Jade, Thunderbolt, and The Shade Make Themselves Known In First Full Stargirl Season 2 Trailer.
We have confirmation that Ysa Penarejo will be playing Jennifer-Lynn Hayden, aka Jade, in Stargirl Season 2. After the first full trailer dropped, the actress and dancer confirmed via Instagram that she was playing Alan Scott’s daughter. This isn’t all. We got our first looks at The Shade, who will be a recurring villain this season, and Thunderbolt, who will be coming out of the infamous pink pen to fight the new threat; Eclipso. Courtney will be facing her battle to keep the Justice Society together.
There is so much to cover in this post, and it may result in spoilers, so if you’ve gotten this far and don’t want to hear our opinions as they may spoil the surprise of what is to come, please stop reading; correct? Now. Anyway, without further ado, let’s jump in.
Mission Time But At What Cost?
The first thing we see in the trailer is a recap of the fight from Season 1 with the ISA. Next, we catch up with Courtney, Yolanda, Beth, and Rick, who are seen in the dead of night. Rick and Yolanda are annoyed with their leader as they’re questioning why they’re even out on a mission when the ISA are either dead, missing, or locked up.
Rick mentions how he stopped Grundy, and Blue Valley no longer needs protecting. Now, we know the time has passed as the JSA has healed from their physical injuries, and it’s well past Christmas, the last time we see the JSA is at the Whitmore-Dugan house celebrating the holidays.
There’s obvious tension between Courtney and Rick, and Yolanda as they don’t want to be out fighting crime when there isn’t any. It’s unclear where Beth sits, in her opinion. We’ll probably see this when the season starts.
We also get a rather sneaky nod to where two of the missing ISA members are. Rick mentions that Tigress and Sportsmaster are locked up. But this brings forth another question; what was Artemis told happened to her parents? Did they go on an extended vacation? Did they get lost? We don’t know what she was told, but it will be interesting to see whether this is addressed.
Rick also assumes that Cindy is dead. We, the audience, know she’s alive and dangerous, given she has the diamond containing Eclipso. He also says that Dragon King is dead. Now, we don’t know if this is true. Pat commented last season where he said it was near impossible to kill Ito, and we know that Cindy stabbed her father. So just because it is said he’s dead doesn’t mean he is.
Yolanda Tells Courtney, She’s Looking For Trouble
Another noticeable point in the trailer is Yolanda and Courtney in the lunch line with the second Wildcat saying Whitmore is looking for trouble. This bounces off what Pat says a few scenes earlier, where he says his daughter has obligations at school.
We see Courtney walk into a classroom, but it’s not known what she walks into. Is it detention? Does she come face-to-face with Cameron for the first time since Mike killed Jordan? We don’t know, but she looks a little tense. Perhaps this is what Yolanda is alluding to in the earlier scene. Another possibility is that is this might be Whitmore’s introduction to the civilian persona of Jade, Jennie.
Remember that the scenes in the trailer don’t always reflect the order they appear in the actual show. Sometimes, the footage is put into a promo but cut out entirely from the final product.
Courtney Gets A Stern Talking To From Her Mother
Now, earlier in the trailer, we get Pat giving Courtney a prep talk about balancing her life as a superhero as a school student. We get a sort of continuation of this with Barbara in a scene at their daughter’s school. This scene is linked to one scene in a CW promo from a while back where we see Pat, Barbara, and Courtney in some office at the high school. We know these two scenes are linked because the costuming is the same in both shots. The scene in the office appears either before or after the one we see in the trailer.
Barbara tells Courtney that she has to consider whether being Stargirl and putting on the mask she uses to conceal her identity will affect the rest of her life. Now, we don’t know what the context of this is. Courtney might’ve gotten into trouble for something which stems back to earlier in the trailer with her trying to convince the JSA to continue to protect Blue Valley. It could be anything.
The Lantern Calls Upon Jade
We get a shot of the green lantern glowing like it did last season after Courtney took it out of the JSA headquarters. It can be assumed just by this shot that it is calling upon Jennie/Jade, the daughter of its former wielder, Alan Scott, to take it back. We’ll go over this a little later in the post.
Now, we don’t know where the lantern is in the trailer as it’s dark. But, if we had to guess where it might be, it may be in the Whitmore-Dugan house, as this is what we see a little later with Jade. Also, it’s still broken despite the glow.
Cindy’s Return
Cindy’s return will be a nasty wake-up call for the JSA when they discover she’s alive and kicking. We see her enter the halls of Blue Valley High and access the secret passage that leads down into the ISA’s secret lair. She walks past the mural of the group’s original members, including dead members Jordan Mahkent (Icicle) and Henry King Snr (Brainwave), who was killed last season. Grundy and Steven Sharpe (Gambler) are both MIA, as is the original Fiddler. The Fiddler’s wife, Anaya, took his place but was killed by Tigress after she criticised her nemesis and her husband, Sportsmaster’s parenting of their daughter, Artemis.
