Gen V boss Eric Kripke reveals his one regret over jaw-dropping season 2 Cipher twist

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Gen V season 2 episode 7.*

Following Cipher's final secret coming out in Gen V season 2 episode 7, Eric Kripke, the man behind the entire The Boys universe, has revealed his one regret about the big reveal.

In the penultimate episode, it's finally revealed that Thomas Godolkin (Ethan Slater) has been puppeteering the man we thought was Cipher (Hamish Linklater). He's been manipulating events all along, forcing an innocent man called Doug to carry out his malevolent handiwork.

Unaware of this until it's too late, Marie (Jaz Sinclair) heals Godolkin, leaving him free to enact his master plan: culling 75 per cent of GodU's student population, and becoming some kind of barbaric supe Darwin figure.

There were hints pointing towards this reveal in previous episodes, but Kripke didn't expect so many fans to guess correctly, exclusively telling RadioTimes.com: "How do I feel about so many of the fans picking up the clues? Irritated, mostly!"

He explained: "A couple of episodes in, there were some very smart people online who were really picking up some very subtle clues that we were dropping, and putting the whole thing together.

"And then other websites started picking it up, and obviously, you want to surprise the audience with a twist that you spent that much time building."

However, he's looking on the bright side, adding: "But there's a good lesson in there, which is the audience is so f****ng smart. Were we to do it again, I definitely would have worked harder to hide those clues, but I think it's still an enjoyable episode, and they'll dig the twist.

"Part of what we do is we're like carnies and magicians – cheap magicians – but you never want anyone to see your trick. And they saw our trick."

Kripke also heaped praise on actor Linklater, adding: "I thought it was just such a cool, smart twist that who you thought was the bad guy wasn't actually the bad guy and huge props to Hamish...he is such a good actor, man, he is just like the delight of season 2."

Meanwhile, actor Slater added that he and Linklater worked together to mimic each other's mannerisms. This way, the audience would be able to see that connection between Godolkin and 'Cipher'.

"When I started working on it on my own, I didn't know the twist," he explained.

"I didn't know any of this stuff. Scripts hadn't come in. I just knew that I was playing Godolkin, and I was creating my character, that kind of thing. And then I had a really great call with Michele [Fazekas, showrunner] and Thomas [Schnauz, the episode's writer and director] about how I need to be Hamish's Cipher without playing Hamish.

"I want to find some of the mannerisms. And they were hoping that we could sort of meet in the middle of some way...I think he watched some of my stuff, I was told, and I certainly watched a lot of what he was doing."

As for fans guessing the twist? "I don't think it ruins it to be right," he reflected.

"I don't think it's a spoiler to to see it coming because of the way Michele and all the writers handled it. It's exciting how it happens, not just that it happens"

Slater added: "I think that it is a good sign of like the strength of the writing in this season, that even if you see some of these little twists, the journeys to get there, and what Marie is going through, what everybody is going through to get to where their hero's journey is, it's so good, and it's kind of a privilege to be the antagonist, the villain watching it from afar."

Gen V season 2 will conclude on Prime Video on 22nd October 2025. The Boys seasons 1-4 are available to watch now – try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days.

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