Stargirl S01E07 Review: Cindy's Bad Day

Stargirl, Season 1, Episode 7: Shiv, Part One

Okay, I've been enjoying Stargirl a whole ton, but this episode is actually pretty dang good! I really didn't think much of having a lot of school cast members. Sure, I thought that they'd be relevant at some point -- there's no way Henry King Jr isn't going to be, well, Brainwave Jr (minor spoilers), and I know about Cameron, Artemis and Cindy's comic-book alter egos. But for the most part, I genuinely thought that this season was going to focus mostly on the Injustice Society, for a teenagers-vs-adults style of story.

And then, of course, this episode kind of turns that concept over its head by showing that the children of the bad guys are also very much interested in their family's legacy. On one hand, you have Icicle's son, Cameron Mahkent. Icicle gets a couple of recurring scenes throughout the episode that primarily focus on how even so many years down the line he's still mourning the loss of his dead wife, and even goes around killing people that are only tangentially related to his wife's death (he kills someone who didn't blow the whistle). Yet for all his scariness, Jordan still tries to be a good dad to Cameron, and wink-wink-I-killed-that-guy dark jokes aside, for the most part he's supportive to Cameron, telling him to go out and pursue love before it's too late. And while I'm not sure about how this would mean for Cameron down the line when Courtney inevitably fights his dad, it's certainly a stark contrast to the other prominent bad-guy-child in this episode.

Enter Cindy Burman, a very prominent supporting character for the past six episodes. After Henry King Junior's brief stint as a big bully is crushed when his dad was hospitalized, Cindy is basically number one in standing for Blue Valley's top teenage bitch. For the most part Cindy's horribleness tended to revolve around verbal abuse and that terrible nude-picture-exposure thing she did to Yolanda, but turns out that not even her friends are free from her wrath. She's nothing but dismissive and outright rude to her boyfriend being sad over his comatose dad because of something as insignificant as prom. She's a catty bitch because her cheerleader friend got a date to the prom and she didn't. She's extra-horrible to the janitor.

And then... and then there's the chemistry class. Cindy's distant and arrogant, even, but after a bit of exposition from Beth on how Cindy became horrible after her mother died, Courtney tries to give the benefit of the doubt and be friendly, getting a little friend-date to hang out in the Homecoming night. Simple, right? Courtney can befriend everyone, why can't she befriend alpha bitches? And honestly, this was where I thought the story was going to go with this. Cindy's a horrible person, of course, but maybe she's just a bitch with no friends because of family circumstances with a dad who can't be a good parent. And that's kind of true to a degree.

...and then we get the scene in her house. She's absolutely terrible to her stepmother, treating her as less than dirt and essentially blackmailing the poor woman into giving her wine and stuff because Bobbie Burman is absolutely terrified of Cindy's dad. And Cindy's dad? Doctor Shiro "Dragon King" Ito, of course, who has had a bunch of minor appearances in previous episodes. And while the scene seems to be set up as Cindy finally learning about the Injustice Society as she eavesdrops into a meeting (we don't learn much, but they really needed Brainstorm for their plans). But no! Turns out that Cindy is hungering for a seat at the table, she's already got superpowers (some Wolverine-style daggers in her wrists), she kills one of her father's brainless goons without a second thought and she just wants to prove herself to get a seat on the table. Basically what every teenager goes through, but with murder and supervillain armour-suits instead of 'may I go to prom, dad?'

Meanwhile, her dad, Dr. Ito, really isn't that much better. In addition to owning brainwashed slaves and whatever he's done to poor Bobbie Burman (apparently 'prepared' by him? I guess she's a clone or something), he also forces Cindy to date Henry King Jr in order to see if he has inherited Brainwave's powers. Which, while certainly doesn't excuse her behaviour, puts Cindy's antagonist of Yolanda for stealing her boyfriend in a whole new light. Highlighting Dr. Ito's "parenting" style honestly feels like it's meant to purposefully be a contrast to good daddy Pat Dugan. And where Pat forbidding Courtney to do some things comes from a place of concern and protectiveness, Dr. Ito wants to simply control. Again, just like Icicle a couple episodes back, the episode does a great job at making Cindy be somewhat sympathetic (it's clear that part of her lashing out is because of her own insecurities) without undermining any of her alpha-bitch parts.

