Courtney is unconvinced by the sudden appearance of a new arrival, disbelieving who they claim to be and causing friction both at home and within the league with her distrust.

Starting with a brief visit with Cindy’s ‘mother’ which takes a sinister turn, the episode then pauses to give us a quick flashback of the beginning of last week’s mysterious visitor’s journey towards the Dugan-Whitmore household and then throwing us directly into the immediate aftermath of the fight which rounded off the first episode, Courtney and the stranger standing rather shamefaced in the midst of the carnage.

The main premise is the identity of this mysterious stranger and Courtney’s struggle to accept it – we know from last week that since defeating the plans of the Injustice League last season, Courtney has been unable to settle. She’s convinced that more of the old enemies of the JSA are out there waiting to pounce, and the arrival of someone claiming a link to the JSA’s past isn’t something she’s just willing to accept.

Over the course of the episode though, it becomes clear that it isn’t just that basic paranoia which is plaguing the mind of our young heroine. This is where the episode really starts to dig into some of the issues that the show played with in season 1 again. Courtney has always struggled with feeling abandoned by her father and with fitting into the ‘new’ family unit involving Pat. It took the events of the first season – finding the staff, working with Pat in his capacity as ‘Stripesy’ and re-founding the JSA – to make her feel finally settled, as though she were a part of something. But even then there was a niggle at the back of her mind – the staff has chosen her, sure, but unlike other members of the new team, she has no direct link to the mantle she’s inherited. Starman wasn’t her father after all, and there’s an element deep within her subconscious, which feels as if she’s still just that imposter outsider; it’s possible that part of her newfound paranoia is linked to this fear, and when the new arrival explains who they are and where they came from, it only makes things worse.

It’s good to see the show finding new ways to keep conflict, and therefore interest, going with the characters. The danger in a second season of s show like this after the blowout finale last time around is that everything feels too cosy – how do you raise challenges, both external and internal for a team which has already bonded fighting and overcoming seemingly impossible odds? Well, you do it exactly like this, and I hope that the writers continue to mine this vein.

Elsewhere, we see a little more of Cindy and the new shiny rock which seems to have become her best friend. Clearly judging by last week’s flashback and this week’s events it’s a really bad thing, and it looks like the show might be set to continue dangling the possibility in front of us that if Cindy isn’t exactly redeemable, she may at least be understandable, possibly even mildly sympathetic. Intriguing stuff indeed.

We also have another stranger rolling into town looking to claim some of the ‘magical’ artefacts left behind by William Zarick, who rings some warning bells with both Barbara and Pat – whoever he is, he doesn’t look like he’s there for good reasons. Perhaps Courtney isn’t quite so paranoid after all…

Verdict: A banger of an episode which packs in action as well as seriously good emotional complexity. Stargirl is back! 9/10

Greg D. Smith