WiC Watches: Stargirl
By Ariba Bhuvad
Pictured: Nelson Lee as Dr. Ito/Dragon King — Photo: Josh Stringer/The CW
Episode 7: “Shiv Part One”
With their first official showdown as the new Justice Society of America under their belt, it’s clear the team still has quite a bit of work to get done. Thankfully, Pat is on their side and willing to provide the training to get them in shape and ready to face down members of the Injustice Society, or at east, as ready as they’ll ever be.
“Shiv Part One” does a marvelous job of pitting Courtney/Stargirl against the character who will most certainly be the Joker to her Batman. Who am I referring to? Cindy Burman, aka Dr. Ito/Dragon King’s daughter. I think it was clear from the get-go that the most popular girl in school would present a problem. However, I didn’t imagine she would go head to head with Stargirl as her archnemesis. I’ll be honest, I was skeptical of Stargirl long before it premiered, but as the episodes have gone on, I’m admittedly hooked.
This week’s episode reeled me in with the reveal that Cindy is actually Shiv, the teenage villain of this series. She has a drive to follow in her evil father’s footsteps, and she won’t let anything stop her, not even Stargirl and her motley crew of rookie superheroes.
“Shiv Part One” flawlessly executes the transition from Cindy to Shiv, and somehow gets us to empathize with her. The episode juxtaposes Cindy at school and then at home, and I found myself conflicted on whether to hate or like her. She’s definitely a villain and harbors ill will towards our heroes, but Stargirl was having me go back and forth on her, and I’m so here for the moral gray area.
I particularly enjoyed the JSA training in this episode, because our heroes desperately need it. It would be unrealistic for them to just figure out how to use their new costumes and powers. I appreciate that they’re approaching this realistically and not rushing the storyline.
The only issue is that Courtney keeps butting into Pat’s lessons and trying to speed things up. This is when you realize that Courtney is still a kid, and in over her head. She has the best of intentions and she can definitely kick some major ass, but she’s so excited she’s not taking in Pat’s advice. After all, he did work with the original JSA, so the guy knows what he is talking about.
Once again, Stargirl does a great job paralleling multiple characters. On the one hand, we have Courtney, whose stepfather is trying to teach her the best way to go about this whole ISA thing. And on the other, we have Cindy, who is basically doing the same thing with her father in hopes of taking down Stargirl. One has evil intentions, the other has good, but they’re still very similar in their way.
I’ve noticed that Courtney seems to feel that she can do everything without anyone’s help. Even though she is the one who brought the JSA together, she doesn’t really act like she needs them. When given the opportunity, Courtney ventures out on her own or acts on her impulse to fight. She’s not displaying great leadership or encouraging teamwork, and I’m hoping that the series reflects on this in the coming episodes.
On the ISA side of things, they’re eager to figure out who the heck the new JSA is. More often than not, the heroes are attempting to find the villains, but in this episode, it’s the opposite. It’s fun to see caught off guard the ISA by how relentless and dedicated the new JSA has quickly become.
There’s just one slight issue. Shiv and Stargirl have a showdown in the middle of the football game inside of the school. Not only do they tear down the school dance decorations, but Shiv takes down Stargirl pretty hard. Stargirl’s Cosmic Staff goes to look for Pat, and he comes screaming her name.
I know he didn’t know that she was in this particular situation, but given that the Cosmic Staff came looking for him, he probably shouldn’t have been screaming “Cort, Cort, Cort” over and over again. Why does that matter, you ask? Well, because Shiv heard him and made an escape before he could find her.
See the predicament there?
Here’s hoping that Stargirl is alright: she wasn’t looking too hot at the end there.