Stargirl 1x07 “Shiv Part One” Episode Review
Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.
Stargirl’s latest episode was a near perfect hour of television. This episode had a character focus on both Courtney (Brec Bassinger) and mean girl Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy) as they embarked on similar journeys as hero and villain respectively. It was similar to what Buffy the Vampire Slayer had done with Buffy and Faith’s antagonistic relationship; they were two sides of the same coin.
In all the previous episodes, Cindy acted so malicious and heartless that finding out she was the daughter of a villain—Dragon King—probably wasn’t all that surprising. However, this episode took the time to humanize Cindy—making her genuinely want Courtney’s friendship during chemistry class—so that the audience would sympathize with her. Strangely, this didn’t change how terrifying she was at times. Cindy hid blades in her sleeves and causally murdered one of her dad’s minions. That’s scary.
The parallels between Courtney and Cindy blew my mind. Stargirl showed Courtney trying to prove to Pat (Luke Wilson) that she can do the superhero job on her own alongside Cindy demanding her father give her a seat at the ISA table. This was very thought-provoking for me, and it made me hope that the series will pursue this further in the future. This made their inevitable fight scene very intense, as they had similar fighting styles. I enjoyed the payoff. I mean, Cindy had her own staff that breathed fire.
Not to sound like an insensitive person, but Courtney needed her butt kicked in this episode. Courtney had too much superhero hubris, not giving her teammates a chance to practice and acting too solo. Hopefully after this episode, Courtney will take Pat’s lessons on training and teamwork more seriously.
Overall, we learned more about Justin the Janitor, a background character since the “Pilot”. We learned he possessed a holy sword in his mop bucket and that he knew Pat was Stripesy from the JSA. He also saved Courtney from getting killed by Cindy. I’m sure we’ll get more information in “Shiv Part Two” next week. Stargirl is starting to pick up on the action again.