STARGIRL - SEASON 1.8

REVIEW:  STARGIRL - SEASON 1.8:  "Shiv Part 2"

Well, Courtney Whitmore learned a hard lesson last week:  The Cosmic Staff alone cannot save Stargirl from an ass-whipping.  And Stargirl took one, courtesy of her high school arch rival, Cindy Burman, who we also know is Shiv, daughter of the Dragon King.  Shiv has been created and trained as a killer, and was about to polish off Stargirl last week, had it not been for the timely intrusion of the Janitor of the school...whom we now know is the Shining Knight.  Shiv wants a seat at the Injustice Society Table, and is bored with playing the snobby high school girl.  However, after this battle, she now knows Stargirl's ID...and that will win her some brownie points with the Icicle and the team, who're looking to discover the identities of this new Justice Society that's popped up.  Now, we continue on and see what Cindy does with her newfound knowledge...

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We jumped into Part 2 of Cindy's story, with her armed with the knowledge that Stargirl is Courtney Whitmore. She is also looking to impress her father, Dragon King, enough to get invited to have a seat at the Inustice Society table.  This episode dealt with the fallout of her first encounter with Stargirl, and what the dominoes that fell because of it.  

We got Pat doing what he could this episode, covering up for Courtney's injuries at the hands of Cindy, by crashing his car into a light post, and getting her from the hospital.  She apologizes for jumping into the fray without thinking, and while he's not happy, he's also determined to find out what else is going on with the ISA, as well as finding out WHO Cindy's parents are.  But one thing he IS not happy about, and let's Courtney know:  keeping Barbara OUT of the loop.  He had to inform Barbara of what happened while she was in Oakdale finishing a deal with Jordan.  They were at dinner discussing the deal, and he excused himself for a meeting, while she got the call from Pat about the accident.  

Pat and Courtney were about to leave the hospital when they saw Hank in the room with his dad, who is still comatose.  Courtney says 'hi' to him, but he's in no mood to talk, and shuts the door in her face.  At home, Courtney is resting, and Mike brings her up cookies.  He apologizes for his behavior about being overprotective of his relationship with his dad, but she says it's behind her.  This is the first time that Mike and Courtney bond as brother and sister, and that will be huge down the road.  Barbara gets home, Pat lies about teaching Courtney to drive, and explains the accident.  Barbara's not happy, and really doesn't wanna talk when Pat is about to explain the truth to her.  She sees Courtney asleep, and goes off to bed herself.

Cindy has a chat with her father about her fight with Stargirl, and he's upset that she went after him, and took the suit without her permission.  She again reiterates her desire to join the ISA, but he refuses.  He's upset that he had to halt HIS work to clean up HER mess, but she says she knows who Stargirl is.  He orders her home, and not to do ANYTHING in the meantime.  Cindy storms off, hating on her father for disregarding her yet again.

The rest of the new JSA meet up at Pat's garage, and Rick is visibly upset about what happened to Courtney the night before.  He knows it was Cindy, so, he figures that finding her, and punching her out would resolve the issue, but Beth does what she can to reason with him.  She tells him he needs to mellow out, and that she has a plan to get info on Cindy AND the ISA.  So, Rick and Yolanda go along with it.

Pat later on the night before, had a sit down with the Cosmic Staff.  He remembers about how Sylvester Pemberton had already been the Star-Spangled Kid by the time the Staff found him...he'd already been an established hero.  But Courtney is new at this, and she doesn't have the experience. He asked it to protect Courtney, and to take her FROM dager should it get to be too much for her.  He also can't believe he's talking to a Staff...but after he leaves...it glows---showing it listened.

We check in on Jordan, who has cornered a man named Mr. Riley, who had worked for a company called Bannerman Chemical.  Apparently, THEY were the one's responsible for the death of his wife.  Riley denies any involvement in it, but that doesn't save him.  Jordan says he is looking to rid the world of chemical plants like his, and ends up killing Riley for his troubles.

Bet's brilliant plan has the crew show up at Cindy's house, and Beth is going to get some intel.  Pat shows up, and both Yolanda and Rick inform him of the plan, and Pat goes to run interference before Beth gets herself in deep water, only to have Cindy's stepmom Bobbi answer the door.  Pat and Beth have to act quickly, by acting like adopted father and daughter.  While Pat has to run interference for Beth, she finds a way to sneak away to the hallway, where she uses Dr. McNider's goggles to scan for anything, and sees a pinpad there, manages to find the code, and finds the secret passage into the ISA lair.  Meanwhile, Pat is having to schmooze Bobbi to provide distraction.

While all this is happening, we have Hank back at home, suffering some nasty migraine, looking in his father's office for some pills.  He finds them, but with his powers emerging, they're out of control, and causing him pain.  But...he finds a key.  Curious, he begins to get a bit of a handle of his power, and uses them to find out what the key fits into.  He ends up finding out it goes into a keyhole in the bookcase.  Once opened, he finds his father's Brainwave costume, and several videotapes.  He also finds a file on Cindy, with a note from her father, telling Brainwave about his daughter's abilities, and that she's ready for him and the ISA.  Hank is in shock, and he takes off.

Also happening at this time, is that Barbara tells Courtney she's got a visitor - Cindy!  Cindy shows up with balloons and chocolates, and they end up having a little chat.  Cindy talks about how lonely she feels since Hank spurned her for Homecoming, and that her one friend spurned her.  Then she was really upset that Courtney decided to spurn her because Cameron asked Courtney to Homecoming, so she "overreacted".  Cindy goes on to say that she and Courtney are a lot a like, and under different circumstances, they'd be the same.  But, as she leaves, she makes a threat to Courtney about killing her friends and Pat.  Courtney frantically texts Yolanda to let her know that Cindy knows who she is, and that everyone is in danger.

