Stargirl has been seeding little moments for Yolanda all season, but this episode is when Yolanda’s story takes center stage. It’s an emotionally wrought episode that leaves a lot of unknown in its wake. Let’s dig in.
1. Guilt
This episode is almost entirely built upon the concept of guilt. Yolanda has good reason to feel guilty, or at least reason to take pause at her actions. While yes, she killed Brainwave, this was, potentially, the one way to stop him. She didn’t sneak into his house and slit his throat while he slept; this was a death in the midst of battle. Yolanda’s life went from popular, normal kid to an outcast to a superhero to a soldier in a war she really had nothing to do with in a matter of weeks. Imagine the strain that would put on anyone, let alone a teenager?
Yolanda tries to deal with the guilt in logical ways. She seeks out her friends, she seeks out her faith. Neither provides what she needs, and she feels like she’s on an island with no bridge to the mainland. This episode is very sad, and is very well acted by Yvette Monreal, who does most of the heavy lifting over its 40 minutes.
With Yolanda quitting the JSA, quitting the diner, and dropping her friendship with Courtney, Yolanda is more alone than ever before. This may lead to a temporary break on the show, but Yolanda has properly identified her role: she’s the JSAer who will kill. This season, or at least this series, will eventually have to give her a new one.
2. What is real?
This episode doesn’t answer its most potent question, and it is all the better for it: what is real? We see Mike touch the shards of the Black Diamond, and hallucinate that he’s covered in leeches. We know that’s not real. We know that both Brainwave and his son are dead, but they keep showing up. We know that’s not real. But as Yolanda points out, the guilt/images/voices in her head were there long before Eclipso. This episode proposes that Brainwave actually projected his consciousness into Yolanda’s head before his body died, and so she is literally haunted by him in her mind.
But all of this scene is shot purposely unclearly. We see Courtney in costume, and then not. We see Yolanda floating in the air, or is she just on her toes? She doesn’t know what’s real, and neither do we. That theory makes a lot of sense, and is actually a fun way to keep Brainwave as a part of the show, but it is also totally unprovable at the moment.
3. Beth’s honesty
When Yolanda goes to Rick and Beth about killing Brainwave, Rick is quick to accept her actions as necessary and move on. Beth doesn’t.
While Beth never tells her what she did was wrong, or even offers any active judgment, her silence and her uncertainty of how to feel with this information is the most real moment Beth has had on the show this entire season. Her type A bluster is zapped from her at this moment, and all that’s left is her heart, which is the biggest of anyone’s on the team. You can see her actually feel bad for Brainwave, someone who was actively trying to kill her.
Beth is the square peg of the team; she has no real abilities or motivation beyond ‘Chuck,’ but she’s also the most pot-committed of the group. She’s got no other friends, a crumbling family, no romantic interests, no driving ambition for justice; this has become a surrogate for all of those things. An AI was the closest she’s had to a real, intimate connection with another person, and now that’s gone. She’s essentially Joaquin Phoenix in Her, lost without Chuck in her ear.
And after losing Chuck, potentially losing her parents, and then losing the moral high ground of the JSA, the facade of Beth’s life crumbles to dust when Yolanda admits what she’s done. Beth’s not really judging her; she’s mourning.
4. What is Barbara’s connection?
Last season, Barbara became the focal point of Icicle’s attention, both professionally and romantically. Now, yes, Amy Smart is gorgeous (some of us may remember her from her turn on Scrubs as ‘Tasty Coma Wife’), but the connection felt stronger and more mysterious than that. This season, the Shade doesn’t just appear to her when he wants to acquire the Black Diamond, but also when he’s calling out for help. Wouldn’t Shade go after someone who could actually help? Courtney, Rick, Pat, anyone would make more sense than Barbara, right?
Continued belowSo, what’s her story? Is she the reason that the staff sought out Courtney?
Crackpot theory: she’s Starman’s long lost sister, with Court being his niece.
5. Shifts
This season has done a fantastic job of making lemonade out of lemons. Have to shoot during the winter but it is supposed to be the summer? Eclipso can control weather! Covid is limiting the cast size? Summer school is poorly attended, and so only a few extras are needed!
But more than anything else, the show has embraced a darker tone without killing the heart at the center of it. Eclipso is both literally a figure of darkness and also a harbinger for darker times ahead. All of the characters have been affected by it, either temporarily like Mike’s hallucinations of leeches, or more permanently, like what’s happened to Pat. But the show still feels goofy and can make ‘lefty loosey, righty tighty’ jokes and not feel out of place.
With Yolanda’s story on pause, it seems like Beth and Rick will get more of the spotlight going forward, at least for now. I’m here for it.