Courtney, meanwhile... does a bunch of stuff. Pat's dorky yet earnest attempt to get some JSA training with faces painted on buckets ends up being a bit of another exposition scene... and Stargirl just shows off with her cosmic staff and her bravado, pissing off not only Pat but also her JSA buddies who actually do feel like they needed the training. There's then the ball game, where we get a pretty interesting fight between Courtney and her stepbrother Mike, who's super-duper jealous of the time that Courtney is spending with his dad -- the fact that Court and Pat's excuses include things like 'oh yeah, we're learning to drive' alienates poor Mike even more. It's a scene that doesn't go on for too long, but one that is pretty dang effective.

Speaking of other scenes that doesn't go on for too long but is pretty effective? Henry King Junior cheats on a math test after discovering his mind-reading powers. Also, Cameron asks Courtney out to the dance, while she ends up rescheduling her friend-date with Cindy right before the climax of the episode. Again, none of these ran for too long, but are very effective in building up the story of the show's characters.

Courtney, meanwhile, is focused on superhero stuff, highly hyper-fixated in proving that their principal Anaya Bowin is part of the Injustice Society as the Fiddler. It's understandable; uncovering the Fiddler is something that Courtney and Yolanda found out on their own without Pat's help. Just like Cindy on the other side of the pond, Courtney has something to prove. And to be fair, Courtney does discover that Anaya Bowin goes around in secret doors and walks around the catacombs underneath the school. That's progress! But she does it without the backup of Pat or her JSA buddies.

Which leads to the very thrilling fight. Cindy, in frustration after being 'dumped' by even Courtney, ends up waltzing into her father's base and finds out that this "Stargirl" lady is running around in the ISA base. Seeing a chance to prove herself, she steals the pretty cool super-suit and the dragon head staff, and leads to yet another thrilling fight between her and Stargirl. The action scene is absolutely great. And, sure, there's a fair bit of 'obvious CGI' and 'obvious choreography' if you're going to be nitpicky. But this doesn't make the fight any less enjoyable, and, again, Stargirl honestly has hands-down the most entertaining superhero fight scenes in TV. There's a particularly cool bit where Courtney accidentally burns half of Cindy's face off while they were dancing around like a trophy case or something and goes "oh no!" in panic before going "oh, no" when Cindy shows off some healing-factor stuff.

And while she's gotten some setbacks in the past couple of episodes, for the most part Stargirl's confrontation against Brainwave, Icicle and the sports duo have ended up in either her winning or driving away the enemy. Not so here. Shiv beats Stargirl so badly that she gets unconscious and nearly killed if not for the arrival of Janitor Justin, the god-damned janitor with his sword (who is still enigmatic, but I know exactly who he is -- very cool that he's actually been around since episode like two or three, but I didn't even think he's going to be relevant). Even the Cosmic Staff has to hover off and grab Pat to help.

Anyway, a very thrilling way to build up Cindy Burman up as a character, and to also expand on several other plot points. Shining Knight, Dr. Ito, Henry King Jr, Mike Dugan, Cameron Mahkent... everyone gets something to do here. Easily one of the strongest episodes of Stargirl so far.

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Shiv, a.k.a. Cindy Burman, is one of the main antagonists for Stargirl's original solo comic-book series, Stars and STRIPE. A good chunk of her portrayal here is faithful to her original appearance in Stars and STRIPE, where she's the cybernetically-augmented daughter of the Dragon King who ends up encountering Courtney in school. Shiv's abilities included a suit that granted her super-strength and bladed weapons (though TV!Shiv seems to have the blades embedded in her body, Wolverine-style) and a staff that can turn into a snake. 
• It's not outright stated, but the sword, the horse and the speech patterns marks the mysterious janitor as none other than Shining Knight! Debuting in Adventure Comics and being associated with superhero teams like the Seven Soldiers of Victory, All-Star Squadron and both the JLA and JSA, the Shining Knight is Sir Justin, who was a knight at King Arthur's court. Granted with a magical sword and a winged steed, Victory, by the wizard Merlin, Sir Justin was frozen in ice during a fight with the ogre Blunderbore, and woke up in 1941 where he ends up fighting alongside other heroes during the World Wars in the modern day; a knight out of time. 
• Shining Knight recognizes Pat as Stripesy, a not that the two characters were among the seven that formed the original Seven Soldiers of Victory.
• "Star-Spangled Bitch", of course, is a nod to Courtney's first superhero name, Star-Spangled Kid.