Cate Dunlap is a main character-turned-antagonist of the Amazon series Gen V, a spin-off series of The Boys, where she served as the primary antagonist of "Guardians of Godolkin." Cate returns as a minor antagonist in the fourth season of The Boys.
A popular junior at Godolkin University and Golden Boy's girlfriend while he was alive, Cate eventually develops a resentment towards non-powered individuals, fueled by the mistreatment she endured from ordinary humans. This resentment escalates, eventually leading her to lead a riot against innocent non-Supes.
Cate was born in the early 2000s, and shortly after her birth, her parents accepted Vought's offer to inject her with Compound V, subsequently transforming her into a Supe and granting her superhuman powers and abilities.
When she was 9, she went on a camping trip with her family. Her little 6-year-old brother Caleb was irritating her, so she grabbed his arm and told him to leave and never come back. Unbeknownst to her, she accidently used her powers for the first on him, causing Caleb to actually walk into the woods and not return. Despite the efforts of multiple search parties, he was not found. [1] Her mother was horrified at what happened and distanced herself from Cate, asking a police officer to escort her away as she felt unsafe.
Cate felt immense guilt over her brother's presumed death. The incident prompted her parents lock her in her room for nine years and force her to wear gloves, also conditioning her to habitually keep her distance from others so she could not use her powers intentionally or accidentally. She also had online tutoring to keep up with her education. At some point during her time in her room, she developed an intense attraction towards Soldier Boy who she idolized to guide her sexual desires. [2]
When she was 18, Indira Shetty visited Cate. The latter was initially reluctant to engage with her due to the mindset her parents instilled in her, but Shetty calmly told Cate that she was not afraid. She comforted her by removing her gloves and helped her control her powers by giving her specialized pills, also using her position to get her admitted into Godolkin University. [2]
During one of her specialized classes, she met Rufus who allegedly sexually assaulted her via keeping her enthralled in a hypnotic trance over the course of 3 days.
As an older Cate pursued her education there away from her family, she met Golden Boy during one of her crimefighting lessons, who complimented her intelligence and asked if he could cheat off of her. She later became his girlfriend. Initially enrolled in the Lamplighter School of Crimefighting, she shifted her major to Hero Management. Her ambition was to become the future manager of her boyfriend before his demise. [2]
Although Cate presents herself as being a kind, empathic and compassionate girl, she is a deeply flawed and highly complicated individual. Cate is one of the few students who doesn't have high aspirations of being drafted or getting accepted into the Seven, instead being content with being the girlfriend of Golden Boy.
Cate, due to past trauma and an isolated upbringing, was easily manipulated and willing to control the minds and memories of her friends and partner. Influenced by Indira Shetty, who helped her live a life of freedom at Godolkin University, Cate became a co-conspirator for The Woods. Despite hesitation, she used her powers on her boyfriend and his brother, who were being experimented on. Grateful to Shetty and believing her actions were for the greater good, Cate assisted in illegal operations, controlling supes at Godolkin and erasing evidence of their crimes. She repeatedly erased her friends' and boyfriend's memories when they uncovered secrets. However, she doubted her actions, especially as the consequences of her mental manipulations affected her victims, showing worry when Luke's suppressed memories resurfaced and destabilized him psychologically.
As shown, Cate harbors anger and resentment towards her parents. This is due to her past mistreatment and paranoia of her after her powers were activated as a child, where Cate had unknowingly “pushed” her little brother to “Go away and never come back”, causing him to wander away into the woods and was never seen again. As shown, Cate blames them for this incident, with her rationalizing that they were to blame for it due to them having having accepted Vought’s deal to inject Compound V into her as a baby in order to make a profit from her and thus causing her to develop powers that she had little control over as a child. Due to this, Cate has developed a sense of hostility not just towards her parents, but rather all the parents of her fellow Supes, as shown where she comforted Marie over having accidentally killed her parents when her powers emerged and told her not to mourn over them, as they just wanted to take advantage and make profit off her. As shown, this sentiment grew as she continued to go through or see her friends and fellow supes go through abuse from other “humans””( Indira Shetty, Richard Brinkerhoff, Edison Cardosa, Jeff Pitikarski). Causing Cate to develop a full on omnicidal hatred towards regular humans, believing that they saw her and all her friends as nothing more than “products” and leading her to start a murderous riot with the mentally unstable supes in the Woods in order to “defend” and “protect” them. Truly believing that what she was doing was right and that she was “saving” her friends.
Ultimately, after her real motivations were revealed, Cate harbors immense guilt and self loathing for all the harm she caused and helped cause her friends. However, any sense of guilt about misusing her powers seems to have eroded away after she kills Shetty. After this, she deliberately uses her powers to control other "Supes" into killing innocent human beings, justifying her behavior based on what Shetty was doing. Cate herself causes the death of one human and made another eat their hands. Despite being pleaded to stop by her friends, she instead uses her powers to make Maverick attack Marie and attempted to use her powers on Jordan.
