STARGIRL 2.8

 

RECAP - STARGIRL  2.8:  "Summer School - Chapter Eight"  

Eclipso is really having his cake and eating it, too.  He has managed to take down Shiv, killed the new Fiddler, and has messed up The Shade enough, that he's busy trying to reassemble himself.  Yolanda has walked away from Wildcat, so now Eclipso has set his sights on a NEW targets:  Beth Chapel & Rick Tyler.  Beth has plenty of fears and insecurities, and she's also the weakest member of the JSA.  Tyler has had his issues growing up, dealing with an abusive uncle, to having been seen as an outcast.  Meanwhile, Pat and Mike have to get S.T.R.I.P.E. back together, and all Courtney can do is just sit and wait...which is frustrating.  So...how did our heroes fare this week?  

Rick's story this week began with a visit from his teacher, who travels up to his house to deliver and apology for how she accused him of cheating, and dropped off college brochures for him.  However, his drunken uncle comes out, orders the teacher off his property, mocks the fact that she thinks Rick can go to college, and she leaves, but says that she will meet with him later.  His uncle...jerk that he is...flips the brochures out of her hands, and Rick picks them up.  He heads out into the woods with some food for Grundy, who FINALLY makes his appearance this season in the flesh.  He ends up sitting down, and just pouring out his guts to Grundy after he's screamed about giving his all and not getting anything in return.  All Grundy does is pat Rick on the back...and hand him an apple.

Courtney worries about Yolanda, and wants to help her, but Barb and Pat feel that the best thing for her to do is give Yolanda space to work things out.  Mike thinks it's time to take it to Eclipso before he gets anymore powerful.  There's a knock at the door of the Dugan home, and Courtney goes to answer it...and there's a duffel bag on the porch, and Courtney opens it to find the Wildcat suit.  Yolanda officially has given up on being a hero.  

For Beth, she's been taking in everything that happened, and eventually gets ahold of Dr. McNider again.  He still doesn't know who she is, but he manages to tell her that he is trapped in a shadow realm.  Eventually, her parents arrive home, and they FINALLY want to sit down and talk about the divorce to Beth, and have dinner while they're at it.  But something is off when they start accusing Beth herself of being the main reason WHY they are divorcing.  Beth knows something is off, so she tosses the dinner aside, as it starts to move with bugs, and takes off.

Rick is about to leave the woods after his visit with Grundy, and overhears a radio broadcast about a bear in the woods attacking people, and sees a truck full of hunters go by.  Thinking Grundy might have something to do with this, and if he's found, they'll kill him, Rick races back into the woods to find him.  At this time, Courtney arrives with Cosmo...which is what she's calling the staff now...saying that it's taking too long for him to heal.  Courtney had just put the Wildcat suit away with the rest of the JSA gear in the basement at home, and wanted to see Pat, and figure out what to do.  She feels helpless.  Pat...who's been working on getting S.T.R.I.P.E. functioning again, tells her that they have to be patient.  She wonders what's taking Eclipso so long to make his move, and Pat doesn't know why, either. But he knows they need to get Beth and Rick, and start figuring it out.  At that time, Rick calls Pat, and tells him that Grundy is in trouble.  

Beth, at the Dugan house, is confronted by Eclipso himself, who starts demeaning her, and mocking her, saying she's weak and nothing, and that she wasn't chosen to be a hero like Courtney was, when Cosmo chose her, or when Yolanda was chosen by Courtney to be Wildcat, or Rick because of his parents.  Beth is nothing...she's just a colored girl who's worthless.  Beth resists him, and stands her ground, saying that he doesn't know her at all.  He blasts her into a closet, and she ends up chasing Bruce Gordon around, as he continues to laugh and mock her.  She then sees the original Starman, Wildcat, Hourman, and Dr. Mid-Nite, and they say she isn't the right gender, the right color, or the right person for the job.  She fights back by saying she's proud of being black, she's proud of being a woman, and wonders what HE is scared of.  They end up fighting over the Dr. Mid-Nite goggles that he accused her of stealing.  She gets ahold of them and puts them on.  And realizes she's still at home.  It turns out, she was hallucinating the whole thing, thanks to Eclipso's powers.  Dr. McNider actually talks to her, and says that the goggles filter through Eclipso's powers, and that she now holds one of the keys to beating him.  He still doesn't know who she is, but she admits she IS Dr. Mid-Nite.  Her parents DO arrive home, and she tells them that she saw them at dinner, and they said that they just got home.  They wonder about the goggles, and she plays it off like she's joining the swim team.  

