DC’s Stargirl – Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. Part One

By starrymag | August 11, 2020

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

We open with less than twelve hours until Project New America launches at the ISA’s headquarters. Brainwave (Christopher James Baker) lays out the plan. The orders have Sportsmaster (Neil Hopkins) and Tigress (Joy Osmanski) have orders to eliminate the Whitmore-Dugan family. Dr. Ito (Nelson Lee) is putting the finishing touches on the machine. Brainwave tells Jordan (Neil Jackson) that there will be a significant cost to the program, but once they’re re-programmed they’ll think like them. They’ll fight for them if there’s any resistance from the rest of the country. He says Jordan’s wife would be very proud. Jordan just says to tell them when Stargirl’s family is dead.

 

Speaking of them, the Whitmore-Dugans are preparing to go off the grid. Courtney (Brec Bassinger) and Barbara (Amy Smart) are inside packing, while Pat (Luke Wilson) and Mike (Trae Romano) are in the basement. They’re headed to a cabin in the woods. Pat is gearing up to tell Mike about his secret life, but Mike is distracted and still miffed about being left in the dark. Pat tries to tear his attention away from a drill and then yells at Mike for not listening. Mike in turn gets angry with his father and demands to not be treated like a kid and runs off.

 

Moments after the flare up with Mike we see Pat get an unexpected visit from Sportsmaster or as he’s come to know him Larry from the gym. At first he’s confused, but Sportsmaster cuts to the chase. He menacingly approaches him with a baseball bat and calls him out on his robot. Pat tries to talk him out of it, but Sportsmaster goes in for the kill.

 

Upstairs Tigress goes after Barbara with her crossbow. She’s saved by Courtney with the staff. Sportsmaster and Pat are fighting and the tide starts to turn against Pat. Just as Sportsmaster is about to land a fatal blow, Mike comes to the rescue by shoving a power drill into his back. This distracts Sportsmaster for obvious reasons. He’s about to go after Mike when Pat tells him to keep away from his kid and wacks him with a very large wrench. Back upstairs Tigress and Courtney are neck and neck until Courtney blasts her through the window with a beam of light from the staff. For the guys part a lengthy speech because Mike sees the giant robot Pat built. He thinks it’s pretty cool. But, they all really need to leave.

 

Jordan is in his office with his parents Sofus (Jim France) and Lily (Kay Galvin). Lily tries to reassure him that Barbara wouldn’t have been a suitable wife anyway. Sofus, simply says it won’t be long now and suggests looping Cameron (Hunter Sansone) in. Jordan says no. Sofus insists that it’s Cameron’s birthright. Lily agrees that the boy should know who his family really is. This chat is interrupted by a phone call. Jordan is informed that Tigress and Sportsmaster failed.

 

Elsewhere Isaac (Max Frantz) goes to his mother Principal Bowin’s (Hina X. Khan) office rather upset. He’s being bullied for being in the band and was pushed down the stairs by a fellow student. Principal Bowin says when his father was a child he was bullied for playing his favorite instrument, too. When Issac inquires how he got it to stop his mother says he took the bow of his violin and put it through their eardrums. Unsurprisingly, he was never bothered again.

 

The Whitmore-Dugans arrive at the cabin and are met by Beth (Anjelika Washington), Yolanda (Yvette Monreal) and Rick (Cameron Gellman). There’s a momentary panic when a truck arrives, but it’s just Justin (Mark Ashworth) who brought food.

 

Underground Brainwave and Cindy (Meg DeLacy), who’s still locked up, share a very tense talk. He says it was Cindy’s job to watch Henry for signs of telepathic abilities. It was her only job and according to him she failed. He blames her for Henry’s death. Cindy says that it would’ve helped Henry if his father hadn’t been comatose for months. Rattled, Brainwave tells Cindy that her father sees her as a failed experiment and nothing more. Cindy asks to be let out to help, but Brainwave says the rest of the ISA wants her even less than her father. Then, he goes off with Dr. Ito for the test.

 

Brainwave straps into the machine but is given a disclaimer. Dr. Ito says best case scenario this will work. Worst case scenario his prefrontal cortex will melt and his spinal cord will turn into slush. Brainwave says he understands and gives the go ahead. There is a lot of lightning and many thoughts are heard. Brainwave says the experiment was a success and it’s going to work.

 

Eight hours until the plan goes into motion. Beth asks Chuck for an update and he explains that Brainwave absorbed Henry’s powers when he died which increased his power. Beth asks Yolanda if she’s thinking about Henry. She replies no because there’s nothing she can do about it. Rick is desperately trying to crack his father’s code. He explains to Justin there’s an equation on the last page of his father’s journal and that could be the key but he can’t find it. He’s tried everything that could’ve been significant to his father. He hopefully asks Justin if he has any ideas, but he tunes out and goes off to clean the bathroom.

 

Outside Courtney and Mike have a talk. Mike appears to be having some light superhero envy. He wonders if the staff would’ve worked for him if he’d found it first. Maybe, Courtney says. She allows him to try it, but it doesn’t respond. He’s disappointed, but says maybe he could build something like S.T.R.I.P.E for the JSA.

 

Elsewhere Sportsmaster wants to rip Mike’s arms off. The vengeance talk is spoiled by Principal Bowin. She was sent by Jordan to give them the ability to immobilize targets so that they don’t fail a second time. Tigress and Sportmaster say that’ll be no fun. Principal Bowin rips into them for their eagerness to be violent. She says their daughter doesn’t stand a chance and they’re unfit parents. This must’ve hit a nerve because Tigress shoots her through the chest with an arrow.

 

Barbara and Pat have a talk in the kitchen. She asks him flat out why he never told her about all of this. He explains that he thought that part of his life was over and that every person he and Starman ever told about the ISA wound up dead. Their family was the only thing that mattered to him. He wants to know if their marriage will survive this. Barbara wants it to, but there’s still a lot unresolved.

 

Pat then goes to check on Rick who has reached the notebook throwing stage research. He’s hit a wall. Pat encourages him to think of more significant numbers, but Rick says he wouldn’t know. He didn’t get to know his father. Pat brings up the Mustang – the 1969 Mustang and 1969 is the right number. The answer is coordinates to the ISA’s tunnels.

 

Using the equation the JSA are brought up to speed on the machine. They figure out most of the plan for mind control, but not what they want to force people to do yet. They decide to split up and try to infiltrate the secret lair. Yolanda, Justin and Rick are going in through the tunnels on one side of town while Courtney and Pat plan to go through the river to try to destroy the amplifier. Beth and Barbara plan to go to the American Dream to hack their system. Mike is bummed out that he doesn’t have a job beyond dog sitting.

 

It’s a half hour until the plan is launched. Beth successfully hacks into the manifesto. They’re going to force people to embrace solar and wind power, eliminate discrimination and accept universal healthcare. The kids are confused because those all sound like good things. But there’s a catch. It only works on adults, but about a quarter of the people who are reprogrammed will die. Beth then gets hacked by The Gambler (Eric Goins). He tells the gang that they’re too late.

 

The machine switches on and Justin, Barbara and presumably Pat’s eyes glaze over. Brainwave says he has them all under his control like puppets. This leaves Courtney and company at a loss. Under Brainwave’s control, inside the robot Pat punches Courtney.