Thomas

[This story contains major spoilers from the Gen V season two finale, “The Guardians of Godolkin.”]

In the finale of Gen V, Polarity literally blows the doors off Goldokin’s master plan. 

It’s a significant way to close out the season for the character played by Sean Patrick Thomas, who began season two’s eight episodes shrouded in anger and grief over the death of his son Andre (Chance Perdomo). That on top of his struggle with the increasing loss of control over his powers, which was first introduced at the end of season one. 

With some nudging and accountability by Emma (Lizze Broadway), Polarity not only becomes a key component of the small resistance Andre’s friends mount at Cipher’s (Hamish Linklater) God U, but he also helps uphold the values and heroism Andre sought to embody in that final battle against Ethan Slater’s egotistical and evil Godolkin. 

Though the term “Guardians of Godolkin” can have a pejorative undertone with its link to performative acts, manipulation and school surveillance, Polarity — particularly in season two’s finale — becomes a sort of real guardian for Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Emma, Jordan (London Thor, Derek Luh), Cate (Maddie Phillips), Sam (Asa Germann) and Annabeth (Keeya King). After the gang successfully takes down Godolkin by embracing supe differences and leaning on their collective power, Polarity ultimately makes the choice to stay behind, charging himself with taking care of the rest of the school’s young supes. 

In light of how the season began with a sacrifice, that moment — like a few others in season two — feels like a nod to Andre’s love for his friends and how they each carry his spirit through battles, both emotional and physical. It’s a meaningful journey and something Polarity acknowledges by the end of the finale. 

Taking on aspects of Andre’s — and Chance’s — presence in the gang’s storyline this season wasn’t something Thomas had an awareness of, particularly in scenes that were maybe rewritten for him. He also “didn’t really feel like I was stepping into his literal position. That’s impossible. Chance is so unique and an incredible performer.” 

Instead, he tells The Hollywood Reporter, “The only thing I thought was, ‘I have to do everything I can to make sure we do justice to this young man and make sure he’s honored and respected and elevated in the way he should be.” In the conversation below, Thomas details how he accomplished that across all eight episodes, as well as Polarity’s reckoning, redemption and revolution alongside Andre’s friends. 

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Polarity discusses the racialized realities of Andre’s death in Elmira early on in the season. But if Polarity knows Andre is fighting an uphill battle — whether in the school’s halls or the walls of that prison — what about his own experience as a Black man made him choose pushing Andre through at any cost over shielding his son from Vought? 

I had a whole set of thoughts about that in season one. That Polarity feels like, in a just world, he would have been in The Seven. But when he was younger, he got relegated to being a rap star or a movie star, and he didn’t get to be elevated into what he felt was his rightful place in the Vought [ecosystem]. So Polarity was using Andre to compensate for the fact that, in his mind, his race kept him from being properly respected when he was younger, and this is his chance to make up for that with his own son.

I think he looks at the Black people in The Seven now — somebody like A-Train, for example — and thinks, “That guy is a lightweight. They didn’t want a real, multi-dimensional Black guy in The Seven, and that’s why I got rejected.” He feels that if there’s going to be a Black guy in The Seven, it needs to be somebody who’s a true, formidable force, and that’s going to be my son. That was my thought about Polarity’s bitterness from his own past and his relationship with his son in season one. 

Cipher at one point recounts Andre’s seizures in Elmira, but later, Doug reveals how Andre persisted inside that prison. It’s a moment that honors Andre’s spirit and avoids reducing him to his torture and death. How important was that to Polarity to know his son found his own ways to survive and resist? And is there a positive memory you have of Chance that you feel like exemplifies his spirit on set?

That was just a wonderful thing to do because the story that Doug tells in the car, that’s the type of person Chance was. He was the type of guy whose wheels were always turning, and if he was getting taken advantage of or something was going on that he didn’t think was right, you can best believe he was going to find a way to come out on top. I’m glad the writers put that in there for Doug at the end.

The Chance that I knew was somebody who was so blindingly intelligent. He could speak on any subject. He could talk about politics, money, music. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of so many different things. We talked about how he became an actor, and he said he was planning to become a lawyer at first, and then ended up finding acting. Sometimes I’d be on set and would listen to rock hymns from my era. I would sing a couple of bars from one of those songs, and he would pick up where I left off. He knew all of it, and he knew it better than me. That’s a lot of how we connected. He really was just remarkable. I’ve never met anyone like him before, and I won’t again. 

Sage tells Polarity that no man is more powerful than a man with nothing to lose. Polarity has lost a lot, but when you look at who is around him in the finale, it doesn’t feel like he has nothing to lose. How might Polarity’s actions in the finale reflect someone who still very much has something to live for, even beyond his son? What has this new family he’s forged given him?

