Summer School: Chapter Seven

## Episode Guide

"**Summer School: Chapter Seven**" is the seventh episode of the second season of *Stargirl*, and the twentieth episode overall. This episode aired on September 21, 2021 on The CW.

## Synopsis

**YOLANDA FACES HER PAST -** When the guilt over Brainwave's death becomes too much to handle, Yolanda is forced to make a heartbreaking decision.

## Plot

Yolanda goes to the church and sits in the confessional, and Father Thomas enters the booth next to her and asks if she wants to talk or just sits. The teenager asks if the Devil is real, and says that she's seen him. Thomas asks what the Devil made her do, and Yolanda says that something terrible has happened. She wonders if they should stop the Devil because God isn't on Earth, and if she can be forgiven if she kills something truly evil.

Clutching at her head in pain, Yolanda remembers watching Brainwave dead. She comes out of her fugue and says that the Devil is real and in Blue Valley, and leaves.

*July 3*

A marching band goes through Main Street, and the people gather for the 4th of July parade. In the basement, Courtney and Pat are in the basement looking at the staff, and Courtney says that the Staff is weak but getting better. She reminds Pat that Eclipso killed Isaac and Cindy in front of them, and possibly Shade. Pat notes that there has been nothing in the news about Eclipso, including disappearances, and Courtney wonders how they can really know. Courtney asks Pat why Eclipso would stay in Blue Valley, and Pat admits that he doesn't know but figures that the reason isn't good.

At the American Dream, the staff meet and Janet says that they can't save everyone by saving people in other towns. Barbara points out that almost 200 people will lose their jobs, but Janet isn't impressed. Barbara suggests that they liquidate their back stock, and says that Jordan wouldn't have given up on their neighbor, Oakvale. The staff all vote in favor of Barbara's proposal, adjourn the meeting, and leave.

Barbara looks at a portrait on the wall of Jordan, then hears someone behind her saying the name "Emily". She turns, but there's no one there. The voice says that name again, and a shadow spreads across the ceiling and then disappears. A single drop of blackness falls on the floor, and Barbara touches it.

At the diner, Yolanda is standing staring off into space. Maria startles her when she comes up, and asks Yolanda if she's doing okay. Yolanda says that she is, and Maria points out Grumpy Joe is in Yolanda's section but she'll take care of him.

Maria goes over to Joe, who complains that he's been waiting. Maria's eyes glow with the black diamond's power, and Maria pours coffee on Joe. The boss tells Maria to go home, and Yolanda sees Bruce standing nearby. She tell him that it just an accident and gives him a lollipop. Bruce isn't impressed, and Yolanda looks over at Joe. When she turns back, Bruce is gone.

Courtney calls Beth, who says that she doesn't know how to track Eclipso. She points out that the town doesn't appear to be in summer even though it is, she doesn't know how to contact McNider again, and isn't sure what's real anymore. Courtney says that they should keep looking and tells Beth to stay safe.

Cameron comes up behind Courtney to surprise her, and she instinctively slams him into the wall. He says that he and his father Jordan used to set up decorations for the 4th of July, and invites her to help. She gets a call, but tells Cameron that she's right where she needs to be.

At the Pit Stop, Pat and Mike look at the damage caused to S.T.R.I.P.E. by Artemis and Isaac. They go to work repairing it, and Pat tells Mike that he has to have patience. Mike isn't impressed.

Yolanda leaves the diner, and hears Eclipso calling her name and saying that he's there. The whirring noise in Yolanda's head briefly strikes her, and Yolanda texts Courtney and says that she needs to talk. Then Yolanda sees Courtney across the street with Cameron, decorating.

Going to the church inside, Yolanda enters and finds Thomas. He's with Yolanda's mother, and Mrs. Montez angrily asks how Yolanda could drive Thomas into her problems. Thomas says that Yolanda needs support, not judgment. Before Mrs. Montez can respond, Yolanda sees Bruce goes out the doors and goes after him. However, when she goes outside, there's no sign of the boy.

At the school, Principal Sherman takes over for Deisinger. Courtney is busy looking at photos on her phone of her and Cameron. Yolanda notices and sees Henry outside. She goes after him out into the hallway, and sees Henry at the end of the hallway walking around the corner. Yolanda starts to follow her, but hears the same noise in her head. She overcomes the pain and goes around the corner, and there is a spot of black on the floor.

Henry is there, and staggers into the cafeteria. Yolanda goes in after him and he turns to face her. Henry says that she never forgave him, and he's in a bad place because of that, burning. Yolanda tells Henry that she forgives him, and he says that Brainwave will never forgive her. Brainwave walks up to Yolanda and says that he'll never forgive her. Yolanda wakes up when Courtney checks on her, and finds herself back in the classroom. Upset, Yolanda leaves.

