Stargirl season 2, episode 4 review: Summer School: Chapter Four

“He’s the devil in the shadows. Evil, Court. Real evil.” Spoilers for Stargirl season 2, episode 4 follow.

As Stargirl and the JSA attempt to learn more about Eclipso, Cindy continues on her work to create her new iteration of the ISA.

As Cindy does so, Sportsmaster and Tigress have escaped from prison and begin to once again terrorize Blue Valley.

Here’s what went down in Stargirl season 2, episode 4.

The ISA reborn in Stargirl season 2

After recovering from the death of her stepmom, Cindy now makes her first move to begin recruiting for her version of the ISA. First up? Isaac, aka the son of both of the Fiddlers, whom she now wants to become the third Fiddler. It’s not much yet, but it’s the beginning of this new era of villains who will, presumably eventually be controlled by Eclipso. However, if rumors are to be believed, in two episodes, there will be an enormous battle and with this recruitment, as well as Eclipso’s vision for Artemis, it feels like the seeds have been planted.

As Cindy begins her recruitment drive, the JSA attempts to learn more about Eclipso and while they don’t really learn much as to what the entity actually is, they, and we, learn about the myth and fear that he’s cultivated. While again, not much, it highlights that this centuries long mythic nature and foreboding evil that Eclipso is beyond just what we’ve seen so far.

The Shade really begins to take on a life of his own in this episode as well and now we finally get to see who exactly he is. He is not good, nor evil, but rather something in between that defies the strict binaries of the two ideas. He is such a complicated character in the comics and it’s wonderful to see that translated so well into the show. He has maybe a three-minute scene with Courtney here and he’s easily the highlight of the episode.

Just this one scene establishes why he’s a necessary part of the season. He may be considered a “bad” person, but like he says “there’s a difference between bad and evil,” which is what Pat was trying to tell Courtney early in this episode, but it fully comes across with The Shade’s appearance.

Artemis

This episode might contain some of the campiest scenes that the show has had yet and it shouldn’t work at all, and yet, it absolutely does. Almost every scene that the Crocks are in here feature some incredibly campy moments that feel like they are ripped straight out of a Silver Age comic book. It’s pretty wonderful.

This show is at its best when balancing the extremely campy feeling that many of its ideas present with the more serious human relationships that exist between these characters. This episode alternates from the very serious, often very impactful, relationship that Artemis has with her parents to Sportsmaster just utterly chewing the scenery. It’s a dynamic tonal shift that is incredibly difficult to pull off, yet Stargirl continues to do so very well.

Doubts

Even though this episode is juggling a lot, we still get a little bit of a look into the lives of Rick and Beth, who are both having to deal with their different doubts. From Rick’s perspective, we see him dealing with, and overcoming someone else’s doubts in regards to who he is and, while he proves her wrong, it’s made very clear that constantly being doubted is damaging him a great deal – something that Cameron Gellman sells very well.

It’s also interesting to see who Rick is now compared to when we originally met him. If this was last season, he would be screaming and yelling and taking out his anger on everyone around him. Now though? He calmly accepts what he perceives to be his reality, which is honestly all the more heartbreaking.

As for Beth, she is beginning to doubt what her future will bring as she seemingly can’t even get a hold of the past regarding her parents. Seriously, Beth deserves better than the crappy parents that she is stuck with.

With her deserving better though, we get another nice, yet quick, scene with her and Rick where they’re sharing a couple of milkshakes. It’s a nice little scene that continues to build on the potential romantic relationship between the two and it continues to be very sweet in the process.

What did you think of Stargirl season 2, episode 4? Let us know in the comments below!