WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Stargirl Season 2, Episode 3, “Summer School: Chapter Three,” which aired Tuesday on the CW.
Last week on Stargirl, the Justice Society of America said goodbye to the new Green Lantern (Ysa Penarejo) and hello to a new threat: The Shade (Jonathan Cake). While Stargirl Season 2, Episode 3, “Summer School: Chapter Three,” does not touch on what Jennie is up to, it goes more into what The Shade has up his sleeve, and Mike (Trae Romano) tries his hardest to become the new hero of Blue Valley. What these two do and more is discussed in depth in this spoiler filled recap for the latest episode of Stargirl.
“Summer School: Chapter Three” kicks off eleven years ago during Christmas time. This is right before the original JSA was killed off by the Injustice Society, and Johnny Thunder (Ethan Embry) has been benched along with Pat (Luke Wilson). While Pat understands this a bit, Johnny feels like the team’s “charity case” despite having one of the most powerful abilities. However, this changes when the original Wildcat (Brian Stapf) comes in, warning them that the Injustice Society has Solomon Grundy. While Johnny is invited back into the fight, only JSA members are on call, so this does not include sidekicks. Plus, Wildcat points out that Pat has a kid, and he needs to be safe for him.
Back in the modern day, Mike is on his paper route, and a group of bullies harass him. After returning home and continuing to be kept out of the JSA loop, Mike takes a call from his boss, and he uses a mysterious, glowing pen to jot down his new job. While on the route, he sees the words “so cool” plastered all around him, and he crashes his bike. When he recovers, he says “so cool” aloud, and the pen releases a pink, sentient being named Thunderbolt (Jim Gaffigan).
Thunderbolt is practically a genie, and he will grant his user’s wishes; however, he takes things very literally, like when Mike wishes for some water, and instead of getting him something to drink, Thunderbolt douses him in water. On top of that, Mike can only wish for something once, he can not wish for someone’s death, and he can not wish someone back from the dead.
While Mike learns about Thunderbolt’s powers, the JSA are debriefed about The Shade’s abilities by Pat, learning he may be ageless, can control shadows and travels through darkness. Pat also discloses that The Shade killed Dr. MidNite, and Beth insists they bring him justice. While the JSA talk about The Shade, Barbara (Amy Smart) comes face to face with The Shade while she goes through William Zarick’s (Joe Knezevich) things. He’s looking for a box, which audiences know held Eclipso, but Barbara is not willing to give it up. The lights then go out, and The Shade steals the box from her.
Eager to test out his new power, Mike finds his bullies targeting a girl scout, and they steal her cookies. He wishes they would stop, and Thunderbolt has a literal stop sign fall from the sky in front of them. At first, Mike thinks this is great, but then the stop signs keep coming, and Thunderbolt mentions that they won’t stop until the bullies do. In the midst of this, Yolanda (Yvette Monreal) and Courtney (Brec Bassinger) see what’s going on, and Mike proclaims they are the new members of the JSA.
Pat disapproves of this, telling Courtney she should’ve never brought the pen out of storage, but she reminds him that he should’ve been more upfront about what the pen was. He then demands Mike give him the pen; however, everytime he tries to, the pen returns to Mike. Finally, Pat demands Mike summon Thunderbolt so they can talk. Once it’s just the two of them, Thunderbolt explains how Johnny wished that Thunderbolt would go to someone who deserves him and that he works best for someone like himself, hence why he chose Mike, who’s been feeling left out.
While Pat doesn’t want Mike on the team, the rest of the JSA vote him in since they’ve all been in his position. Together, they come up with a perfect wish to locate The Shade without Thunderbolt misinterpreting them. It works, and the JSA go to capture him, as Pat plans to lock him in Barbara’s tanning bed. However, Pat decides Mike should stay back to be safe. Despite this, Mike tries to come up with his own wish to help them even more.
They find The Shade at Zarick’s house, and he appears to be waiting for them at the dining table. He does not confront them, and he reveals he realized who Pat was later on. He also offers to handle the situation calmly if they just sit down and hear him out. While the JSA believe that The Shade is as bad as the Injustice Society, he reveals that just because he worked with them doesn’t mean he is like them. He particularly disliked Icicle, thinking the only thing worse than someone trying to take over the world is someone trying to save it.
He also claims Beth doesn’t know what she’s talking about when she accuses him of killing Dr. MidNite. Plus, according to The Shade, he has no evil plans for Blue Valley, and as long as the JSA stays out of it, there will be no problems. While Courtney keeps questioning him, The Shade insists he isn’t being coy; he is simply keeping information from them for their own good.
The JSA do not learn if he is telling truth because Mike bursts in, wishing Thunderbolt would shock The Shade. While Thunderbolt obeys, The Shade easily beats him, blasting Mike back. His shadow powers then takes down the rest of the JSA, but he can’t get the better of the staff, likely because it emits light. The Shade then escapes, and the JSA look for him while Yolanda checks in with Mike, asking if he feels bad about killing Icicle in Season 1. He says he wasn’t really thinking about what he was doing, and while Yolanda thinks this means it was an accident, Mike says that’s kind of right.
Pat and Barbara sit Mike down afterward to talk about what he did wrong. Courtney tries to have his back, especially since she made plenty of mistakes early in her career as Stargirl; however, Mike understands where his parents are coming from. He then wishes Thunderbolt was in better hands, and his wish is granted, with the pen going to a new kid. Once the kids are in for the night, Barbara reveals to Pat she learned what the box The Shade took had, as the inventory listed it as a black “prop” diamond, but Pat knows this is actually Eclipso’s diamond.
Pat isn’t the only one aware of this threat. Beth (Anjelika Washington) is trying again to get Chuck up and running. After telling Rick (Cameron Gellman) about her parents divorce, the goggles come back on. While they still do not recognize her, they warn Beth they are in danger because Eclipso is here. The Shade also realizes this is true. When he opens the box and sees no diamond, he realizes Eclipso is out and will kill the children, so it’s likely Eclipso will play a larger role in the upcoming episodes of Stargirl, which air Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.
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