Green Lantern’s daughter brings out Stargirl’s green-eyed monster
A new legacy hero threatens Courtney's place in the JSA
TV Reviews Stargirl
“Don’t try so hard to be perfect. You don’t have to be for people to like you—and it’s a little annoying.”
When TV dramas introduce teens who were raised in group homes, they almost always have a surly, antisocial personality—more Rick Tyler than Beth Chapel. What’s great about “Summer School: Chapter Two” is that it explores an entirely different way a kid might react to growing up in such a difficult environment. Ysa Penarejo’s Jennie—the daughter of former Green Lantern Alan Scott—is an almost pathological people-pleaser. After her kitchen-destroying fight with Courtney, she immediately shifts into perfect house guest mode, fawning over Pat and waking up early to cook pancakes for the Whitmore-Dugans. Though Jennie clearly has some deep and completely understandable anger at the unfair hand she’s been dealt in life, she tries to bury any flicker of negativity—both from those around her and seemingly from herself as well. Her survival tactic is to paper over difficult situations with a smile and a perky, ingratiating demeanor.
It’s a unique riff on a familiar foster kid archetype and a smart set-up for a character whose powers are tied to her emotions. It turns out the glowing green lantern that once belonged to Jennie’s dad is like the ultimate mood ring, revealing the anxiety, frustration, anger, and fear that Jennie constantly tries to hide from the world. And even worse: It’s a mood ring that has the ability to explode if it’s pushed too far. It’s a metaphor that a lot of teens—and Type A teen girls in particular—can probably relate too.
Indeed, one of the biggest strengths of Stargirl as a series is how much it puts teenage girls front and center. From nerdy, needy Beth to fiercely independent Yolanda to power-hungry Cindy to empathetic, impulsive Courtney, Stargirl has showcased a wide range of different types of teenage girls and the ways in which they interact with one another. And Jennie is yet another point in that the complicated constellation. While she quickly wins over Beth and Rick (not to mention Pat and Barbara), her arrival forces Courtney to do some complicated self-reckoning.
Jennie reminds Courtney of everything she once thought she was: A powerful “legacy” hero whose powers come directly from her long-lost biological father. Jennie’s also a natural leader with the ability to rally a team to her side—as she does when she wins over Yolanda in one introductory speech. Courtney’s suspicion and skepticism mostly stem from the fact that she’s jealous. It takes Pat to help her see that Jennie is actually struggling with many of the same problems that Courtney struggled with last season too: A sense of abandonment and a deep longing to connect with a dad she never really knew.
It’s a sharply written character conflict, although it suffers a bit from Stargirl’s blend of episodic and serialized storytelling. On the one hand, “Chapter Two” tries to present full arcs of Courtney letting go of her jealousy and Jennie embracing her Green Lantern powers, which leaves the episode feeling rushed and overstuffed. On the other hand, it’s also clear we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of who Jennie is and how she’s going to fit into the show’s world, which leaves the episode feeling a little underbaked too—particularly in the jump from Jennie gaining her full Green Lantern powers to skipping town the next day.
Stargirl is a show that likes to throw a whole lot of balls into the air at once in a way that can be fun to watch but also a little frenetic at times too. For instance, the complex Jennie/Courtney dynamic battles for screentime with subplots for this season’s two big villains. After briefly glimpsing him in last year’s finale, we’re finally properly introduced to Shade a.k.a. Richard Swift (Jonathan Cake), a self-proclaimed collector of “old and curious things” who just happens to be the one member of the ISA who was left unaccounted for last season. He’s in Blue Valley to try to get his hands on the stuff that once belonged to William Zarick a.k.a. Wizard, which means he’s presumably on the hunt for the Eclipso gem—not realizing that Cindy already broke into Zarick’s storage unit to steal it for her own ends last season.
