Stargirl’s second season levels up
An action-packed episode reshapes the show's villains
TV Reviews Stargirl
Well hot damn! It turns out the reason Stargirl was a little light on action lately is because it was saving it up for this episode. “Chapter Six” is the sort of explosive hour that TV shows usually save for a season finale. Beyond its truly impressive fight scenes, the thing that really shines about this episode is its sense of surprise. Every time I thought I had a sense of just how far “Chapter Six” was going to escalate, it somehow managed to top itself, delivering twist after twist right up until its very last shot. It’s impressive stuff, and it retroactively rewards the patience of this season’s slow-burn approach.
“Chapter Six” initially seems like it’s just going to be a preliminary JSA vs. ISA 2.0 battle—the kind we saw in last season’s sixth episode, “The Justice Society.” Isaac gets an incredibly creepy scene where he taunts Yolanda over her nude photos, Artemis challenges Beth to a “jock vs. nerd” match-up, and Cindy reveals that her plan was never to recruit Mike but to kidnap him to use as bait. (A reveal that, in retrospect, seems pretty obvious, although kudos to the show for still managing to pull it off as something of a twist.) The early scene of Isaac and Artemis teaming up to take down Pat and destroy STRIPE is a fantastic fight in its own right, one that makes great use of space, geography, and the characters’ power dynamics. Watching Pat get brutally defeated dramatically raises the stakes for the cafeteria battle that’s to come—and gives Barbara a welcome chance to be her daughter’s cheerleader for once: “And honey? Kick that girl’s ass.”
Indeed, the JSA vs. ISA match-up is so good that if this episode had just delivered that alone, it still would’ve been a stellar Stargirl entry. The sequence is filled with wide shots and long takes that show off the impressive fight choreography and talented stunt performers. Clever parallel images and matching action make the various splinter fights feel unified as one big battle. And everyone gets a chance to show off their unique abilities—from Yolanda’s feline acrobatics to Rick’s brutal strength to Artemis’ manic athleticism. Plus any hour of TV that can make a kid playing a superpowered violin seem genuinely scary deserves major props in my book.
Even more importantly, the fight is rooted in character. Though we haven’t seen a ton of scenes of the JSA training together, it’s clear from the way they fight here that they’ve really ramped up their ability to work as a team, like when Rick gives Yolanda a speed boost as she leaps towards Cindy. Though the ISA are impressive foes in their own right, it feels right that the JSA are ultimately able to defeat them—much more so than when the young heroes beat the adult ISA last season. It’s even sweet that Mike is the one who helps turn the tide as he gets his own little hero moment for the team.
And then the episode just goes ahead and tops itself twice over. First when the Shade shows up looking fan-fucking-tastic in his top hat and sunglasses, which is a great payoff for his slow-burn storyline with Barbara, who enlists him as an ally for Courtney and her friends. And then when Eclipso himself unexpectedly breaks out of his black diamond prison, looking like a cross between an orc and a glam rocker, and played with ghoulish delight by Spartacus’ Nick E. Tarabay. It’s a real “all bets are off” moment that pivots the entire thrust of the season in a bold new direction.
Faced with the embodiment of pure evil, the JSA vs. ISA struggle really does seem like a “trivial teenage gang fight,” to quote the Shade. The moment Eclipso murders Isaac (with the dagger he pulled from Cindy’s arm) is genuinely shocking. And Stargirl manages to get an unexpected amount of emotional resonance out of the moment Cindy starts to sink into a puddle of evil black goo. Courtney’s impulse to help her enemy is a great tribute to her innate heroism. And Cindy’s genuine panic is a reminder that beneath her icy exterior she’s much more of a scared teenage girl than she lets on. (“Don’t let go, Courtney, please help me!”) Cindy’s fatal flaw was thinking she could use Eclipso without being used in return. But her comeuppance doesn’t feel deserved, it feels brutal—and not just because I don’t want the show to lose Cindy as a villain.
Given the nebulous nature of her “death,” I suspect we haven’t actually seen the last of our dear Miss Burman. But as far as Courtney and co. know, Cindy and Isaac are both dead, Artemis and the Shade are on the run, and Eclipso could be anywhere. (And they don’t even know he has the ability to disguise himself as the peppy little boy Bruce we saw manipulate Doctor Mid-Nite’s daughter back in the season’s opening prologue.) With Pat injured, STRIPE destroyed, and the Cosmic Staff mysteriously de-powered, the JSA are the lowest we’ve ever seen them—and not just in the stereotypical “lose to the villains in the second act to beat them in the third” way that so many superhero stories deploy. “Chapter Six” delivers an impressive storytelling shift that still builds seamlessly on everything that’s come before. If the first half of the season was about Stargirl getting all its pieces onto the board, I can’t wait to watch what happens now that it’s free to move them around.
