User Reviews

I was a HUGE fan of Stargirl's first season! Like, a HUGE fan! That first season was better than it ever had any right to be, and the same rings true here. It's not without its flaws, but there's no reason to dismiss this show yet if you were worried about the CW ruining it. I was in that boat as well. What was clear to me almost immediately though was that this was clearly the same writing team from season 1, and that can *only* be a good thing going forward.

Let's begin with some cons of the episode. I do not like Courtney's character development being retconned. In season 1's "Shining Knight", Courtney got over her need to be Stargirl because she found out the truth about her dad, and learned to be Stargirl for the right reasons. The point of being a hero is to protect people, so I understand her drive to do so. What I don't understand is where her need to overdo her heroics came from. That's what made it seem like they had to retcon her development. What I'm seeing here is the whiney Courtney from episodes 1-5 of the first season. Granted, that was all well built up across the whole season leading up to her being humbled in episode 11, "Shining Knight", but here it feels like the writers aren't going anywhere with this outside of Courtney angsting all the time for no reason. But hey, glass half full, there's a good chance they could do something with this or explain what happened between seasons that made Courtney more reliant on the Stargirl persona again. I'm not sure that's the direction they're going with it, but I'm willing to believe there's something being built up here outside of Pat saying "No Stargirl for two weeks."

The writers also seem to have rolled back the development on Rick here. During the season 1 finale "Stars and S. T. R. I. P. E. Part 2", Rick had dealt with Grundy and had gained a new optimism after realizing that Grundy was just a mindless rage monster. By having Rick actively searching for Grundy, the writers have seemingly rolled back all of Rick's character development, and not in a good way. That's how it appears on the surface at least, especially with Rick's outburst at that teacher. A teacher would never accuse a student of cheating like that. In my experience, the final is only worth 10% of your overall grade, so you'll only go up or drop one letter grade at most. I get that they had to get the whole gang into summer school, but I don't think they needed to roll back Rick and Courtney's character arcs to do it.

I also felt like Zeeks was an out of place character in this episode. I get that he was brought in in response to the plot hole of nobody being able to see the Robot in Pat's garage, but he just kinda seemed weird and tacked on at times.

The rest of the episode was incredible though! Let's kick things off with Joel McHale as "Not Starman". I'm sorry, Joel is such a good actor, and he made the lines he said at the diner sound so menacing that I think I've already predicted the twist. Joel McHale doesn't play Starman during this season. He instead plays a disguised version of The Shade! That's just my personal theory though. The Shade is the only character that had something set up in the season 1 finale that wasn't in this episode, so I have a feeling that "Not Starman" is going to be The Shade in disguise. Not a twist I'd be disappointed by, but definitely an obvious one.

I'd seen the trailers showing us that we were gonna get Jade in this season, and at first I was disappointed that John Diggle wouldn't be the Arrowverse's first Green Lantern, but once I saw Jade on screen I was willing to accept it. Not only does she have a really good fight sequence with Courtney, but she also gets one of the best lines of the episode. "I'm Green Lantern's daughter." Girl, I believe you! I'm hyped for this character. Based on how well last season did with its ensemble cast, I'm sure that adding a new protagonist to the mix won't hurt. I mean, we all saw how well they did Brainwave Jr. Last season, and most of his major development was in just two episodes! Having a full season to build up Jade can only make things easier on the writers.

I also liked the scenes with Yolanda in this episode. She's actually dealing with the fact that she killed Brainwave in the season 1 finale, and I really appreciate that. Having something as simple as PTSD visions or hearing ominous sounds is all that we could really ask for, but Yolanda and Courtney have a real conversation about it. Courtney clearly doesn't blame Yolanda for what she did, rationalizing it as "Brainwave would've killed all of us. You did what you had to do." And Yolanda wants to believe that. The thing is, she knows she attacked him out of rage. She didn't kill Brainwave because she had to; She did it because she wanted to. Even the scene of her in the booth just wanting to sit and say nothing was really good. They did a lot of showing as opposed to telling in that moment about how deeply this has affected her as a person, and this is the exact kind of scene where you'd be able to pull off that moment! I don't even mind that she wanted to give up being Wildcat because of what it represented to her now. Wildcat doesn't represent heroism in Yolanda's mind. Instead, it represents this terrible murder she's committed. I think the most amazing part of Yolanda's arc in this episode is that on any other CW show, Yolanda murdering Brainwave would've been swept under the rug in-between seasons. That's not what the Stargirl writers did here, and you have no idea how much I appreciate that!

