‘It Is Very Creepy’: 'Gen V's' Hamish Linklater And Sean Patrick Thomas Dig Into Cipher’s Nightmarish Puppeteering Of Polarity

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the latest episode of Gen V. If you have not yet watched the show, proceed at your own risk!

Audiences have seen all varieties of freaky villains and powers in the canon of "The Boys" and "Gen V," but Hamish Linklater’s Cipher in Season 2 of the latter has revealed himself as one of the freakiest. While there is still a lot that we don’t know about the prime antagonist, we have gotten a full dose of the danger that he presents and it’s eye opening – as he can simply take over minds and operate others like puppets.

Cipher showing what he can do has already led to some amazing scenes in Gen V Season 2 – including the scary Blood Bender vs. Gender Bender fight in Episode 4, and more recently, in “Cooking Lessons” when the big bad takes control of Sean Patrick Thomas’ Polarity. I had the chance to speak with both Thomas and Linklater last month during the Los Angeles press day for the new run of the show (as captured in the video at the top of this article), and they told me what it was like to shoot that sequence, which involved interesting collaboration and synchronicity.