Stray observations
- I feel like they’ve aged up Mike a bit to match Trae Romano’s real-life age, which was probably the right call. Also Zeek guessing he was about 22 or 23 really made me laugh.
- Artemis not killing Pat because he’s friends with her dad is a great character moment and a fantastic use of the show’s long-term continuity.
- Issac is so, so creepy in that opening diner scene with Yolanda. It makes her decision not to seriously hurt him in their fight even more impactful.
- We learn that the Shade’s powers come from Eclipso’s home.
- The props and production design departments are killing it with the callbacks this season. One of the things Mike finds in the junkyard (and that he eventually uses to bludgeon Cindy) is the toaster that Yolanda scratched up way back in the first season episode “Wildcat.”
- “Puck.”
68 Comments
When I started watching this show, I never would’ve expected an episode like this. They’ve exceeded my expectations pretty consistently. When fear crossed Shade’s face, you knew shit was about to hit the fan.
I guess Shade is pretty much on the JSA’s side now anyway, repaying Barbara’s trust in him
I was disappointed in his intelligence, though. Apparently the guy just stood around watching Eclipso slowly killing Cindy and Isaac… you’d have thought he’d have recognised that this was a losing fight and run away much earlier.
…but run away where? Eclipso is clearly a world-ending sort of threat. Shade knew that once Eclipso gained a sufficient amount of power, there would be nowhere in the world to hide. This was the weakest he’d ever be. He’s only going to get stronger and harder to beat, from here on out. No matter how bad the odds, he had to give it his best shot, because if he did it later, it would only be more hopeless.
Not having read the comics, so far he doesn’t seem very world-ending: his modus operandi, even after escaping the diamond, seems to be going up to people and eating them one-by-one, which would leave plenty of room for people to survive by not being in the same room (country, continent) as him.But, to be fair, maybe Shade knows something I don’t.
I don’t know how everyone else felt about this episode, but I thought the fighting was stellar. The stunt coordinator for the first season directed it, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
I had my mouth open watching the fight scene where the action jumped from character to character super seamlessly, it was beautiful!! It reminded me of Arrow S2 finale with Oliver and Slade’s fight is undercut between the past and present – and that’s high praise.
I thought it was cinematic… but, like a lot of cinema, I thought it used a lot of confusing cuts and deep shadows to make it look more dramatic without actually putting in the work in the choreography…
The cuts and deep shadows might have made it look more dramatic, but the fight looked like they absolutely put work in the choreography to me. It’s a TV show too. They don’t have a ton of time to choreograph fights, which made it all the more impressive, at least to me.
I just instinctively prefer the Buffy-/martial-arts-style “steady camera on people actually fighting” approach, rather than the various zooming, flying, close-up, quick-cutting “stuff is happening but we’ll never show you exactly what but from these little glimpses we think you’ll assume it’s really cool” style that’s become more popular these days.
But I recognise that’s an issue of taste rather than quality per se.
I think it was filmed the way it is because – as you said – the style is popular, not to hide that the stunt team on this show isn’t working harder like you specifically insinuated. As a matter of taste, I generally prefer steady camerawork too, but I think a lot of the camera moves and transitions in last night’s episode were very creative, as opposed to most TV fights that arbitrarily cut and shake the camera to make it look “more dynamic.”But just taking the cinematography out of it, I thought the stunt work and fight choreography was top notch.
– Isaac bringing up that sort of stuff to Yolanda means that he’s looking for a beat-down from Courtney. Not that Courtney is protective of Yolanda or anything.
– Beth, your parents divorcing isn’t the same thing as her parents being in prison.
– Looks like Cameron is about to enter his emo phase. Seems like he’s also about to adopt his dad’s worldview.
– There’s the toaster. The junkyard just seems to be one big reference to Mike.
– So we were wrong. Cindy didn’t want Mike to join the ISA.
– Well, Isaac picked up the fiddle real fast.
– Artemis seems to be a real badass.
– Perhaps the ISA shouldn’t have tipped their hands so early. Artemis and Isaac could have made themselves a surprise.
