Stargirl Season 2, Episode 8: Summer School: Chapter Eight

This week on Stargirl, Eclipso continues his campaign to destroy the JSA from within as he targets both Rick and Beth.

Summer School: Chapter Eight looks and feels like a typical Arroverse filler episode, yet somehow it still counts. Seriously, little or nothing happens this week, yet the episode is still narratively relevant. I don't know how the producers managed to pull that off, but kudos to them!

For the past few weeks I've been harping on the fact that the show suffered a major budget cut when it moved to The CW. That's very apparent in this episode, as it consists mainly of scene after scene of characters standing around talking. There's little or no action, as the majority of this week's budget went toward the CGI Solomon Grundy.

That's not to say it's a bad episode— far from it. It spends some much-needed time fleshing out the character of Rick, and gives us some insight into Beth and her feelings of inadequacy as the weakest member of the JSA.

I just worry it's a little too "slow burn" for the majority of viewers, who're likely expecting a big comic book setpiece battle.

If I had one complaint about Chapter Eight and this season as a whole, it'd be that it's a little too dark and dour. It's a huge contrast to the fun and exuberance of Season One, as every episode has been pretty much filled with brooding introspection. I don't see that changing much during this Eclipso storyline, so hopefully Season 3 will give us a lighter tone again.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Miss Woods comes to Rick's house and apologizes again for accusing him of cheating on his test. She gives him a stack of college brochures, saying she hopes he'll consider going. Just then Rick's asshole Uncle Matt comes out and orders Woods off his property (???). He looks at the brochures and tosses them in the air, prophetically saying Rick will end up in jail before he goes to college. Rick sadly picks up the scattered brochures.

Sometime later Rick drives out to the forest for his daily feeding of Solomon Grundy. The stresses of his life get to him, and he breaks down and screams that he's tired of giving everything and getting nothing in return. He collapses and slumps down on a fallen log. Suddenly a shadow appears, and he sees Grundy looming over him.

At the Dugan home, Courtney tells her family she's going out to try and talk with Yolanda. Dugan tells her to give Yolanda some space, and maybe she'll eventually change her mind about quitting the JSA. Mike says Courtney could best help Yolanda by beating Eclipso's ass.

Just then the doorbell rings. Courtney answers it, but there's no one there. She sees a duffle bag on the doorstep, and when she opens it she finds Yolanda's Wildcat costume inside.

Elsewhere, Beth's at home trying to access the original JSA's confidential files. Suddenly she hears Dr. McNider's voice coming from her goggles. She introduces herself, and he asks her what she's doing with his goggles. She says she found them, and is now the new Dr. Mid-Nite. He confirms that he's trapped in the Shadowlands, before his signal's cut off.

Meanwhile, Rick's sitting on the log next to Grundy, who's devouring a bag of apples. Rick tells the behemoth a story about his Uncle Matt's dog. He says it turned mean because his uncle constantly beat it. Rick then took the dog away and gave it to a family who loved and cared for it, and it became friendly and harmless. Rick says he figures Grundy's the same, and just needs some kindness. He laughs as he realizes Grundy can't understand a thing he's saying. Just then Grundy reaches over and hands an apple to Rick.

Courtney takes the Wildcat costume down to the basement and puts in it storage. She sees the Cosmic Staff (which was damaged in last week's battle with Eclipso) and talks to it, telling it that it's her friend and she hopes it gets better soon. It glows briefly at this.

Over at the Chapel home, Beth's parents Bridget & James tell her it's time to talk about their divorce. They hand her a sandwich (?), and tell her that after she was born they both focused on raising her, which caused them to grow apart. In essence, they basically accuse her of causing their divorce! A distraught Beth looks down and sees maggots writhing all over her sandwich. She realizes Eclipso's causing her to hallucinate and runs from the house.

Rick returns to his car and sees a truck full of hunters drive by, yelling about hunting the "bear" who's been rampaging through town. He realizes they mean Grundy, and runs back into the woods to save his monstrous friend.

