Our boys, Sylvester and Cameron, have massive chips on their shoulders. This week’s Stargirl, the Blackmail, continues to excite and confuse its fans in the best way possible. Sylvester struggles to find a place in Blue Valley while going after Crocks. Cameron, meanwhile, struggles with mood swings as his powers continue to cause his downward spiral. But, before we jump in, we have to say our assumption that Sharpe wasn’t the blackmailer was off.
Sylvester has a massive chip on his shoulder, which even Cindy points out later in the episode. Anyway, he looks into jobs and finds excuses not to apply. Finally, after a conversation with Pat and Zeek, he realises that perhaps he needs to get his life in order.
At school, Courtney is talking with Cindy about Sylvester and the J.S.A.’s business when Cameron walks out of the classroom behind them. Suddenly distracted, she excuses herself and tries to talk to him, but he ignores her, which is out of character.
Later, Cameron snaps at Miss Woods, the teacher who is mentor to Rick. Rick, who sees the outburst, calls him out, almost resulting in a fight. Miss Woods is forced to step in to stop them before it can escalate. After exploding at his teacher and out of spite for Rick, Cameron uses his powers to deflate one of the tyres on the Mustang. Moreover, Miss Woods warns Rick that calling Cameron names will only worsen the situation.
It’s clear by this scene that Miss Woods now has a more profound respect for Rick because of what she saw him go through last season with his uncle. She even mentions to Cameron that her colleagues have avoided her because of her attitude towards them. In return, Rick has her back for standing up for him when no other teacher did.
In a way, seeing Rick stand up to Cameron was satisfying to see despite their limited interactions. However, it also gives the audience a snapshot of what might be becoming around the country for Cameron’s relationship with Courtney. If something were to happen, and Courtney was to get hurt, Rick would be the first person to protect her. Also, a fan, Cluster Edits, commented on Twitter that Cameron likely realised he was being a jerk when Rick was being a jerk to him. In Cameron’s mind, he doesn’t want to stoop to Rick’s level.
Going back to Sylvester, he gets an unexpected surprise; Cindy shows up at the Whitmore-Dugan House and hands him the information she sent to Beth about the Crocks. After she leaves, Sylvester leaves with Cosmo, unaware that Mike has heard everything.
Sylvester goes on the hunt, cornering the Crocks at the local supermarket. Unfortunately, a massive fight destroys the shop and several cars. Having gotten a call from Mike, Pat arrives in S.T.R.I.P.E. and manages to get Sylvester to back down.
At school, Cameron approaches Courtney and apologises for being a jerk to her. When she asks what’s going on, he tells her that he’s not ready to tell her. This parallels her constantly having to bail on him for J.S.A. business and what happened when they almost kissed last season. Anyway, they go for a walk where they playfully shoulder each other before they go to hold hands. Cameron pulls his hand back at the last second before saying goodbyes to her.
Next week’s promo shows that their relationship will escalate thanks to his powers going haywire in the art room. We addressed this in our synopsis breakdown for episodes 4, 5, & 6 as well. However, we were wrong about the kiss from the trailer happening in episode 2, and Cameron was in episode 3. Given the synopsises, he’s in a ton of the first half of the season. So, that makes us wonder where it goes from here.
Pagey pointed out in his trailer breakdown that Cameron’s spiral will depend on his grandparents. Given he is still interacting with her seems to indicate that he doesn’t know. However, he could play her, which might provide context to next week’s Courtney snow globe seen in the promo.
Returning to the Crocks, Paula and Larry tell Pat, Courtney, and Barbara that The Gambler was blackmailing them. He suddenly had a change of heart and gave them back the money without explaining why. Crusher also reveals he saw Sharpe the day he died but chose not to confront him. We give him props for this as it shows he had restraint. Will he keep at it? We don’t know. His growth has been interesting to watch. It would be sad if he went backward.
At the school, Courtney reveals that the Crocks didn’t kill Sharpe, meaning they’re back to square one with only Cindy as a suspect. Also, Courtney tells her former adversary that if she pulls the stunt she did with telling Sylvester, she’s off the team. Surprisingly, Cindy agrees not to disobey her orders again. We have no doubts that Yolanda and Rick would be pleased if she were kicked off the team.
To end this breakdown, we wanted to say we’re leaving the Crocks on the suspect list because there might be more going on with them. As for Cameron, we’ll have to wait to see where his powers lead him and how his grandparents factor into it. Also, where does Courtney sit in his life once the truth gets? Only time will tell.
