Before we pick up where we left off last week with Henry, his father, and many other things, we are greeted in Blue Valley two years ago in the diner at Pat and Barbara’s chance meeting. Its this meet-cute over a banana split that brings these two together, and may just be the foundation of where we end up today. That is if Pat and Courtney don’t somehow scare Barb to bits in telling her the truth about the staff, Stargirl, and everything else she walked in on in the basement. Read on to find out what happened this week in part two of Stargirl’s freshman origin story.
Picking up right where we left off, Courtney tries to pass off the staff as a broom from Sharper Image, but Pat insists on telling her the truth, and he does. It’s a staff, and it belonged to Starman, but Courtney says it’s her fathers, that he was a superhero and now she is one too, and not only that but that Jordan Mahkent (Icicle) killed her father. Maybe not the best information to lead with, as Pat attempts to start at the beginning instead, showing Barbara photos and information from nearly twenty years ago. She chooses not to believe any of it, sending Courtney upstairs instead, accusing Pat of filling her daughter’s head with crazy notions as well as endangering her. Barbara asks Pat to leave at his confession that the car accident was not, in fact, a car accident.
Forward to Henry visiting his newly awakened father in the hospital who is also missing the last ten years of his life. When asked why they are in Nebraska, Henry has to tell him that his father moved them to Blue Valley after his mother, Merri, died in a drowning accident, found in the pool, and was ice cold. The two embrace, while Henry hears his father think how he loved Merri, his father, in return, can also hear Henry. Dr. King, Brainwave, did not know that his gift had been passed down before he was admitted in a coma. However, he may have been trying to reach out, triggering the latent abilities. Dr. King then tells Henry he knows how difficult they can be to handle and offers to help him.
As we move back to Courtney’s house, we see her pacing her bedroom, looking at the locket with her dad’s photo and the present she had intended to give him when she was five. Mike stops Pat on the way out of the door, though, wanting to come with him as it is pretty obvious Barb is kicking him out even if Pat is trying to brush it off. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Henry can hear his father’s dream about his mother, Merri. Though Dr. Henry King may have loved his wife Merri, his son hears the dream or memory of his father’s internal battle, that he killed his own wife. “The last day,” Dr. King repeated in his thoughts, and just as Henry, the son leaves a shadow of a man enters the room who turns out to be Jordan Mahkent.
Henry retreats home to the VHS tapes his father made and finds the final one that was documented where he talks about Merri, that he met her while robbing a bank, and that she was someone with a thousand gimmicks, but most of all he was stunned by her thoughts because they were good and pure, different from everyone else. She made him question Jordan and his mission. He knew that he would never be forgiven for playing a part in the killing of Starman as he was her brother, and at the root of it all, Jordan was the one to blame.
The Cosmic Staff wakes Courtney up, but she tells it no and shoos it back to its crate, meanwhile at the garage, the staff is pointing to a photo of Jordan as Icicle. All of this is taking place while Jordan is explaining to Dr. King that Dr. Ito’s machine for Project New America is nearly complete, and all it needs is the power from him, Brainwave. With his power, they can poison the mind of everyone in six states, help shape a new America, their America. But Brainwave wants to know who this Stargirl is when the staff crashes into the hospital room, knocking Jordan down, but Brainwave freezes it in position. Icicle gets up and freezes the staff so he can grab it, as the master is useless without it. Henry Jr. goes back to the hospital to see Jordan carrying a frozen staff and his father leaving the room, deciding to hide with the new knowledge of just how terrible his father really is. Jordan however, is taking Henry King to see Dr. Ito regain his memory from the last ten years.
Courtney is still at home and finds the staff isn’t downstairs, where she told it to go back to. Barb tells her that she hopes that Pat took it, except Barb doesn’t understand that Courtney is the only one who can use it to stop Jordan, who also happens to be Barbara’s boss. Barb then tells her daughter they are leaving since she doesn’t want Courtney anywhere near Blue Valley or near Pat, she is to pack and be ready in an hour. Courtney does not pack. Instead, she runs over to Pat’s garage to see if the staff is there, and let him know her mom wants to leave Blue Valley that day. Pat tells her to also listen to her mom, go home and pack, and that losing her mom will hurt forever, but he will be okay as long as he knows both are safe. Mike comes out from the garage only to shut Courtney out as well, that brothers and sisters are supposed to tell each other everything and help each other, only Courtney can’t in this case.
As Courtney is headed home, she hears her name called in her mind, but not in her voice, it’s Henry, coming from across the street. Henry has a lot to say and touches Courtney on the shoulder, transferring all the information he has collected from his father and the tapes so far. It’s a bit overwhelming for anyone as she could see everything he was thinking. She figures out the two of them are cousins and family, which makes Courtney ecstatic to have a relative on her father’s side until she is told that Jordan has the staff and Henry’s father. Courtney begins panicking because Brainwave knows who she is, and he had threatened to kill her mother and her, but now that he can’t remember anything from the last ten years, she might be safe, at least for now.