Telepathy: Cate possesses compelling telepathic abilities, allowing her to continually hear the thoughts of others within a close radius of herself. As a result, she must concentrate intensely to block out the voices briefly. Additionally, Cate's powers were considerably limited by Indira Shetty, resulting in severe side effects from power usage.[3] Nevertheless, Cate is the most powerful telepath at Godolkin University.[4]
Persuasion:
Cate manipulating the security guard
Through the simultaneous combination of tactile contact and verbal guidance, Cate can assert authority and influence over others, which she refers to as "pushing." By compelling targets to stand still and issuing instructions, she makes them act according to her commands. Therefore, Cate can persuade targets to carry out a wide range of specific actions, even those contrary to their best interests.[5]
Memory Manipulation: Through Persuasion, Cate can thoroughly manipulate memories, letting her alter, erase, view, and restore specific recollections in the minds of others.[3]
Emotion Manipulation: Through Persuasion, Cate can delicately manipulate emotions, allowing her to influence, alter, remove, and restore the feelings and behaviors of others.[5]
Sleep Induction:
Cate making Sam sleep
Through Persuasion, Cate can induce targets to instantaneously fall asleep, assisting in subduing them.[6]
Memory Imprisonment: Cate was able to make Marie Moreau, Andre Anderson, Jordan Li and Dusty unconscious and enter shared psychic plane, in which everyone relived their past traumas, including Cate's past with Shetty, this ability is dangerous enough to cause someone's death, since Dusty was killed in the astral plane and died in the real world.[3]
Superhuman Strength: Cate possesses superhuman strength, which makes her stronger than humans. She was one of the Supes who beat Cameron Coleman to death with just a few blows.[7]
Superhuman Durability:
Cate being thrown to the ground by Sam
Cate possesses superhuman durability, making her more durable than humans. She withstands being forcefully thrown into a table by Sam and gets back up without any injuries.[3]
Regenerative Healing Factor: Cate possesses a limited but rapid, accelerated healing factor. While the full extent of this ability is unknown, Cate can heal from ruptured blood vessels in her eyes fairly quickly.[8][3]
Superhuman Hearing: Cate possesses superhuman hearing, allowing her to hear better than humans. Like all Supes, she can hear higher frequencies that humans cannot.[9]
Weaknesses[]
Biological[]
Tactile Contact and Verbal Guidance Required: For Cate to exert her "pushing" abilities on others, she must establish physical skin-to-skin contact with them and issue verbal instructions. Furthermore, it appears that she is only able to do this with her hands, which presents a further limitation since she lost her left hand during the events of Gen V.
Brute Force/Limited Durability: Despite being more durable than humans, Cate can still be stunned, knocked unconscious, and killed by extreme force. During an interview, Tek Knight threatens to break Cate's hands while she attempts to use her powers on him. Additionally, Sam restrains Cate and prepares to kill her before being stopped by Emma Meyer.
Overexertion Consequences: Using her powers excessively can lead Cate to suffer seizures and eye bleeding. Safe parameters of power usage and the necessary resting period for her to employ them without harm remain unstated. While the pills prescribed by Shetty appear to be the primary factor for said overexertion, Cate has exhibited fatigue and eye bleeding even in the absence of such medication.
Medication: The pills administered to her by Shetty diminished her abilities and caused Cate to have nausea, bleeding and seizures; however, upon discontinuing their use, she displayed heightened power, evident in her ability to read minds, make several people unconscious on an astral plane, and control many people, including supes, in a single day.
High Frequencies: Due to being a Supe, Cate is susceptible to high frequencies. When a high frequency is playing, it can induce immense pain and temporarily neutralize her. During a massacre at Godolkin University, Cate is momentarily neutralized through the use of a high-frequency alarm.
Supplementary materials initially indicated that Cate was enrolled as a student in the Performing Arts program at Godolkin University. However, this information conflicts with the established narrative in the series, where her major is stated as Hero Management.
Cate's abilities being triggered by physical contact with her hands and her needing to wear gloves most of the time to avoid accidentally hurting someone are akin to X-Men member Rogue, while her mind control powers bear resemblance to Mantis' skillset from Marvel Comics, with hints of Kilgrave from Jessica Jones. The way her powers affect her are similar to those of the telepathic character Andy McGee from Stephen King's 1980 novel (as well as the 1984 film adaptation starring Drew Barrymore) Firestarter. Like Dunlap, also described his ability as "pushing" and excessive use of it caused headaches and bleeding of the eyes or nose.
Cate's backstory is similar to another X-Men member, Jean Grey, particularly the version from the Dark Phoenix movie. Both characters developed telepathic abilities later in childhood and accidently cause lose of one their family members with their newfound power; this results in their parents fearing and resenting them for the tragic accident. Then they are adopted by a "kind" headmaster that tries to help them control their telepathy with suppressions.
Cate's personality and more ruthless use of her telepathy is similar to yet another X-men member, Emma Frost, who uses her powers in a much less restrained way than Jean Grey or Charles Xavier. Her views on humans and supes is similar to a young Emma Frost's views on humans and mutants, before Emma Frost's reformation and redemption.
Soldier Boy appears in Cate's mind as his true self: a rude, vulgar, and arrogant individual. How Cate knows of Soldier Boy's real personality is unknown, as he was portrayed to the public by Vought as a charismatic and selfless superhero.
Quotes[]
“
You're gonna take a little jog over to Dick's Sporting Goods. Buy yourself a nice Louisville slugger. Bring it right back to the quad and swing that bat as hard as you can into your nuts. Every hour, on the hour. And every time you swing, yell "Jumanji." Sound good?
