DC’s Stargirl – Summer School: Chapter Two

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

The episode opens with Cindy’s (Meg DeLacy) stepmother Bobbie (Lesa Wilson) in the kitchen having a mini celebration. She’s free of her wicked stepdaughter and husband. Or so she thinks. Cindy shows up at the door and tells her long-time no see. Her stepmother is obviously horrified, but then Cindy holds up the same stone the little boy in the flashback had.

We cut away to a group home a week earlier. A girl named Jennie (Ysa Penarejo) has her bags packed and is ready to leave. A woman named Mrs. Ordway (Roxzane T. Mims) tells Jennie she’s sorry it has to be this way, but the group is for kids. And, as of today, Jennie is legally not a kid anymore. Happy Birthday. She gives Jennie a small box that was left for her by social services and some advice. She tells her not to try so hard to be perfect, people will like her for her and it’s also just annoying. Then, she says goodbye and closes the door in her face.

When Jennie is alone on the porch she looks through the box. There are a few pictures, one in particular of her and a boy named Todd. And there’s a Green Lantern ring. Fast forward one week to the Whitmore-Dugan house. The ring belonged to Jennie’s father and she went there to retrieve the lantern. She apologizes to Pat (Luke Wilson) and Barbara (Amy Smart) and says she wasn’t trying to steal anything. Apparently, Alan Scott was her father. The ring led her here and she didn’t plan on getting into a fight. And she’s a pretty big fan of Pat’s work. Courtney, unfortunately, isn’t a fan of Jennie’s, but Pat agrees to teach her to use the ring.

The next morning Courtney wakes up on the couch. Her mom offered her room to Jennie, much to her annoyance. And she’s still the only person who hasn’t been won over. Jennie made everyone breakfast and fixed the damage to the kitchen. Pat plans to start Jennie’s training and Courtney wants to join, but Barbara reminds her that she has one last day of Summer school.

She’s not the only one. Upon arrival Courtney finds out that Yolanda’s (Yvette Monreal) parents enrolled her in Summer school despite her perfect grades to “keep her out of trouble.” They’re still holding the pictures against her. Yolanda asks Courtney about Jennie and Courtney makes it clear she doesn’t trust her. Courtney says people in this town tend to not be who they’ve said they are. Also, Rick (Cameron Gellman) blew off the first day of Summer school and is off in the woods when he gets a call from Beth (Anjelika Washington).

Pat takes Jennie to his garage and she gets to see his giant robot and meets Zeek (King Orba). He gives her a crash course in the ring. It responds to emotions and can make anything the owner wants. Pat is also shocked that the ring worked for Jennie the entire journey to town. Alan, he recalls, had to charge it with the lantern everyday. They practice making a few objects with the ring.

Elsewhere, a man in a top hat drives into town and approaches Barbara. His name is Richard Swift (Jonathan Cake) and he collects old and curious things. He wants to buy William Zarick’s stage props that the company has in a trust. Richard claims not to have ever known him and tells Barbara he’ll pay anything for the collection. Barbara says she’ll look into it and Richard notes he’ll be in touch.

At Pat’s garage Jennie is making progress and new friends. She’s progressed to being able to make a car with the ring and Beth, Rick and Pat are impressed. Courtney comes by with Yolanda and she meets Jennie. Much to Courtney’s annoyance, Jennie easily wins over Yolanda. It seems like the last straw. She pointedly asks Jennie if she came to join the JSA and doesn’t understand why Pat is not more suspicious of her. Jennie says she’ll just go and Beth and Rick go after her.

At the Berman residence Bobbie hears a voice. It tells her she nearly had her old life back. It asks her if she wants to go back to who she was before the abduction. The voice says if she wants to be free, she’ll have to kill Cindy.

The other JSA members get to know Jennie better and Pat asks Courtney what gives. He observes that she’s usually good at seeing the best in other people, but won’t stop assuming the worst of Jennie. Courtney admits she’s a little jealous of Jennie. She seems so perfect and unlike Courtney she’s really a superhero’s daughter. Courtney says Jennie is everything she’s not. But Pat says the two girls have more in common than she thinks and encourages her to apologize.

Courtney apologizes for her behavior and is pretty honest with Jennie. She says being around her made her feel really insecure because Jennie has everything and is everything Courtney ever wanted to be. Unfortunately, this sets Jennie off. She says she never wanted to be a hero, she just wants to find her brother Todd. She thought the ring would lead her to him, but it brought her here instead. Her eyes start glowing and the lantern starts going haywire.

Pat goes to the diner and meets Richard. He seems suspicious and tries to learn more about him, but has to quickly leave because he sees the gang sprinting past the diner while glowing bright green. He follows them to the park and tries to calm Jennie down. She can’t really seem to and apologizes for all the trouble. And Courtney makes a realization that Jennie is the lantern. That’s why it worked for her despite not having been charged in years. Courtney realizes she can absorb the energy! After some much needed encouragement Jennie almost manages to absorb the energy. But then a blast goes off through town. At first the gang is worried it killed Jennie. What really happened is that absorbing the energy allowed her to use the ring’s powers without the ring. Plus, she can fly now.

The next morning Barbara tells Courtney that Jennie is gone. Courtney tells Pat that Jennie helped her get some perspective. And she apologizes to Pat for being so harsh when they first moved to Blue Bell. She also promises to put her civilian life first and stop chasing villains. Except that Pat says he thinks the Shade, the last unaccounted for Injustice Society villain, is in Blue Bell.

The episode closes at the Berman residence. Cindy says she wants dinner and her step-mother tries to kill her. Cindy fends off the attack and Bobbie hears whispers egging her on. She goes for the knife she used and Cindy is taken over by the spirit of whatever is inhabiting the stone she’s held onto. It possesses her and kills her step mother. It seems that whatever is inside the stone is some sort of sin eater that encourages a person’s worst impulses and then kills them when they follow through. Cindy asks the voice coming from the stone why it did that. The voice says her step-mother was desperate and it needed to protect Cindy from her. Cindy says she doesn’t need anyone’s protection.