The opening of Stargirl might as well be called “How Pat met Barbara.” We get to see how the two met, a mystery of the show so far. It’s a cute story playing off of the saccharine nature of the show so far. It’s also somewhat important with Pat’s history with Courtney’s possible father, the previous Starman. There have been some things hovering that are a little creepy when you think about it.

We saw the end of the previous episode where Barbara came upon Pat and Courtney and the staff, stumbling upon the truth. The beginning of the episode focuses on that and does so in a solid way. The unexpected story twist allows Amy Smart to be in the spotlight. She’s been one of the actors who’s been in the background a bit and now we get to see her do a bit more in the series with this direction and reveal.

And the show from there shifts things with Brainwave and Brainwave Jr. picking up on the previous episode’s other surprise twist. The series does a solid job of highlighting similar trauma and experiences in characters and how impacts them. In this case, even though they’re evil, the moment with the Brainwave’s is touching. We learn why they moved to this town. It’s actually an interesting moment and with what’s revealed there, a fascinating direction for the series, sadly it doesn’t go too far but it plays very nicely into the episode’s final moments.

The episode really focuses on family in different ways and part of that is Courtney and the new JSA. Courtney embraces Henry’s new found goodness and you can imagine how well that goes over with the rest of the team. It creates some nice friction as well that really comes together at the end like much of the episode’s moments. Courtney is focused on what she needs to do and that means getting her staff back and freeing Brainwave from the Injustice Society. All of that leads to a showdown and battle that’s a bit of a mixed bag.

Generally, the series has had some decent battles and action but there’s something a bit “Disney” about this particular sequence. The fighting feels a bit held back and there are some moments that feel like they’d fit perfectly in a Disney family-horror film mixed with a bit of The Goonies. It’s not bad and the tone is consistent and works for the intended audience of tweens.

And that interesting tone and direction really comes together in the episode’s final moments. While it’s predictable, with a bit too much Star Wars thrown in, it’s a solid and fascinating episode.

Stargirl is a series that does some predictable things but also just does things really well. It hits the schmaltz when it needs to. It delivers the moments we expect but it still resonates. “Brainwave Jr.” continues a series that knows what it is and what it wants to be. This is an episode whose various moments come together in the end really well. While much of it is predictable it’s a nice example of seeding things along for an emotional finale that really creates an impact.

Overall Rating: 8.0