Welcome back, one and all, to Multiversity coverage of the CW’s Stargirl. When we last left the Whitmore/Dugan clan, Eclipso was being laid to waste by the ever-expanding JSA and associates. Things have calmed down, but new friends, enemies, and, dare I say, frenemies, have emerged. Let’s get to it.
1. Continually the worst part of this show
There is no ‘music supervisor’ listed on the IMDB page, and so I’m not going to slander the entire music department for the series, but this has to end. This episode featured both Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America,” as garbage a song as exists, and C&C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now,” which is about as overplayed of a needle drop as you can imagine. Not only that, but both weren’t even cleverly used; “Coming to America” was about the team coming back together, and “Everybody Dance Now” was during a scene of ass kicking. There are quite literally tens of thousands of better choices for both of these moments. It’s not good when you’re groaning 2 seconds into an episode, but Stargirl manages to do that with its music choices frequently.
2. Show me that smile again (show me that smile!)
The JSA is having some growing pains from its newest member, Cindy. While Courtney has the right idea in mind – everyone deserves a second chance! – the rest of the team wants nothing to do with Cindy. It’s easy to see both sides of this, as Cindy did help defeat Eclipso and was raised in a literal den of evil, and so deserves some help, but the rest of the team doesn’t exactly trust her, due to…well, just about all available evidence.
This is made even more clear when Artemis attempts to join the team as well. Now, for those of us who have been comics-poisoned, we all know that this new JSA is more like Infinity, Inc, which featured at least one child of a villain (Brainwave Jr), and the JSA itself has some history with villains who want to change their ways, such a Black Adam, so this isn’t too big of a stretch for longtime readers. But I absolutely understand their hesitation. Courtney’s leadership style doesn’t really account for providing a space for input, nor did it properly set up Cindy (or Artemis) with a way to ‘try out’ for the team.
3. I call him Gamblor Gambler!
This episode saw the return of the Gambler to Blue Valley and, unlike Courtney, everyone else is town basically kept saying “fuck off, lowlife” when he would appear to ask for help. And while that is an understandable reaction to his reappearance, Stargirl makes a real effort to ensure that we know that he’s for real. He’s looking for his daughter which, again, ties into this show’s overarching theme of legacy and generations. But, before he can find Becky, he gets himself killed by the new big bad on the street, whose identity has not yet revealed themselves. We’ll get to that in a second, but I want to say that for a show that goes broad with its villains, the ‘Kentucky fried’ Gambler was humanized pretty effectively in a short amount of time here. The portrayal by Eric “Assface from Ride Along” Goins was just as big as usual, but little elements were added that made him seem more like a down on his luck schmuck than an evildoer looking for another scam. And now he’s dead. RIP Gambler.
4. The villain appears to be a Peeping Tom
All we know about this year’s season-spanning villain so far is that they’ve set up cameras all over Blue Valley, including in the homes of the JSA. Now, while I can’t prove that this villain is getting off watching Beth’s parents in their second honeymoon period, that seems the only reason to put a camera in their living room. You know, the room where people usually plot their superheroics. If this guy knows their secret identities, it’s not hard to guess where they hang out, since one of their members/stepdads has a giant garage.
I’ve got some ideas about who the villain is (I haven’t read a spoiler about it yet), but I’ll save it for another week or two. I don’t want to give anything away ahead of time.
Continued below5. The Starman of it all
As I see it, there were three big Starman questions going into this season, and we’ve already gotten the answer to one, but the other three remain open:
Is it really Sylvester Pemberton?
This appears to be a yes, as it is one thing to trick randos and even a dummy like Pat, but to trick ‘Cosmo,’ the cosmic staff, seems unlikely/impossible. So yes, this is the Starman.
How did he come back to life?
This is the biggest question right now; he tells Courtney a harrowing tale of waking up in his own casket, buried underground. This brings up a lot of questions: was he not embalmed/is he Jewish and therefore doesn’t believe in embalming? The bigger question, however, is what exactly brought him back from the dead and, similarly, did it do the same for the rest of the JSA? If not, what makes him special?
What’s his deal?
Joel McHale is doing the best acting of his career this side of The Informant!, and he’s making it very hard to get a bead on exactly what Sylvester’s intentions are. On one hand, he clearly wants the staff back, and maybe manipulating Courtney to get it. But if he really wanted it, he could’ve taken it. He’s sort of a dick to Pat, but that seems to have been his M.O. since day one. But he’s also really supportive of him, even if it seems a little phony.
But ultimately, what is his endgame now? There’s every chance that he’s going to turn villainous, but it seems almost as likely that he’s just a bit of a lost soul, and will be a good training partner and mentor for Courtney. I’m really not sure how this will go, and that uncertainty makes the show interesting.
