Stargirl – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Wildcat

So far, Stargirl has managed to do a great job balancing out both the heroes and villains in this superhero ensemble. Seeing more of Jordan and William’s turbulent relationship last episode was a great touch to add more character and depth to them, while Courtney’s skirmish with Icicle at the end acts as a teasing glimpse of more to come in the not-too-distant future. This time around though we receive something a little different – but no less effective – as Courtney attempts to recruit Yolanda to her cause and build her own Justice Society.

The result is something that works reasonably well, keeping the tone of the piece strictly leaning toward teen drama vibes while ominous presenting the threat to come in teasing glimpses across these 45 minutes.

We begin Stargirl episode 4 three months ago as a small montage sees Yolanda gearing up and readying herself to run as class president. When she heads home, she agrees to send a sexy picture to her boyfriend, who happens to be Henry. Only, he ends up sharing this with the entire school and the humiliation from this is too much for her to bear. Even worse, her family shun her and look down on their daughter following this incident.

Back in the present day, Courtney looks over the various items she gathered from the Justice Society last episode and deliberates over the best way to proceed. Pat calls her down for breakfast but following Joey’s death things are frosty between them. Speaking of cold, Jordan heads down to the basement at the Injustice Society headquarters and speaks to the doctor there, telling him he’s working on Project: New America and requests he begin building a machine to see that come to fruition. In order to do so, Jordan agrees to hand over the body of The Wizard to aid in his experiments.

Back at school, Courtney opens up to Yolanda and admits the truth to her about blowing up Henry’s car. Realizing she may be the one that can help fight, Courtney learns more about Yolanda’s betrayal before showing her the secrets she’s been holding all this time. Despite some initial reservations, Yolanda trusts Courtney and wears the wildcat suit.

When she puts the helmet on, it automatically changes to fit her body. As another montage cuts in, we learn more about Wildcat’s abilities and see them play out firsthand as Courtney marvels at her abilities.

They decide to put their skills to the test, and figure out together that if Brainwave’s friends are nearby, they may well be at the hospital. Determined to see if this holds weight, Yolanda uses her abilities to begin climbing up the side of the building to make it into Brainwave’s room, while Stargirl heads in a different way.

Meanwhile Denise packs her things up and decides to leave town, telling Pat he needs to be careful as there’s more going on than he knows. An ominous warning for sure but as she races off, she leaves Pat with his thoughts.

Back at the hospital, Yolanda and Courtney work together and watch as Principal Bowen arrives before Brainwave and starts playing the violin. Sussing something is afoul, they get to work investigating just what this means. As they head up to the roof together, Beth happens to see them and hears Yolanda’s name being called.

Yolanda rejects the call to action though and instead, heads home and confronts her family about what happened in the past. When they refuse to listen and send her to her room once more, Yolanda has enough and decides to chase her destiny and embraces the costume.

Pat heads back to the scrapyard in order to pick up supplies but once there, he runs across a black cat; the very same black cat that belonged to Denise. As he keeps looking, he finds her car battered and empty.

What happened to Denise? Did Jordan get to her first or was it someone else? The mystery is certainly an intriguing one and alongside this, the episode does a great job capturing the innocence and excitement these two girls feel as they start to branch out and discover their powers. The authenticity with checking Wikipedia is a great touch and the conflict between the new Justice Society and the Injustice Society looks set to be quite the showdown.

I’d imagine going forward Beth will be recruited next and perhaps this trio will be joined by Rick – the other boy from the “loser” table at school. For now though, the episode does well to introduce Wildcat and continue to build up the threat lurking in the shadows. Stargirl looks like its gearing up for quite the dramatic second half after another decent slice of drama but is Stargirl really Starman’s daughter?

Published: 08 June 2020 at 10:40am on TheReviewGeek.com