Courtney catches up to Yolanda in the hallway, and Yolanda tells her what she saw. Yolanda points out that she has been having the hallucinations before Eclipso, and it's her punishment. Courtney tells her friend that she's there for Yolanda, and they should talk to Rick and Beth. Yolanda wonders if they'll understand, and Courtney says that they will and they can face it as a team.

Mike and Pat continue working on STRIPE, and Pat says that being prepared is the only thing they can do until Eclipso shows up is be prepared. Pat goes up front and leaves Mike to his work. A cloth-wrapped package on a nearby worktable moves on its own. Mike sees it and goes over, unwraps the bundle, and finds three pieces of the shattered black diamond inside. When Mike puts one shard down, it moves across the table to the other two. Leeches appear on Mike's body, and he panics and tries to brush them off.

Pat comes back and finds Mike clawing at himself but there's nothing there. Mike tells his father what happened, and Pat tells him not to touch the shards. Mike asks Pat why he still has them, and Pat tells his son that the diamond was Eclipso's only weakness before and he's hoping it still is.

The four teenagers meet at the Whitmore house, and Yolanda says that she doesn't know if she can do it. At Courtney's silent urging, Yolanda says that she killed Brainwave. Yolanda explains what happened, and how she killed Brainwave when he used his powers to disguise himself as Henry.

Rick says that he would have killed Brainwave if he had the chance, and Yolanda asks him why he didn't kill Grundy. Rick says that his hour was up, but Yolanda isn't convinced and figures that he's a better person. When Rick tells Yolanda that she did what she had to, he turns to Beth but she says that she doesn't know. Yolanda says that she's the only killer among them, and they'll have to kill Eclipso when they find him. She asks if any of them can do it, and she'll have to kill Eclipso to save the rest of them, and she'll have to be the JSA member who kills. Yolanda leaves despite Courtney's protests.

Yolanda goes back to the confessional, and Thomas in the adjoining booth asks if she's okay. Crying, she tells Thomas that she murdered someone. Brainwave takes Thomas' place, and says that Henry also died because of Yolanda. Yolanda goes out and telekinetically blasts her to the floor, and says that he underestimated her but she underestimated. When Yolanda tries to run, Brainwave closes the door and lifts Yolanda, pulling her to him.

Brainwave says that he said his mind into Yolanda's, and now he's part of her. Her mind is weak because of her self-loathing, and soon he will control it and will live through her. Yolanda screams in pain and Brainwave tells her that she's made bad choices and that has made it easy to take control of her mind.

Stargirl arrives, and Brainwave appears behind her and mentally drops her to the floor. As Stargirl collapses, Yolanda finds herself in her Wildcat costume, charges forward, and cuts Brainwave's throat. He turns into Henry, and tells Yolanda that she's going to burn with him.

Yolanda hears Courtney's voice and snaps out of her fugue. She finds herself holding the Staff, which glows briefly and then goes dark. Yolanda tells Courtney that she just wanted to be left alone, and asks Courtney why she choose her. She says that she wasn't supposed to be Wildcat and hurt anyone, and tells Courtney that she quits, and walks out.

That night, Courtney is in her room looking at a photo of her and Yolanda. She calls Mrs. Montez, who tells Courtney that Yolanda doesn't want to talk to her. Mrs. Montez says that it's Courtney's influence that has corrupted Yolanda, and tells her to stop calling.

At the diner, Maria gets a call from Mrs. Montez that Yolanda is quitting.

Courtney tells Barbara, Mike, and Pat what happened, and she didn't tell them about Brainwave because it wasn't her secret to tell. She wishes she knew how to help Yolanda, and wonders if it was Brainwave, or Eclipso, or just in Yolanda's head.

Mike says that he didn't mean to kill Icicle, and it was an accident. Barbara and Pat tell him that it's okay, and Courtney asks Barbara about Shade, who Barbara thought she might have seen earlier.

At Chapel's house, Beth lies in her bed and recuperates. Bruce is outside on the lawn, watching the house and sucking on his lollipop. After a moment the boy laughs.

## Cast

### Starring

* Brec Bassinger as Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl
* Yvette Monreal as Yolanda Montez/Wildcat
* Anjelika Washington as Beth Chapel/Dr. Mid-Nite
* Cameron Gellman as Rick Tyler/Hourman
* Trae Romano as Mike Dugan
* Hunter Sansone as Cameron Mahkent
* Nick Tarabay as Eclipso (Voice)
* Amy Smart as Barbara Whitmore
* Luke Wilson as Pat Dugan/S.T.R.I.P.E.

