Episodes 01
“God U.”
Eight years prior, Marie Moreau’s hemokinesis manifests when she has her first period, during which she accidentally killed her parents, straining her relationship with her younger sister Annabeth. In the present, Marie is accepted into Godolkin University, an education facility for training future superheroes (“supes”). On her first day, Marie befriends her roommate Emma Meyer and becomes acquainted with upperclassmen Andre Anderson, Luke Riordan, Jordan Li, and Cate Dunlap. While attending a party, Marie saves a woman from bleeding out after Andre accidentally injures her with his magnetism manipulation. Despite gaining popularity on social media, Marie is expelled by Professor Richard “Brink” Brinkerhoff to protect the upperclassmen’s reputations. She later returns to Brink’s office to confront him, but finds he had been killed by Luke. Luke goes on a rampage while trying to kill Marie, but is stopped by Jordan and Andre. As he calms down, Luke whispers to Andre before he uses his pyrokinesis to commit suicide.
Episodes 02
“First Day”
Vought International covers up Luke and Brink’s deaths while Marie is given sole credit for stopping Luke and becomes the first freshman to enter Godolkin University’s top 10 rankings. As she becomes acquainted with the university dean Indira Shetty, who offers her counsel, Emma befriends classmate Justine Garcia, who learns the secret behind Emma’s size-shifting powers and publicly discloses the information on the internet. An angered Emma confronts Justine. Meanwhile, Andre and Cate launch an investigation into Luke’s death and find a secret recording that reveals his younger brother Sam is being held in a hidden facility called “the Woods”, which is secretly run by Shetty. Andre breaks off to find information in Brink’s office. After Marie learns Vought contacted Annabeth, who does not want anything to do with her, she withholds Jordan’s involvement in Luke’s suicide amidst a televised interview. Andre succeeds in locating the Woods, but is nearly caught by campus security before Cate intervenes.
Episodes 03
“#ThinkBrink”
Three years prior, Luke and Cate visit Sam, who is enraged to learn that their powers came from Compound V and killed a security guard, before Luke and Cate calm him down. In the present, Andre and Cate discuss their discovery, during which she convinces him not to risk his own life and they have sex. Meanwhile, Marie returns to her dorm room to find a fatigued Emma. She attempts to counsel the latter, but they have an argument. The next day, Shetty invites Marie to a fundraiser gala being held in Brink’s honor. Emma’s mother attempts to talk her into doing a reality show, but she refuses. Emma later meets with Marie to reconcile. Andre convinces Emma to infiltrate the Woods for him. She successfully finds and speaks with Sam, but the security guards put the facility on alert and incapacitate him while Emma uses her powers to hide.
Episodes 04
“The Whole Truth”
Sam recovers, slaughters the guards, and escapes with Emma. While hiding out in an abandoned drive-thru, Sam suffers from delusions and announces his intent to kill Dr. Edison Cardosa, a psychologist who previously worked with him. Emma returns to Godolkin University to warn the others. Meanwhile, Marie tries to ask psychic student Rufus to help find Emma, only to black out and wake up in his bedroom. When Jordan intervenes, Marie detonates Rufus’ penis. Concurrently, celebrity supe Robert Vernon / Tek Knight comes to Godolkin University to record an episode of his Vought+ series The Whole Truth and secretly frame an innocent student for Luke’s suicide on Vought’s behalf. While using his observation powers to aggressively interrogate students, he forces Marie to reveal Jordan’s involvement in Luke’s suicide. Upon learning Sam escaped the Woods on her watch, Vernon intends to frame Shetty, but she threatens to expose his unnatural sexual urges. Marie, Emma, Andre, Jordan, and Cate eventually subdue Sam, but Marie blacks out once more and awakens to find herself in bed with Jordan.
