Stargirl is BACK! And it turns out we were right in a sense. It’s exciting that the show has returned hugely. After the darkness fell upon Blue Valley in Season 2, thanks to Eclipso, Season 3 is going in a new direction. Of course, we’ve known about the Frenemies theme since the Season 2 finale, but there’s an extra element to the story; cue murder mystery. Yes, you heard right.
Cue the Knives Out and Only Murders In The Building references, as there will be plenty. We’re in for a thrill ride this season as the Justice Society and their allies hunt down a killer. This is not a review. Instead, it is a rundown of the events in the episode, with explanations attached.
This article will contain questions and potential answers to the murder mystery, including many spoilers. So, you’ve been warned.
The Murder Victim Talks
The victim of the murder speaks to the audience via voiceover and mentions it will be a tale of trust, heartache and murder. What’s interesting about this is that each of these three focal points has already been guessed at by fans.
Characters Learn To Trust Their Rivals
The season’s central theme is Frenemies, where our characters must learn to co-exist with their rivals hanging around. Yolanda has to deal with Cindy. The Whitmore-Dugans have to handle living across the road from the Crock family.
What’s more, Steven Sharpe has returned to Blue Valley, which is surprising. During his time on the run during Season 2, he discovered he had a daughter, Rebecca “Becky” Sharpe. Now, just a side note. In the comics, Becky Sharpe is a supervillain named Hazard, the Steven Sharpe-Gambler’s granddaughter. The character appeared in The Flash series as one of the bus metas.
We also learn that Rick is listening to The Shade’s advice on what to do about Grundy resurrecting. But, unfortunately, everything he has been told to do isn’t working.
Pat and Courtney also disagree on whether they should be locking the doors with the Crocks living across the road from them. This was a running gag at the beginning of the episode, where Pat locked the door, and Courtney proceeded to unlock it before having it locked again. A little later in the episode, Crusher breaks into the house and makes Pat breakfast.
Now, we think the door running gag is a clue. Also, the door is symbolic of trust. If you don’t open up to people, they can’t help you and can’t change. This breaks us to the next part; heartache.
Incoming Broken Hearts
So, we’ve suspected this has been coming since Season 1. First, Cameron will have to find out what happened to his father and how Courtney knew about it and didn’t tell him. We also have to say that heartache can refer to other things. It has been confirmed that the episode titles we referenced in a different post have been established in part to be accurate. However, there’s one called ‘Extortion’, but where it sits in the episode order doesn’t fit with what has been confirmed.
Extortion
In the list of released unconfirmed episode titles, ‘Extortion’ came in after ‘The Suspects’, which is next week’s episode. The official first six episode titles are:
- The Murder
- The Suspects
- The Blackmail
- The Evidence
- The Thief
- The Betrayal
If we had to guess, ‘Extortion’ could have been the original title for ‘The Blackmail’. It’s essentially the same thing. Honestly, it doesn’t matter, as most of the titles are correct currently.
The Dangerous Truth
Going back to Camney, it wasn’t bought up in the premiere. But we believe it will start next week and continue through episodes 4 through 6. This is going off the synopsises.
The topic could also relate to episode 12, titled ‘The Last Will and Testament Of Sylvester Pemberton.’ If this isn’t a spoiler, we don’t know what is. However, it may be a misdirection. It could also mean someone else dies, like Lily or Sofus, or another character who gets caught in the crossfire. It could mean anything. Though the finale – episode 13 – is allegedly called ‘Reckoning’, this could be something to do with the Mahkents too, but we’re just going to have to wait.
Anyway, when the truth comes out, it could go in several directions, and given what has been hinted at, Cameron and Courtney are going to be that much closer to forming an actual relationship. The trailer teased a potential kiss and Cameron’s powers (finally) coming into play.
Murder They Found
So the third point is murder which relates to the secondary theme of this season. This will go into massive spoiler territory, but our murder victim is Steven Sharpe. So, yes, the Gambler is dead. We theorised this a few weeks back and got a comment by actor Eric Goins himself on Instagram. This was after we posted that we’d written our theories post. It made our day that he took the time to read the article.
Going back to the murder, it appears that people are being watched. This is evident when Sharpe is talking to Pat and Courtney, and the screen turns into a CCTV-like screen for a split moment. Arrowverse YouTuber Pagey mentioned in his review that about a quarter of the way through the episode, it became clear that Sharpe was going to die.
Now, we have the victim, but there are still things we don’t know. So that’s where our suspects and motives come into play.
Suspects And Motives
Episode one gives us a handful of potential suspects who issued a threat toward Sharpe in the episode. Their motives, however, aren’t clear. So, our suspects include:
- Larry “Crusher” Crock
- Richard Swift/The Shade
- Cindy Burman/Shiv
The Gambler hasn’t got too many allies left in Blue Valley. We do not include Paula in this as she didn’t directly threaten Sharpe.
Potential Suspects via Evidence
We also need to consider potential suspects going off the evidence.
- Solomon Grundy – The animal growls heard before the attack of Sharpe.
- Rick Tyler – The sound of the skidding car earlier in the episode.
- Beth Chapel – The hacking of Sharpe’s computer – could also link to Charles McNider.
Evidence Linking To Confirmed Suspects
We need to consider the evidence linked to the confirmed crime suspects.
- Larry – Warns Pat and Courtney about not trusting anything Sharpe tells them.
- Cindy – Found with Sharpe’s gun in her hands.
- Shade – Threatens Sharpe with his powers which are later shown to now have a greenish hue.
We know that the JSA will include Cindy on their list as she was the first person on the scene. However, we don’t believe she will be on the list for long. The destruction of Sharpe’s caravan happened quickly, and Shiv is fast, but she’s not The Flash. She can’t move that quickly. Also, we don’t know how Steven died. All that was found was his body. There are no signs of a stab wound, at least none that was shown.
Finally, Artemis could briefly be considered a suspect, but she was not at the crime scene, and like Cindy, the caravan’s destruction doesn’t align with the younger Crock’s skills.
