Stargirl 1.10 “Brainwave Jr.” is out now on DCU and I’m here to talk about it.
If you’ll remember from last week, we ended on the cliffhanger of Barbara walking in on Pat, Courtney, & the Staff, and now she’s going to have to learn the whole thing. From Promo it looks like a lot of drama is surrounding that, which is awesome. We can also see Courtney & Henry together in the thumbnail for today, which is probably going to be them having a bit of a spat with the rest of the JSA. I personally love drama episodes, and we know a lot more is happening than just drama, so I’m really excited to see what they have in store for us tonight.
The opening crawl is set to Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, which makes this the second time the song has shown up in the DCU shows (now here, and Hank & Dawn sang it back in Titans season 2). I wonder if someone in charge has a thing for the song or what. But following that up, we get to see Pat & Barbara meet! How cute!! We got the story back in episode 1 but now we get to actually see it. They both get a banana split but there’s only banana so they share it, that’s so fucking cute. The one het coupe I support. And then move into them telling Barbara and Courtney is out here like “oh that’s a broom” like seriously? Really Court? I love how Barbara is taking no shit during this conversation. Barbara “get outta here with that Starman is your dad bullshit” Whitmore, iconic. OH SHIT AND BARBARA FUCKING KICKS PAT OUT OMG! I am living for this omfg.
And now we cut to the King’s and it seems Henry Sr has lost 10ish years of his memory, wild. I’m interested to see what this will do to Henry Sr in the future, and if his forgetting all the current ISA shit will have anything to do with Henry Jr’s character. Also, is it just me, or does it sound like Icicle killed his wife. How many loved ones of allies has Jordan killed? About two scenes later, Henry Sr mentions Jordan by name in his dreams, which really feels like conformation that Jordan did it to me. Then Jordan fucking shows up at the hospital like a bitch! What the hell man, just go die already. And now we see that there’s well over 3,300 of those VHS tapes Henry Sr was making, how obnoxious was that to move? “Merri the girl of 1,000 gimmicks,” was Henry’s mom a superhero??? MERRI’S BROTHER WAS STARMAN!?!? EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?! Hold on, I need a minute. Well, I’d say this is Henry’s motivation to try and work with the JSA.
This little scene with Pat & Mike is really sad. Mike is such a good kid, I love him.
The Staff comes to see Courtney in her room, how cute. And then fucking dips off to the Garage by itself, and is clearly holding a grudge against Jordan, that’s awesome. The Staff is such a fun character. And then it comes to the hospital to fight Jordan & Henry Sr by itself! ICONIC!! Oop, now it’s frozen. Fuck. Anyway, the more Jordan talks, the more he sounds like a crazy Colonizer. And is Henry Jr only cowering from Jordan, or is he also cowering from his dad?
The drama with the Whitmore family continues, Barb wants to move them both out of Blue Valley. And here comes Henry to fill in Courtney on the drama, and showcasing a new ability in the process. And thus kick-starting Henry’s involvement in the JSA and the team’s first real mission, only 10 episodes in!
OMFG shit must be serious, Barbara emailed Sam (who comic fans know is a real piece of shit). And then later, when Jordan and his parents show up, and Barbara records what they say in Norwegian? Amazing. It seems she’s at least going to give Pat & Court the benefit of the doubt after seemingly doing some research on Starman. And further on, Sam has actually emailed her back! Are we gonna meet Sam Kurtis??
I don’t wanna talk to much about this lunch scene because there’s a lot of opinions. Yo & Rick are totally valid in their thoughts and feelings, but also, like, there’s bigger shit to worry about kids.
But which tunnel entrance do we think the kids used? At the school? Do they just keep their uniforms in their lockers?? And it’s Grundy! Soloman Grundy!! OMFG!!! Rick, sweetie, maybe don’t go yelling at the fucking zombie in the secret tunnels under the town? Dragon King is here doing some real weird looking shit to Brainwave. And the Starsquad + Henry Jr is gonna fight all these creepy zombie slaves of DK’s, and once again proving how Court & Yolanda are the most prepared for a fight, they’re th eonly ones we know have some kind of martial arts training. RICK WHY ARE LETTING OUT SOLOMAN GRUNDY?!?! Fucking idiot boy. But man do I love watching Courtney & Yolanda kick ass. Especially followed by the older villains once again proving how big a deal experience is. Oh fuck DK’s face is disgusting. It’s real gross. I do appreciate Henry Jr fighting back against Henry Sr. He, at least, is not cool with the whole supervillain killer thing, which is good. I am once again talking about how cool the CG is for Court’s staff. And Henry Jr is straight up going to sacrifice himself for the Starsquad??? Maybe we don’t hate him. If they can handle his redemption properly, I may be able to support it in the future. As long as this isn’t all of the redemption arc.
WAIT HENRY SR KILLED HIS WIFE?!?! EXCUSE ME?!?!?! And now he’s threatening to kill his own son, real supervillain material. I’m glad Henry Jr is making the right choice though. And to see all of the Starsquad fighting so hard to help him, and Henry really apologizing for what he did to Yolanda. I’m glad it wasn’t a last minute “i love you” because that would be so unearned.
HI DCU STOP KILLING FUCKING KIDS!! I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO SAY THAT!!! AND THAT’S HOW IT ENDS!?!?!? FUCK THAT!!! Okay, but I’m still super in the Joey Lives camp, and we know that Henry Jr is at least decently important in comics, so maybe we’ll get them both back? Idk. I’m a little undecided on whether I want Henry to have survived because this really doesn’t feel like the end of his arc, but more the start. So I want to see that really get addressed. But at the same time, I want death to have consequences (unless it’s one of my loves, obviously, I’m fine with being a hypocrite for that).
I have so many thoughts, I’m really not sure where exactly to begin (beyond what I’ve already been saying), but that’s all things we can address later. That’s it for this weeks episode, for now, which means that I’ll see you next Sunday for Stargirl 1.11 “Shining Knight” it’s a fucking Shining Knight episode guys, that’s awesome! Honestly this show just ups the bar every episode, it’s probably the best DC show around currently period. It’s amazing.