Episodes 05
“Welcome to the Monster Club”
Marie and her friends awaken to find themselves at a party with no memory of how they got there. While evading capture, Sam finds Emma and Marie, but they do not recognize him. Cardosa meets with Shetty to discuss his creation of a virus meant to control powers and his desire to use it on Marie, but she refuses to involve her. Cate claims Rufus is responsible for their amnesia and leads Jordan, Andre, and Marie in confronting him, but lose track of him while Andre faints. Emma realizes she and Marie already know Sam, but were forced to forget him. While seeking him out, Marie removes a tracking device from her neck and tells Cate her suspicion that Shetty and Rufus are responsible for their amnesia. Cate apologizes and forces Marie to change the subject. Realizing Marie forgot a recent conversation they had, Jordan goes to re-confront Rufus. Emma finds Sam, who reveals Cate is the culprit after learning she used her tactile mind control power to make Luke forget Sam’s existence. Emma calls Marie to tell her and Jordan the truth. Andre almost kills Rufus when a tearful Cate arrives to reveal her deception and restore his memories.
Episodes 06
“Jumanji”
After restoring everyone’s memories, Cate experiences a seizure and unknowingly traps Marie, Jordan, and Andre within her mind. Cate’s imaginary friend, “Soldier Boyfriend”, warns them to escape before she enters a vegetative state. While exploring Cate’s memories, Luke exposes Andre for making Cate cheat on him while he was alive. As the group flee, they enter one of Jordan’s memories, wherein they saved Brink from an enraged Luke and earned a job as his teaching assistant. Upon seeing a memory of the Riordans being experimented on in the Woods and Cate forcing Luke to forget what happened, the group enter Marie’s memory of her parents’ deaths, during which Annabeth accused her of willfully killing them. Eventually, they confront Cate and convince her to take responsibility for her actions, causing them to awaken. Sam arrives to confront Cate, but Emma talks him down and reveals Shetty used him to augment Luke’s powers and is experimenting on other children. Meanwhile, Cardosa tests his virus on an electrokinetic girl named Betsy, which causes her to grow sick and weakens her powers before killing her. Initially shocked, Shetty orders him to make the virus contagious.
Episodes 07
“Sick”
Marie and Jordan break into Shetty’s office to gather evidence and present it to Victoria Neuman, a politician who came to Godolkin University for a town hall meeting, during which they learn Shetty’s family was killed in a plane crash caused by Homelander.[a] A drunken Cardosa enters Shetty’s office and rambles about his virus, unaware that Marie and Jordan hid underneath Shetty’s desk. Shetty asks Colonel Grace Mallory for help in spreading the virus globally to kill all supes, but Mallory refuses and secretly orders someone to observe Shetty. After Andre’s father Polarity suffers a seizure, Andre accompanies him to the hospital. Amidst the meeting, student protestors incite a riot and create the “Supes Lives Matter” movement. While evacuating, Neuman meets Marie and discovers they share similar powers and upbringings. Marie tries to convince Neuman to expose the Woods, but Neuman convinces her to pursue a position of power with political or cultural influence instead. Cate kills Shetty after forcing her to reveal the truth behind the Woods and its creator, Thomas Godolkin, and her motivation for creating the virus. Cardosa meets with Neuman to give her a virus sample before she kills him to prevent his knowledge from spreading.
Episodes 08
“Guardians of Godolkin”
While Vought CEO Ashley Barrett meets with Godolkin University’s trustees on how to spin Luke’s suicide, Cate and Sam return to the Woods to free the remaining captives before leading them in killing non-Supes across campus. As Marie, Jordan, and Emma attempt to contain the chaos, Marie demonstrates increased mastery of her powers. Sam suffers hallucinations of Luke, who tells him to stop and reveals how he died, but Sam ignores him and allows Cate to destroy his ability to feel emotions. Andre learns that Polarity’s seizure was the result of brain damage caused by his powers before receiving the Polarity mantle to help fight the rampaging supes. Cate tries to brainwash Jordan, but Marie detonates Cate’s arm before Homelander arrives and attacks Marie, accusing her of “attacking her own kind”. Sometime later, Marie, Jordan, Emma, and Andre awaken in a sealed hospital room at an unknown location and learn they were framed for Sam and Cate’s attack while the pair are hailed as the “Guardians of Godolkin”. Meanwhile, Billy Butcher investigates the Woods’ ruins.