Warning: SPOILERS For Gen V Season 2

Hamish Linklater’s superb villain performance as Cipher in Gen V season 2 should inspire audiences to check out Linklater’s acclaimed role in a modern classic Netflix horror series created by Mike Flanagan. In 2021’s 87% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes hit, Midnight Mass, Linklater played the lead role of Father Paul Hill.

Gen V season 2 brings Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) and her friends, Jordan Li (London Thor/Derek Luh) and Emma Meyer (Lizze Broadway), into their sophomore year at Godolkin University, the college that trains future superheroes in The Boys‘ universe.

Hamish Linklater plays Cipher, the new Dean of Godolkin University, in Gen V season 2. A hardliner who wants to prepare Godolkin’s students for war with humans, Cipher revealed his power to possess the minds and bodies of others, after being suspected of being human instead of a supe.

Gen V’s Hamish Linklater Is Incredible In Netflix’s Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass is a phenomenal gothic horror miniseries that, along with 2019’s The Haunting of Hill House, is arguably Mike Flanagan’s best work when he created scary supernatural series for Netflix. As Father Paul Flynn, Hamish Linklater was central to Midnight Mass as the mysterious and charismatic new reverend of the isolated Crockett Island.

Father Paul hid a secret that he eventually revealed: he was really Crockett Island’s sick and elderly pastor, Reverend John Pruitt, who was made eternally young after being bitten by a vampire. Father Paul brought the vampire back to his island home in order to work similar “miracles” for his neighbors and followers.

Midnight Mass provocatively conflates the rituals of Catholicism with the legends of vampirism, as Father Paul believes his undead, bloodsucking patron to be “an angel from Heaven.” Midnight Mass is hauntingly written and directed by Mike Flanagan, and Hamish Linklater leads a fantastic cast that includes Zach Gilford, Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, and Henry Thomas.

How Gen V’s Cipher Connects To Midnight Mass’ Father Paul

Although Midnight Mass’ Father Paul Hill is a very different character from Gen V’s Cipher, there are some startling commonalities as well. The loquacious Father Paul performed wordy sermons and launched into several fascinating monologues in Midnight Mass, and Cipher also has a penchant for talking his students into anything with sweeping speeches.

Father Paul also took Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) under his wing; first, as his Alcoholics Anonymous counselor and then as Riley’s mentor when Flynn is turned into a vampire by the “angel”. In Gen V, Cipher takes a special interest in training Marie Moreau to master her abilities, assuring Marie that her power could even defeat Homelander (Antony Starr).

Riley ultimately rejects Father Paul and his fate as a vampire in Midnight Mass, and Marie also rebels against Cipher in Gen V, despite Cipher being present at her birth as “Dr. Gold” during the mysterious Project Odessa. Hamish Linklater is a scene-stealer in Gen V, and he is the bloody heart and soul who must be seen to be believed in Midnight Mass.