“Shiv, Part Two” deals with the post-fight fallout between Cindy and Stargirl

So, last time I reviewed an episode of Stargirl, I compared the episode to an old Star Trek episode called “Balance of Terror” when a Romulan commander told Captain Kirk, “In another lifetime, you and I might have been friends.” It was quite unexpected when Cindy pretty much paraphrased the speech to Courtney. It gave me an ego boost, that’s for sure… I mean, it’s almost like I know what I’m talking about on here some of the time.

So, last week Stargirl and Shiv, the superhero guise of Courtney and the super villain guise of Cindy, had a fight and it didn’t go very well for Stargirl especially since Cindy and Courtney were on the verge of becoming friends for real in their civilian lives until circumstances got in the way.

This week, we deal with the fallout. Cindy is in trouble for revealing herself too early, drawing the ire of the Dragon King and the ISA and Courtney and Pat have to rush to cover Courtney’s superheroic secret identity.

While this episode was different than what I was expecting, I have to say that I really liked the way that it worked out. The personal connection that Cindy and Courtney share, the strange, casual, and awkward intimacy between them gives them such amazing chemistry while they are doing scenes together. The scene where Cindy visits Courtney who is recovering from her injuries were just outstanding.

I also have to say that I am so grateful that this show is foregoing the cliched superhero trope of the villain unknowingly being best friends with the hero, instead going for the short and sweet fake out that shows Cindy is not only savage, but intelligent… making her all the more dangerous.

The JSA served up a rather nice side story. I thought that the Beth and Pat gag of pretending to be father and daughter was pretty lame, but I did like how Beth ended up proving herself a more capable member of the team this time around instead of the awkward comic relief.

I’m very interested to see what they do with Henry King after this episode as he could easily go either way and I like how he seems more like a victim than a bad guy. His motivations and struggle are very interesting.

Aside from the cringey comedic scenes with Pat and Beth, the episode was rather strong, going in different and unexpected directions. I’m just as eager to see where everything’s going after this.