/em>\u2019s leading supes, with the climax of Cate\u2019s season two journey playing a particularly significant role in the episode\u2019s events. The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> spoke to Phillips about that season-long journey, including navigating Cate\u2019s trauma, redemption arc, disabilities and, as a performer, balancing the portrayal of real life and on-screen grief.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the first things viewers see in season two is that reunion between Jordan, Emma and Cate, with Cate being the first person, alongside the audience, to learn Andre has died. This is not the first time Cate has lost a partner at Godolkin with her powers involved. Where is her head in that moment?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHer brain and soul probably glitched out. She has had to be so certain about where she stands. She\u2019s made this huge decision \u2014 she is not on the same side as the rest of the gang \u2014 and all of a sudden, this tragedy has inevitably planted a seed of \u201cHave I made the right decision? Is it wrong?\u201d Something so jarring could only result in a glitch. I played it a few different ways when we were filming. I was really shocked and didn\u2019t have a lot of emotion; our director, Steve Boyum, wanted to bring up more emotionality and that\u2019s what they ended up using. I\u2019ve experienced grief myself; it\u2019s something that paralyzes you. Your brain stops. And because she has to be this robot minion for Vought and keep up app<\/a>earances, all of these things probably caused a real, a real glitch.<\/p>\n

\n\tCate\u2019s response, along with the other characters, all come across as representing a different facet of the emotional spectrum of the grief process. It\u2019s an arc that had real-life origins because of Chance Perdomo\u2019s passing. Where was the line between real-life grief and on-screen grief?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI found it really hard to talk about Chance when it came to how we were going to perform. What the producers and writers did was absolutely the right decision. I\u2019m so happy we honor him throughout the season. He\u2019s a part of the story, but it did feel wrong doing it as well. As actors, we\u2019re not summoning emotions we have never felt before. But we definitely haven\u2019t been through the exact circumstances, so there\u2019s an element of it being real from our own experience, but it\u2019s also a lot of imagining. I at least found it really hard to talk about him. It\u2019s a complicated, weird, horrible thing, so I didn\u2019t experience chatting with the cast about how we were going to do handle it. We each let the other just be whatever we all needed to be. I think at the end of the day, we all tried to energetically hold each other while also trying to somehow make space \u2014 abstract term, but language is limiting \u2014 for us to do our jobs because the show must go on, which is just such a weird thing to think and say.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn terms of Sam and Cate\u2019s relationship this season, it might seem easier to rationalize Sam\u2019s request to have his mind and emotions continuously wiped. But for Cate, who\u2019s in this place now because of her repeated, often nonconsensual use of her powers and already knows the deadly ramifications of that, especially with Luke, why do you think she agrees to wipe Sam\u2019s mind?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is a whole bunch of guilt she feels for playing a part in the torture he endured in the first season, so there\u2019s a lot of protectiveness. Golden Boy was her boyfriend and, at the very least, someone she did truly care about, and she didn\u2019t know what she was doing. She was being manipulated. But [this] seems like the only thing to do. It\u2019s coming from a place of feeling protective and guilty, and it\u2019s the one thing she has that she\u2019s being rewarded and valued for. So if she isn\u2019t using that, to paraphrase Cipher, what are you? If not for someone with powers, you\u2019re nothing.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the end of the pilot, Cate nearly dies. Cate is obviously very angry at Jordan, Emma and Marie, but the moment feels like a callback to two other events \u2014 the young woman who almost died in the club in the <\/em>pilot, whom the gang abandons but Marie saves; and Shetty, whom Cate prevents Marie from saving in the season one finale. Outside of wanting to survive, why do you think Cate sees those other instances where people were left to die as different from her own experience? And why does it hurt her so much after everything that went down with Elmira?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt hurts her because she intended to save them, and Shetty intended to kill all the supes. There\u2019s a lot of Cate saying, \u201cI\u2019m trying to save you,\u201d and \u201cI was trying to save you,\u201d and that\u2019s because that\u2019s what she is trying to do. But it\u2019s hard to trust somebody like Cate because it doesn\u2019t really matter what your intention is; at the end of the day, it\u2019s about your actions. It\u2019s hard to convince somebody your heart is in the right place when you can\u2019t see how you\u2019re supposed to actually go about things. She is aware that personal boundaries are important, and just because you want to save somebody doesn\u2019t mean you should force anybody to do anything. <\/p>\n

\n\tShe is just not evolved enough to think that way. She is constantly in survival mode like everybody else, and desperately wants people to love her and to love them back. She doesn\u2019t know how to do that healthfully, and so she tries to make it happen by force. She doesn\u2019t know any better, unfortunately, and that\u2019s the tricky thing when it comes to whether or not she should be redeemed, have a redemption arc and be forgiven. There are so many people kept away from society and locked up because they do terrible things, because they believe in something. No one thinks they\u2019re the villain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMaddie Phillips (Cate Dunlap) and Lizze Broadway (Emma Meyer).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tCate works to rejoin the gang and gets a chance to prove herself by going to Cipher\u2019s with Jordan. Yet she doesn\u2019t tell Jordan what\u2019s actually going on with her powers. With so much history around people distrusting her for not being honest, why do you think Cate isn\u2019t just upfront?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tShe is desperate. Cipher really got to her and said the thing that I think she was always so afraid of, which is that without her power, she\u2019s nothing. She has one opportunity to maybe make good with these people, finally, and if by some miracle, her powers work in her favor, everything might be OK. So she takes the risk out of desperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSomething interesting about Shetty and Cipher \u2014 who we learn this episode is actually Godolkin \u2014 is that despite being very different in their approaches at the school, they sort of want the same thing: less supes. They also both treat Cate as a tool. As a character who had the strength to walk away from a home environment where she was ostracized and vaulted away, why is it so hard for her to walk away from Shetty or Cipher?