I think what was arguably the best part of the episode though was how they handled Beth. I wasn't a huge fan of Beth in season 1, but this season seems to be handling her a lot better. I honestly felt the most emotional I've felt during a tv show all year when we see everything happening to Beth here. Her parents are getting divorced, so she tries to get them back together but it's just not working out. She's upset about it when she gets to school, but puts on a brave face when Courtney and Yolanda show up. I resonate with that on an incredibly deep level, and it only gets worse for Beth as the episode goes on. Beth makes this huge dinner for her parents to try to make them not go through with the divorce, but neither of her parents show up, and her mom calls her just to congratulate her on her last day of school. We see Beth really sad, but this episode has one more card left to throw at her. During the season 1 finale, the AI inside of Beth's goggles was destroyed by Icicle. The goggles then turn back on at the end of the episode with Chuck's friendly voice, and we hear Beth the happiest she's been all episode, but then Chuck just says "I don't know you" and the goggles shut down. Beth's closest friend doesn't remember her on top of everything else going on in her life right now. That. Is. Cruel. But you know what? It's exactly what this character needed. I'm going to assume Beth's arc this season will be all about her building up her self-confidence and learning to be content with what she has. I would really love to see that from this character, and it would be amazing to see her come out of her shell. Anjelika Washington killed it this week! Well done!

We also had an amazing introduction to Eclipso as the main villain of the season. We got to see Eclipso convince real-life Chuck's daughter to steal, and then punished her for it using his demon powers. I'm admittedly not too familiar with Eclipso in the comics, but given this show's track record with villains, especially ones I've never heard of, I'm just predisposed to like this character! Look at what this show did to Icicle, Brainwave, and Dragon King last season! I have a feeling that Eclipso is going to be a really cool and threatening presence!

My favorite scene in the episode comes at the very end though. Cindy Burman walks into the school, enters a secret tunnel to the ISA conference room, and takes out a file with pictures from the rest of the ISA's kids. She stars with Henry, and tears his picture in half, which is absolutely something Cindy would do! From there though, we see pictures of Artemis Crock, Isaac Bowin, and Cameron Mahkent. After that though, Cindy takes out one final picture to add to the pile. Mike Dugan. Courtney's step brother is going to be the final member of Cindy's ISA. And then we get this line at the end of the episode. Cindy takes out the diamond housing Eclipso from her bag and says "Let's do some recruiting!" That is the exact line Courtney said to the Cosmic Staff in season 1's third episode "Icicle"! I am here for this! They're really trying to draw parallels between Courtney and Cindy, and this was a great way to do it! Wow!

Also, the song that plays during that scene is "Break The Rules" by Charli XCX, and it was hilarious! I could not stop laughing at that! Amazing!

I gotta admit, man; It feels good to leave a review on an episode of a show I don't completely hate for once! Stargirl is my kryptonite, and though this episode wasn't flawless, this was an amazing return for the series. Maybe it's because I'd been so terrified that the CW would ruin it that what was in the episode didn't seem so bad, but I did thoroughly enjoy this episode! If the writers can fix Courtney and Rick, and then keep this writing quality for the rest of the season, I think things can only improve from here! Between this and Superman and Lois, the CW seems to know what they're doing to bring in new viewers. Who would've thought that all it would take to make people enjoy the network again was to just write some real, quality television?

To close things, there was a lot of small details I appreciated in this episode. Rick is driving the car he was working on last season. The yearbook didn't just have Cindy in it, but also Beth, Artemis, and Isaac. The mentions of Per Degaton, and the Flash, and the Cosmic Staff still lights up! Thank you! I love little details like that!

