The previous episode of Stargirl left us with a mighty cliffhanger, as Sylvester Pemberton seemingly lay lifeless while doing some investigating of his own and being attacked by an unknown assailant. Episode 4 furthers the murder mystery in Blue Valley while throwing the spotlight onto a suspect that was thought to have perished towards the end of Season 1, leading the Justice Society to question a recent allegiance and Courtney distracted by a blossoming romance.
‘The Evidence” moves the story ahead in a productive way, but it can feel like it’s spending a bit more time on its b-plots rather than focusing on the premise of the episode. We’re given much more character moments, ones that have felt lacking throughout this season specifically between Pat and Sylvester. The duo had butted heads a bit and had their moments, but it never felt like they got those moments of growth until now, with the once great sidekick known as Stripesy acting as Pemberton’s anchor and helping to guide him towards a new purpose in life.
It felt as if the biggest part of the episode was cast aside and not given attention until the final minutes of the episode. The episode title leads you to believe that they’d found something shocking that’ll push the story on forward more, when in reality, it just sets that up for presumably what is to come in the next episode. A dragon scale at the scene of the crime leads the team to believe that Dragon King could be back in play, hypothesizing that his numerous experiments on himself could’ve brought him back, with others showing their reluctance to trust and immediately throwing the blame onto the newly pardoned Cindy Burman, whom the audience themselves isn’t all that sure they should be trusting either.
The biggest revelation of this episode would be Dr. McNiders diagnosis of just what is going on with Sylvester Pemberton and how he’s been able to return after spending ten years six feet under. McNider believes that prolonged exposure to the Cosmic Staff has energized Pemberton’s body, similar to how Jade was imbued with the power of the starheart. This reveal just feels a little murky, feeling like you should be scratching your head a little bit because… that’s it? It just felt like something so important was so casually revealed and could’ve been built up to a little bit more.
Another bright spot of this episode is finally seeing some payoff to the relationship set up between Cameron Mahkent and Courtney Whitmore, something that’s been planted since season one. This episode reaffirms just what kind of person Courtney is because when she sees someone in need, she’s going to jump into action, no matter what else is going on. She can see Cameron struggling with his newfound cryokinesis abilities and feels the need to help him, when deep down we can feel the guilt she holds knowing the true fate of his father, feeling like she owes him while crushing on him at the same time.
To cap it off we get a better glimpse of just what exactly is going on behind the scenes, as the Helix Institute has yet to make its presence known, we got a peek at Mister Bones within a room full of monitors, a much better look at the villain and the series seems to tease his arrival is getting closer and closer. Not a bad episode, but not necessarily the strongest episode of the season.
