‘Stargirl’ Season 2 Premiere Spoiler Review – “Summer School: Chapter One”

After moving from airing on DC Universe and The CW the following day, Stargirl has now begun airing exclusively on The CW first with its second season. Many fans were wary of this transition. The Season 2 premiere can now put those worries to rest as it delivers on a slow but entertaining first outing.

***SPOILERS BEWARE FOR THE FIRST EPISODE!!!***

Balancing Superheroing and Being a Teenager

As many superhero media have adapted the whole finding a balance between regular life and that of a superhero, Stargirl is no different as Courtney Whitmore (Brec Whitmore)’s struggle to do both is starting to be explored. Picking up six months after defeating the Injustice Society, Courtney is rightfully eager to continue being a superhero as she believes it’s still her destiny, with the Cosmic Staff still glowing even after that fight.

Sadly for Courtney, Blue Valley has remained quiet as the remainder of the ISA either vanished or are in prison. All this focus on being a superhero, however, has led Courtney to fail two of her classes. In order to go onto the next grade, she is forced to undergo Summer School. (Hence the subtitle for this episode). It was also interesting to watch Courtney struggle to be able to talk to Cameron Mahkent (Hunter Sansone). This is understandable, as she does not know if his grandparents told him about the fact she had a hand in his father’s death.

As a big fan of these two characters (as well as their potential romance), I am very curious to see when Cameron inevitably finds out if he will still be able to trust Courtney.

The Fall-Out of the Finale

Courtney’s not the only one who’s been affected by the events of the finale. Everyone deals with some type of trauma from it. The most intriguing bit of this, in my opinion, was watching Rick (Cameron Gellman) become a better person. He started to go by his birth name Rick Tyler and is now studying hard to get good grades. He also finds himself delivering food to his once former enemy Solomon Grundy. This comes after sparing him from death in the Season 1 finale. I hope we get to see Grundy and Rick become friends as the season goes on. (Maybe, he’ll even bring Grundy some sauce next time for all those wings.)

Meanwhile, Yolanda Montez (Yvette Monreal) is feeling guilty about killing Brainwave. She understandably has a hard time believing she is fit to be Wildcat anymore. I wonder if that was due to Eclipso influencing her sense of guilt or if is Brainwave still somehow influencing her.

Beth Chapel (Anjelika Washington) is sadly still dealing with her failure to fix Charles “Chuck” McNider (Henry Thomas). Not only that, but her parents are going through a divorce as well.

Finally, Mike Dugan (Trae Romano) is dealing with wanting to be more actively involved now with the JSA. Although, Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson) doesn’t want his son to have anything to do with being a superhero. This decision, while understandable, might make him feel a whole lot worse when it comes to our villains of the season.

New Threats Arrive to Blue Valley

There were no big fight scenes with any of our antagonists so far. With that said, there were still some things of note to discuss. The very opening of the season with a flashback to “decades ago” really set the tone that this season is going to be full-blown horror.

The effects for Eclipso (Nick Tarabay) on that little boy “Bruce” (potentially Eclipso’s host in the comics, Bruce Gordon?) were terrifying. The Justice Society now has a real problem on their hands with him.

We only get to see our favorite knife arm badass cheerleader Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy) at the end of the episode. However, her recruitment for a new ISA is surely going to be interesting. It’s obvious she will be able to succeed in recruiting Artemis and Issac. With that said, I am a bit curious if she will be successful in recruiting Cameron and Mike to her cause. Guess we have to find out later on in the season if she’s successful in her mission in establishing the Injustice Unlimited.

Other Tidbits

• The final scene of the episode with Courtney vs Jade (Ysa Penarejo) was amazing. I can’t wait to see more of this character. Thank goodness we finally have an actual Green Lantern in live action now.
• Pat’s friend Zeek (King Orba) was kind of a weird addition. His discovering the S.T.R.I.P.E. Robot felt out of place, but I’m curious to see where that will go.
• The little tidbit of “Sylvestor” we got was cool. I hope we get more of Pat’s ex-wife, Maggie.
• I want to see what Barbara Whitmore (Amy Smart) and The American Dream are each up to, now that their founder Icicle is gone.
• Poor Artemis Crock (Stella Smith) doesn’t know her parents are actually criminals. Don’t think she will care, though, when Cindy comes and recruits her for the ISA.

Final Verdict:

The Season 2 premiere of Stargirl is a slow burn but establishes all the needed elements to potentially deliver on another very good season. I cannot wait for the rest of the season!

Rating: 8/10

Stargirl season 2 will continue on The CW on Tuesdays at 8pm CT and free to stream the new day on The CW app and website.