God, that flashback, in the beginning, was so creepy. A birthday party was held for a little girl named Susie. Across the street, a young girl named Rebecca begs her mother to let her attend the party. Her mother refuses as Rebecca had made a scene at the store over not getting a doll. The refusal upsets Susie who runs outside to pout on the porch. A young boy appears in her yard and introduces himself as Bruce. He asks her to the party but she can't as her mom won't let her. Bruce doesn't see her mom anywhere and lures her out against her better judgment. She nearly runs into the street of excitement, and barely avoids a truck. God, that part scared me. She stands outside Susie's house and longingly watches the happiness. She notices a pile of presents, and Bruce appears behind her. He encourages Rebecca to take one of the presents; she didn't get anything today, and no one is looking anyway. Rebecca runs up, steals a package, and hides behind the bushes to open it. When she does, the doll inside is deformed and dirty. Its eyes glow red. She drops it in shock, and it turns back into a doll. Bruce's face turns black, and his eyes red. He raises a black diamond and shames her for stealing the doll. They are engulfed in purple light. Rebecca's mother goes looking for her daughter and thinks she is hiding at the party against her wishes. When she goes across the street, she sees something in the yard that makes her scream. The name on the family's mailbox is McNider. That kid seems so innocent. Eventually, the mother finds her daughter dead. I assume that was in the 50s or 60s.

So yes; present day! The team has some fun around the city. They call it quits temporarily. Courtney loves being the role, huh? Courtney is studying the history of the JSA in the basement: we have good old dad asking her what is she was doing up so late. Courtney questions her father about what happened to Per Degaton. He answers that the Flash banished him to another timeline, another = Green Lantern defeated him in 1988. Nice references right there. Suddenly, a green lantern ring glows...

Mike returns home. He finds out that Pat is planning a family trip to Yellowstone National Park, two weeks at a late house. Oh right, I forgot they had a dog. God, it has been so long. Beth tries to restore the McNite'er A. I., reboot failed. Beth discovers that her parents for filing a divorce, yikes. Rick revisits his parent's death site but exploring deeper. He finds some big footprints, could the animal escape from the last encounter?

Yolonda's past has been haunting her since she killed the villain from last season if I remember correctly. God, that finale was dark. Courtney tells Yolanda that she will be gone for two weeks. Nate tells his co-worker to keep his facility running while he's gone. Yet, we begin where the team discusses in Lunchtime, never gets old.

A fight happens, a misunderstanding. Courtney and her parents are sent to the Principal's office about what happened at Lunchtime and her grade performance. The Principal states that summer school will be the best option for her. News flash. Thus, Summer School: Chapter One. A new guy goes in town, asking someone named Maggie where to find her ex-husband. Something about stripes. Pat returns to his facility to find Zeeze discovering his robot. Apparently, he's cool with it. How unexpected.

Rick drops some chickens to see if the creature is still out there. Chuck finally is revived but seems to lost his memory. R. I. P. Courtney still is researching through the files and old yearbooks. She hears some noise. She walks to a living room to discover a Green Lantern. Action! Apparently. It's his daughter. Green Lantern's daughter. A familiar face returns to BVHS. She retrieves a folder entitled Injustice Unlimited. She takes refuge in Dragon King's underground tunnels. She opens the folder of Henry King Jr. In half, as his death made him useless. She lays out images of the ISA's children, including Artemis Crock, Isaac Bowin, and Cameron Mahkent. She also lays down a photo of god damn Mike. What a shocker. She holds up the black & purple diamond Eclipso and states that they have some recruiting to do. Then they laugh.

Thoughts?

It's funny how Luke, the younger brother of Owen Wilson sounds exactly like him. Lmao, and the same movements that they make. I cannot take it seriously. Alright, a great slow start at first. Nice theme exploring what has been going on with the new SJA team members.

8/10.

Episode 1: Heart-warming tender kindergarten starting its new episode of the season. Not the Stargirl that I would have liked to see, as said before in season 1 review, but I'm beginning to accept her. She does a good job, seems better and a little more mature than the first season and her leadership starts to grow.

Nice twist in the end. Hope they team up.