These kids have given him an opportunity to get it right. They’ve given him an opportunity to do better, to make amends and redeem himself. He’s turned an eye to a lot of abuse, a lot of criminal activity, to horrible things out of his own greed, ambition and hopes for his son. These kids have given him a new lease on life. He can never totally fix the harm he’s done, but they allow him to do a little bit to make up for the fact that there’s a long period of time in his life where he did not do anything to help the world. He only did things to help himself, and he paid the ultimate price by losing his son. He realizes that, and that hits him very hard. He probably feels like he’s going to dedicate the rest of his life to making up for that, and protecting these children as best he can.

After Marie restores his powers, Polarity becomes a major key in how the gang is able to stop Godolkin. But when it first happens in episode seven, it seems like a surprise to him and Cipher. The season has focused a lot on the mechanics of how supe powers work, so is that ability to keep Godolkin out of his head an expansion of not just what audiences but Polarity thought he could do? And how exactly is Polarity able to keep Cipher out?

From what I understand, Polarity’s powers of magnetism are so immense that he can create some type of force field around his own brain to keep anything from getting into it. I think he’s probably figured out that he can find a way to keep Cipher from controlling other people’s brains as well, but he can only do that one brain at a time so that becomes the challenge. Up until now, [Polarity has] always [thought his powers were] just a carnival trick. He’s never used his powers in any real way to help anybody, other than to get attention and be a star. It dawns on him: “I never knew I was capable of this before.” In that sense, he’s very much like some of the kids in the show. They’re doing things they never knew they were capable of, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Polarity’s powers. He’s realized. “I can really change things. I can use my power to protect people.”

Emma describes Polarity staying behind as a suicide mission, which leaves the moment feeling like a real full-circle sacrifice. How does that choice to stay behind not just embody Andre, but also the real man who raised Andre?

Polarity is fully willing to sacrifice himself for these kids. He knows if there’s any way that the world is going to change, they’re the ones that are going to do it, and he has to do everything he can to make sure they get that opportunity at the end of season two. I’ve never discussed it with the writers, but I do feel like Polarity is like, “Vought is going to come to this campus, and they’re going to raise hell, and I need to find a way to protect the kids that are here. So anything and everything that I have to do, I will do, and I don’t care what it costs me.” He’s staying behind because there’s no other adult in this entire world who cares about the kids. Polarity says, “It has to be me.’

Polarity and Emma built a bond this season that helps save them both and turns them into the heroes they want to be. Part of that journey is some tough moments, but there’s also so much humor. Can you talk about working with Lizze to create that earnest vibe between you too, which may have played a part with getting Polarity to where he lands at the end of season two?

Lizze’s a wild card, and that’s the best possible situation to be in as an actor. You’re dealing with all these curve balls coming from different directions, and she gives you so much to play off of. None of our dynamic or chemistry was talked about or planned. It’s natural energies, how they bounced off each other. We both cared a lot about doing good work, about really listening to each other and staying in the moment. We both cared a lot about Chance. So everything you see came out of those things. At the beginning of season two, Polarity really had, in my mind, decided, “It’s over. I don’t have any real reason to even exist on this Earth.” She yanks him out of that and gives him a tiniest kernel of a reason to keep going and try to get some type of justice, some type of answer for what happened to his son.

I was not anticipating Polarity defending Cate, but there are some parallels in terms of their relationships with Vought and Andre. Do you think he forgave Cate — and possibly himself — in that moment? 

I don’t think Polarity will ever, ever forgive himself for the way he lived his life and for the way his son died, and I don’t know that he forgives Cate. But he understands how somebody could get sucked into something that would make them do something so wrong; that can make them less than who they really are or should be. He has empathy for her in that sense, but I don’t know that he forgives her because the loss is too great, and the consequences have been too monumental. He understands and respects that he’s in no position to judge her.

In episode seven, Sage says, “You’re still going to die, Polarity, just not today.” What kind of fate might audiences expect for him post-finale? He clearly wants to live, but is that an option in the wake of what awaits him with Vought?

I absolutely think he can survive it. He has to. In the world of The Boys, and what’s going on with Homelander [Antony Starr], everything that Homelander is doing is unsustainable. At some point, it’s going to blow up. Something’s going to happen. He’s going to be stopped in some way. When that happens, there’s going to be a void. Who’s going to fill that vacuum? That is where I think Polarity comes in. Whether it’s in Vought or at the university, Polarity is a big part of whatever happens post-Homelander because Vought is still corrupt, even if Homelander is rendered ineffective in some way. Vought is still very, very corrupt, and it’s still a lot to protect these kids from those corporate interests.

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All episodes of Gen V season two are now streaming on Prime Video.