On paper, Cindy’s storyline feels like it’s designed to offer a parallel for Jennie’s. There’s lots ambiguity at play in these dueling stories of teenage girls and their complicated family histories. Jennie’s mindset doesn’t become fully clear until the moment she snaps at Courtney that her life isn’t picture perfect—she can’t even find her own long-lost brother, which is what she thought the Green Lantern Power Ring was taking her to. Elsewhere, Cindy thinks that Eclipso is a tool she can use to re-brainwash her stepmom Bobbie into the perfect doting mother, only to get an early warning that Eclipso has an agenda of his own. (He manipulates Bobbie into violent revenge in order to justify taking over Cindy’s body and consuming Bobbie’s “corrupt soul.”)
Yet the parallels aren’t as strong as they could be, and all that ambiguity doesn’t offer a ton to hold onto as the mysterious storylines unfold. Though I get the impulse to keep upping the stakes of this season’s villain arc, I wonder if it might’ve been better to save the Cindy storyline for a later episode and spend more time on Jennie this week. As is, the climax of the Jennie story feels rushed, while the Cindy/Bobbie stuff feels fairly detached from everything else.
Indeed, Stargirl is at its best when it’s operating on more stable storytelling ground. The biggest strength of the show’s second season is that the JSA is now much more comfortable working as a team. Courtney is willing to listen to Pat’s advice, rather than assume she knows better than him. Barbara knows to call her husband the second a smooth-talking stranger starts making inquiries about William Zarick. And not only does Pat immediately suss out Richard Swift’s real identity as Shade, he also decides to fill Courtney in on the return of an old JSA enemy—even though she’d just decided to put her life as Courtney Whitmore ahead of her job as Stargirl.
Brec Bassinger perfectly plays Courtney’s growing excitement at the fact that she doesn’t actually have to put superheroing aside for now. Bassinger’s delivery of “I’ll get my staff!” is a fantastic little button that drives home the fact that even as Courtney grows and matures, she’s always going to be defined by her giddy, optimistic delight at getting to be a superhero. Though Jennie uses her newfound powers of flight to hightail it out of Blue Valley (presumably to find her brother), she’s got a solid JSA team to return to whenever she’s ready.
Stray observations
- Okay, but where can I buy Courtney’s cute blueberry t-shirt?
- I really like the framing that being a hero is more about helping people than fighting bad guys—and that Courtney’s greatest superpower is her ability to see the good in others.
- When Luke Wilson whispers he sounds so much like his brother Owen.
- Dog comedy usually isn’t my jam, but everything with Max this week was very funny.
- Though Cindy isn’t exactly a redeemable villain, it’s still pretty horrifying to watch Eclipso manipulate her: “I’m in control. Me. My body is mine.”
- This week’s Luke Wilson Scene I Could Watch For An Hour: The way he uses his doofy “aww shucks” demeanor to get close enough to Richard Swift to pick up details about his true identity.
- Tune in next week for the exhilarating reveal of what junk food Rick will bring to the woods next!
71 Comments
I’m glad it didn’t take three episodes for Pat, et. al to figure out Swift was Shade. I wonder if he knew the charade would be over so quickly?Sucks to be Bobbie, but her suffering is over. (I hope)
– 80’s reference. I can’t remember any others right now, but isn’t this show full of them?
– Cindy’s stepmom almost got out.
– Talking about Obsidian.
– Being perfect. I’m sure that that’ll play into her dynamic in the JSA.
– Jennie is taking Court’s place. *cough*subtext*cough*
– Pat mentions that Baron Blitzkreig died during the war. 80 years ago. And Courtney doesn’t ask about that?
– Finally, Pat is giving some advice in a way that can reach someone.
– I know that teacher from somewhere. I think he also played a teacher there, too.
– Yolanda’s parents want to keep her out of trouble, so naturally she ends up with Court. This is going to end well.
– There’s another 80’s reference.
– I think that Rick and Jennie are going to get on famously. Two legacies together.
– Shade is after Zarrick’s collection. Does he know about Eclipso, or is he just after the wand?
– At first it looked like Yolanda wanted to hate Jennie because Courtney did.
– Eclipso wants Cindy dead. He wants to be free. That means that he’s not controlling Cindy by some means, she is very much in control of him.
– I thought from the promo pics that Pat and Richard would recognize each other.
– It seemed like Pat was testing him with that Jaguar comment.
– Ah, Jennie IS the Starheart.
– And now she’s gone.
