Stargirl season 2, episode 1 review: Summer School: Chapter One

“We’re the Justice Society of America! We can’t quit!” Spoilers for Stargirl season 2, episode 1 follow.

After defeating the Injustice Society, Stargirl continues to search for villains who might cause Blue Valley harm. However, all is quiet amidst her search.

Before long though, this peace and quiet is upended and begins pulling her in several different directions.

Here’s everything that went down in the Stargirl season 2 premiere, “Summer School: Chapter One”.

Longing for destiny

After such a phenomenal debut season, it is fantastic to have Stargirl back on the screen, both the show and the character. From the first time that she appears in this episode, it’s a quick reminder of exactly why we all fell in love with Courtney Whitmore in the first season of Stargirl. Brec Bassinger didn’t lose a step between the first and second seasons. She is as wonderful as ever as Courtney and just perfectly evokes the passionate, if slightly over-zealous and potentially self-destructive nature, that the character has.

On top of that, this premiere episode continues on with the legacy themes that were extremely heavy within the first season. From the second scene of “Summer School: Chapter One”, it becomes clear that Courtney is obsessed with finding her purpose within the world, which she thinks is Stargirl. However, in order to be Stargirl, she needs to pass her classes, which sets up the general premise of the season. She thinks that her destiny is to be Stargirl, but she also needs to be Courtney. It’s an interesting set-up and hopefully will carry through the rest of the season.

But even as she begins to figure out who she is beyond the mask, two people come into the foreground to interfere with that, Starman and Jade. We don’t get much of either here, beyond the only fight scene of the episode (Courtney vs. Jade), but it will definitely be interesting moving forward.

The family is back

Obviously though, Courtney is not the only character present in this series, even if she is the main one. The Stargirl season 2 premiere also does a great job of setting up the struggles that the rest of the JSA will be facing this season, none of which have anything to do regarding their other identities, which is way more interesting in the long-run.

Beth’s parents are getting divorced. Rick feels lost because of the doubt that others throw at him despite legitimately turning his life around. Yolanda is struggling with her guilt of killing Brainwave. All of these are incredibly interesting threads and they are excellent set-up for their arcs throughout the rest of the season. Their mistakes, their losses, and their pain are all established here, paving the way for potentially strong story arcs moving forward. Side note, Beth deserves the world and so much better than the parents that she has.

Beyond the JSA though, we get a little bit of a glimpse of Cameron Mahkent as he begins to rebuild his life in honor of his father. We don’t get much of an idea as to where the season is headed for him, but there are so many possibilities in terms of where his character can go and it won’t be surprising if the show goes with any of them.

Horror vibes in Stargirl season 2

What a great opening scene this episode had. It set the stage for the villain of the season incredibly well, even if we don’t see him really for the rest of the premiere, and immediately brought the horror vibes that Eclipso should have while also evoking several fantastic horror films like Halloween and The Conjuring.

This opening scene also exemplifies one of the things that Stargirl does well, which is shifting tones. The show can be incredibly light-hearted at times, at then shift to something incredibly dark, or vice versa. The show did that pretty often in the first season and it establishes that this will be the case in the second season as well.

What did you think of the Stargirl season 2 premiere? Let us know in the comments below!