In Review: STARGIRL (S2 – EP10) SUMMER SCHOOL: CHAPTER TEN

Synopsis: In Chapter Ten of Summer School. Courtney is left devastated after discovering a dark secret that Pat has kept hidden from her. However, the pair soon put aside their issues to find help from Jennie to help them defeat Eclipso.

The Story

Picking the story up from last week. Courtney has just learned that Pat lied to her about the original JSA. But when they get a surprise visit from an injured Richard Swift aka The Shade. He tells them that Eclipso can be caught by fusing the black diamond back together. When Courtney tries to fuse it back together with her staff she finds that it isn’t quite powerful enough. So, acting on a hunch Pat drives Courtney to an old place where he and the original Starman hung out. While there they find information about Jennifer-Lynn Hayden the new Green Lantern who we met at the beginning of the season. Having gotten Jennie out of some home they hope that she will be able to fuse the diamond with her green lantern ring. But are things a little too good to be true?

The Acting

Brec Bassinger does a pretty solid job of being the sulky teenager in this episode, but justifiably so. The chemistry between Bassinger and Luke Wilson continues to be so good that at times you’d be fooled into thinking they were father and daughter. We also get a nice performance from Jonathan Cake who shows us just how dangerous The Shade can be when cornered. Although in this episode he is particularly underhanded.

We also get a nice return performance from Ysa Penarejo as Jennifer-Lynn Hayden/Green Lantern. We learn that she has gotten closer to finding her brother, but has made a few errors of judgment along the way. I’m kind of hoping that she will become a series regular in the third season or at the very least a recurring character. 

Overall

A really solid episode that gives us the story behind how The Shade came into being, which is a pretty vital bit of information given what happens toward the end of the episode. It’s hard to believe that ten weeks have gone by so fast. Especially when you consider how slow the opening few episodes of this season were. But the stakes have been raised now and with only three more episodes left to go. My guess is we’ll see some pretty big things coming up.