REVIEW: STARGIRL - SEASON 1.5: "Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite"
Things have gotten even MORE mysterious and interesting in Blue Valley, as the Injustice Society is reforming in the wake of the appearance of Stargirl. Meanwhile, Courtney is assembling a new Justice Society of America, and has gotten her first recruit: Former top classmate of Blue Valley High, now scorned and humiliated Yolanda Montez, who has become the new Wildcat. Now, Courtney is looking for MORE people to step up into the role of hero, in order to battle the Injustice Society, which their leader, the Icicle, has had to kill his old teammate The Wizard for not helping Brainwave, and just recently had the Wizard's wife killed as well...something Pat stumbles upon. Meanwhile, the Dragon King has made his appearance, and is looking to aid the Icicle in his plan to launch his quest: New America.
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We are now beginning to see the new JSA take shape, with Courtney leading the way. We got A LOT more unpacked in this episode, as well as seeing some moves by the Injustice Society, as we are introduced to The Fiddler, and they begin to make their moves to push the Icicle's plan forward. We also finally meet Rick Tyler, and get his backstory. Plus, Pat's starting to put pieces together, and it is NOT looking good.
Rick's backstory is briefly told, when we flashback to Nine years ago in Blue Valley, as we see his dad, Rex, who's the JSA member known as Hourman, write in a journal, and leave a picture in it, as he mails it to Pat Dugan. He and his wife Wendy then have to take their leave, because they know the ISA is hot on their trail. They end up leaving Rick with his Uncle Matt, who isn't thrilled about having to take care of him. They have done their job covering their tracks, by making sure they change Rick's last name to Harris, and make Matt his "father". Rex and Wendy take off down a dirt road, when they are attacked by Solomon Grundy...and they die in the accident.
Jump forward to today, and Rick is working on his father's Mustang, but can't get the car started, because his uncle sold the part so that he could pay the bills, so he says. Rick isn't happy with him, and Matt urges him to fight him, knowing he'd beat thim down. Matt takes off, and Rick ends up walking to school.
It's Halloween in Blue Valley, and the Dugan house is getting ready for the occaision. Courtney loads her gym bag with the JSA gear, and her and Pat discuss what's going on with the ISA, and she informs him that Principal Bowin was in Brainwave's hospital room with her fiddle, playing for him. Pat shows her that the Zaricks were killed, and that he reveals Zarick to had been The Wizard. He and Courtney can't get the car going, and Rick walks by. He helps Pat diagnose the problem, they chat about his car, and not having a part for it. Courtney, meanwhile, notices the hourglass glowing, which gives her the thought that Rick is somehow tied to it. Pat asks Rick for a hand in getting his car going, but Rick passes, and takes off.
We also got some movement on the villain front, as Icicle's brother paid off an informant about a shipment coming in later on Halloween night, and gives him one of those chocolate coin candies. We later discover they were after a shipment that was going to help the Icicle and his long term plan.
Pat goes to see Rick, and give him the part he needs for his car, since he was curious about it, and runs into Rick's Uncle Matt. It's not really a friendly exchange, but it does arouse Pat's curiosity, so he leaves the part and takes off.
Beth's Mid-Nite glasses fill in Courtney and Yolanda on Rick's past life, and who he really is, and where he comes from. They then locate him at Cindy Burman's Halloween party. This is the one chance they're going to get to talk to him. Yolanda refuses to go into the party, for obvious reasons, and Beth tags along. As Courtney and Beth weave their way through to find Rick, we see Cindy get ready for her party, and then try and snuggle up to Henry, who starts having head pains, and hearing a strange noise. It's his latent pshychic powers kicking in, and feels the need to leave the party. As he walks out, he can hear Yolanda in his head call him a jerk. He confronts her, and she says she never said anything. He ends up taking off. Courtney and Beth find Rick, and tell him about his parents, and show him the Hourman hourglass. She says it's from his dad, and he puts it on. Then, he turns it over to start the hour of sand in it, and he suddenly gets imbued with power, since it's made up of his father's genetic code. He tests it, and it works. He then blows off Courtney and Beth, and heads out of the party. He stumbles into town, and sees his uncle in the diner, accosting the waitress. He then gets worked up enough that he smashes his uncle's car.
Stargirl and Wildcat finally catch up to Rick out on the backroad where is parents were killed. Again, Stargirl tries to appeal to him by telling them who they are, and that she can understand how she feels because she never got to know her father, Starman (whom we STILL can't confirm that Pemberton was ever Courtney's father). Rex doesn't care, he's just angry all the time, and he wants to hit something...constantly. Stargirl can't allow him to leave, and wants the hourglass back, but he's not going to give it back, and is ready to fight her, when Beth, who they ditched because they felt this could get dangerous, shows up, and relays the info about what happened to Rick's parents. Using the goggles, Beth shows Rick exactly what happened to Rex and Wendy Tyler. And reveals that it was Solomon Grundy that killed them. Stargirl said that THIS is why she is putting together a new JSA...to take on the Injustice Society. Rick says he's in---but he's not doing it for justice---he's doing it for revenge.
We then head back to the Dugan house, where Pat is going through Rex Tyler's journal he got, and found a picture of Rex with the Mustang in question. He begins to put two and two together. Meanwhile, we see a semi on the highway stopping because a schoolbus is in the middle of the road. Prinicpal Bowin gets out, and is now doing her thing as The Fiddler, trying to get control of the men with her playing, while they steal the contents of the semi's manifest. One of the drivers is able to resist, but Icicle's brother kills him nonetheless. The stollie that gave info out earlier, is dead from having ingested the chocolate, which was laced with poison.
Pat goes up to Courtney's room to talk to her, but she's not there. He then witnesses a green glow in her closet. He opens up her gym bag to find Green Lantern's power battery. He gets a sinking feeling when he knows that Courtney is up to her neck in danger.
This was yet another solid episode. Again, another origin story for TWO characters, and there wasn't anything too long and dragged out about it. They got to the point, and it sets us off on the episode. Courtney's determined to put together a new JSA, and she's already got Yolanda roped in. Rick is just a tragic story, but at least we also got to find out just HOW the original Hourman died, and by whom. This gives Rick motivation for revenge, but I am hoping that Pat and Courtney can talk him down before he kills. But he is eager to kill Grundy, and avenge his parents. Beth, on the other hand, was a LOT more craftier than that. She just merely listened and followed Courtney around, and eventually got to her house, and INTO her room. We also find out that the Dr. Mid-Nite goggles have and artificial intelligence in them in the form of Charles McNider himself. It's like Iron Man having Jarvis in his suit, but these are goggles, which have special capabilities as far as hacking, getting information, and investigation purposes, plus be able to see at night and other various functions. Problem is Beth....a bit too talkative, and not exactly good at keeping her mouth shut. Plus, this team has pretty much ZERO experience fighting crime, so I feel an ass kickin' is comiing up, and they'll learn that they have to train and learn. They're going to have to learn to fight, and the stakes WILL be better.
We got our confirmation as Principal Bowin showed up to play The Fiddler in this epside. And we see more of what the Icicle's brother is all about...a rather dapper man. And we also bear witness to Henry's telepathic powers emerging. We also get introduced to Artemis Crock.
All in all, the pieces are coming together nicely, and I'm enjoying the show as a result. I'm looking forward to the first battle between the ISA and the newly formed Justice Society.
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That's all from Blue Valley for this week. Subscribe, leave a comment, and spread the love!
Until next time...Keep your eyes on the stars!
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