TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Stargirl Season 2 Episode 9

While Stargirl has been struggling with certain things during this season, and I’ll be addressing some of them again during this review, I will say that their handling of Eclipso has been well done. This isn’t like the ISA where they’re trying to do a plan to ‘change the world’ so they can enjoy it, Eclipso just likes screwing with people, and this time, it was Courtney’s whole family who were his victims.

Starting off by telling what happened to Bruce Gordon was a nice twist, and setup everything that was to come, especially when it came to Pat. The true highlight of this episode was that of the “last mission” of the JSA in terms of them realizing what they had to do to Eclipso following the death of Dr. Midnite’s daughter.

We honestly haven’t gotten a lot of scenes of Starman and Pat together, so it was good to see their banter here and how Pat was very much Starman’s anchor. Especially when Shade told them what they had to do to get rid of Eclipso. And by “get rid”, I mean killing the host.

Seeing Jay Garrick as part of this Earth’s JSA was great, and John Wesley Shipp as always has done a great job of filling his Flash with hope and wisdom. But I do wish we saw more of him in the episode. He only had two scenes and while they were good, they were hyping this up a lot as a “pre-crossover” for Stargirl, and it kind of…fell flat. Especially when he noted he wouldn’t do the deed against Eclipso and then he was just…gone.

The other members of the family had various things happen to them as well. Including Barbara being “visited” by Icicle, and only being saved after Shade saved her. I hope we find out why Shade sees her as “family” of a sort and it better not be because she’s a descendant of his. Seriously, that would be terrible.

As for Mike, he was visited by “Cameron”, who tortured Mike over what he had done to his father. This one was a bit complicated because Mike has not shown any remorse over Icicle’s death except for one scene where he wondered if it “was an accident”. And yet it clearly didn’t weigh him down because he was acting like his usual jerk-ish self throughout the rest of the seasons. Yolanda, Rick, and Beth all showed their own mental traumas before Eclipso went after them, so why not show that more for Mike? Also, why show Cameron with his powers when no one save for him knows that he has them?

And then, of course, there’s Courtney. It’s not surprising that she wasn’t infected because of her Staff, and now we know anyone who touches it can be spared from Eclipso’s visions, that’s cool. But once again, her “100% all the time” attitude is annoying to behold. Like when she said she was going to ‘stop Eclipso with whatever we have left’ and alls he had left was her non-healed staff…and Beth. And her line about “when have we ever been prepared enough for you?” line was just cringe times ten.

It’s BECAUSE she wasn’t prepared like Pat wanted them to be that they got in so much trouble and needed a LOT of luck to survive. Such as in the final battle with the ISA, or when they confronted Shade in his house, and so on. Then at the end, when she’s furious with Pat about his lie, she makes it seem like he held everything back from her when he really didn’t. If you really listen to his story, he didn’t say anything that changes their perception of Eclipso. They knew about Midnite’s daughter, that Eclipso could show them their nightmares, and so on. What did he lie about that would change the game? Nothing. But as you see in the preview for next episode, Courtney’s playing it up big time, “Do you realize how much your lie has damaged us?” No! He doesn’t, because it didn’t! And if the “kill the host” was the option presented to Courtney, which Pat didn’t know about Cindi having the diamond, there’s no way Courtney would’ve done it…so…how did he screw up?

Another gripe I had was the somewhat revisionist history of the JSA in this episode. We hear about many more members of this version of the JSA including Dr. Fate, The Spectre, and both Hawkman and Hawkgirl and yet apparently…they all couldn’t stop Eclipso? Really? Dr. Fate with his helmet should be able to contain him, and the Spectre has consistently trapped Eclipso, even ripping apart the moon to do it! Yet here, we’re expected to believe that only Starman, Wildcat and Hourman can defeat him by killing the host?

Also, Pat’s explanation about the “fall of the JSA” doesn’t just contradict things from Season 1, it makes the JSA seem rather lame. Because they apparently couldn’t “come together enough” to stop the ISA who…worked better together? That doesn’t make sense at all. And of course, what happened to all the other JSA members? Including Flash, Fate, Spectre and the Hawks? They weren’t at the ISA battle according to Pat, right? So…where are they? We don’t know.

Those issues aside, the way that this episode was shot was good enough to carry it, especially as we got to learn more about what went on in the first bout with Eclipso. We’re heading into the final four episodes, it’s going to be interesting to see how it all goes from here.

3.5/5