The Boys season 4 debuted this week and while it may not be 100% necessary to watch its college spin-off, Gen V, there are a number of plot points from that show you might want to be aware of, as many were brought up over those three episodes and it seems likely many will come into play soon enough on a larger scale.

While I would recommend watching the show in its entirety (it’s good!) if you just want the basics that directly tie into The Boys, here’s a list for you (spoilers follow):

The lead of the show, Marie, has blood-based powers. She controls blood like a weapon, and can make it “sharp,” among other things, which is how she accidentally killed her parents. However, over the course of the season, we learn that this is the same power that the head-exploding Vice President Victoria Neuman has, even though initially the powers may have looked different.
Similarly, we know that this specific power seems to come with some level of invulnerability in a way other supe powers may not. In the finale, Marie takes a full Homelander laser blast to the chest and walks away. Now, in season 3, we just saw Victoria Neuman shrug off both acid and a bullet to the head, meaning this may be blood-power specific.

The main thrust of the plot is that the head of God U was working on developing a virus to make supes specifically extremely sick and kill them, possibly one that could be spread through the air globally, creating a supe pandemic. Though she is eventually killed, the virus itself is still at play and Victoria Neuman is given a sample of it. After that, Neuman kills the man who gave it to her, ensuring almost no one has this knowledge, though we don’t know what her plan might be with such a weaponized virus that could obviously kill her, as well.
The main cast is framed for chaos and murder at Godolkin and only the traitorous Cate, a mind-controller, and Sam, a hulk-strength unstable powerhouse, are deemed “heroes” by Vought, and it’s implied they may be in contention for a Seven spot, which is the point of exceeding at God U. We have seen in previews that Cate and Sam will appear on The Boys at some point, and one spot does remain open even after Sister Sage and Firecracker have joined.

 

We see Billy Butcher exploring the ruins of the secret Woods lab at the very end of Gen V, implying he knows at least something about what happened there. So far this has yet to come up in season 4 itself as he is mainly just struggling with his terminal diagnosis.

I think that’s most of it. I don’t know how much crossover there will continue to be, but that virus is massively important and Cate and Sam will do something in the show, that much is clear. But yes, that’s what you need to know.