At the Pit Stop, Dugan continues rebuilding STRIPE. Courtney enters with the Cosmic Staff (which she's now nicknamed "Cosmo"), and says they need to fix it somehow. Dugan says there's nothing they can do, as the Staff was designed to repair itself. She says they can't just sit around and hope things get better— they need to find Eclipso and defeat him. Dugan urges her to be patient. Just then Rick calls and tells them Grundy needs their help, and they hurry off toward the woods.

Courtney & Dugan arrive at the woods, where they look for Rick. Courtney brings the weakened Staff with her, saying she figures it has one or two blasts in it.

Elsewhere, Beth goes to Courtney's home for some reason, but finds it empty. Suddenly young Bruce Gordon appears, and accuses Beth of being a liar and a thief for breaking into the Dugan home. He holds up Dr. Mid-Nite's goggles and says Beth stole them, as that's what "her kind" does. He dares her to catch him and runs upstairs.

Beth follows Bruce into Courtney's room, where he taunts her by saying the rest of the JSA were chosen, but no one picked her because she's weak. He appears behind her and shoves her into a closet and locks her inside.

Rick arrives at the clearing where he hung out with Grundy, but finds no sign of him. Two hunters— one of whom is injured— run by and tell Rick there's a monster on the loose, and it's captured a ten year old girl. They warn him to get to safety as they hurry away. Rick says Grundy wouldn't hurt a child and runs off to find him.

Beth breaks down the closet door, and inexplicably finds herself in the JSA's old HQ. Starman, Wildcat and Hourman are there, along with Young Bruce Gordon. He says Beth doesn't belong, as she's the wrong age, sex and color. He takes off again as she chases after him.

Rick hears gunshots and follows the sound. He sees Grundy standing motionless in front of a creek, looking down at a little girl lying dead in the water. Rick angrily asks if Grundy killed her, but the monster runs away. Dugan and Courtney arrive right as Rick goes after the monster.

Dugan sees the girl in the water, and for some reason picks up her lifeless body. He recognizes her as Rebecca McNider, Dr. Mid-Nite's daughter. Dugan gently lays her body on the ground, and suddenly her eyes open and she vanishes. Courtney realizes Eclipso's causing them all to hallucinate.

Rick chases Grundy and realizes he's led him to his own home. He activates his hourglass and starts beating the monster for killing the girl.

Beth runs finds herself back in the Dugan house, where she hears Bruce's voice taunting her. He says she likes to pretend she's brave as she hides behind her stupid smile, but in reality she's just a scared little girl. Beth asks Bruce why he's hiding, saying it sounds like he's the one who's afraid. Suddenly Eclipso emerges from the shadows and hisses that he isn't afraid of anything.

Dugan and Courtney arrive at Rick's home, where he's still wailing on Grundy. They try to stop him, telling him it's not the monster, but he won't listen. Courtney finally uses the Staff to blast Rick off of him. He then sees he wasn't beating Grundy after all, but was attacking his Uncle Matt! Eclipso strikes again! Horrified, Rick snatches the hourglass from his neck and throws it to the ground, shattering it.

Elsewhere, Eclipso urges Beth to give in to her fear. She somehow finds the strength to stand up to him and says she chose to become the new Dr. Mid-Nite and isn't afraid of him. She puts her goggles on and sees she's been in her own house the entire time, which breaks Eclipso's hold on her.

Back at Rick's house, the paramedics load his Uncle Matt into an ambulance and drive off. Rick's arrested and taken to jail as Dugan and Courtney look on helplessly. In the nearby woods, Grundy watches Rick being driven away.

Meanwhile, Dr. McNider contacts Beth again, and she tells him that Eclipso's loose. He says she should keep the goggles on at all times, as they can see through the demon's illusions. 

Beth's mom Bridget enters, and gives her a Patented The CW Pep Talk© about how she shouldn't let anyone tell her what she can and can't be. She then asks why Beth's wearing goggles, and she says it's for swim class.

