‘Stargirl 2×12: Summer School – Chapter Twelve’ Review
Stars: Brec Bassinger, Luke Wilson, Amy Smart, Yvette Monreal, Anjelika Washington, Trae Romano, Christopher Baker | Created by Geoff Johns
What Happened This Week
Here it is…the last episode before the season finale of Stargirl and this week we finally learn Eclipso’s reasoning for terrorizing Blue Valley and our heroes. Plus, Courtney and her family realize that to defeat Eclipso, they must all do their best to reunite all the heroes to fight Eclipso or else, his grand plan will succeed, and the world will be his for the taking!
Getting the Team Back Together
The episode picks up with Beth and Jenny investigating the dark matter left behind at the high school that enveloped Courtney and sent her to the Shadowlands. Jenny uses her ring to investigate the black goo but it’s just a trick by Eclipso to infect the Power Ring she wields. She doesn’t have time to tell Beth what happened as Beth receives a call in the goggles from Courtney telling them she is back, and our heroes take off to welcome Courtney back to the living world.
The welcome-back party at Courtney’s house is short-lived as Beth sees Cindy has also returned with Courtney and now wants to help the JSA. This doesn’t sit well with Beth and Courtney and in a typical mom way, Barbara even lets Cindy know that what she did was not right, and she needs to make amends for releasing Eclipso. Cindy actually agrees with Barbara and states that once she helps dispose of Eclipso, she is leaving Blue Valley forever. While the JSA may not trust their arch-nemesis, they realize they need Cindy and any other superpowered person to take on Eclipso.
Dr. Mid-Niter is getting comfortable living in the real world again, complete with putting on his old suit and sunglasses, which are connected to a back-up pair of goggles. He quickly gets to work on formulating a plan to stop Eclipso as he tells Pat that despite Pat’s concerns, the new JSA, though young, is ready for the challenge of stopping Eclipso. They have all the tools they need in the JSA, from Jenny’s Power Ring to Courtney’s staff to Beth’s goggles, they just need to work together to stop the evil. Dr. Mid-Niter conveys this to Beth too as the two finally meet in a sweet moment and decide to link their goggles together to increase their powers to search for Eclipso.
In order to get the team back together, Courtney visits Yolanda (she’s back!) and tells her that Beth and Dr. Mid-Niter will find the location of Eclipso in four hours, and they need her help to defeat him. Courtney even resorts telling Yolanda that she isn’t the only one in the JSA that killed someone. Not sure how that helps but an “A” for effort Courtney. It actually doesn’t help as Yolanda tells her that it makes her feel worse and reinforces her decision to never put on the Wildcat costume again. Yolanda leaves as we see Cindy lurking in the distance.
Cindy visits Yolanda back at home in her bedroom and reveals she is working with the JSA. Cindy isn’t all nice though as she admits she is the one to send out the revealing photos of Yolanda to her classmates (remember that last season?) but before Yolanda can exact her revenge, Yolanda’s mother interrupts and Cindy vanishes. Cindy’s visit is enough to convince Yolanda to join Courtney as if the JSA is resorting to having Cindy help, they really must fear Eclipso.
Pat visits the hospital in an attempt to convince Rick’s uncle to drop the charges against his nephew as the town of Blue Valley needs him. Pat explains to Rick’s uncle that by pressing charges, it will condemn Rick to a horrible life in prison and ruin any chance he may have of a successful life. Rick’s uncle responds in writing, as he still cannot talk from the beating he received, by telling Pat to “Go to Hell”. Pat, ever the great father, tells Rick’s uncle that he is a bad person and that the uncle failed his nephew. For a brief moment, it’s teased Pat is going to do harm to the immobile uncle, but we never see what happened except that a few hours later, Rick is released from jail and all the charges have been dropped. It appears Pat got in touch with his evil side.
Mike’s Search
It seems all the good people in Stargirl went on a mission to find help and that even includes Mike! In his search to find the genie Thunderbolt, Mike rides his bike back to the gumdrop house from last week but this time instead of candy, he finds a giant cheeseburger in a neighboring yard. Mike discovers Jakeem is in the possession of the pen that houses Thunderbolt, but unfortunately the genie is not with him as he is running an errand in China to get food. Well of course he is. Mike uses the extra time to let Jakeem in on what the JSA is along with what is happening and requests his help to fight Eclipso. At this point, they are just accepting anyone into the JSA if they can help fight Eclipso.
A Being of Darkness
While we don’t see Eclipso much this episode, his eerie presence is felt throughout Courtney’s house as he invades Jenny’s Power Ring. Barbara spends most of the episode taking care of a resting Jenny and dealing with a feeling of uneasiness in the household. Being at home gives Courtney and Barbara a chance to talk about their relationship and they are able to patch things up after their fallout from Pat and Barbara not telling Courtney the whole truth about the JSA.
After tormenting Jenny for the majority of the episode, Eclipso reveals a possible future to Jenny with all of her friends either dead or injured and Stargirl possessed by the evil demon. Dr. Mid-Niter and Beth visit the American Dream office in order to use a more powerful computer to search for Eclipso but our villain, in the form of the creepy child, surprises them. Beth warns him that she sent the signal out and all of the JSA is on their way to confront him, which is exactly what Eclipso wants. He warns Beth that after tonight, he becomes a god, and their world is doomed.
Quote of the Week:
Beth: “But she (Cindy) is evil!” Cindy: “Evil is relative.”
Grade: B (Good)
Stargirl did not hold anything back this week in preparation for next week’s season finale! The JSA added a few new additions, including Cindy and whoever she called on the phone, the original Dr. Mid-Nite, and Yolanda and Rick, at least temporarily, and the JSA has never been stronger. They are going to need it when they face Eclipso and while our villain this season has been more intriguing than the ISA from last season, a little more background on Eclipso would have been appreciated. Overall, this episode delivered and setup for what should be a strong season finale with a chance for everyone in the cast to shine.
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