Stargirl season 3, episode 8 review: Infinity Inc. Part Two

“Jennie-Lynn burns down buildings in her weaker moments. But Todd? He could destroy the whole world.” Spoilers for Stargirl season 3, episode 8 follow.

Stargirl and Jennie both try to contain Todd’s powers, but it leads to his powers getting even wilder in the process.

Meanwhile, The Shade and Pat are forced to team-up to try and escape the Shadowlands.

Here’s everything that happened in Stargirl season 3, episode 8 £Frenemies – Chapter Eight: Infinity Inc. Part Two”. 

Back to the Shadowlands

Pat and The Shade have been banished to the Shadowlands and man, they are such a great duo. Right off the bat, the differences between the two characters is fantastic. They are two very different men thrust together through unfortunate circumstances and that always leads to some of the best interactions.

While trying to escape though, as The Shade’s powers are no longer working for him, they, like Todd, begin to encounter their fears and regrets, firstly which is The Gambler. And while his taunts are nothing more than that, taunts, Pat’s fears manifest in his own father. And the fact that Pat, a good man. A great man even, had such a terrible father, and even says that he “still misses [him]” is heartbreaking. And seeing The Shade try and talk Pat out of the pain that he was hearing, it legitimately hurt to watch.

But it’s nothing compared to seeing The Shade being forced to watch his sister, one of the only people he’s ever cared about, die. Again. And seeing him lie about not being capable of having feelings, which is so obvious that he does, it’s excellent writing.

Seriously, this was a pairing that I don’t think anyone knew that they needed and yet, it’s perfect and exactly what we needed to see in order to be built on both Pat and The Shade’s characterizations. These are two characters that we really didn’t know much about their pasts or fears beforehand and now? It feels like we know them so much better.

Fears manifest

Back in the normal world though, Courtney and Jennie try to get Todd to control his powers, but that just manifests that hate and fear that he’s been forced to endure, starting with the homophobic head of the group home he lived in. What is said by the fears is nothing new in terms of fears and trauma faced by LGBTQ+ community members, nor is it new in how it’s written in most mainstream shows and films. That doesn’t make it any easier to hear though and the show still does a good job of building it up as horrific – which it is. But just as soon as Jennie manages to reach out to Todd and break that fear’s hold on him, her powers explode.

While Courtney wakes up and is simply confronted by the lying right-hand woman of Mister Bones, Jennie wakes up in a locked cell. Both these scenes are basically mirrored, with both being told why they can’t let Todd go, but while Jennie acts with violence, Courtney confronts her captor in a different way and manages to basically worm her way into helping everyone. It’s a perfect Courtney move. And she then gets an audience with the big man himself, Mister Bones, and we finally get to learn more about him.

If you know him from the comics, you know his whole deal, but if you don’t, this is a great introduction and explanation of the character. There’s the inherently gray area in the character that he tends to operate in, but you also see that he’s not outright evil like he’s (purposefully) been made out to be so far. And the effects to make his skin transparent are incredible. Plus, Keith David is always great.

Then the final attempt to calm down Todd is excellent, starting with one line. “Do you want to hurt him? Then you won’t.” It’s a perfect Courtney line to tell Jannie and exactly what she needed to hear. This then leads to a great scene between Jennie and Todd as they finally connect after the decades that they’ve spent a part. The fact that we didn’t have to wait three seasons for a payoff (or no payoff at all with all the cancellations lately) is genuinely great, especially when it was executed so well.

Stargirl season 3 finishes out this two-part episode with some fantastic character work and an engaging plot that is moved forward by said character work.

Stargirl season 3 airs on The CW on Wednesdays at 8/7c.

If you’re a fan of Stargirl, listen to The CW Spiral podcast for all of the latest news and updates regarding the network. Subscribe to their YouTube channel here. 

Did you enjoy DC’s Stargirl season 3, episode 8? Let us know in the comments below!