### Special Guest Stars

* Christopher James Baker as Henry King Sr./Brainwave
* Jake Austin Walker as Henry King Jr.

### Guest Starring

* Milo Stein as Eclipso/Young Bruce Gordon

### Co-Starring

* Gilbert Glenn Brown as James Chapel
* Tywayne Wheatt as Principal Harold Sherman
* Kenny Alfonso as Father Thomas
* Leander Suleiman as Janet A'Lessio
* Maria Singer as Maria Carmen Saravia
* Gregory Konow as Grumpy Joe
* Vee Bhakta as Richie Howard
* Kikey Castillo as Maria Montez

## Notes and Trivia

* Henry King Sr. makes a special appearance in this episode. He was last seen in the Season 1 episode, "*Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two*". His appearance in *Chapter Seven* is a hallucination or mental infliction suffered by Yolanda Montez.
	+ Henry King Jr. makes a special appearance in this episode. He was last seen as himself in the Season 1 episode, "*Brainwave Jr.*" and as a glamour in "*Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two*". His appearance in *Chapter Seven* is a hallucination or mental affliction suffered by Yolanda Montez.
* Yolanda's mother, Maria Montez, is seen for the first time since the Season 1 episode "*Wildcat*".
* The parallel of Rick and Yolanda's dilemma regarding whether it's a right to kill is brought up during the team meeting. This was previously alluded to in Season 1, when Rick sought to kill Solomon Grundy, while Yolanda tried to convince him that killing was wrong.
	+ Moreover, Rick letting Solomon Grundy escape is mentioned. Rick claims his hour was up, but Yolanda believes he couldn't bring himself to kill Grundy.
* Courtney keeps her promise to Cameron when she stays with him instead of leaving for her other responsibilities.
* Yvette's stunt double, Kira, does most of the flips and difficult work, while Yvette learns the landings.
* Nick Tarabay has a different voice when he does Eclipso.
* Before going back to set, the cast was sent a long email detailing the changes made due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Masks were now mandated at all times when not filming, plastic walls divided the cast between scenes, and COVID officers patrolling the sets. Nobody contracted COVID-19 due to their restrictions, so they didn't have to halt production.
* Yvette loved working with Milo Stein as he's a great kid and actor. His father is a director which helps for his ability to take direction.
* Yvette is a Camney shipper and wants them to have the best romance in the series. She also ships Barbara and Pat.
* The church scenes were filmed in a real church, though production added the confessional booth into the real church. Shawn McBee created the stain glass doors for the confessional booth. Though, the inside of the confessional was filmed on a set.
* The cast were told ahead of time not to post anything regarding Jake Austin Walker's return to *Stargirl*, as production wanted the return to be as much of a surprise as possible.
* In order for Christopher James Baker to appear on the show, he had to fly from Australia to America, quarantine for two weeks, to shoot for roughly four days or so.
* Yvette loved doing the dramatic scenes of the episode, but tried to only cry when needed as she wanted Yolanda to have a strength to her.
* The stunt team practiced for two-months leading up to the church battle against Brainwave.
* This episode implies that Barbara still has some form of respect towards Jordan and the work he was doing with the American Dream.
* The most challenging part of the episode for Yvette was the emotional side, "I think emotionally, it became a little draining when I was doing all the scenes with Henry and Christopher Baker, because I had to be on and it was like a 15-hour day when I was doing all of the scenes with Jake and with Christopher Baker. So it was a long day. I think just keeping that emotion real and raw and just keeping it at same level at all times, it was very exhausting."
* Yvette found out that Yolanda would be leaving the JSA during a dinner with Geoff Johns and the cast, " I actually was at dinner with a few of my castmates and Geoff [Johns] and he was just like, "Oh, yeah, by the way, this is going to happen."
	+ She elaborated on the impact this would have saying, "Well, I mean, I think she is focusing on herself, focusing on her mental health right now. She kind of wants to pretend like it's not happening, even though we all know what's happening... Eclipso is not my priority anymore. That is for other JSA members. We're gonna leave it at that."
* Yvette's dream storyline for Yolanda is, "Genuinely, I would like to see her become a reporter and follow a little bit of the comic and see her just transitioning into this woman with a lot of confidence and exploring that side of the comic book. I really like that they stay accurate to the comics. So just honoring that and exploring it even further would be awesome for me. I would love that. It kind of reminds me of a couple movies that I grew up with. So that would be fun."

## References

1. ↑ https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/dcs-stargirl-season-two-ratings/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 https://www.spreaker.com/user/fandom-limb-media/stargirl-207?utm\_medium=widget&utm\_source=user%3A10739937&utm\_term=episode\_title
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 https://www.cbr.com/stargirl-season-2-yvette-monreal-interview/