– Courtney’s so excited for a villain, but I’m surprised that they didn’t show the staff being just as excited.
– Looks like the relationship between Cindy and Eclipso is a little more complicated than I thought.
– If that’s what Eclipso leaves behind, then how did McNider’s wife know that that was her daughter’s remains?
Eclipso was being handled by a kid, who probably did not provide as much power, and the victim was a little girl who stole a present, not a woman who had been building up murderous hatred for years. So maybe he did not consume the girl as completely as Cindy’s mom.
“Pat mentions that Baron Blitzkreig died during the war.”I took that to mean he died during the last war between the JSA and the Injustice Society.
I thought this was excellent. The pancake scene was delightful, with great delivery by both girls. Really like the way they’re introducing the new players quickly. And, of course, the Grundy hints are wonderful and I want more Grundy.
The Wilson’s are killing it this year! Luke and Brec have such great chemistry, and the writing holds everything up. So happy the show is back.
Well, that should clear up any questions about whether Green Lantern is doable on a TV budget.Actually, I wonder if ZOIC ripped any assets or effects from the crew working on Green Lantern Corps for HBO Max.Courtney is willing to listen to Pat’s advice, rather than assume she knows better than him. Barbara knows to call her husband the second a smooth-talking stranger starts making inquiries about William Zarick. And not only does Pat immediately suss out Richard Swift’s real identity as Shade, he also decides to fill Courtney in on the return of an old JSA enemy—even though she’d just decided to put her life as Courtney Whitmore ahead of her job as Stargirl.Thank goodness for all of this. I’ve been going back and watching the seasons of Smallville I never watched and I hate how characters don’t behave or communicate the way normal people would in the same situations so they can drag out the same drama for as long as possible.
They are getting better at writing sane plot points these days. Either that or they have just done the artificial family drama thing so often people are sick of it. Superman and Lois also has an organic feel to how families really interact or what a person with half a brain would do under the circumstances.
And in CW’s Flash series, how many times did someone claim to learn their lesson to not keep secrets only to keep yet another until almost too late?
The woman who ran Jennie’s group home was named Mrs. Ordway! Jerry Ordway would have been the one who drew the Jade character in the All-Star Squadron comics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Ordway
There is nothing the Berlanti galaxy of shows loves to do more than name drop comic creatives.
All non-comics comics media does this, constantly. I’m pretty sure Robot Chicken once did a comic-show sketch where someone was summoned to “guy-who-created-Superman-Avenue”.
I didn’t want Jenny to leave! The JSA could really use a Green Lantern, plus she could use a family. Not sure what the deal is with her brother, but seemingly he deserted her (like Courtney’s dad). Cindy didn’t want to kill and eat her stepmother! (NOW WHO WILL MAKE CINDY PANCAKES JUST THE WAY SHE LIKES THEM?)
Jennie makes a mean pancake apparently – foreshadowing a heel turn and/or Eclipso corruption?
I hope that Jennie comes back, definitely lots of story possibility for her, since she is really appealing and interesting but obviously flawed too
Or maybe they can use pancakes to lure Cindy to the light side.I don’t believe it either, but I had to throw it out there.
The brother could have been sent to a different foster home from Jenny or he could have run away from one they shared. That sort of thing happens enough in real life when it comes to foster care.
I love that Courtney is stubborn and bull-headed, like Kara and Oliver, in a way that is frequently infuriating, and also inseparable from what makes them heroes. It was funny that Courtney rudely was suspicious of Jennie for thinking that Pat was great, but also at the same time obviously was jealous of her for potentially stealing her share of Pat’s affection and attention
When I saw Max sleeping with Court while snoring, I’m reminded of my late pug, who probably didn’t snore half as loud. LOL
Something tells me that the monster eating whatever food Rick brings to the creek isn’t Grundy. It could be someone a lot more vile… and with a lot more teeth:
How is he going to get to Nebraska from coastal Gotham? Carpool with Clayface?
Nah they’re doing the whole “nice grundy” thing that Robinson used on his STARMAN run
You mean now that the ISA isn’t controlling anymore? Could be.
