DC’s Stargirl – Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite

By starrymag | June 23, 2020

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

We open with a flashback. Rex (Lou Ferrigno Jr) and Wendi Tyler (Kristin Brock) are furiously packing and preparing to take off. Their young son Rick (Boston Pierce) wants to know where they’re going. Wendy tells him he’s staying in Blue Bell and his Uncle Matt (Adam Aalderks) is going to take care of him for a little while.

 

When Uncle Matt gets there he’s less than thrilled. He doesn’t seem fond of Rex and says he doesn’t know how to take care of a kid. Still the Tylers say they’re giving him fifty thousand dollars, leaving him the house and legally it says Rick is his son. Matt wants to know what is going on, but Wendy tells her brother it’s safer if he doesn’t know. Rex gives Rick a toy car and asks him to look after it as it’s special like him. There are hurried and tearful goodbyes and then Wendy and Rex drive off leaving a distressed Rick behind. They promise they’ll be back soon.

 

In the car Wendy tells Rex she’s scared, but Rex reassures her that “they” don’t know about Rick so he’ll be fine. Then, a monster-like figure comes out of nowhere causing them to crash their car.

 

A present day teenage Rick (Cameron Gellman) is working on a replica of the toy car his father had. And Uncle Matt is not fulfilling his promise. He blames Rick for ruining his life and it’s alluded to that things have gotten physical between them more than once. Also, everyday on his way to school Rick has to pass the tree his parents crashed into, that can’t be helpful. He punches the tree.

 

At the Whitmore-Dugan residence it’s Halloween and Courtney (Brec Bassinger) gets an unwelcome wake-up call from Mike (Trae Romano). Also, she needs a better place to stash her Stargirl uniform because Barbara (Amy Smart) nearly sees it while scolding Courtney about her messy room.

 

Before Courtney heads to school Pat (Luke Wilson) stops her and tells her he thinks the Wizard and his wife Denise were killed by the Injustice Society. Courtney doesn’t understand why they’d kill their own members. Pat says they’re not winning any awards for stability and they could all be lurking in Blue Valley.

 

Courtney wants to know if any of them were violinists. Pat says The Fiddler was and Courtney shares a theory that Principal Bowin (Hina X. Khan) could be The Fiddler. But Pat says The Fiddler is a man. Pat wants to know how Courtney saw her playing the violin in Brainwave’s room, minus being there with Yolanda (Yvette Monreal) in full costume. Pat tells her to stop poking around.

 

Courtney plans to keep poking around. She brought all the superhero gear she took to school to stash in her locker because she’s worried about anyone going through her room. Then, she tells Yolanda they need to ramp up the search, which means they need help. Yolanda suggests Artemis Crock (Stella Smith), but Courtney says she is too competitive. It’s not just physical, their recruits need to have heroic traits. As the ISA is on the homicidal, Yolanda wonders if they should look outside their high school for help. But Courtney says since the ISA members could be anyone they can’t trust adults.

 

Plus, remember how Beth (Anjelika Washington) saw Yolanda and Courtney in costume and using names in the field? As they’re talking about all this stuff in the hallway, they haven’t learned their lesson yet. Beth is listening to every word and looks interested in joining the fun.

 

Steven Sharpe (Eric Goins) makes plans to have a satellite dish brought to the town. Later, Pat and Courtney get stranded when Pat’s car breaks down. They meet Rick Harris who briefly stops to help and talks to Pat about cars. While they work on the car the small hourglass in Courtney’s bag starts glowing. Rick declines to help Pat push the car and leaves. Pat wonders what Courtney knows about him. Courtney says not much, but wants to know why the hourglass is glowing decides to follow him.

 

He catches on that he’s following her and wants to know what her deal is. She tries to explain and give a demonstration of the glowing hourglass, but it won’t glow anymore. Rick tells Courtney she needs meds and storms off.