– Psst, Courtney. That’s why we protect our secret identities.
– The Shade’s suit almost seems like it’s from the 70’s.
– Well done edits in that fight scene.
– I had seen someone complain that this season didn’t have much in the way of good fights. I think that this should put that to rest.
– Rick is still relying on pure strenght. That’s going to come back and bite him sooner rather than later. Also, he’s…arrowproof?
– Well, I was theorizing after his fiddle was smashed, that Isaac was Music Meister and not Fiddler II. Now I think he’s perma-dead.
– Cindy, on the other hand, I think will come back. I imagine that she’s in the same place as Dr. Mid-Nite since Eclipso said that Shade’s power comes from his home realm.
– I now think that the terrible thing that the JSA had to do was imprison Eclipso’s host, an innocent person, in the Black Diamond for all eternity.
PS – I didn’t post in a different article first…this week.
Do we think that Eclipso’s host might have been Dr. Mid-Nite, then?
That would explain why Pat was not immediately on board with the kids’ plan to rescue Dr McNider, though not why Pat told them the Shade killed McNider (which he did seem to remember seeing)
Pat might have just thought that McNider was killed based on what he saw.
I’m guessing something along the lines of “Shade put McNider into the gem to save everyone”?
Or just dragged him to the Shadow Realm.
Since they’ve already referenced Bruce Gordon (who was Eclipso’s host traditionally), seems like they’ll have to bring him in to lock him up.I for one do not miss Cindy (even as I know she’ll be back). I’m tired of mean girls as supervillains.
I’m with you on the mean girl thing. Can’t stand those kinds of characters. Give me a charming villain or a terrifying villain or tragic villain or conflicted villain but NEVER give me an annoying one.
I think the Shade’s suit is from the 1870s… (though yes, there was kind of a victoriana revival in the 60s/70s)……urgh. That just makes me think about how people in the 60s dress up like mid-victorians is chronologically equivalent to people today dressing like its the 1920s…
I meant the suit he’s wearing when he’s talking to Barbara.
“Isaac picked up the fiddle real fast”He only played it dissonantly in this fight, so only had two moves.
While I was hoping Grundy would show up in the fight scene, the way that Shade came in was spectacular. This was absolutely fantastic—maybe the best episode of the show. The fights were brutal, and violent, and wonderful. Eclipso looks terrifying and evil, and shape-shifting is even better. Is Cindy dead? I assume she’s in the shadow world, or maybe even in an Eclipso-diamond of her own. Regardless, I am *so* excited to see where this is headed.
My only complain with Eclipso is that he looks way too much like he just stepped out of World of Warcraft…(also, due to a childhood of D&D and Tolkien, I just find it hard to take goblins seriously as big bad villains…)
Well gee willickers, I don’t know how them JSA kids are going to get out of this pickle. I mean seriously, Eclipso is way too OP, I guess that’s why they introduced Thunderbolt?But yeah, there were some dope ass match cuts in that fight.
Thunderbolt couldn’t even fight Shade, and it seems like Eclipso is more powerful.
I liked that Cindy asked for Courtney’s help before she disappeared into the tar portal thing, recalling that part of her actually wants to be friends with the “new girl who isn’t that new anymore.” Female friendships are complicated…
To be fair, male friendships can also suffer when your friend tries to kill you. Just ask Pat.
One time! Once! And I only half tried!Ohhh right the show…
I know this will seem dark but I think Isaac and Cindy got what they deserved. I’m not very liberal when it comes to justice and I have a very Norse sense of morality. They were all too willing to kill for cruel and selfish reasons and though they were teenagers they still know right from wrong. I know some people will say their anger was used to manipulate them but you still made a conscious choice to employ lethal tactics. I agree that they’re probably sorry but not because they regret their actions, it’s because they’re mouths wrote a check that their asses couldn’t cash. It’s regrettable what happened to them, but hey, they opened that door so f@ck ’em. Yes. Dark. I know.
I wonder how Cindy was able to discover that Yolanda, Beth and Rick were Courtney’s super teammates… Gathering info from behind the shadows, I guess.
If anything, Eclipso seems to be the Green Goblin with dark magic… and a bit of creepiness that compliments Pennywise, as far as his habit of preying on children is concerned.
