Stargirl – Frenemies – Chapter One – The Murder review S3 E1

With The CW Verse on its dying embers, hopefully this latest (and likely final?) season of Stargirl retains the same high level of quality of its predecessors.

While a largely table-setting episode you’d expect from a season premiere, Frenemies’ first chapter didn’t disappoint.

Sylvester spent the summer fixing up the Dugan house while the family was away on vacation. On one hand he seems innocuous enough, but there’s some subtle hints not everything is on the up. And that’s beyond his casual scamming on Courtney’s staff.

For now, Sylvester assures her that she’s the future and he’d never ask for the staff back and reiterates his desire to train her. Courtney suggests a co-custody of the staff so Sylvester can use it while she’s in school.

Courtney wants to give The Crocs a chance to prove they’re really reformed. Beth is trying to deal with her newly super attentive parents, who even design up a new costume based on her comics’ costume. It is a better outfit so I wouldn’t be mad to see Beth get an upgrade.

Cindy is committed to reforming even though she’s still very rough with her social graces. Despite Yolanda and Rick’s clear apprehension, Cindy is doing the little things like sitting at the lunch table with the gang and gong on patrol.

This dynamic is fun and actually plays out more like it would in ‘real life’ as not everyone on a team would forgive an ex-enemy as quickly as Courtney.

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Paula asks Barb if Artemis can join the JSA. This was a funny exchange as Paula is so over the top intense. Artemis shows her enthusiasm by taking out the No Limit Gang on her own for a tryout. This was another terrific moment as Courtney and the JSA were all set to hone their teamwork and take out this gang only for Artemis to completely steal their thunder in all of two minutes.

Maybe even better was Artemis not even bothering to stick around for feedback from the team.

The Gambler is back in town professing a change of heart wanting to make amends to Pat and the daughter he didn’t know existed until recently. Crusher warns Pat about trusting Gambler, but he seems legit. Shade isn’t buying Gambler’s reformation either.

Earlier on, we saw a mysterious surveillance feed observing the Dugan household and Gambler’s laptop uncovers the hidden surveillance feed watching all of the main characters. Given the title of the episode, what happens next shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise.

The JSA, minus Cindy, head to Gambler’s trailer home just to verify that he didn’t have anything to do with his old gang popping back up in Blue Valley only to find Cindy standing over him holding his smoking gun. This probably isn’t going to help Cindy’s probationary status all that much, huh?

Stargirl has always worked as it didn’t try to be anything more and has largely avoided the goofy romantic subplots that doom too many CW superhero shows. Frenemies gets off to a solid start by retaining that same energy that’s about family, friends and legacy and less who’s hooking up with who making for the most satisfying of the DC TV series.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW

Check out Stargirl Season 2 on Blu-Ray on Amazon.

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