DC’s Stargirl – Wildcat

By starrymag | June 16, 2020

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

We open to a happy montage of Yolanda (Yvette Monreal) three months ago. She hasn’t always been so surly. She had a lot of friends, she’s going out with Henry (Jake Austin Walker), she got along with her parents and she’s running for class President against Cindy (Meg DeLacy).

 

One night at Henry’s urging she sends him a few topless photos. He shares them. Cindy gets ahold of them and when Yolanda’s giving her campaign speech during an assembly Cindy shares the sexts with the whole school.

 

Present day. Remember when Pat (Luke Wilson) took Courtney (Brec Bassinger) to the Hall of Justice? She pocketed a bunch of the Justice Society’s toys and suits.

 

It’s time for breakfast and Mike (Trae Romano) wants Poptarts. Also, Courtney’s lack of new friends gets put on blast. Courtney wants to assemble a new Justice Society, but Pat wants her to put the brakes on it. They can’t drag any innocent people into it. Furthermore, he needs to find out if there are any other supervillains in Blue Valley, but without exposing them.

 

At school it’s awkward. All Yolanda’s old friends dropped her after the pictures got spread around and she bumps into Henry. He’s going out with Cindy now and running in true form she gets in Yolanda’s face for breathing his air. She alludes to the pics by telling Yolanda everyone’s seen enough of her. Courtney tries to help, but Yolanda just speed walks away. Cindy menacingly tells Courtney she’ll never see her coming. Courtney catches up with Yolanda who says she wants everyone to leave her alone.

 

Pat goes into his shop and finds Denise (Cynthia Evans) there. She is Joey’s (Will Deusnir) mother and William’s (Joe Knezevich) wife. She seems a bit dazed, but that’s to be expected after losing your husband and son on the same day. Denise tells Pat her house has been too quiet and empty. She went for a drive, but her car broke down. He’ll give it a look.

 

Jordan (Neil Jackson) goes into the Injustice Society’s lair and finds Dr. Ito (Nelson Lee) in a costume with many dragon aspects. He tells Jordan he never had the need for a team, but he’s on board for Project New America. It’ll be their generation’s great sacrifice for the next generation. Also, he’s glad that The Wizard is dead and wants the body for no discernable reason.

 

Courtney finds Yolanda boxing in the gym. She tells Yolanda that it’s not her who needs Courtney’s help. It seems that Courtney needs her. Yolanda tells her to back off, but Courtney says there’s something going on here. However, Yolanda’s not interested. Courtney pleads with her to come over after school and asks for Yolanda’s number. She explains that her parents took her phone away. Courtney asks to just come over anyway. Yolanda takes the address, but makes no promises.

 

Yolanda goes home to a very cold atmosphere. Only her brother Alex (Jonathan Blanco) acknowledges her. Her mother Maria (Kikey Castillo) can barely look at her. She wants to go Courtney’s for dinner, but her mother tells her that she’s grounded. Reminder, the pictures going out was three months ago. Yolanda wants to know for how long and Maria says until she says otherwise.

 

Courtney flips through the previous year’s yearbook. Yolanda was in a lot of clubs, including the boxing club. Yolanda doesn’t show, but realizing she and Henry dated Courtney figures out an in.

 

The next day Courtney tells Yolanda that she blew up Henry’s car. This gets the girl’s attention. Yolanda is a little confused though. Courtney says she knows what Henry did to her. Yolanda replies she never should’ve sent him the pictures. Courtney tells her that he shouldn’t have shared them. It seems like this is the first time Yolanda’s gotten any support about what happened. She recalls that she knew Henry could be a jerk, but he’d always been so nice to her. She thought she could trust him. It wrecked her parents and they won’t go near the school, they refuse to bring Yolanda to church or really talk to her. She tries not hate anyone, but she hates Henry King. Her whole life has changed. Courtney offers to show her how she blew up Henry’s car.

 

Denise and Pat cross paths. At first Pat wonders if it’s more car trouble, but Denise says she’s getting out of Blue Valley. Pat asks about what’s next for her, but she brushes off the question and warns him not to trust the town. Pat asks why and is told William didn’t have a heart attack as he was healthy. She gets flustered and says she’s said too much and leaves.