Yolanda’s Tears In Church
This next shot is fascinating as we see Yolanda inside a church crying, and it makes us wonder why. We know from what has been said already that she will struggle greatly this season, given what happened with the Kings. She murdered Brainwave in cold blood after he killed Henry, and Montez avenged her ex-boyfriend/friend.
For all we know, Yolanda might be praying to God to save her soul after what she did to Brainwave. Though, something keeps nagging at us. Could it be possible that she becomes affected by Eclipso in a place that is so sacred? Perhaps she has a nightmare as she has her backpack on like running away from home.
Enter Jade
We see Courtney get up in the middle of the night, followed by the Cosmic staff. She questions a young woman who appears to have broken into the house. A fight breaks out when Courtney asks who she is. The girl summons the lantern and says she’s Green Lantern’s daughter leaving Stargirl confused.
Now, we have a few questions about this. First, how did Jade know where the lantern was? Did she have the ring the whole time, or did her father give her the ring? This might be the case as she knows her dad was Green Lantern. We don’t know Alan Scott’s fate after the fateful fight with the ISA that saw almost everyone in the OG JSA perish.
It’s possible that the ring was left behind where Alan fell, and it was given to his daughter’s mother, who would later tell her who her dad was. There is likely a better explanation for this than we’ve provided.
Welcome To Blue Valley, Richard Swift
Another character who makes their debut in this trailer is Richard Swift, aka The Shade. Unlike Jade, he’s a bad guy who is likely a replacement for Jordan as the head of the ISA. Now, it’s mentioned in Season 1 by Dragon King that Swift betrayed Icicle, but we don’t know the whole story behind it.
The Shade shows up in Blue Valley at the end of Season 1 in the ISA headquarters and watches a news report on the cover story revolving around the collapse of Project New America. He says that Jordan’s plan was folly, and we believe that this was why he betrayed his former team.
We hear a voiceover from Pat and possibly Beth, where we learn that The Shade is a very dangerous man.
Later in the trailer, we see him talking to The JSA and Pat and questioning if today’s youth are always so rude.
Mike Goes Up Against Thunderbolt
Like with Jade, we’re getting two new heroes joining the JSA in their fight against The Shade, Eclipso, Cindy, and the surviving ISA. The first is Jakeem Thunder, who is not present in this trailer, but his companion, Thunderbolt, is.
Mike referred Jakeem last season, but this time around, we’re going to see him in person. In the trailer, however, we see Mike come face-to-face against Thunderbolt. He’s wearing his bike helmet, and the newspaper carrier and bike are discarded to one side. So, what happened? Something tells us that Thunderbolt has escaped Jakeem and the pink pen and collides with Mike.
Is That You, Bobbie?
There was a vast mystery last season surrounding Cindy’s stepmother, Bobbie. Chuck made a startling discovery when Pat and Beth infiltrated the Burman house looking for clues on who Cindy’s ISA parent was. Unfortunately, he had no record of Bobbie’s existence. A few days after Shiv and Courtney’s fight, Beth rides past the Burman house to discover (via Chuck) that Cindy and Bobbie had left and that they’d gone overseas, which Chapel didn’t believe for a second.
Now, it appears Bobbie is back and fighting against her stepdaughter. However, if it is her, she has dyed her hair, and her clothing style has changed. She hurls a knife at Cindy when she walks into the house. There could be anything going on here. It’s possible that Bobbie has a whole new identity and has managed to move back into the house she lived in with her stepdaughter and now (dead?) ex-husband.
Jade Discovers The JSA’s Secret, And Is That Sir Justin?
We’ve watched the trailer a couple of times, but this moment we didn’t catch it until we started going through the footage for this post. There’s a scene of Pat, Jennie/Jade in what looks like the Pit Stop and possibly Sir Justin with STRIPE getting an upgrade.
Depending on when this occurs, it looks like Jade knows who the JSA is or is on the verge of finding out. For all we know, Justin (if it is him) could’ve found Jennie, sent her to Blue Valley and told her to retrieve the lantern, leading to her encounter with Courtney. Then, she [Courtney] goes to Pat and tells him what she’s learnt. Anything is likely.
Seeing STRIPE will likely be Jade’s proper introduction to the JSA as it was for Mike. So it wouldn’t surprise us.
Noticeable Absences
There were a few faces who were absent during the trailer. These include Jakeem, Cameron, Lily and Sofus, Larry, Paula, Isaac, Eclipso, and Artemis.
If we’re honest, we hoped to see Jakeem and perhaps a glimpse of Cameron. But unfortunately, it’s doubtful that Lily and Sofus will have a massive role in the season, although their son is dead and they’re now raising their grandson.
Larry and Paula being mentioned were interesting as it leaves us wondering what happened to them. Artemis is another big one, as her story is technically linked to her parents.
We didn’t expect to see Isaac, as his story is probably the most significant question mark. But, unfortunately, there hasn’t been any confirmation he’d even be in the show this time, despite the character’s set-up in the Season finale.
Finally, the biggest disappointment was not seeing a glimpse of Eclipso. Finally, though, we did get that first look image a while back.