Courtney’s blueberry t-shirt was adorable! If you do find out where to get one, please let the rest of us know.I am surprised Jennie left so quickly, after making such a dramatic entrance at the end of last week. I imagine her brother will have to come through Blue Valley at some point?Do we know who that extremely disgruntled kid in summer school is? That’s two episodes in a row of him being a real grouch – it would be nice to find out what is behind that.Also, I like this mini-JSA and all, but what was the goal of running with an exploding green lantern into the very center of town?
The kid in class who snaps when asked his name the second time? His last name (from that roll call) was “Bowen,” last name of the principal (and supervillain & ISA member) from last season, who was killed I think by Icicle for not being gung ho enough about the cause or something. Also, he was in Cindy’s stack of recruitment photos, so I’m guessing some kind of “legacy villain ripe for the dark side due to bitterness over the recent death of his mom” thing is being set up.
The Principal/ Fiddler, whose son is disgruntled in summer school, was killed by Tigress last season in a rather petty dispute among the lesser Injustice League members
The kid is Fiddler’s son, Issac. We DID meet him last season, but he was given so little focus it’s no surprise you may have forgotten about him. He was the kid who bashed a bully with a tuba last season.
– Dunno if there’s a press release that says differently or the dude writing them wasn’t given a cast list, but the closed captioning had Alan Scott’s daughter’s name as Jennie, not Jenny.
– The foster home really kicked Jennie out in the middle of the night? Like, the mother couldn’t even wait until morning?- The initial fight between Courtney and Jennie was great, and Barb & Pat’s reactions were just what I was expecting.
– Jennie considering Pat to be legendary was hilarious.- In a house that big, they only have three bedrooms? Figured they’d have another guest bed.
– Max climbing up on the sofa and laying on Courtney’s pillows is so amusing I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t scripted.- Rick striking up a friendship with Grundy is sweet, but how exactly is he paying for all that food?
– Poor Bobbie. Should have gotten out of town ASAP.- I’m glad Season 2 still has classic 50’s style cars everywhere. I’m not a car guy, but old-school car designs were just great.- Now that the CW has all the CG tools and style set-up for Green Lantern, they don’t have a good excuse for not giving us Diggle Lantern.- I love that right after Jennie knocked over the Lantern, CW immediately went into a commercial using that scene in a “Vapes are bad, m’kay?” ad.- While you can definitely see the reduction in budget (Season 2 has 1/10th the background extras Season 1 did), I’m glad the cinematography and setting is still largely the same. It’s nice to be constantly reminded that Blue Valley is a town, rather than set the series in the same 2-3 set + one abandoned warehouse like Arrow and Flash did. – I don’t think it was a part of Alan Scott’s GL, but I’m kinda sad we didn’t get to hear the GL incantation spiel. Maybe later on in the season.- Courtney being so giddy over The Shade being around was quite amusing.- Just curious, does Courtney own a single shirt that reaches her waist?- I honestly don’t think the pacing has been too bad. It helps that the main plot only really focuses on a couple characters, while the others’ subplots are those that naturally should take a lot of time to go through.
While you can definitely see the reduction in budget (Season 2 has 1/10th the background extras Season 1 did)
This was also shot under full COVID restrictions. Which probably also influenced the decision to write it as “Summer School,” since it gives them an excuse to have significantly fewer kids in the “in-school” scenes.
I also saw “Jennie” in the captions. And when Ysa Penarejo announced her character’s name on social media, she also spelled it that way.The lack of extras is a pandemic thing, not a switch to CW budget cut.
Not only the cinematography and setting, also the dialogues. Goodness! I had forgotten how much I love the writing on this show!
I don’t know how much retconning and rejigging DC have done, but originally, Alan Scott’s GL was entirely unrelated to the Green Lantern Corps (which is where the oath comes from, and which I assume will be the source of Diggle’s ring). IIRC, Scott’s lantern was made on Earth, centuries ago, from the contents of a terribly-mysterious meteorite.
