‘Gen V’: Why Did Golden Boy Kill Himself? Theories Explained
Luke Riordan, more popularly known as Golden Boy, was the strongest and most powerful supe on the Godolkin University campus during the events of ‘Gen V,’ which is a spinoff of ‘The Boys.’ While he had a good introduction in the first episode, things escalated rather quickly because he went on a rampage near the end of episode 1 before he eventually committed suicide. So, why did Golden Boy kill himself?
Golden Boy killed Professor Brink
If there’s one thing that we knew about ‘Gen V,’ it was that it was supposed to introduce a new supe that was stronger than most of the supes on the campus of Godolkin University. Episode 1 allowed us to meet Luke “Golden Boy” Riordan, who was undoubtedly more powerful than anyone else on campus and was even given an instant spot within the Seven. At the same time, he was still just a student.
Nevertheless, things escalated rather quickly. Before the first day of school even started, Golden Boy and his friends went out to party in the city together with Marie Moreau, whom Andre Anderson invited to tag along with them. The night was full of partying and drug use, and it ended poorly when Andre accidentally used his powers to slit a woman’s throat.
While Marie saved the life of the person whose throat was accidentally slit, the other God U students escaped so they wouldn’t take the blame. Of course, the drug use affected their minds as Luke woke up the following day seemingly groggy and under the effects of the drugs that he took. That was when he had visions of his younger brother, who was telling him that he was still alive. Just a few scenes ago, he told Marie he had lost his brother years ago.
After getting expelled from God U by Professor Brink, Marie was looking to rush into his office so that she would give him a piece of her mind. But the thing was that Golden Boy was already in Brink’s office then. And just as Marie opened the door to Brink’s office, Golden Boy had just finished burning the professor’s body into ashes using his powers.
In short, Golden Boy was not in the best emotional state at that time as he killed Professor Brink. Realizing that he didn’t want any witnesses to his act, he also wanted to kill Marie, who ran away. Jordan Li, however, intercepted Golden Boy and proceeded to fight Luke, only for them to lose. And as Golden Boy left the building, there were a lot of students just outside it.
They witnessed his rampage and the fact that he was not in the best emotional state when he was trying to kill Marie. Andre was there to calm his best friend. And after witnessing something in Andre’s ear, Golden Boy flew up into the sky and overloaded his body before exploding.
Godolkin University downplayed Golden Boy’s suicide as an unfortunate effect of drug use. Nevertheless, it was clear that his rampage had much to do with his brother, Sam, who he thought had died but was being kept underground in a secret facility called the Woods. And Golden Boy wanted his brother back before he killed Brink, who he knew had something to do with Sam and the Woods.
Guilt overcame Golden Boy
Of course, as mentioned, Golden Boy killed himself right after Andre calmed him down. Luke saw how the people around him were scared. He also realized that he had just done an unspeakable act of murdering Professor Brink and trying to kill Marie. As such, it was likely that Golden Boy’s guilt took over as he decided to kill himself.
But there could be something deeper than just guilt here. That’s because Golden Boy seemingly knew that he was going to die or that he may have been planning to kill himself. And this had something to do with what he whispered in Andre’s ear.
Before dying, Luke whispered to Andre, “your dad has it.” At first, Andre was confused about what that meant. He even asked his father if Luke gave him something before he died, only for Polarity to wonder what his son meant.
Andre’s dad, Polarity, was a distinguished alumnus of God U, and that was why he had a statue on campus. After Andre realized that Golden Boy had melted down the security cameras around the statues before he committed suicide. Polarity found out that Luke had hidden a smartphone inside Polarity’s statue, and that was when they found out about how Golden Boy’s memories of his brother came back to him.
So, in a sense, it is possible that Luke killed himself out of guilt and to ensure his brother would be found. He understood that his death would have quite possibly distracted the people in charge of God U well enough for Andre to learn more about what happened to Sam. Of course, the video on the smartphone was actually for Andre, which means that Golden Boy trusted his best friend enough to see this through.
In a way, Golden Boy probably realized that he couldn’t have been able to find out what happened to Sam or get him back because God U would have easily done something about him if they found out he was trying to get to his younger brother. As such, the best thing to do likely was for him to commit suicide and take all the blame so that the attention would be diverted towards him.
The strategy actually worked, to some extent, because the God U administrators were too busy trying to build up Golden Boy’s replacement as the top face of the school. This allowed Andre to focus more on investigating what happened to his best friend’s brother after Golden Boy’s unfortunate suicide.
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