Stargirl 1x09 “Brainwave” Episode Review
Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.
After the amazing two-parter dedicated to kid antagonist Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy), Stargirl naturally shifted its course on Henry Jr. (Jake Austin Walker). For those interested in my thoughts for “Shiv Part One” and “Shiv Part Two”, the episode reviews are here and here. While Henry Jr. wasn’t as compelling as Cindy Burman, he still has the potential to become an interesting character. Right now, it’s just difficult to get onboard with him due to his father being Brainwave and how he hurt Yolanda by spreading her nudes around school. However, Henry Jr. is officially connected to the plot and being tugged at both sides.
The Injustice Society—Dr. Ito (Nelson Lee) specifically—want Henry Jr. to power their psychic amplifier in order to control most of the United States’ Midwest. This is the Project New America they’ve been talking about for weeks. Honestly, learning they only wanted part of the United States under their mind control was underwhelming, but I’m chalking it up to “they’ll spread from there” after they seized that territory. Then again, trying to mind-control even parts of the United States seemed sinister in general.
On the other side, Courtney wants to reach out to Henry Jr. and recruit him to The Justice Society, thinking there was still a chance to save him. Courtney’s friends—Yolanda especially—weren’t so open to the idea.
In fact, Yolanda paid a visit to Henry Jr. at the hospital in her Wildcat costume, warning him to stay away from her friends. Hearing her dark thoughts—whispering inside Henry’s head—was really disturbing. Yolanda has serious issues to work out.
Yolanda’s trauma issues regarding what Henry Jr. did to her—and the actual murder threat in her thoughts—also showed she wasn’t in the total right either. Yvette Monreal gave a pretty dark performance in this episode. It also enhanced the argument of “good and evil” within humanity, which was very thought-provoking. Literally thought-provoking on the verge of becoming seizures in Henry Jr’s case, as he watched his fathers’ old tapes in order to understand his telepathic abilities better.
While Yolanda and Henry Jr. were leaning toward “people are monsters” argument, Courtney sided with goodness. She gave an emotionally charged speech—somewhat reminiscent of an emotional Supergirl speech but more honest and grounded—to Henry Jr. about people having compassion and goodness in them too. Brec Bassinger did an excellent job on selling the superhero pep talk. Even Henry Jr. looked conflicted after Courtney left the scene, making it appear like her words got to him somewhat.
Other developments in the episode were Courtney discovering Cameron Mahkent’s (Hunter Sansone) father was Icicle (Neil Jackson)—the leader of the ISA—during the family dinner scene, making her potential romance with Cameron more complicated. By the way, Jordan Mahkent had no evil intentions when he came over for dinner at Courtney’s house. He genuinely wanted to connect with other people, showing he was far from a pure evil mastermind. Icicle’s character was fascinating to watch and analyze these last few weeks.
Pat (Luke Wilson) and Courtney were also debating with each other about telling Barbara (Amy Smart) the truth about everything going on in Blue Valley, only for her to discover them with the Cosmic Staff when she went down the basement to do some laundry. Barbara knowing the truth will become a major asset to the show moving forward, as she could prove useful at The American Dream, where she worked with Icicle and potentially other members of the ISA.
Overall, I enjoyed this episode and the set-up with Justin the Janitor. We learned Pat and Sylvester—Starman—used to be a part of another group called The Seven Soldiers of Victory. Justin the Janitor was a part of the superhero group, as he was presumably the Knight in Pat’s old photograph. I’m really looking forward to next week. This episode ended on an amazing cliffhanger regarding Henry Jr. and his father, which will likely be addressed in next week’s episode, “Brainwave Jr.”. Another two-parter had unofficially begun! Thanks for reading, everyone! I’ll see you all next week.