I don’t know how much retconning and rejigging DC have done, but originally, Alan Scott’s GL was entirely unrelated to the Green Lantern Corps (which is where the oath comes from, and which I assume will be the source of Diggle’s ring).IIRC, Scott’s lantern was made on Earth, centuries ago, from the contents of a terribly-mysterious meteorite.The green that powers Alan Scott’s lantern is supposedly from the Starheart, a weapon created by the Guardians to contain all the stray mystical and magic energies of the universe. It somehow gained sentience and part of itself travelled the universe and crash landed on earth for Alan to discover. So there is an indirect relationship between Alan Scott and the Corps. It’s still quite fitting that the first Green Lantern to appear on live action tv would be this version, since Alan Scott was the first Green Lantern in the comics.I notice that the Jennie (or Jenny) in Stargirl mirrors the comic book version by being the green power itself, so she doesn’t really need the lantern to recharge her ring. Like the comics she probably doesn’t need the ring at all to use her powers, but I don’t know if that will be written into the series as well. I can see the showdown between her and the Eclipso controlled Cindy in the near future.
That anti-vape commercial, lol: “Well, we know they don’t stop it from blowing up…”
Alan actually had his own oath unrelated to the Green Lantern Corp one.
Alan Scott had multiple oaths back in the Golden Age, including the one that Hal Jordan uses. I thought it was a nice touch when Tomar-Re used this one. See https://dcuguide.com/w/Oaths#ALAN_SCOTT.27S_OATHS
– Just curious, does Courtney own a single shirt that reaches her waist? In a few shots you can see where she’s done a little knot at the back to shorten some of her tops to a fashionable length. Or maybe they come like that, I don’t know from fashion these days.
As a late-twentysomething young millennial, I definitely remember the knot-tied belly tee era of the mid-late 00s so was also a tad confused by it. Maybe the fad has just come back around for Gen Z or maybe the writers were providing some meta-commentary about how the Midwest is constantly 10-15 years behind in youth culture.
That does make a kind of sense, as the overall aesthetic of Stargirl seems to be much more nostalgic than up-to-the-minute, what with the classic cars and kids who hang out at clubhouses and local diners rather than on Instagram.
I kinda hoped that when Jennie “left” she got sucked into outer space to start her Lantern Corps training. (Like, later in the season she’ll return in full GL regaila.) Or is this not that kind of Green Lantern?
She’s the daughter of Alan Scott, the OG Green Lantern that has nothing to do with the Corps. Her Lantern powers are based in magic and mysticism.
She’s sometimes Green Lantern in title, but she’s never really been part of the Corps. Her power’s more magical cosmic as opposed to sci-fi cosmic like the Corps.
I think Scott was eventually made an honorary member of the Corps, so maybe they’d take his kids in to train them.
Speaking of the Bertantiverse and dog humor: I just watched ep 3.3 of Titans … Krypto had a couple solidly humorous woofs. “Go laser-beam me some hotdogs, Krypto.”“Woof!” and off he goes. Lol.The rest of the episode = literal heartache.
Fucking Titans, man. I don’t agree with a lot of choices it still insists on making, but damn. Episode 3 is painfully cruel and heartbreaking. Gonna miss the actor dearly, always has been one of my favorite.
I have a feeling the show will “sunset” 2 more main characters this season, then I hope this is a wrap on Gotham… for a couple seasons anyway. The whole Blackfire plot seems on hold until the Red Hood story finishes up. Which is fine. Both are epic. Since the show’s thing is “real & gritty” I’m not sure how (or if) they will handle the more outer-spacey aspects to come.
Tomorrow’s episode is titled “Blackfire” so likely not on hold.
Good deal, then.
I think it really is hurt by the fact that we just spent a season and a half with a real live person who it is impossible to believe would become a genuine cruel psychopath. I presume they’re going to explain it with the drug thing but my mind refuses to go along with it.(“Just” meaning I binged it the past two weeks now that it’s on Max.)
That last episode was some serious “John Doe in Se7en” type shit.
Hank eating Kryto’s food from the fridge was :)Krypto covered in soot and presumably atomized human bits 🙁
Tune in next week for the exhilarating reveal of what junk food Rick will bring to the woods next!Probably tacos! Kidding aside, I hope he gets more to do in the show than that. His scenes have felt limited. It’s still early in the season yet.I felt that this episode was better than last week’s. Last week’s felt slow. The hallway pep talks on “The Flash” seemed faster. A lot more happened in this week’s episode.