Back at the Dugan house, Barb fills in Mike on the events of the episode. He asks what they can do to help, and she says all they can do is be there for Dugan and Courtney and the others. They hug, as ice begins forming on the windows of their house (?).

Thoughts:
• Another episode that doesn't start with a flashback.

• The show may have suffered a budget cut this season, but damn if it doesn't still LOOK good. It's very cinematic, as it looks more like a movie than a TV show.

• Kudos to Pinar Toprak, who composed this episode's score. The music was ominous and appropriately foreboding— especially the haunting "Rick's Theme."

• According to various characters, Eclipso's using his powers to affect the weather in Blue Valley. I'll say! Despite the fact that it's the Fourth Of July, when Miss Woods arrives at Rick's place, we see he's wearing his heavy winter coat INSIDE the house!

• Forshadowing Alert: When Uncle Matt sees the brochures Miss Woods dropped off, he sneers and tells Rick, "You'll end up in jail before you end up in college." Which of course he does in the third act!

• Symbolism Alert: Uncle Matt takes the college brochures that Miss Woods brought out to Rick and tosses them onto the ground. The wind then blows them all away— just like Rick's hopes and dreams. Subtle!

• At one point Rick goes into the woods, where he sits down on a log and has himself a little mental breakdown. Suddenly he looks up, and is startled to see Solomon Grundy looming over him.

Grundy must have the same "selective stealth mode" as the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, to mask the sound of his thundering footsteps until he's literally ten feet away. Either that or Rick is reeeeeally unaware of his surroundings.

• I was honestly surprised to see Grundy show up this early in the season. Due to the recent budget cuts, I figured the producers wouldn't be able to afford to have him appear until the season finale.

I've brought this up before, but it's worth a repeat— Rick's befriending and caring for the same behemoth that murdered his parents! Maybe he thinks Grundy's too dumb to understand what he did. Maybe he knows Grundy was forced to act by the ISA and isn't responsible for his actions. Or maybe Rick feels that Grundy's the only link— twisted though it might be— to his late parents. Whatever the reason, there's definitely a psychological thesis there in their relationship.

By the way, what's up with Grundy's emo hairstyle? Big fan of Spider-Man 3, is he?

• By all means, Rick, willingly eat an apple offered to you by an enormous, filth-covered swamp zombie. I'm sure he probably disinfected his hands before offering it to you.

• Beth continues to use her goggles to try and unlock the JSA's secret files. She's contacted again by Dr. Charles McNider (aka the original Dr. Mid-Nite), who's trapped in the Shadowlands.

During their conversation, McNider says, "I think they've seen me. I need to keep moving" and abruptly signs off. So who's "they?" I assume there must be some sort of creatures roaming the Shadowlands, but it's never made clear. Maybe this was setup for a future episode?

Also, Beth continues to pronounce "Dr. McNider" so that it sounds like "Dr. MIDNIGHTER." She's not the only one, as Courtney's guilty of doing it as well. This is really confusing, as I bet a lot of viewers think the character's real name is Charles Midnighter.

This is something the director really need to deal with and correct.

• Eclipso turns his sights on Beth, and makes her see evil versions of her parents— who sit her down and blame her for their upcoming divorce. Thing is, her REAL parents are both such horrible assholes that I couldn't tell the difference between them and the dark, twisted hallucinatory versions!

• Dugan continues to rebuild STRIPE. As I said last week, I'm 100% convinced the only reason the writers had the ISA dismantle the giant robot was to save money on costly CGI fight scenes.

• Methinks the Stargirl writers must be big fans of Seinfeld. This week Courtney nicknames the Cosmic Staff "Cosmo."

By the way, did Courtney really march down the street, openly carrying that thing? Surely that would have drawn a few looks from the townsfolk that the series can't afford to show us this year.

• Courtney tells Dugan that they need to do something to repair the Cosmic Staff. Dugan says, "Remember, the Staff was designed to fix itself."

