‘Stargirl’ Season 3, Episode 8 Spins Its Wheels

This season of Stargirl has reached a point where it is spinning its wheels.

The season has had quite a shift in narrative pacing. It started off as a slow burn with more mystery than action. That concept was largely dropped a couple episodes ago for something new that is hard to fully grasp. The season hasn’t truly focused on a main villain, which is fine. This focus was more about sowing tension between the members of the JSA and the newly reformed villains. Adding a main villain to the series at that point would have been deconstructive. It seemed as if Mister Bones and Helix were about to be introduced as the main villains, but the recently concluded two-part story was merely to introduce them for further stories rather than set them up as a foe.

As a conclusion to the previous episode, this week’s episode picks up with the Shade (Jonathan Cake) and Pat (Luke Wilson) in the Shadowlands. They have to escape while reliving fears from their past. Meanwhile, Courtney (Brec Bassinger) meets Mister Bones (Keith David) and tries to convince him to allow Todd (Tim Gabriel) to reunite with his sister, Jennie (Ysa Penarejo). In the end, everything works out okay. Courtney also learns that Mister Bones and Helix are not the ones that have been watching them in Blue valley, hinting at the season’s true villain.

This two-part story seemed more like its own separate thing than part of the actual season. It introduced Jade and Obsidian as well as setting up Helix as its own team and will, eventually, lead into a new Sandman character. However, this two-part episode does not sit well with the slow burn mystery that the rest of the season has been working on. While the season has been fun and different up to a point, it’s going to need to make a turn into some serious superhero action if it’s going to end on a good note. Hopefully, the main threat will emerge in the next episode and Stargirl will finally have a true foe to face.

Stargirl airs Wednesdays on The CW