[Warning: This post contains spoilers from Stargirl’s Season 1 finale. Read at your own risk.]
Remember that time Starman (Joel McHale) supposedly died in Pat Dugan’s (Luke Wilson) arms, marking the end of the JSA’s reign and jumpstarting Courtney Whitmore’s (Brec Bassinger) superhero journey five years later? Well, it looks like that dramatic death scene in the DC Universe and CW series opener was just a front because the star-spangled superhero is still very much alive.
The final moments of Stargirl’s action-packed season finale featured Starman — whose real name is Sylvester Pemberton — pulling up to a motel in North Hollywood, California in search of his old buddy Pat. We don’t yet know how he’s still alive or why it’s taken him this long to reemerge, and those questions will need to be addressed when the series returns for Season 2, exclusively on the CW. More importantly, the show will have to figure out where Starman fits into the fold since Stargirl inherited his magical staff and now leads her own JSA.
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“It’s definitely going to complicate things,” star Brec Bassinger told TV Guide of Starman’s surprising return. “I imagine it won’t be a simple conversation.” That inevitable face-to-face between Starman and Stargirl will surely get awkward once they get into what happened to his costume and who gets custody of the staff.
Things are bound to be far less uncomfortable for Courtney and Pat, who solidified their bond in the finale after Courtney finally accepted him as the father figure in her life. Their touching final scenes, like Courtney gifting Pat a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug for Christmas and the pair flying through the Blue Valley sky together as Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E., cap off a season-long journey to reach this level of unity in their relationship as father and daughter.
Their newfound closeness will be important heading into Season 2 as they face even more threats like Shiv (Meg DeLacy), who just discovered the powerful Heart of Darkness stone containing the mega villain Eclipso and seems to be well on the path toward becoming an even more formidable force. There’s also Solomon Grundy, who escaped from the JSA’s basement after Hourman told him to skedaddle amid their super destructive fight.
Brec Bassinger, Stargirl
“I don’t believe Solomon Grundy is very evil,” Bassinger said of the ISA metahuman. “He’s almost like a wounded dog in a fight. I’m curious to see if he goes and terrorizes the Valley, or if he just goes and lives his life somewhere. I feel like Rick realized he is not the epitome of evil like the rest of the ISA.” At this point, it’s anyone’s guess where Soloman will land on the spectrum of good and evil.
With the series officially moving to the CW next season, there’s an opportunity for the show’s spandex-wearing heroes to start hanging out with other supers on the network like The Flash‘s Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Batwoman‘s new leading lady, Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie). According to Bassinger, though, Stargirl‘s move to the CW probably won’t change the show much.
“I talked to [creator and showrunner Geoff Johns] and it definitely isn’t going to change the structure. We’re still going to have that season story arc and I know the whole cast is coming back. [Geoff is] hoping to have most of the same crew. We have a lot of the same writers. I think it’ll be just a continuation of Season 1. I don’t expect to see much change,” she explained, noting that she hasn’t heard anything about a potential crossover yet.
Potential Arrowverse appearances aside, Bassinger said she hoped the new season will delve further into the JSA as they continue to grow as heroes. “[In] the very beginning, we were such rookies [and in the end], we started looking like a superhero team,” she added. “I’d love for us to really just get to dive into that, finally being superheroes and just seeing us thrive.”
Season 1 of Stargirl is currently available to stream on DC Universe.
Yvette Monreal, Brec Bassinger, Mark Ashworth, and Cameron Gellman; Stargirl
