“Jumanji” reveals that not only is Shetty running the underground “Woods” operation, imprisoning supes and experimenting on them, but she’s actively pushing for even more inhumane treatment of the prisoners inside. When Dr. Cardosa tells her about his breakthrough — how the virus they’ve been working on can take a supe’s powers away — Shetty tells him to give the prisoner an even more concentrated dose even though she sees it’s making her sick. At the end of the episode, when she finds out the prisoner has died from the concentrated injection, she doesn’t care at all.
Perhaps even more coldblooded is the way she’s revealed to have manipulated Cate. Shetty approached the young supe at the most vulnerable period of her life, told her exactly what she needed to hear, and then used that established trust to coerce her into brainwashing Golden Boy for years. When they first met, Shetty was a welcome reprieve from Cate’s fearful, judgmental parents, but slowly Shetty revealed herself to be an even worse parental figure. Shetty is largely responsible for Golden Boy’s death, and has forced Cate to continue using her powers to mess with her friends’ minds despite all her grief and guilt.
This episode gives us Shetty at the most cold and calculating we’ve ever seen her. We’ve always assumed she wasn’t trustworthy of course — no authority figure is in a series like this — but it’s chilling to see just how far back her manipulations go, and how easily Shetty is able to pretend to care about the people she’s manipulating. Shetty’s always been an antagonist in “Gen V,” but now we know for sure she’s the show’s main villain.