 

Beth goes to Courtney’s house, but only Barbara is home. Barbara’s happy Courtney has made a friend, but Beth isn’t the best at reading social cues. She rambles enthusiastically at Barbara about her close relationship with her parents.  Up until she rescues a pair of goggles from the family’s dog. She goes upstairs and checks out Courtney’s room. The goggles start faintly buzzing and Beth puts them on. The glasses, endowed with the voice of Charles McNider (Henry Thomas), can tell the wearer anything about whatever they’re looking at. Think Friday or Jarvis in Iron Man. They belonged to Dr. Mid-Nite.

 

When Courtney gets home she’s startled to find Beth in her room. Also, the goggles can tell if the person they’re looking at is lying. Beth explains she saw her and Yolanda at the hospital. She heard them using their real names. “Chuck,” as Beth calls him, says names in the field are a frequent rookie super hero mistake. One that’s gotten people killed.

 

Courtney focuses on Beth and how she doesn’t know her. Beth points out they eat lunch together every day. Courtney just tells Beth that she can’t tell anyone or she could get them killed. After that sobering directive Beth wonders what she was doing out near the farm as only Rick Harris lives there. Chuck then tells the girls that Rick Harris’s name isn’t really Rick Harris – it’s Rick Tyler. Courtney recognizes the name from a talk with Pat and realizes that Rick is Rex Tyler a/k/a Hourman’s son.

 

Pat goes out to the farm where Rick and Uncle Matt live to drop off a carburetor. Rick mentioned needing one. We learn that Matt has little interest in spending time with his nephew and that Rick gets in trouble a lot.

 

Speaking of that, Rick sells kegs to his classmates. As a fellow legacy Courtney wants to recruit him. So, she, Yolanda and Beth go to Cindy’s (Meg DeLacy) Halloween party. For obvious reasons Yolanda doesn’t want to be in proximity to Henry (Jake Austin Walker) or Cindy. Speaking of them, we witness Cindy bully her friend Jenny (Ashley Winfrey) into changing costumes. Then, she drives Henry away for being too sad.

 

Beth, Yolanda and Courtney track down Rick and Courtney tries to recruit him again. She explains his dad was a superhero: Hourman. Rex Tyler was a chemist who designed the hourglass that gave him super strength for one hour a day. It only responded to his DNA, which is why it responds to Rick.

 

Rick turns the hourglass over, puts it on and experiences the super strength. He crushes the keg with his bare hands. Courtney says he shouldn’t use his powers in public, secret identities and all. Rick isn’t interested in the rules and storms off with the hourglass. Yolanda tells Courtney she just made the biggest delinquent in school an unstoppable beast. But Courtney’s not ready to give up. She thinks if they suit up they’ll have a better chance.  But minus Beth since Courtney believes it’s too dangerous.

 

Rick decides to use his new-found super strength to bust his uncle’s car. This might not end well.

 

Beth has a heart to heart with Chuck. She’s lonely. When she was younger she spent tons of time with her mother and father, but now that she’s older they want to devote more time to work. This leaves her with an empty house a lot. She says aloud that she kinda gets why Rick’s so angry as she’d be devastated if her parents were in an accident, but Chuck suggests it wasn’t an accident.

 

As Stargirl and Wildcat the girls confront Rick who’s at the site of his parents’ accident. Rick says he doesn’t want to play dress up with them. He’s angry all the time and doesn’t understand why his parents are dead. Courtney says her father was Starman and even though she only met him a few times she feels cheated. But now she gets to keep his legacy alive. She tells Rick he can do the same, the choice is his. Rick’s choice is to punch the tree so hard it comes down.

 

Courtney almost comes to blows with Rick, deciding finally that he might be too angry to have the hourglass. But they’re interrupted by Beth. She tells the group that what happened to Rick’s parents was no accident. With the goggles help she shows them a projection of a not quite human man named Solomon Grundy ran them off the road. With the new info Rick decides he’ll join afterall, but not for justice. He wants revenge.

 

The truck Rick punched is brought to Pat’s shop, the unusual damage makes Pat suspicious. At the same time Principal Bowin is using her violin to hypnotize two truck drivers one named Gary (Dominick Racano) and the other unnamed (Butch Copeland).

They were delivering a satellite. Gary gets on a school bus and the other is shot by Steven Sharpe. It’s not clear why yet.

 

Back at home Pat looks around in Courtney’s room and finds the JSA gear.