Courtney and Pat make it  out to the woods to meet up with Rick to rescue Grundy, and while Cosmo isn't a full strength yet, he's still good for about 2 shots, so Pat says she'll have to make them count.  They go out searching for Rick and Grundy.  Rick happens upon Grundy, and sees a young girl in the creek, apparently dead.  Rick wants to know if Grundy killed her, as he had passed injured hunters before finding the creature.  They warned him not to go deep into the woods, but he does it anyway.  He yells at Grundy, and tells him to run.  Grundy takes off.  Court and Pat catch up to him, as he says he's going to kill Grundy, and he chases after Grundy.  Grundy has made it to Rick's house, and he and Grundy start to fight.  Rick, enraged, beats down the beast against a pickup truck.  Courtney and Pat...having seen the girl, know that it isn't real, and it's Eclipso playing mind games.  They chase after Rick, and just before he delivers the killing blow to Grundy, Courtney blasts him with the staff.  They tell him it's not Grundy, and that it is Eclipso playing with their minds.  When Rick finally breaks through the spell, we see that he's beaten his own uncle within and inch of his life.  Horrified by what he did, he takes the Hourman hourglass...the source of his powers...and shatters it, breaking it apart, and all the magical sand being spilt.  Pat and Courtney look on in shock, as Rick just destroyed any chance of him being Hourman again.  Eclipso strikes once more, and another member of the JSA is gone.  Rick is arrested, and as he's taken to jail, with Courtney and Pat in tow...Grundy emerges from the shadows...and says that Rick is his friend.  

Back at the Dugan house, Barbara and Mike are there, with Barb telling Mike that Courtney and Pat are still with Rick, seeing what they can do to help, and that Rick's uncle is in critical condition at the hospital. Mike asks what they can do, and Barbara says just be there for them.  She and Mike hug, but outside, trouble is brewing as their kitchen window gets foggy,  and we start to see ice and snow forming on the roof of the house.  

This episode was another solid edition, as we are finally poking into the psyches of our main protagonists.  Yolanda's been a PTSD mess....so much so, that she's given up the Wildcat identity, all because she killed Brainwave.  Her trauma...added onto the trauma she had when Henry exposed her naughty pictures to everyone in school.  Still dealing with the fallout of THAT incident, and still looked down upon by her own family (sans her brother, who adores her), she is now the first domino to fall for Eclipso.  Now, we have Rick.  Rick's rage from his life---abusive parental unit, accused of cheating, and learning who his parents truly were...and then protecting the very creature that killed them.  For him to savagely beat whom he thought was Grundy, was intense.  We got to see HIS trauma, and sensitivity, on full display.  Especially when he found out what he did to the REAL monster---his uncle.  For him to smash the hourglass, and thus end the career of Hourman, Eclipso has now effectively removed 2 of the more powerful members of the team off the chessboard. 

However, Eclipso made an error----he tried to break down Beth.  Which, considering how milquetoast I have felt Beth was as a character, we FINALLY got to see her stand up to a bully, face down true evil, and come out the otherside knowing EXACTLY who she is.  Having faced the fact that Bruce Gordon did all he could to break her down mentally, and try to end her career as Dr. Mid-Nite, it's now only emboldened her.  So, Beth is still in the game, and it will be crucial in the homestretch of this season for her to step up her game.  But now we know that the goggles break through Eclipso's illusions and other garbage.  But now Eclipso has his last target to take down:  The Dugans.  And he's going to use the one fear that Barbara has:  Joran Mahkent.  This will also play into Courtney's, as she's gotten closer to his son, Cameron, who has no idea that she's Stargirl.

Really liking the intensity and character development this eason.  How about you guys?  You enjoyed Stargirl up to this point?  Subscribe and lemme know what you think below.  

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