TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Stargirl Season 3 Episode 2: The Suspects

Easily my biggest gripe with Stargirl from Season 1 to now is that it sometimes gets REALLY close to being an incredible show, and then they do a series of missteps to hold it back. And while “The Suspects” was a better start to Season 3 than the premiere was, it still had those classic missteps that really held it back from being better.

Let’s start with the positives here. Because there were a lot this time around. For example, I love the dynamic between Barbara and Paula. They are this wonderful “odd couple” and we saw the spark of them being some unique kind of friends last year and it’s building this time around. I was glad that Paula came right to Barbara and said that she and Crusher didn’t kill The Gambler. It made perfect sense too why they wouldn’t. And then the “cooking disaster” the two had was truly hilarious in the best of ways. Sometimes trying…really isn’t enough. But A for Effort!

Another thing I liked was the training session between Starman and Stargirl. It was good to see that Starman had some tricks up his sleeves, and he was more than willing to train Courtney. Her first misstep with the “Shooting Star” was well-handled and Sylvester pointing how good Courtney can be was nice, and thus made her doing it for real a feel-good moment.

And while we didn’t get an answer to who was the killer, we did see that some of the ISA did visit The Gambler, and that they each had their reasons for NOT wanting to kill him. We still don’t know fully what Shade was doing there the second time (I’m not sure I buy what he said in the diner), but given his own “issues”, it’s unlikely he was the killer.

Which brings me to Pat, who had some good moments with both Courtney and Sylvester in helping guide one and calm down the other. I really want more from Pat this season because I still believe he’s the best part of the show funnily enough.

Sadly, I can’t say that I expect much from the rest of the cast given how they’ve been acting so far. Rick and Yolanda being so uncaring about The Gambler’s death further cements how they’re #NotMyJSA, and they were almost whiny at times in regards to Cindy even though it was very evident that she wasn’t the killer. But no, because “she was a villain” she had to be guilty and because The Gambler was a villain “it’s fine that he did”. I’m sorry, aren’t they supposed to be…you know…heroic? Stopping ALL crimes and not just the ones that they deem “worthy”? Just saying…

And while Sylvester had some great moments with Courtney, it also came at some cringe moments. The diner scene was WAY too much, and his treatment of Pat before Pat’s speech about Blue Valley was just plain abusive. “You’re the sidekick!” Uh, no, he’s not, and he showed you that LAST EPISODE! Also, the Frogger reference, really? Attacking the shade wasn’t much better, but his reasoning behind it did salvage things, and I appreciated it. But I do wish they could’ve cut down on the whiplash of him admitting “I screwed up” to not actually trying to do better in a meaningful way. And given how the preview for the next episode is shaping up, old habits are about to die hard.

Furthermore, there were little scenes in the episode that didn’t really mean much because there was little context of meaning to them. Cindy is experimenting on herself? Ok… Also, she apparently has The Gambler’s laptop, but how and why? They already ruled her out as the killer, or are they trying to do a long-game twist? The Crock’s “they’re going to find out soon” bit wasn’t much better because again, we can easily tell they didn’t do it, so why are they freaking out? We’ll find out next episode I guess. Cameron’s “loss of art” also didn’t really hit home and that second scene was very wooden to me.

Finally, the less I have to talk about Mike, the better. Because naturally, it’s all about him. And if you want to talk about abuse, talk about how he’s treated Jakeem right now. Since Gary Green is now officially dead, Mike is the worst character in the “Arrowverse”. Congrats Mike!

I will happily say that I enjoyed this episode more than the premiere, and there is potential to make things work long-term, but it needs to stop tripping over its own feet and just let the characters, and plot, be what it needs to be.

3.5/5