Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) is a student at Godolkin University. She is a junior student, so she is already in her third year at the university. Most other classmates at the university know Cate mainly because she is the girlfriend of star student Luke Riordan (also known as „Golden Boy“ and played by Patrick Schwarzenegger).
Originally, Cate was enrolled in Lamplighter’s crime-fighting course. When she hooked up with Golden Boy, however, she switched her major and is now interested in hero management. She dreams of eventually becoming her boyfriend’s manager because she sees in him the potential to become one of the Seven.
Cate Dunlap’s background (The Boys / Gen V)
In the first season of Gen V, Cate Dunlap is introduced in a rather reserved way and is seen by many of her classmates merely as Golden Boy’s friend. In fact, however, Cate possesses one of the most powerful abilities of all. She is able to impose her will on other people by mere touch. She is also able to manipulate other people’s memories. She is able to alter actual events or even erase them altogether, making those around her unable to remember what they did.
In her past, Cate had a traumatic experience because of her abilities. When she was eleven years old, her family went on a camping trip. Cate’s brother Caleb annoyed the young girl so much while she was there that she grabbed him and told him to leave and never come back. Caleb then ran off into the woods and was never found again.
Cate’s parents then locked the girl in her room for nine years and did not allow her any contact with the outside world. She had to wear gloves at all times and was only allowed to do online schooling. When Indra Shetty, the director of Goldokin University, became aware of the incident, she brought Cate to the university to help the young woman learn to better control her powers.
Cate Dunlap in season 1 of Gen V
While at first it seems that Cate is on the side of her friends and wants to get to the bottom of the mysterious things that are happening at Godolkin University, as the season progresses it turns out that she is actually just a puppet of the director and uses her abilities to manipulate her friends. Among other things, Cate gets Golden Boy to kill her professor, Brink, because he is a thorn in the principal‘ side.
However, Cate’s repeated manipulations cause her friends‘ psyches to destabilize over time. Memories that were forgotten due to the young woman’s abilities slowly burst into the light of day, causing those around her to slowly go insane.
Cate finally decides to return her suppressed memories to her friends, because she wants to uncover with them what things are going on in secret at Godolkin University. However, her friends initially turn away from Cate because they feel betrayed and cheated by her. It is not until they take a trip down Cate’s memory lane together that the students realize that Cate has only been used and manipulated by the principal herself. That’s why they end up accepting Cate’s help and stand together against Indra Shetty.