Stargirl season 3, episode 2 review: The Suspects

“Disposing of the corpse is 101.” Spoilers for Stargirl season 3, episode 2 follow.

The Gambler has been murdered and Stargirl and the JSA saw Cindy standing over his dead body with everything but blood on her hands. Who really killed The Gambler though?

While beginning to investigate, Courtney continues to come to terms with the new agreement that she made with Sylvester.

Here’s everything that went down in Stargirl season 3, episode 2 “Frenemies – Chapter Two: The Suspects”.

DC’s Stargirl season 3, episode 2 review

Staffs Out: A Stargirl Mystery

The opening scene of this episode does a great job of setting up the suspects in the murder mystery, while also showing that The Gambler seemed to legitimately be turning away from crime, which makes it even more tragic that he was the victim of this murder. Every member of the JSA has their own idea of killed The Gambler with very little agreement on who they think, which doesn’t narrow down the suspect list.

First up is Cindy, whom Yolanda and Rick immediately do not trust in any shape or form, despite Courtney’s protests. To be fair, she was literally found standing over the body of The Gambler. So really, given their mistrust of Cindy after everything that’s happened it makes sense. Seeing Courtney so staunchly defend Cindy though, it shows how hopeful she is that people can change. However, Cindy has The Gambler’s computer, so it’s possible she did it.

Next up is The Shade who, lets be real, wouldn’t be sloppy enough to leave The Gambler’s body somewhere that could easily be found. Nevertheless, Sylvester lets his anger and lack of understanding of who these people are now get the better of him and drives The Shade away.

Third, and we don’t get to see much of him in this episode, is Crusher. It’s been made clear that he despises The Gambler and was even there to kill him when he originally got back into town. And then the episode ends with a cliffhanger of Crusher and Paula talking cryptically to each other, basically insinuating that they did it. Obviously that feels too easy and is more than likely a red herring, but it definitely feels like set-up for inevitable drama for the two.

Breaking Down

Back to Cindy though, she appears to be experimenting on herself once again, but it really seems like there’s more to it than meets the eye right now. She’s not seemingly doing anything to enhance herself, like Dragon King did to her. She’s in pain. The type of pain that simply doesn’t heal on its own and she’s trying to figure out ways to mitigate that pain without asking for help. We’ll obviously learn more about this as the season progresses.

As for Sylvester though, he really has an existential crisis in this episode which leads to him to teaching Courtney more about the staff, which is a fantastic moment. It’s a joyous scene and absolutely wonderful to see her learning from Sylvester and realizing the amount of love that she has in her life. It’s genuinely beautiful.

However, this is diametrically opposed to Sylvester, who is broken beyond belief. And he believes that it’s entirely his fault that the Justice Society died when they did. So, while Courtney is learning about the staff from him, she begins to teach him how to be Sylvester, not just Starman.

Daughters

Probably the saddest scene in this episode comes from Courtney reading The Gambler’s letter to his daughter. She truly ends up believing that The Gambler wanted to change for his daughter and the feeling of hurt that her dad couldn’t even be better than a supervillain is heartbreaking. It’s something that this show does well. It shows that villainy isn’t simply doing bad things with superpowers. It can be how you treat those who you’re supposed to care about as well, and in that way, Courtney’s dad is truly a villain.

For as serious as Courtney is feeling about The Gambler and his desires to be in his daughter’s life though, we also have the humorous dichotomy of Paula vying for her daughter’s approval and acceptance into the JSA, which then leads to a budding friendship with Barbara. These scenes are so great because they add much needed humor into what would otherwise be a very dark episode and, while not necessary to the plot, at least so far, it helps build out the characters and build the world a bit more in a way that lets the audience breathe.

Stargirl season 3 continues by really leaning into the mystery aspect and making amateur detectives out of Courtney, Pat, and Sylvester in a great way.

Stargirl season 3 airs on The CW on Wednesdays at 8/7c. Stream the episodes on CWTV the next day.

What did you think of DC’s Stargirl season 3, episode 2? Let us know in the comments below!