Stargirl S01E08 Review: School Girl Fights

Stargirl, Season 1, Episode 8: Shiv, Part Two

Okay, this is another pretty interesting episode even if a good chunk of it is just sort of wrapping up the plot threads raised by "Shiv, Part One". With Courtney severely injured, Pat quickly gets her to a hospital and also rams his Buick onto a tree to make up the car accident story that he sells Barbara later on. A good running story throughout these episodes is that Courtney and Pat really struggle on whether they should tell everything and spill the beans to Barbara or not, but it's one thing to keep the information to themselves and disguising training sessions as learning to drive, and actively creating a fake accident as a cover story to hide the fact that Courtney was nearly damn well killed fighting supervillains.

It's pretty interesting that we cut away from a father/daughter relationship where both daughters have fucked up. Courtney for going into a fight without backup; and Cindy for going into a fight against her father's express orders. But where Pat's consumed with guilt and is just far more glad that Courtney's alive more than anything, Dragon King's a complete jackass to Cindy, continuing to bring up the fact that Cindy killed her mother, playing down Cindy's admittedly good first outing as a supervillain, and constantly pointing out her failures before dismissing her. Again, Cindy's not a perfect daughter or whatever, but seeing her getting absolutely zero recognition or praise from her father really does explain why she ends up being such a rotten egg.

The rest of the junior JSA, meanwhile, are divided. Rick is absolutely livid and is ready to go town on Cindy Burman, eye-for-an-eye style, but Beth ends up talking him down by noting that they need to find out more information about who Cindy's parents are. This ends up in a pretty interesting scenario where Cindy goes off to visit the house-bound Courtney in the guise of an apologetic friend, while Beth and an unfortunately dragged-along Pat gets roped into infiltrating Cindy Burman's house and dealing with the ambiguously-human-and-maybe-a-robot-or-a-clone Bobbie Burman. This sequence jumps back and forth between the two groups, as well as Henry King Junior discovering that he has mental powers (and that his dad is a costumed supervillain) in a pretty traumatic way.

I really do like the pair of scenes, particularly Courtney and Cindy. The show really plays off on the 'does she know?' angle a lot, and Cindy initially just seems genuine in trying to apologize to Courtney for her 'bad day' and trying to reach out to the one person that doesn't dismiss her outright as a bitch. And... and, sure, Cindy still acts like a complete dick while hanging out in Courtney's room, calling it 'thrift store chic' and acting like a complete princess, but it's not hard to see why Courtney lets her guard down. Maybe she is just apologizing? Courtney totally knows that Cindy is Shiv, though, and I do like that it's not until Cindy is about to leave the Whitmore-Dugan residence that she reveals that she figures out the whole 'Stargirl' deal because, well, it's just a mask and both Stargirl and Courtney are blonde girls that got injured at around the same time. I really do like just how the show really could've gone either way, that Cindy is genuinely being nice to Courtney while wanting to murder Stargirl in a Peter Parker/Harry Osborn dynamic.

Interestingly, and in what's a very in-character choice, Cindy is actually keeping her knowledge of Stargirl's identity a secret from Ito or the rest of the Injustice Society. Stargirl, after all, is her prey, her achievement and hers to kill. That's a pretty interesting situation that makes Cindy's place in the show as a villain so much more unique than just another member of the ISA.

Pat and Beth's little sojourn into the mysterious creepy house of Cindy Burman is interesting only because Beth's chipper attitude and perfect acting while she walks around the house conversing with 'Chuck' is so entertaining to watch. As is Pat as he is completely uncomfortable and scared that he's putting himself and a bunch of schoolchildren at risk. The comedy as the two of them stumble over each other's cover story is also hilarious, although ultimately Beth doesn't figure out anything too much that the audience doesn't already know. Cindy's dad is the Dragon King (Ito's existence doesn't even faze Pat) and there's a secret door that leads to a creepy underground tunnel. Ultimately, while there's the tension that Cindy might reach home and see the JSA in action or any other Injustice Society member might show up, this is just kind of a low-key wacky adventure, and Yolanda manages to get Beth out before Cindy catches her.

Until, of course, the fact that the episode actually closes with another Courtney/Cindy fight. Cindy straight-up threatens to kill Courtney's friends, so Stargirl ends up striking first, going alone (damn it, girl, learn from your mistakes) and fighting Shiv one-on-one when the other girl is letting her guard down at her own house. Sure, Shiv might not have her super-suit, but she still has those cybogr arm-blades thing and Stargirl nearly gets herself defeated again if not for the timely arrival of Henry King Jr and dr. Ito's hooded minions. Henry King Junior, able to read minds and absolutely confused at what's going on (his dad's a villain, so is his girlfriend, there's also Stargirl who apparently put his dad in the hospital) ends up unleashing his powers and knocking everyone aside. This ends up with Shiv being dragged by Dr. Ito's minions down into the sewer while she protests. Oops!

Other B-plots that happen in this episode? Mike's little jealousy fit is absolutely just shoved aside because the kid feels absolutely terrible for being a bit of an ass to Courtney in the previous episode and just apologizes and shares some pizza bites with his sister. That's cute. Also, Pat has a surprisingly heartfelt scene talking to a goddamn inanimate staff about the difference between Sylvester and Courtney, and that's somehow one of the more heartwarming scenes in the episode. There's also Icicle killing some dude, too, which I mis-attributed to the previous episode. Barbara... has a weird series of glancing and meeting Jordan's eyes a couple of times in the episode, but that's also something that goes nowhere.

Overall, a neat little set-up/cooldown episode. Not one that's super-duper solid on its own and a pretty mellow one, but the character interactions and the dynamic between Cindy and Courtney is definitely well done.  That's where the show's going with this episode in particular, and with Shiv seemingly out of commission (albeit no thanks to Courtney), it's interesting to see where the show will go from here.

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• The new password the ISA uses is 1999, which is the year that Stars and STRIPE (and Courtney Whitmore in general) was first published. 
• Cindy being dragged by her father's minions into a sewer is taken from Stars and STRIPE #7.