With its third episode, Stargirl has laid out the structure for its first season, and has begun to give all of its cast (well, almost…) an arc. Let’s jump right in.
1. A twist on a harrowing scene
The episode begins with a flashback to the death of Icicle’s wife, and the scene is heartbreaking. We see a very sick woman, surrounded by her family, struggling to breathe. She is trying to comfort her clearly frightened young son, and the scene was landing with me in a way that these CW-fied dramatic moments normally don’t. But then, the prestige: we see Icicle tell her that he will avenge her death, and make the world a better place for their son. His wife, with her last words, says “If anyone tries to stop you, destroy them.”
Not that this neutralized the drama we felt earlier, but it certainly re-contextualized it. The implication is that Icicle was already a bad dude before this, but that this may have been the event that tipped him over the edge. It also puts most of the pathos onto their son, who will get a big reveal later in the episode as well.
2. The Family Unit
The first episode was all about how Courtney and Pat were not on the same page about, well, anything. The second episode brought them together a little bit. The third episode has a large chunk of its runtime dedicated to Barbara, Courtney’s mom, and her job as part of Blue Valley’s…planning board? Municipal staff? Marketing team? It’s not totally clear what the collection of bureaucrats and bad attitudes are exactly there for, but we see Barbara finding both a role within the city government and forging a professional relationship with her new boss, Jordan Mahkent, aka Icicle.
There are a bunch of reasons that this will break bad, from Pat likely getting jealous, to Barbara seeing Jordan’s cause as the ‘right’ one, to the mortal danger she’s putting herself in by working for a super-villain. It adds another layer to the show, and gives Barbara something to do other than just be suspicious of Courtney and Pat.
Now, Mike, Pat’s son, is objectively the worst. Obnoxious, clichéd, and a major part of the show for no reason whatsoever, really finds ways to be even more grating this episode. He’s basically a younger, less sexed up brother from Just One of the Guys, without cinematic classic dialogue like “All balls itch.”
The frustration here is that there are only three paths forward for Mike, and I don’t really want to see any of them. He either stays this clueless brat, he begins to suspect something is up with his dad and Courtney and he becomes a thorn in their side, or he joins the team. I have no idea which of those is the worst option, because they all sound pretty terrible.
3. Courtney forever, Stargirl never
One of the best things the past two episodes have done is highlight what a big heart Courtney has, and how she follows its lead admirably. In this episode, she encounters a student who has had ‘slut’ spray painted on her locker. Courtney doesn’t seem to know her that well, but instantly goes into fix it mode. Similarly, she is game to let a dork do a card trick on her, something no teenager trying to fit into a new school has ever been so kind as to do, and doesn’t even reveal that he messed it up.
The point is, we see Courtney doing exactly what we would want an exemplar of high school goodness to do. On the other hand, Stargirl is a mess. When she’s in heroic mode, she’s short-sighted, untrusting, and running on hunches. Pat is right to want her to chill out, but, of course, that plea falls on deaf ears.
4. Man, Icicle is a prick
Icicle is trying to bring Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E. out into the open, and so he decides to nearly kill a bus full of kids to make that happen. This is dastardly villain 101, but he takes it an unexpected step further. After they save the day, he puts a little extra English on the ball, and straight up murders Joey Zarick, the Wizard/mayor of Blue Valley/William’s son. This is right up there with the mom trying to give hope to her son on her deathbed for most emotionally challenging moments in the series.
Continued belowBut he’s not done! When the Wizard confronts him with a supposed magic wand, Icicle just straight up murders him, too. Shouldn’t the Wizard have gone in wands blazing, instead of just talking a big game? You know what this motherfucker can do, stop him!
The episode features a really chilling (pardon the pun, but it was too – cool – to avoid) shot of Joey’s mother/Willima’s wife, just staring off into the distance, her entire life destroyed in one day.
5. Society
In this episode, we get a look at the old JSA headquarters, straight off the cover of “Justice Society of America” #1, except now with large, Old School-style banners of the heroes, styled after Alex Ross covers. We see a lot of the JSA represented by part of their costume and/or a weapon, and we also see Courtney pilfer almost all of it to hand out to her new friends, which seems like a good idea to…no one?
Also, Pat mentions, off the cuff, that he knew that Dr. Mid-Nite’s owl has been hanging out in the abandoned HQ for ten years and hasn’t done anything about it. Most owls only live about ten years, so Pat either really hates animals, or couldn’t be bothered to call a vet.
Regardless of Pat’s clear animal neglect, this episode sets up just about everyone’s motives: Barbara wants to excel at work, Courtney wants to remake the JSA, Pat wants to keep his family safe, Icicle wants revenge for ‘the world’ killing his wife. Let’s see how that all goes next week.
