Things looked shaky from the start for the JSA and Pat as they marched down Main Street to take on Eclipso, who was tormenting Beth at American Dream. Sure, Yolanda is back as Wildcat, and Cindy/Shiv is a temporary recruit, but STRIPE is still in the shop, Rick can’t fix his hourglass, Jennie is sick, and Thunderbolt is still on that Chinese food run.
As a result, Eclipso goes to school with the gang when they show up at American Dream, with many of them going up against, well, themselves – Yolanda vs. “Ted Grant”, Cindy vs. “her younger self”, Pat vs a dickish Pat — while Courtney fruitlessly chases after Eclipso with Cosmo explosions. Along the way, Eclipso brags about his grand plan to merge the Shadowlands and Earth, then consume all of humanity at once and become a god. dr. McNider manages to remind everyone that who they’re fighting isn’t real, at which point Courtney and Cindy tag team Eclipso are thrown out of a window onto the floor below.
Eclipso clambered to the roof of the bell tower to roar, “It’s my time! I am on the brink of victory!” But what is he? Real is about to get him in the ass from STRIPE zooming by and taking the demon to the street below. (Thunderbolt showed up at the car shop just in time for Mike to “wish” a missing engine part to show up!) Zeke guides STRIPE’s pilot, Mike, through some of the robot’s new toys, including a jigsaw arm and flamethrower, while Jakeem tasks performs Lightning Strike with electrocuting Eclipso.
4But as the ghost does, Eclipso fends it off and hurls it into the STRIPE, killing the giant robot. Rick then strolls down the street as Hourman, and when Eclipso scoffs, “You don’t have any superpower against me,” Rick counters that he is doing – “and it takes more than an hour.” At the right moment, Solomon Grundy runs down a side street and slaps Eclipso. However, Eclipso gets back up and shoots a hole right through the creature’s belly, killing him on the spot, while Rick lets out a Skywalker-esque roar, “Nooooo!”
While Barb and Jennie receive a special, unseen visitor at home, Pat tries to guide Mike through a reboot, but is grabbed by Eclipso, who threatens in court to twist her father’s arms away one by one. “Tell me how you feel,” encourages the demon Stargirl. “Say it!Courtney lets go with ai hate you!,” which is exactly the window Eclipso needed to let her embrace the darkness and let him inhabit her as his new host. As Cosmo turns purple and half of Court’s face does the same, she growls, “I use the power of darkness and the power of light”, and can now merge the two worlds….
Meanwhile in American Dream… Beth was left to watch her parents die (or something), but The Shade showed up to dispel the haunting hallucination. Beth and Chuck then matched up, with the former promising her astonished parents that she would explain later. Outside, Cindy and Yolanda briefly argue about killing Eclipso’s new host (meaning, Courtney!), but Yolanda convinces her frenemy to focus on taking the staff away instead. Eclipso/Courtney laughs at their feeble attempt and punches them away, saying, “Just one!” can control the staff – to which an up-and-coming Sylvester Pemberton, aka Starman, says, “Wellllll, maybe” two.”
Starman guides owned Stargirl in the air, and while Eclipso tries to convince her that she was “unwanted by her father” and unloved, Pat on the ground urges his stepdaughter to be herself. While the court is overwhelmed by Merry memories, Stargirl and Starman manage to remove Eclipso from its new host. Sylvester catches Courtney before falling to the ground, while Eclipso is pelted with hockey pucks and arrows, courtesy of the Crock clan (who had called Cindy into action).
The Shadow pushes Stargirl and Green Lantern’s daughter to control the light and further exhaust Eclipso. As a final step, Jakeem wishes Eclipso was “toast”, so Thunderbolt… well, you know. he turns the demon into a slice of charred bread, which everyone wants to keep in a safe place.
*Rick buries Grundy when The Shade shows up to report that the brute has a habit of coming back “if you bury him in the right place at the right time.” The Shadow also said he is not leaving Blue Valley, as they have come to find its young heroes ‘intriguing’.
*Courtney confirmed that Yolanda is back as a Wildcat for good, while Cindy later contacted Yolanda to ask if she could also get a “pass” and join the JSA.
* After Pat said Sylvester would explain his resurrection another time, Court became concerned that Starman is here to reclaim the staff. But Sylvester insisted he isn’t. Instead, he wants to show Stargirl what the cosmic staff “can” Real to do.” (After she finishes summer school, of course.)
*Just when Dr. McNider was preparing to leave Blue Valley and find his “widowed” wife, Beth reported that she had already found her — in Melody Hills, Indiana. Plus, Chuck’s wife was pregnant when he “died,” so he’s going home to a 10-year-old son!
*Mike suggested that he, Jakeem and Thunderbolt start their ‘own thing’.
*Just as Cameron finished that damn mural, his grandparents said it was time to tell him the truth about his icy cold-eyed family….
*Beth’s parents are a little over-excited about having a superhero daughter (and their romance has been “rekindled” as a result). They brag that they have big plans to help with ideas, costumes, “nanotechnology”…
*Barbara reports to the family that Jennie has arrived safely in Milwaukee. Oh, and the house next door has been sold. The doorbell rings and Pat and Court meet their new neighbors – the Crocks! Cue the title card for Season 3, ‘Frenemies’.
*Finally, in an actual bonus scene, Nurse Louise Love of the Helix Institute for Youth Rehabilitation’s sees someone tell someone that Green Lantern’s daughter is looking for her brother, but that she left a new set of friends behind in a small town in the populated Nebraska by heroes and villains.
“Heroes and villains side by side? What an interesting experiment,” muses Mr. Bones. “Maybe we should go on a trip…”
