'Stargirl' Episode 5 Review: Team dynamics come into play as two new heroes join Courtney's JSA
Spoilers for 'Stargirl' Season 1 Episode 5 'Hourman and Dr Mid-Nite'
The origin stories are piling up quickly as Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) adds two more members to her new Justice Society besides the show hinting at the origins of new villains to come. This episode introduces a new Hourman (Cameron Gellman) and a new Dr Mid-Nite (Anjelika Washington), meaning that as far as has been revealed in the promos, we now have our team and our first look at what their new dynamic is going to be like.
Unlike Yolanda Montez's (Yvette Monreal) origin story last episode, Beth Chapel and Rick Tyler get a more condensed introduction. Rick is an angry teenager barely holding back destructive rage. Beth is the optimistic nerd who never developed a life outside of her immediate family. The two new characters couldn't be more different from each other and neither of them have all that much in common with Courtney or Yolanda, either. 'Stargirl' continues to break the Arrowverse's tradition of long, build-ups to origins and skips straight to the good stuff, which in this case is giving us a look at exactly the kind of friction we can expect from the new team going forward.
Courtney is definitely the glue that's holding the team together, but that doesn't mean that everyone trusts her, or agrees with her point of view. Yolanda appears to be the only practically minded member of the group, but unlike Courtney, Beth and Rick have done nothing to earn her trust, and there is immediate tension there. Ignoring all social cues, Beth has wormed her way onto the team by sheer optimistic insistence and her new goggles give her the ability to become the ultimate insufferable know-it-all. Rick, for his part, is the one everyone is keeping a wary eye on, more fueled by rage than any desire to see justice done. It's easy to see why there is a rush to bring them together — it's going to be a long while before they can operate as an effective team.
There's a lot of overlap between Courtney's story and Rex's, both legacy characters (at least, as far as Courtney is convinced), both growing up with single parents, and both with personal reasons to want to take the Injustice Society down. The main difference being that Rex grew up with an abusive father who actively resents him, and Rick has obviously been burying that rage and misplaced sense of loss for a long time. The angry young teen superhero with a chip on his shoulder is a familiar one, but Cameron Gellman does a good job of portraying someone who only holds back his anger because he knows how much he enjoys the tastes of letting it loose. With the powers of super-strength now available to him, he's more dangerous than ever before, and where things go from here is going to be the interesting part.
While the adults still move the story forward in the background, the episode's appeal lies in its diverse cast of teenage characters. Each one has a distinctive personality that plays out in fun ways without relying on soap opera cliches. With the introduction of the Mid-Nite goggles, this show also takes the opportunity to cram in as many Easter Eggs as possible, pointing to a rich DC history that 'Stargirl' has continually been drawing upon to highlight its legacy. The show has a lot going on, but it never loses its sight of what makes it work — being a story about a new generation discovering the power of old-fashioned justice.
The next episode of 'Stargirl' airs on June 22 on DC Universe and June 23 on The CW.