DC’s Stargirl Season 2 Episode 11 explores the Shadowlands, and those poor souls that Eclipso has trapped inside of it — including Courtney.
Below is a recap and review of DC’s Stargirl Season 2 Episode 11. Be warned, there will be spoilers. So if you have not yet seen the episode and want to remain in the dark about it, come back later. Check out this recap and review of DC’s Stargirl Season 2 Episode 10.
Warning: Spoilers for DC’s Stargirl Season 2 Episode 11.
DC’s Stargirl season 2 episode 11 starts off with everyone crying about, what they believe, is the death of Courtney. If you recall at the very end of the previous episode she was sucked into a dark hole like Cindy was.
However, she isn’t dead at all. Viewers now see her in a black and white Blue Valley which is a really smart effect, but feels quite similar to DC’s Titans episode 9 where they were in the after life, but in black and white. After Courtney has a weird dealing with haunts from her past, she finds Cindy, who explains this place to her.
Cindy tells Courtney that she learned all about where they are, the shadowlands, on the island that Eclispo is from. She explains that this place is where Eclipso was born. It is a void created by the darkness inside humanity and filled with fear, rage, and guilt. It needed something to feed on it all, and that something is Eclipso.
She describes it as a purgatory. It shows you things from your past. Horrible things that you did or experienced and, as Cindy says, mostly just depresses you. Eventually people are consumed and die.
During one such vision Courtney sees her mom, Barbara, saying that she could have had a better life if she didn’t get pregnant. Of course Cindy witnesses this and the two start to bond, just a little bit, about all of the horrible things they both went through and their pasts.
They discuss it a little bit but then Cindy is pulled off a vision.
While Cindy is gone, Courtney meets Doctor McNider when he pulls her from the abyss, learning that he is truly alive, and stuck there. He explains that what she was seeing is the pure shadowlands. He has lived there for years and only survived because of the goggles. Without them, he too would have been consumed.
Just like Beth’s goggles, they let him only see the truth. He says that when he doesn’t have them on, he only hears his daughter, and knows he would have lost the fight long ago if not for them. He advises Courtney not to give into the fear and darkness — and says to hold onto the light because Eclipso feeds on the darkness and if you embrace that, you will be consumed.
Back in the real world, Jenni is confessing that she thinks what happened with Courtney is her fault. She thinks if she wasn’t afraid the ring would have saved Courtney from Eclipso. Just then Doctor McNider speaks to Beth through the goggles, and tells her that Courtney is alive and there with him. He says that he thinks The Shade can open the doorway to the Shadowlands and bring them back.
Mike wants to find Thunderbolt in order to locate the Shade but Pat says that Jenni and the Green Lantern ring will be able to. And he is right.
Meanwhile, Doctor McNider and Courtney are having a heart to heart. She wonders why The Shade would ever help them, especially since he is the reason they are both trapped there. He explains that when Eclipso killed his daughter, The Shade came to him and explained that he felt responsible for it.
The two drank together and McNider told him it was not his fault. He says that The Shade was never like the other ISA members and even considered himself and Charles to be friends. He believes The Shade put him in the shadowlands to protect him from the ISA that night.
Pat and Barbara go to see The Shade in the Blue Valley theater and he is watching an old film. The Shade is very surprised to hear that Charles McNider is alive and agrees to open a door to the shadowlands to try to save them. He does it on the movie screen, which proves to be a very cool effect, and holds it open when he pinpoints Courtney.
She is tempted to walk through but decides she wants to do the right thing and find Cindy. She tells them to wait and bit and runs back off into the abyss.
Instead of getting to Cindy though, she ends up in a vision. She sees Yolanda’s bedroom, where she is sitting sadly and thinking about all the horrible things she has done — all because of Courtney.
Little boy Eclipso is there and he says lets play a game — whose life did you ruin? He then proceeds to also shows her Rick in jail, saying that he is only there because of her.
When that doesn’t seem to accomplish what he is trying to do, he starts attempting to make her mad at him. He pushes her buttons by talking about how he has tortured and hurt everyone she loves. When he brings up her father, and that is what gets her. He finally pushes her to say that she hates him. Meanwhile, Shade is struggling to keep the doorway open.
Courtney finally gets to Cindy through sheer perseverance and fighting the urge to give into her anger. When she finds her, she sees her being tortured by her father.
She helps her break away from him but before they can go anywhere else, Cindy is stopped by a vision of her younger self killing her mother when she lost her temper — all because of the experiments her father did on her.
The main point of this seems to be so that Courtney will see what happened with Cindy when she was younger. This is sure to make their bond even tighter, and truly help them to understand one another. Courtney lets Cindy know that she has found a way out, but that they have to leave now — and they do.
Courtney, Charles McNider, and Cindy just barely make it out of the shadowlands before The Shade collapses and so does the door he created. It is clear that The Shade is very weak. He is happy to see Charles again and apologizes for trapping him in the shadowlands on accident.
When Pat asks him if there is anything they can do for him he says yes, for them to tell everyone he died doing something good. He disappears into a puff of shadows and seemingly dies. The group looks up at the movie screen and Courtney asks who is ready to kill Eclipso.
About DC’s Stargirl
DC’s STARGIRL follows high school sophomore Courtney Whitmore as she inspires an unlikely group of young heroes to stop the villains of the past. This new drama reimagines Stargirl and the very first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, in an unpredictable series.
The project focuses on the character that started executive producer Geoff Johns’ career as a comic book writer when he created her in 1999, lovingly inspired by his late sister, who was killed in a 1996 plane explosion.
Stargirl Season 2 airs on CW every Tuesday, starting on August 10th.
Stream for free the next day on The CW
