Stargirl season 1, episode 10 review: Brainwave Jr.

“Oh that? That’s a broom! From Sharper Image.” Minor spoilers for Stargirl season 1, episode 10 follow.

After discovering that Jordan Mahkent is Icicle in the previous episode of the DC Universe series, another revelation has changed Courtney’s life forever. Her mom walks in on her holding the Cosmic staff and now knows that she’s Stargirl.

On the other side of town though, Henry has a surprise of his own as his father wakes up from his coma, not remembering the past ten years.

The truth is out

With the final scene of last week’s episode playing out as it did, it’s not like Courtney and Pat could actually hide the truth for any longer from Barbara. And luckily, for the sake of the episode and for Barbara’s character, the immediate attempts to lie by Courtney and Pat fail absolutely miserably. And thus, the truth is finally out and it basically plays out how you expect it to. Poorly.

This leads to some nice family drama throughout the episode though as the two sides of the family try to reconcile with each other. Pat and Barbara, even though they are on the outs with each other, for obvious reasons, work well as a team and its clear why they were together in the first place. There are some great moments shared between the two, which is nice to see as they haven’t been seen much together throughout the season so far.

Plus, this episode gives Barbara a great bit of agency. This is something that she hasn’t really had as she has been relegated to the background for much of the show so far. But now? Now, we actually get to see how smart and quick on her feet that she is. This episode also makes it abundantly clear where Courtney gets her tenacity from.

Two Brainwaves

Not only is there family drama for the Whitemore/Dugan household in this episode, but there’s some pretty heavy drama for the father/son Brainwave duo. There’s so much of this episode that revolves around these two that is spoiler-heavy, but rest assured, it makes for some great television.

The best stuff in this episode though comes completely from Henry. His character arc just over these past two episodes is some of the best character work in a comic book show. Period. He goes from bully that you despise, to someone who is sympathetic but still unlikable, to an actual hero. It’s made clear that the writer’s room didn’t just want to make him a caricature, but wanted him to be so much more than that and they exceeded brilliantly.

This episode will make you smile and then break your heart in regards to Henry. Plus, there’s a fantastic fight scene toward the end of the episode involving the JSA and Henry.

Icicle vs. everyone

Back to Barbara though. Even though she’s angry at Courtney and Pat for hiding their double lives from her, she immediately begins to distrust Jordan. This creates some nice, tense scenes throughout the episode between the two and, as such, puts you on the edge of your seat whenever they are on screen together.

There are also some allusions in this episode to how Icicle views other members of the ISA and how he treats and, let’s just say, it isn’t good. He’s a manipulator and it’s clear that he has done that in some form with at least a few members of the ISA, so it makes sense why his endgame plan is what it is. He manipulates and controls people, so why shouldn’t that be his final plan?

Stargirl returns to DC Universe next Monday, July 27, and The CW next Tuesday, July 28, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Are you looking forward to the next episode? Let us know in the comments below!