“He didn’t deserve to die… but Eclipso does.”Yes. There it is. That little thirst for vengeance is back in Yolanda. And given the nature of next week’s episode, I have a feeling Eclipso’s gonna make the same mistake Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) did during his final duel with Anakin Skywalker.If only we can get Courtney out of the way…
Man this show really isn’t pulling its punches this season. Lots of hanging threads too with Jade and Thunderbolt introduced, Grundy around in the woods, and Joel McHale around somewhere.
Yeah, the crew is going to need Jade and Thunderbolt to help in a theoretical season-ending big-bad fight. Plus, isn’t JG Flash rumored to make a guest appearance this season? It would be just like him to show up for a cameo and get killed.
JWS as JG Flash on Stargirl is confirmed.
I read these recaps regularly without watching the show and had no idea Joel was in it.Before I commit, does this feel like a CW show or no? I’m not really down with anything that’s on that channel, mostly because of dubious acting and bad budgets so a steer would be great!
It is not a standard CW show (neither is the new Superman and Lois show for that matter, although that one is a bit of a slow burn).
Joel is not a major character in the show – mostly cameo appearances. But this show is excellent.Also I will say it’s probably not like what you’re thinking a CW show is but I also hate it when people stereotype CW shows. This is the network that gave us Legends of Tomorrow, Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, iZombie. There’s plenty on it that doesn’t fit the formula people assume every show has.
Hey AKA. (And jmyoung123 and Wastrel!). Thanks for that. I’ll slide a few eps into my queue based on that. And truth be told I’m probably talking about the Arrowverse shows mostly, but the rest of their fare isn’t really in my wheelhouse. It’s the Arrowverse “feel” that I’m not into – even Black Lightning had it, which is why I was hesitating. Thanks for the nod!
It’s a CW show in that it’s about pretty young people on glossy sets having hi-jinks. But the feel is quite different from the Arrowverse shows. Much glossier, more cinematic, more heightened – but also probably darker. Stylistically I’d see it in the same sort of area as the recent Sabrina remake?
It feels like a CW show in that it’s about teenagers and superheroes but as far as acting and the budget go, it’s much stronger than, say, Batwoman. The first season was produced for a streaming service so it had a bigger budget. I was bracing myself for its first season as an official CW show, but so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
The acting is much better than say, Flash. I’m not sure what the budget is, but they make what they have count. Solid writing, though the dialogue can get a bit comic-booky on the rare occasion, but it works with it’s general retro aesthetic. They’re certainly not ashamed of their golden age comicbook origins (unlike early Arrow) so the costumes are suprisingly accurate. Yes when the kids get the olds costumes they look kind of silly, but that seems to be at least somewhat the intent. They’re kids trying to fill these heroes shoes. Literally.
They don’t spend episode after episode repeating the same mistakes and standing around at their base talking and/or fighting. And when they do it’s not filler, it has a long term story purpose. It’s very tightly written, not a lot of filler at all really. Likely an advantage of having shorter seasons.
It also doesn’t look (as) cheap like the other Arrowverse shows (minus Superman/Lois) in sets, choreography, and general production. Like it just LOOKS good. And it’s not blatantly Vancouver. Probably because it’s Georgia. I had low expectations going in, but it’s quickly become my favorite of all these DC shows. Well, minus Doom Patrol of course.
Considering how Eclipso “killed” Cindy verus how he’s killed everyone else, my guess is that he’s imprisoned her somewhere. Maybe in what’s left of the Black Diamond.This was quite the shit hitting the fan episode considering the ISA 2.0 has already been beaten and Eclipso has been freed. I still don’t know where Cameron fits into things seeing as the ISA 2.0 has been beaten.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cameron fits into S3…
Well I would hope he fits in somewhere, eventually.
Little bit of Sam Raimi in that fight photography. Especially that staff-pov (and Courtney’s foot-pov!) shot. How much fun was that?! B.A.
Walter Garcia, Director. Amazing talent.
Great episode and, like the review said, full of surprises. I am so happy they didn’t actually go down the “Mike becomes a bad guy for a while” plot road that it seemed like they were headed for.Can’t say I agree about Mike’s age. I hate it when shows are fast and loose with continuity like that. Trae Romano is kind of an odd looking person; he’s obviously not 13, but he’s young enough looking overall that I didn’t find the age difference between the actor and the character distracting.
When watching SG with Mr. Notorious, I always refer to Mike/Trae as ‘Benjamin Button’.Romano has an unusual “young elderly” look to him – and it doesn’t help that his physical demeanor also reads as grandparently too.
He’s got that Number 5 from Umbrella Academy vibe.