Barb heads into the office to clear out her things when she sends an email to the last known address she had for Sam regarding Courtney. She then begins searching Starman to put her own mind at ease. Back at school, however, Courtney herself brings Henry to the table with everyone else on her team, including Yolanda, Beth, and Rick. Henry reassures them he isn’t going to say anything, while Courtney is on the side of saving the town, defeating the Injustice Society of America, getting her staff back, and saving Pat and her mom. It also just happens to help release Brainwave in the process. Rick makes the comment that if they find Brainwave, they should break him in two while they have the chance. Henry takes a stand to protect his father, and he and Rick hash it out by Henry throwing him off his feet telepathically. Beth is on Courtney’s side. This is something that needs to be done, like it or not. Yolanda does agree because she knows Courtney needs someone to watch her back, but in her choosing Henry after everything, the two of them are not friends anymore.
Pat stops into Barb’s office and urges her to get Courtney and get out of town immediately. Jordan and his parents come into the office though to check-in, surprised to see Pat is there as well, and give a gift of homemade cookies for hosting dinner. Barbara slyly recorded the whole conversation in Norwegian after everything she has been informed of the last 24 hours out of suspicion. Meanwhile, the new JSA and Henry are in the tunnels under Blue Valley, and they decide to split up when they have reached an impasse, meeting back in 15 minutes. Yet they don’t have the cosmic staff yet, and Chuck’s goggles keep going out on Beth, so this is going to end well, right?
In the tunnels, Henry tells Yolanda that he wishes she could read his mind and that he knows how much he hurt her and wishes he could do anything to take it back. All this time later, she is still angry with him, and there is nothing he can do to make it right for her. On the other side, Beth and Rick are searching when they come across Solomon Grundy, the thing that killed his parents. Back over to Henry, he tells Courtney that his dad is close. He can feel him when they come upon a lab, and they see his father hooked up to a machine built by Dr. Ito. However, Cindy is behind a locked door warning him they are there, and she wants out so she can kill Courtney herself.
Courtney grabs a staff nearby while Yolanda gets into position as Wildcat, ready to fight after Dr. Ito gave command of “go.” Dark hooded figures flooded the room with only the three of them standing to take them on. Henry fights with them using his telepathy, taking down two and three men at a time to help them out. Wildcat leaps from pillar to pillar to fight multiple men at once while Stargirl puts her gymnastic skills to the test as well. While the girls are fighting, Henry wakes his father up for a moment as well to try and free him. Things do not go so well for Courtney when she refers to the Dragon King as Snapdragon, while Cindy is still begging from afar to kill her. Yolanda spies the Cosmic Staff climbs up the pillars to get to it, breaks it free and gets it to Stargirl just in time to blast the hood off Dr. Ito and reveal his true face. Henry has released his father as well and tries to get him out of the tunnels, but when he asks, “they already changed you back?” Henry Sr/Brainwave looks confused and replies to his son, “Changed me back? This is who I’ve always been. It’s who you are too.” Henry Jr. vehemently disagrees, sending his father into the stone steps behind him with a loud thud.
Rick switches into Hourman mode to break out Solomon Grundy and attempt to take him on out of sheer revenge. They are soon greeted by the same hooded figures the other half of the team fought when Rick uses his power instead to push them away, while he and Beth decide to make a run for it instead, telling Grundy that he will be back.
The new JSA is running to escape the tunnels when they hit a roadblock, the route is grated off, but Rick can still bend it open as Hourman as three of them get through. Brainwave shows up and shuts the gate on Henry and Courtney. While Courtney is using the Staff to attack Brainwave while defending her team, Henry is using his own power to defend his hopefully new-found friends. Together, they can get the bars open again, and she insists that he go through, but he uses his powers to send her through instead.
The battle between father and son is as old as time itself, Henry pleads with his dad, that people are not monsters; he does not want to fight his father; he loves him. But his father wants to train him, to be like him. Henry sees the good in his father, the same good that Merri did at one time, and that Jordan killed her because of it. Except that Jordan didn’t kill his mother, Henry Sr. did. The father had to make a choice and ask not to be made to make a choice again. Stand by his side now, or not at all. Henry tells him he will never stand by his side and tries to take his father down. Brainwave instead says, “Goodbye son,” and breaks down a good share of the ceiling, not before he has the chance to tell the JSA he is sorry, and to not let this change their view, that people are good. With that, Henry Jr is crushed to death by his own father beneath a bed of stone.
Pat and Barb are at the old diner listening to the recording of the Mahkents conversation once translated from Norwegian, “I like her, you can tell the way Jordan looks at her. It won’t matter once the machine is turned on.” Pat praises Barbs good thinking in recording the conversation to start with, but when Barb asks what they are planning, he has no answers. Pan over to her office, and we see her computer screen email with a reply to her last resort effort to reach out to Sam!
To find out what happens next on Stargirl, tune in to The CW on Tuesday at 8/7 p,m.