Stargirl review: “Summer School: Chapter Three”

Stargirl has been an unexpectedly pleasant addition to the Arrowverse, and its sophomore season is managing to surpass its freshman one. This week’s episode, “Summer School: Chapter Three,” is my favorite of the season so far (I know there have only been two others), mainly because it’s more comic book heavy. When shows and movies take their stories directly from comics, we know we’re in for some fun.

Stargirl introduces Thunderbolt into the mix this week, voiced by Jim Gaffigan. Thunderbolt has a goofy personality and can basically do any sort of magic. He’s like a genie, basically.

Thunderbolt lives in a pen that falls into that falls into the hands of Mike (Trae Romano), who has been feeling isolated and alone lately. It was nice to see Mike get some more screen time as he spent most of the first season in the shadows. He’s actually quite hilarious and played perfectly by Romano.

Along with Thunderbolt’s addition, we got more of The Shade/Richard Swift (Jonathan Cake) in this week’s episode. He’s a very sinister character, and just might be the most dangerous of all the members of the ISA (Injustice Society of America).

Let’s get into the details. Be aware of SPOILERS ahead!

Eleven years ago…

Stargirl kicks off the episode with a blast to the past, circa Christmas Day 2010. Pat (Luke Wilson) is visited by Johnny Thunder (Ethan Embry), who is down on his luck after being benched by the JSA. Pat can sympathize, since his role involves staying back during important missions and doing things like prepping their modes of transportation, etc. He doesn’t seem as bummed about it as Johnny and trusts Sylvester/Starman (Joel McHale) knows what he’s doing.

Johnny is in possession of Thunderbolt’s pen, which means he has a ton of power. In fact, Thunderbolt’s powers supersede those of Green Lantern and the Flash, but Johnny has never quite gotten the method to Thunderbolt’s madness down.

Johnny is eventually called away for a mission, but Pat is asked to stay behind once again. Perhaps being the sidekick isn’t as glorious as he was leading himself to believe, but he does have a family. Sadly, it would be the last time Pat would ever lay eyes on Johnny, who lost his life in the battle against the ISA.

Stargirl introduces Thunderbolt

As I mentioned earlier, Stargirl hasn’t given Mike much screen time, but this week’s episode really changes that. A closer look at his life reveals that he’s bullied, sort of ignored at home, and feels rather lonely. Perhaps that’s why Thunderbolt’s pen eventually lands in Mike’s hands. The pen is drawn to lonely, isolated people — case in point, Johnny Thunder.

Holding the pen and saying the words “I wish” without further clarifications can result in utter chaos. Such is the case for Mike, who uses the pen to write something while feeling down on his luck as he wishes he was a superhero. Soon after, he is out on his newspaper route and begins spotting the words “So Cool” everywhere. It turns out this is exactly what you have to say to awake Thunderbolt, who comes flying out of the pen in all his pink electric glory.

The CW loves to make Stargirl look as amazing as it can, and it’s clear they spent a bit of time making sure Thunderbolt look as comics-accurate as possible. He looks amazing. If Thunderbolt appeared on The Flash, he would look underwhelming.

Anyway, for a brief moment of time, Mike does become a superhero as he was hoping. While trying to wrap his head around Thunderbolt’s sudden appearance, he spots the bullies from earlier bothering a young girl. He wishes that Thunderbolt could make them stop, but doesn’t specify how. Stop signs start falling out of the sky, surrounding the bullies until they grow so scared that they run away. It’s another well-executed visual effect. Top that off with Gaffigan’s hilarious commentary as Thunderbolt and we’ve got ourselves one of the best comic-based episodes of Stargirl yet.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and Pat isn’t too sure he’s willing to let Mike yield so much, so soon…or even at all.

The Shade

Meanwhile, Courtney (Brec Bassinger) can’t contain her enthusiasm over the fact that the Shade is in town. It means a new villain to fight, even though she severely underestimates just how powerful the guy really is.

The Shade is bad news all around, and is responsible for killing Dr. Midnight back when the JSA fought against the ISA. Beth is livid when she learns this and is dead-set on exacting revenge.

But the Shade is not easy to take down. He operates as a shadow, and the only time Pat has seen him incapacitated was when Starman used his staff. Perhaps Courtney/Stargirl can make it happen, but it will be easier said than done.

Barb (Amy Smart) has to deal with the Shade when he shows up in the archives. He wants to get his hands on William Zarick’s collection, and when he learned Barb was there he couldn’t help himself.

Taking down Shade

Pat isn’t on board with Mike using Thunderbolt for anything, especially when it comes to Shade. But he doesn’t have much of a choice given that Thunderbolt can grant wishes and help them what they need. He agrees to get Thunderbolt’s help despite feeling like he is too dangerous and too powerful to keep around. But the deal is that you can’t just ask Thunderbolt for a wish; you need to be extremely specific.

We get a few minutes of absolutely Stargirl genius and hilarity while the team works together to figure out how how exactly to ask Thunderbolt to reveal Shade’s location, which they eventually get. The team heads off to it, sans Mike, who is forced to stay behind. That’s an interesting decision given that Mike still has Thunderbolt and can theoretically cause more trouble from back here. And that’s more or less what he does when he show up at Shade’s location just as the new JSA falls into his clutches.

The Shade is ridiculously powerful and this JSA is no match for him. He’s able to take them all down in one go, including Thunderbolt. What’s worse, earlier on Pat and Barb figure out that the Shade is after the Black Diamond, the same one that Eclipso (Nick E. Tarabay) is inside of. Exactly why he wants it is unclear, but in the final moment of the episode, the Shade is seen atop the clock tower looking into the box he stole earlier.

With a look of fear (I think?) on his face, he utters the words, “He’s going to kill those children.” So, is that good or bad news for the Shade? I couldn’t really tell, but I can’t wait to find out where this story is leading us.

Thunderbolt goes into better hands

After the fiasco with the Shade, Mike is in a whole lot of trouble for putting himself in harm’s way. However, he explains that he just wanted to be a part of the team, and he now realizes — or rather wishes — that Thunderbolt were in better hands.

And that is exactly what happens when the pen disappears from Mike’s hands and ends up in Jakeem’s (Alkoya Brunson). If you recall, after Mike stumbled upon the pen accidentally earlier in the episode, he was talking about his newspaper route being in better hands with Jakeem. That moment comes full circle when the pen ends up with Jakeem, which is yet another stellar comic book reference.

Gosh, I am loving Stargirl!

Stargirl has set the stage for an epic season. We’ve got so many storylines running concurrently, and it’s all slowly coming together. The Shade’s plan is still unknown, but he doesn’t seem like he’s too happy about whatever Eclipso might have planned. And then there’s the fact that Thunderbolt is now in the hands of Jakeem, who is the rightful owner in the comics.

Will Jakeem find his way to the JSA? And together will they all defeat the Shade and Eclipso? I’m really hoping for another epic battle before this season ends. We need to see a larger JSA take on some of these dangerous villains, and I have a sneaking suspicion that is exactly what is going to happen.

Grade: A-

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