Beth is in the tunnels, and she can't communicate with the rest of the team, because either she's underground, or whatever the ISA has down there, blocks the goggles from doing what they're designed for.  She then hears the growling of Solomon Grundy, and she promptly beats a hasty retreat.  She then makes it up to Cindy's room, and notices an old picture of a man that is described as Dr. Ito...a war criminal from World War II.  Just then, Cindy arrives home, and Yolanda tries to get Beth out of the house, as well as Pat.  Pat had been working on Bobbi's plumbing in the kitchen, and Bobbi appears to hit on him, but he keeps the distraction up.  Yolanda gets suited up, and manages to get Beth out of Cindy's room before she's caught.  Yolanda gets Beth to drop down into Rick's arms, and the trio retreat, and Pat does the same once he sees the kids get to safety.  They all meet back up, and Pat ushers them out of the way before they are seen.  Cindy enters the house, and goes up to her room...and she knows someone's been there.

Courtney, despite her injuries, goes down to the basement and grabs the Staff, but the Staff is reluctant to go with her, wanting to honor Pat's wishes.  She then coaxes it into action when she says that the team is in danger.  Back at Cindy's, as she tries to assess who had been in her room, Stargirl bursts through the window, and Round 2 between the new rivals begins.  They fight all over the room, and eventually fly out the window into the street.  They continue to go back and forth in battle, but Stargirl is still suffering some injuries, so Shiv is getting a bit of the upper hand.  Then, during the course of their fight, Hank shows up out of nowhere to witness the battle.

Hank sees Cindy, and asks what's going on, and she says that he's supposed to help her kill Stargirl.  Hank is confused,and his powers are still haywire.  Shiv attacks again, and this time, gets Stargirl down, and ready to finish her off.  Hank can her the two's thoughts, with Cindy wanting his help to kill her, and Stargirl looking to try and survive.  He ends up stressing out because of the overload, and he sends a mental blast out, separating the two girls from each other.  As Cindy tries to recover, her father's henchmen come up from a manhole, and take her down into the tunnels, much to her dismay.  Stargirl recovers, and goes to find Shiv, only to find her gone.  Hank goes up to Stargirl to find out what she did with Cindy, and he can hear her thoughts, and he finds out she's Courtney, and he hears her thoughts about the JSA.  He's more confused than ever, and before Stargirl can reach out to him, he takes off running.  From down in the tunnels, we see Dragon King watching all that had transpired on his monitors, seeing that his daughter was wrong about Hank---that he DOES have powers...which will serve the ISA perfectly if they can't have Brainwave himself return.

Alrighty!  The show is REALLY picking up some steam now!  More than halway in, and we're seeing the tension heightened, more revelations, and the eventual collision course between this new JSA and the ISA is on the horizon much quicker.  We now have the two main enemies for the show set between Stargirl and Shiv, and now Hank's powers have emerged.  

Brec Bassinger and Meg DeLacy chew up scenery so beautifully.  Whether it's just a conversation between the two, or the actual battles their two characters have, it's magic in the making.  They feed off each other as actresses, and know how to bring the tension and rivalry between these two to life.  You feel the hatred, and the battle scenes thus far have been freaking superb!  I love the effects and battle coreography on this show, and I'm enjoying everything thus far.  I will never get enough of these two on-screen together.  DeLacy especially has done a great job as a villain---both as the snotty Mean Girl Cindy, and as the deadly Shiv.  I'm loving her work.

We got to see Beth step up on their mission, and take charge this episode.  She is really coming out of her shell since she became the new Dr. Mid-Nite.  And for her to stand her ground against Rick...who is just "smash first, think later", and stuck in that revenge mode, she deserves some MAJOR props.   Yolanda didn't have much to do this episode except keep in contact with Beth, but ended up pulling the rescue this episode, was another voice of reason, though she herself wants to get after it from time to time.

Pat had to pull A LOT of duty this episode....having to cover for Courtney's injuries by smashing the car (which sucked...I like that car!), to having to run interference for Beth as she did recon at Cindy's house.  What we DID notice is that Bobbi is more than likely a creation of Dragon King, and she apparently has the hots for Pat.  On the other hand, Pat had to pull the kids out of the fire, as well as come up with the exuse to Barbara about Courtney.  Barbara wasn't happy with him, but he managed to cover.  But you can tell that lying to her is becoming a HUGE problem for him.  He feels that he and Courtney need to fess up, even though Courtney says it's a bad idea, at least as long as the ISA is still around.

I'm happy that Mike and Courtney managed to patch things up, and it looks like their brother/sister dynamic is going to head into a positive direction.  

Hank's powers came out this week, and it will be interesting to see where he stands before the end of the season.  He might join the ISA, because of wanting revenge against Stargirl for putting his dad in a coma (though we haven't reached THAT little nugget of truth as yet, but trust me, we'll get there). Or, will he not join his father's team due to the evil misdeeds .  Either way, Hank is confused right now, and he is just learning about his powers, but he can't control him.  If there's ANYONE that's a wild card in this story---it's Hank King.  

All in all, this show just keeps getting better, and I'm totally hooked!  I'm eager to see how the rest of the season plays out, and we're not far away from that!  The writing, effects, and cast has been spectacular, and this show is thoroughly enjoyable!  It has the perfect balance of drama, action, effects, and character development.  And the nostalgia feels for ME personally as a comic book fan are right there on display.  The actors are REALLY enjoying themselves, and it shows in their work, and that makes for a great show.

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Until next time....keep your eyes on the stars!