Grundy got his own tacos vandalizing the restaurant last week. At least, that’s my take on why they showed the article.
Tune in next week for the exhilarating reveal of what junk food Rick will bring to the woods next!Next week, an enterprising young raccoon will stake out the spot by the streams and find that the food doesn’t come from a magic stump, but someone placing an offering upon it. This will help stop the other raccoons from leaving acorns upon the new stump altar.
Make that raccoon Little King Trashmouth, and we’ve got the Stargirl/Bob’s Burger crossover we never knew we needed.
Again I have to ask, what is going on with this universe?
How does nobody know anything about the JSA?
What War?
Can anyone really forget someone like this?
They’re teens. I had a coworker, years ago, who didn’t know there was a Pacific theater in World War II until we saw a film about it together. When we pressed him on why he didn’t learn it in school, he said his teacher spent too much time on the civil war and they ran out of time before they got to World War II. Think about that for a second. Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of that common knowledge and he never figured out that World War II was fought in the Pacific. And he was a Millennial. Kids Courtney’s age are even more removed from it.
Yeah, but they established that even the adults (that weren’t part of the community) pretty much know nothing about the Super-heroes with magic powers that were running around apparently fighting this “war”
Someone should tell Jenny she wears the ring on the wrong hand. Ring-on-the-right is a Hal Jordan thing.
You are afraid the lantern is going to explode and you run to the center of town. Not to mention all the people who would see this. Kids! What are you going to do.
This episode was written by James Robinson!!!! If you aren’t familiar, go read his ENTIRE Starman run and get back to me. His work with The Shade in it is brilliant and the series as a whole was one of the great comic book series ever. It almost makes me wonder if we’ll get Jack Knight at some point. He and Johns teamed up at times in Johns’ early JSA runs because Jack was on the team. For that matter, with Shade appearing (pitch perfect casting, costuming, and characterization so far!) I wonder if we’ll get any Ted Knight this season? As Stripsey put it, the story of the staff’s builder is one for “another day.” Also, no Sylvester Pemberton appearance this week? Whatever happened to the rest of the Seven Soldiers of Victory? Aren’t we about due for a Wing appearance?Has the lantern merged with Jennie now? Also did anyone else’s TV network cut the scene of the kids in class WAY short? Mine cut out after the art teacher walked in the room and said like 2 words. When we came back, someone was saying something to Rick as he hung up the phone and drove away.
I absolutely loved Robinson’s Starman monthly comic, and as a result, I didn’t think the casting of the Shade could meet my expectations. But after his pair of appearances in this episode, I’m optimistic. And I’d be thrilled if they worked in Jack Knight and made it clear Ted was a superhero (in addition to the original Superfriends narrator).
I have the first two trades of Robinson’s Starman run, the omnibus editions, but the volumes 3 onwards all sell for £250 plus so I’ve not been able to read the rest.I love the first two though (it ends just after the “demon-out-of-the-poster” arc) and I absolutely adore it. I’d love to be able to read the rest.The Shade is the tits, I hope this version sticks closely to Robinson’s characterisation.
£250 plus, you say? If only I hadn’t cracked the shit out of mine through relentless rereading.
You made me really want to read it. Comixology has Starman (1994-2001) #0 – #36. Is that the one?PS: They said that Jennie was already the lantern, even before the explosion. That’s why she could charge the ring.
94-01 is the correct series, but it’s much more than 36 comics.
Yeah thats it but WAY more than 36 comics. Its a magnum opus – 80 issues. Plus you should run down Robinson’s JSA run too.
Robinson took the Shade from being (in my eyes) a typical Golden Age B-List forgettable villain and made him into one of my all-time favorite DC Universe characters. I hope that this series will do him justice.
Based on last nights episode, it appears they are on the right track!
I wonder if the new girl is going to be more of a Kendra or a Faith.
Finally got a chance to watch this show after a busy week last week. Oh, man I love this show so much.