Really? So WHO designed it to fix itself? WHO designed it in the first place? Sylvester Pemberton, the original Starman? If so, he must be quite the genius. Are we really supposed to believe he just nonchalantly forged a SENTIENT metal staff that can fire energy blasts and fly? How the frak did he manage that?

And if Sylvester didn't do it, then who did?

• This came up a couple weeks ago, but it's worth a repeat. When Beth hallucinates she's in Courtney's house, she wanders around calling everyone's name— including "Miss Whitmore."

OK, I can see Barb deciding to keep her maiden name for professional reasons. But why the hell is Beth calling her "MISS?" Are Barb & Dugan married or aren't they?

• Once again, Milo Stein kills it as Young Bruce Gordon. Not only is he excessively creepy, he seems to understand exactly what he's saying and everything his words imply. It's pretty impressive for a kid.

• Apparently in addition to being evil, Eclipso's also a racist. He spends the entire second half of the episode taunting Beth, saying things like, "Stealing. That's what you people do," and "I thought you people were athletic. I guess some of the stereotypes are wrong."

It's actually pretty shocking to hear such comments come out of a little kid's mouth. Or to hear them on an ultra-woke network like The CW!

• Kudos to Eclipso in this episode, as he knows exactly how to get to Beth. He tells her she's the weakest member of the team (which is true!), that no one chose her like they did the other JSA members, and even mentions the "stupid smile" she constantly hides behind to mask her insecurities. He's pretty good at zeroing in on the insecurities of his victims and demoralizing them.

Also, at one point Beth hallucinates she's in the original JSA's HQ. There she encounters several JSAers, who all tell her she's not good enough to be part of the team. 

Note that she's confronted by the adult versions of the current team, including Starman, Wildcat and Hourman. Interesting...

• Rick's definitely having trouble with his senses in this episode. In the first act he doesn't hear Grundy's thundering footsteps until he's literally standing right in front of him. Later on he returns to the log where he shard a moment with Grundy. HE LOOKS STRAIGHT AHEAD and apparently doesn't see anything for hundreds of yards. He then turns around, and three seconds later a hunter grabs his shoulder! What the hell?

Note that the hunter is practically carrying his wounded friend as the two of them hobble along. They couldn't have been going very fast, meaning there's no way in hell that Rick could have missed them when he looked right in their direction. 

The director was clearly so intent on giving us a jumpscare that he didn't care whether the shot made any sense or not.

Since Eclipso spends this episode mentally attacking both Beth and Rick, I suppose it might be possible that the two hunters are hallucinations— meaning they popped into existence while Rick's back was turned. There really were actual hunters in the woods though, and there's nothing to indicate these two weren't real, so... I don't think that's the case.

• Eclipso causes Grundy, Rick, Dugan & Courtney to all hallucinate the body of Dr. McNider's daughter late daughter Rebecca. She was last seen at the beginning of Summer School: Chapter One, and was Eclipso's first victim.

• Eclipso expertly manipulates Rick, by making him think Grundy killed Rebecca. Rick then powers up and begins savagely beating Grundy in revenge— only to realize he's actually attacking his Uncle Matt.

Either Rick was subconsciously pulling his punches, or Uncle Matt's awfully tough. With his hourglass activated, Rick should have easily killed his uncle.

• At the end of the episode we see Uncle Matt being loaded into an ambulance, and Rick sitting in the back of a police car. 

So who called the cops on Rick? Uncle Matt seem a little too busy being unconscious.  There's no way Courtney would have done it, and Dugan probably would have lied and said they found Matt that way. I suppose it's possible Rick may have been overcome with guilt and turned himself in, but that seems unlikely. So that leaves Uncle Matt after all!

• At the end of the episode, Barb comforts a worried Mike— who responds by actually calling her "Mom." It's a nice little moment between the two of them, and demonstrates just how far this blended family has come.

• In the final scene, the exterior of the Dugan home begins icing up, and it even looks like it's starting to snow. Obviously this is the work of Eclipso, but... why the ice? Is it because of Barb's history with Jordan Mahkent/Icicle?