Is it time for DC’s Stargirl to drop the Eclipso plot? “Summer School: Chapter Ten” dragged out another chapter focusing on the shadowy supervillain. Much of the main plot could best be described as filler, essentially a repeat story of the Justice Society of America trying to find another solution for how to stop Eclipso. The trial-and-error worked a few episodes ago, but after a few attempts and many JSA members disbanding, the arc has relied too much on repetition. Stargirl has fallen into a bad pattern where the same tricks are used and nothing really happens in the plot. “Summer School: Chapter Ten” was a whole lot of filler and nothing else.
In this case, Pat and Courtney went on a road trip to find Jennie in the hopes that her Green Lantern powers would fix Eclipso’s ring. Yet again, this is an adventure plot with the goal of a solution that may or may not work. What did come from this storyline was more information for two arcs to come: (1) Pat’s friendship and history with Starman, and (2) Jennie searching for her missing brother. Stargirl has been dropping tidbits about these plots for weeks now, so it’s highly possible that Jennie’s brother Todd will play a big part in the future. He’ll either join the JSA along with his sister or he’ll be a villain working for Dr. Bones and Louise Love.
Starman, on the other hand, was confirmed to be alive—it’s only a matter of time before he reunites with Pat so they can finally face their issues. I liked how “Summer School: Chapter Ten” gave more humanity and depth to Starman’s character; he needed serious redemption after all his bad treatment of Pat over the years. The former JSA made a decision to kill Eclipso’s former host, so they had to live with that guilt. But, it’s nice that his conscience did come out in the end and he reflected on his bad decisions/treatment. Pat and Starman were friends for decades—the show needed to give them some happy times to justify why they teamed up in the first place.
The Shade, while a neutral anti-hero and supervillain, seemed more self-serving than dastardly. His actions in lying to the JSA to fix the crystal were more about helping himself than helping Eclipso. It’s a terrible thing he did to ruin their trust, especially with Barbara, since there did seem to be a genuine friendship there, but The Shade will do whatever benefits him the most. His top priority was healing himself, so we can’t completely fault him. Now that he’s back at full strength, he better use those powers to defeat Eclipso. A debt is paid and he needs to take down the supervillain once and for all.
At least we also now have the backstory on The Shade. Beth’s goggles come in handy whenever they work and this time they gave a bevy of information. Hopefully, the goggles get fixed this season because the trope of the convenient resource has gotten old. Granted, the gimmick has given Beth more room to grow on Stargirl; her arc is one of the better parts of DC’s Stargirl Season 2 since it developed her into becoming a full-fledged superhero with agency. And, it helped her to face her insecurities and tackle her family’s divorce, which was another positive note in her growth. Though, “Chuck” needs to be fixed so that everything can be out in the open so the Eclipso plot can be finished with.
The same goes with Mike’s training and Thunderbolt. Similar to Jennie, the “Jakeem Thunderbolt” plot was teased earlier during Mike’s short time as the alter-ego. Now that more mishaps are happening around Blue Valley, it’s time for this storyline to emerge and induct Jakeem into the JSA. The team needs members again, especially Yolanda and Rick to return, so bringing Thunderbolt back into the fold will help to flesh out the group for their next big battle.
The biggest twist from “Summer School: Chapter Ten” came in the form of Courtney being dragged into the shadow world. She’s definitely alive and will come back; there’s no way Stargirl would remove their main character this way. This plot could be how the original Doctor Mid-Nite and Cindy Burman are brought back into the real world. Both are currently trapped in the shadow world, along with possibly many other victims, so they could all be brought back. And potentially, work together to stop Eclipso as one strong alliance. Crossing my fingers the shadow world creates a lot of scary visuals and showcases an interesting editing style.
“Summer School: Chapter Ten” was a stepping stone for plots to come—Stargirl had to cross this bridge to get to the bigger beats later on. Was this chapter essential? Not really; it’s a lot of filler and empty space in between the key moments. It’s a good example of Stargirl’s current momentum—something needs to reignite the energy because it’s fallen into the same endless cycle.
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DC’s Stargirl airs new episodes Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW and streams Wednesdays on cwtv.com.
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