Time for an Ashur appreciation thread. His c03s rages on. “Whatever you need, Ashur provides.”
Oh, man! I loved hating Ashur!
I guess the stunt person is mostly to credit, but Artemis in the fights was really fun & a cool mix of the fighting styles of her parents. I loved how much fun she was having, until Eclipso and then she wasn’t anymore
Yeah she zoidberg’d outta there mighty fast once her buddies started melting.
WOW! Walter Garcia did an incredible job with the choreography and directing. This guy is amazing. WOW!
This is clearly the best show on the CW now, period. This was a solid “A” grade for me. The fights were spectacular and the amount of work they do setting up characters, good and evil, really pay off. The continuity from what came before is also way superior to the other CW shows and is much more impactful.The fight scene was top notch and the fact that they actually have a super villain that is way more powerful than them felt like season finale stuff. Eclipso draining Courtney’s staff really brought home that they are out of their league. I am assuming Thunderbolt and the new Green Lantern will be recruited.The only thing I did not like was the reveal Mike was just bait. That was the most logical thing but the set up the last five episodes with Mike’s picture being in the ISA’s portrait was less of a cool misdirection than just lying to the audience for a “shock” that was not very shocking in retrospect. They could have made it clear he was bait with the same payoff rather than try to fool people that Cindy wanted him for the ISA, since it was rather obvious he would not betray his family and does not even have any powers.
That was incredible and just as I thought the episode was ending when things happened, more and more came in! That fight choreography was incredible! Also love that we have 2 actors who had been on Beeboverse before now in completely different roles.
I guess I’m the only one who didn’t like this episode. I don’t want this show to be “gritty and dark“! There are more than enough shows like that already.
I don’t either, but the overall show isn’t like that. An episode built around the heroes fighting the villains, and introducing the Big Bad of the season, can be though. And this episode still had some humor.
I don’t know how this episode was different from the first season. The ISA killed people and they showed it. This is a comic book show about heroes fighting bad guys, so I do not know what you are expecting.
I forgot to mention another tiny detail I absolutely adored: Artemis spray-painted “ISA” on her backpack! Amazing.
Great to have Milo Stein back! He was incredibly creepy in the opening episode. A really talented kid!
Gotdamn, this episode was amazing! I can’t remember the last time I was legitimately scared for the cast of a show. They have ramped everything to eleven, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing where this show takes them.Yolonda showing restraint against Isaac was great, even though she legitimately could’ve killed him. That Artemis and Rick fight was brutal as hell, and the Courtney and Cindy fight was wonderfully acrobatic. Speaking of which……poor Cindy. This show did a great job making me sympathize with her. She was evil as hell, but she was still ultimately a kid. I really hope she comes back.
This show, damn! Even if Cindy is (likely) still alive, Eclipso still did the child murder on Isaac. Damn!The fight scene was amazing & even Beth got to use some psychological warfare on Artemis (I’m sure they’re gonna bond over their family situations even though they are not at ALL the same). Otherwise, I hope Beth gets a nice revenge of the nerd moment later on.
Why not an A grade?
I’m almost positive The Shade rematerialized in the original JSA’s headquarters. Perhaps it will tie in with the return of Dr. McNider from the Shadowlands? For that matter, has anyone considered that Shade WASNT at the final fight with the JSA and someone was using the black diamond, which dragged Dr. McNider into it? The fight scenes in school were cool, although that poor school district has a lot of repairs to make!Glad Cindy is off the board- the show kept her kind of one note. The other ISA kids were interesting and probably deserved a bit more time. We’ll get more Artemis I’m sure. Who knows maybe once Eclipso is defeated everyone will come back? Doesn’t seem to be how the show works though…
HOLY SHIT. I love that I have absolutely no idea where the season’s now headed. I’d like to think The Shade is going to recuperate/become a menacing alternate mentor (begrudgingly, and only because he doesn’t want to actively see more children get killed) and Artemis is going to end up fighting alongside the new JSA, if only for a moment (because of her dad’s friendship with Pat!).
“Eclipso himself unexpectedly breaks out of his black diamond prison, looking like a cross between an orc and a glam rocker, and played with ghoulish delight by Spartacus’ Nick E. Tarabay.” Yeah Spartacus was cool but cmon he’s Cotyar Ghazi from the Expanse forever ever. Also a pretty solid Capt Boomerang if memory serves.
It’s interesting that only Eclipso only killed ISA members. I wonder if you have to have some malevolence to be susceptible to him?