As Stargirl barrels towards its season finale next week, we start to see the season’s endgame emerge. Initially, I had written that this episode felt a little bit like a pause before the finale, but upon further review, the episode actually does quite a lot. It just does all the stuff we expected it to do, so it doesn’t look as momentous. Let’s get to it.
1. What the fuck is this opening?
I understand that after last week’s emotionally rending episode, the producers of Stargirl needed to do something different and light to open the show this week. Why that line of thinking translated to Buddy, the goddamn dog, running around the house to “I’m Too Sexy,” I will never know. No matter how good this show gets, it keeps doing little things like this that brings it down into joke territory.
2. Beth and Chuck, BFFAEAEAEAEAE
Throughout the show, Beth has been the least capable member of the JSA. That’s not a knock on her necessarily, as her magical token doesn’t grant her any sort of power, unlike the rest of the team. And yet, when Pat and Dr. McNider are speaking, McNider tells Pat that he is certain that Beth is ready for the battle ahead. He shows ultimate confidence in her, which essentially marks the first time anyone has given Beth an opportunity to not be an underdog, but an expectant success.
The friendship between the Doctors Midnight is a really nice development in a season that has been far more about the breaking down of relationships instead of the forging of new ones. Chuck’s return begs an interesting question for Beth going forward: is she the new Doctor Mid-Nite, or will she abdicate the title? It seems to me like she will be granted the title, while Chuck, hopefully, can enjoy retirement with his wife.
3. Silver Jenny Dollar
(The title of this heading is a reference to a great song by the New Pornographers. There’s nothing silver or monetary about our Jennie, I just wanted to link to the song)
The ‘biggest’ thing that happened this episode is that Jennie’s ring got compromised by some Eclipso goo/residue (Eclipsgoo? Eclisidue?). While this is symbolized by Jennie tossing and turning in bed like some sort of teenaged Zap Rowsdower (if you get this inane reference, high five! You probably had a rough time in school, too!), it’s a little hard for us to get too invested in this, because even though we’ve spend a few episodes with Jennie, we have such little intel on her.
I mean, we know the broad strokes, but when she starts acting strange, we only really notice because we see her ring get corrupted. If Yolanda or Rick started acting off, we’d know and notice, because we have history with them. But with Jennie, we know lots about her reality – her dad’s dead, her brother’s missing – but we know nothing about her as a person at all. That needs to be addressed.
4. Getting the band back together
This episode sees an unlikely pair of folks return the JSA to full strength. Cindy uses reverse psychology and the full extent of her bitch abilities to convince Yolanda to return to the team after Courtney does one of the all-time botches in trying to get her to return. Court thinks that telling her “you’re no longer the JSA murderer, you’re just a JSA murderer!” is going to snap her out of her funk.
It doesn’t.
But Cindy basically saying “We don’t need you because you’re a loser” does the trick. Cindy also reveals herself to be the saboteur of Yolanda’s social life, revealing that she is the one who spread her nudes, and just basically throws any chance of redemption out the window, at least in Yolanda’s eyes.
Across town, Pat goes to visit Rick’s uncle to convince him to drop the charges against his nephew. When he refuses, Pat shuts the door, closes the blinds, and somehow convinces the uncle to drop them. He gives some vague threats that Luke Wilson can’t help but make the least intimidating dialogue ever delivered on television. So, what do we think Pat did?
Continued belowI legitimately want to hear what you think. Leave them in the comments!
Finally, Mike brings Jakeem into the fold, after helping him do the dishes at home. I have a slight issue with Jakeem’s portrayal here, if only because he is basically only Jakeem in name. I realize that sentiment is true for almost everyone on this show, as neither Rick nor Yolanda nor Jennie have any real connection to their comics counterparts outside of their names, but I also feel like it has been a long time since Rick was a teenager in the comics, and so there’s been plenty of time to forget/adapt who he was for TV. Jakeem is still a teenager in comics right now, and this Jakeem has nothing to do with him at all.
On one hand, that’s good: Jakeem can be painted with a stereotypical brush at times. But this basically insinuates is that the only important thing about the character is that he’s black, and as long as he’s black, we can call him Jakeem Thunder and no one will notice.
I noticed.
5. Eclipso’s endgame revealed
Jennie, through her corrupted ring, gets a vision of Courtney, possessed by Eclipso, taking out the JSA. Eclipso, both as a child (who, kudos to that child actor for delivering some truly fucked up dialogue) and as his Little Monsters self, essentially says that his ultimate goal is to possess Court and use her to take over the world. It’s a bit of a weird moment, because she, like the rest of the JSA, only gets powers from their talismans, so does he just want the staff? Or does Courtney possess something else?
We’ll all find out next week.