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt goes back to the fact that we are always holding our little baby us inside. I certainly know the power of wanting a parent\u2019s love and how it takes over you and makes you do things that you\u2019re totally unaware of until you\u2019ve done a bunch of healing. All of these things that don\u2019t seem connected at all to that parent are absolutely because of that parent. Your mother and father are the two people who are supposed to make you feel safe and protected, no matter what, and she essentially doesn\u2019t have parents. Shetty was very maternal towards her. She also had a lot of ammo, because she had lost her own daughter, so she was able to evoke the right emotions and say the right words to make Cate attached to her. She knows how to speak to a child, a daughter figure. Now that Shetty is gone, there\u2019s this other person who is a dad age, the dean \u2014 someone who is, allegedly, supposed to look out for the students. He fits the bill enough for her to just transfer all of that onto him. It\u2019s really, really difficult to detach from the void when you lack the love and protection from parents.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn episode six, Cate witnesses Marie\u2019s sister Annabeth tell her essentially that \u201cyou are the danger.\u201d After, Cate and Marie share a pointed look. There\u2019s a lot that feel different about these two as people, but what about their experiences for you \u2014 down to being told that they\u2019re special and powerful, that something was done to them, that they need to embrace their power even at the cost of other supes, which Cate calls out as a standard Vought manipulation while talking to Stan Edgar?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThere are a lot of connections. One that stands out to me the most is the fact that they hurt their family by accident; their powers surprise them; and they feel completely at fault. There\u2019s also that lack of control that comes with doing something by accident. It\u2019s like an infinity mirror impossible thing to do. It\u2019s easier to try to mend something or make up for something if you know why you did the thing. You can live and learn. But if it was an accident, there\u2019s no way of making up for that. Also, it was Cate\u2019s younger brother who she accidentally sent into the woods forever, and Marie\u2019s younger sister. We\u2019re supposed to be the older siblings who protect them, so there\u2019s that added layer of guilt as well. From that, Cate kind of turns into an orphan, and Marie is an orphan in her mind for a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn episode seven, we see Marie tell Cate she\u2019ll give her her powers back if she stops their friends from following her into taking on Cipher. Cate rejects the offer. Up until this point, viewers don\u2019t really know if Cate has changed. She wants people\u2019s trust back, but to do that, something inside has to shift about her relationship to power \u2014 powerful people and her own powers. What changes in her in this moment? Why did she refuse Marie?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tLeading up to that point, there was a conversation in Cipher\u2019s office between Cate, Marie and Polarity, and Marie gets really upset with Kate, because once again, Cate demonstrated the fact that she really can only see her own side of the story. That conversation really hit her. Polarity giving Cate a little bit of grace hit her, because I believe we\u2019re able to digest messages so much better when our defenses are down than when you feel like you\u2019re being attacked. So if somebody \u2014 and a dad \u2014 gives you a little bit of grace, it will allow the message to sink in more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn top of that, even if Cate has no idea, Marie is her mirror, and so defenseless and surrendered, she is seeing herself as Marie in making these people float in pain above her. It made her see another side, and it was clear that this doesn\u2019t feel right. Because her defenses were down, the message sunk in, and she knew that she had to keep her word. I really think it got through to her, even just a little bit. When we evolve and grow, it\u2019s always that we don\u2019t notice it as it\u2019s happening. We just go, \u201cOh, I didn\u2019t do the thing that I always do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a lot of talk this season of Cate being \u201cbroken.\u201d There can be connotations to that in terms of her becoming more disabled \u2014 her limb loss, her hair loss, any potential brain damage from the injury. But in her new body, especially in that episode seven moment with Marie, she gets looks closer to her heroic self and redemption than ever. Can you talk about how Cate might not be broken because of her body, but because of the choices that she\u2019s made?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAs an able-bodied person, it\u2019s impossible to know if this is at all correct, so I\u2019ll just say, it\u2019s really hard to do mental gymnastics and undo real trauma and all of the tricks that it plays on your brain. It distorts your reality and your perspective, and therefore, all your actions reflect that distorted reality. When you have something happen to you in childhood, especially, it is really, really hard to be able to see the world in another way. People who don\u2019t have a hand or an arm, you can see how strong and capable these people are. There\u2019s so much more intention in the way they move about the world. When it comes to Cate being broken, her life isn\u2019t that different without an arm, her life isn\u2019t that different without her hair. That\u2019s not the problem. The problem is within, and that\u2019s harder to address.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCate\u2019s look this season with her hair and limb difference leaves her feeling a little like a punk, weird Barbie. It\u2019s a cool aesthetic. Do you think it\u2019s one she could embrace as a hero?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI would love that. I think there\u2019s definitely a world where that could happen, because Cate has no clue who she is, so she\u2019s a blank canvas, honey. She can be whatever she wants, and so can anybody else. And if you don\u2019t know who you are, why not be cool?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tGen V will release its finale Wednesday, with the first seven episodes available to stream on Prime Video.
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[This story contains spoilers from Gen V episode seven, season two, \u201cHell Week.\u201d] In Gen V\u2019s latest episode, supes emerge and converge to set the stage for a major finale showdown.\u00a0 Episode seven, \u201cHell Week,\u201d sees Marie (Jaz Sinclair) venturing back to God U with Cate (Maddie Phillips) in tow to face Cipher (Hamish Linklater)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GENV_S2_UT_204_240708_CYMROB_00276RC_3000-e1760638451941.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[131444,26572],"class_list":["post-695197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-gen-v","tag-the-boys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}