 

Courtney shows Yolanda the staff. She tells Yolanda that Starman was her father and that she’s a superhero. Despite the glowing staff, Yolanda is a bit incredulous. But Courtney wants to show her the Stargirl costume and says she’s got one for her, too. Why have a sleepover when you can fight crime together?

 

Reluctantly, Yolanda tries on the costume. It’s a catsuit. It’s actually Wild Cat’s suit. The original Wild Cat was Ted Grant. He was a champion boxer and according to Wikipedia he could cut through metal with his extendable claws and cat-like agility. Yolanda draws the line at jumping off a building just because Ted Grant could, according to wiki. Courtney apologizes, but then Yolanda changes her mind. She’s been second-guessing herself for months. That stops now. She almost leaps, but backs out. Courtney says it’s okay and that they’ll take the stairs.

 

Clad in their costumes the girls take a walk and Courtney tells Yolanda about the Injustice Society. Yolanda says she’s gotto get home or her parents will flip out. But as Courtney points out she’s already grounded for life, what else could they take away? Then, Henry drives by. It’s late, so where’s he going. Courtney tells Yolanda his father is Brainwave (Christopher James Baker). Yolanda is not surprised that evil runs in his family. They go to the hospital because maybe the villains have visited.

 

Once there Courtney tells Yolanda to steal the visitor’s log while she creates a distraction. She gives Yolanda a two-way radio to put in her mask. After calling on a higher power Yolanda climbs up the building Spiderman style, with a lot of help from the suit. She nearly falls and narrowly misses being seen by a security guard named. Luckily, Beth (Anjelika Washington) swings by to give her mother Bridget (Kron Moore) a dinner she made.

 

Courtney and Yolanda debate the best distraction. Yolanda nixes shutting off the power as there are people on life support. Also, Courtney has to admit how little superhero training she’s got. Then, inside the supply closet the staff starts going berserk and making a lot of noise. A lot of shelves get knocked down. Yolanda drops from the ceiling and snatches the log.

 

Beth has a talk with her mom. She worries that Beth doesn’t spend enough time with folks her own age. But Beth says her parents are her best friends. No, Bridget says, they’re not.

 

Yolanda finds Henry crying over his father. She’s a little tempted to sharpen her claws on him, but is stopped by Henry saying he misses his dad.

 

Principal Bowin (Hina X. Khan) of all people comes into his room to play the violin for Brainwave. The girls wonder if she’s a villain too, but also decide they need to get out of dodge. Courtney rides the staff out the window while Yolanda climbs down. “Come on Yolanda,” Courtney says, but they’re not as alone as they think Beth hears and sees them taking their leave. Pat should’ve had a “no names in the field” talk with Courtney.

 

In Courtney’s bedroom they learn that not everyone who’s been visiting has been signing in. They’ve got to leave, but Yolanda puts on the breaks. Today’s been fun, but she doesn’t think she’s Courtney’s Wild Cat. After the pictures got out she didn’t want to be Yolanda Montez anymore. Now, she thinks she needs to get her old life back before she puts a mask on and decides to be someone else. Courtney is disappointed.

 

When Yolanda gets home it’s not a welcoming atmosphere. Her parents demand to know why she’s not in her room, but her brother tries to stick up for her yet to no avail. Yolanda makes a speech. She says she knows she made a mistake and she trusted the wrong person. She says she knows she shamed her family, but she can’t keep apologizing. She wants to be the old Yolanda Montez again as she’s been punished enough and she’d like her family’s support and forgiveness. Alex seems to empathize, but her parents and grandparents are unmoved.

 

Her mother says she disgraced her family and herself and she can never be the Yolanda Montez she used to be. They send her to her room. She starts to cry once there, but then finds a note and suit from Courtney. It says, “I can’t do this alone.” We cut to a scene of Yolanda landing on her feet and later knocking on a thrilled Courtney’s window.

 

Pat ventures to the scrap yard for more parts. He’s looking around and he finds Denise’s car with her pet cat still there and the hat which belonged to Joey. But what happened to Denise?