This season on DC’s Stargirl, the heroes have found themselves dealing with not just the fallout from their defeat of the Injustice Society at the end of Season 1, but a terrifying new threat in the form of Eclipso (Nick Tarabay). As fans have seen in recent episodes, Eclipso is a truly terrifying foe, and dealing with him before tore the original JSA apart. However, the young heroes have been getting a bit of an assist of sorts from another presumed foe, The Shade, but this week, what seemed like a turning point in the fight against Eclipso ended in horrifying tragedy – a tragedy that may shape things between the JSA and The Shade going forward. Jonathan Cake, who brings the mysterious villain to life on The CW series, sat down with ComicBook.com to talk about how that shocking development in this week’s “Summer School: Chapter Ten” will impact things going forward as well as opened up a bit about the moral ambiguity of the character and his endgame.
Warning: there will be spoilers for this week’s episode of DC’s Stargirl, “Summer School: Chapter Ten”, below.
In the episode, The Shade tells the heroes that the way to contain Eclipso is to fuse the Black Diamond back together. This ends up not exactly being true. Instead, putting the diamond together again heals The Shade from his wounds, but also calls Eclipso to the Diamond, something that results in Courtney (Brec Bassinger) being dragged into the shadows just as Cindy Burman was previously. Before that happens, though, it’s revealed that The Shade is the one who saved Doctor Mid-Nite, leaving audiences with a more detailed and also conflicting view of the character. According to Cake, while he couldn’t reveal specifics, The Shade may be playing a much larger game.
“I can say that I absolutely love aspects of that, just when you think you have him pegged, there’s something pretty unpredictable about it. I will say the most important thing to remember all the time about him is that not only does he have this deeply divided self in terms of the internal struggle between his own forces of good and evil, but he’s also supremely intelligent and sometimes I think he needs to seem villainous to try to perform a greater good,” Cake said. “Now, it’s very difficult to, you know, that’s also what a lot of megalomaniacs say, ‘trust me, I’m playing God here and I know what’s good for everybody.’ That’s part of the ambiguity, right? Is he going to choose the path of some moral decency at the end or is he a villain? I think that duality is so, so important for this show and for this character and it’s so great because it doesn’t rule out the moments of sincerity. I think he’s genuinely sincere about the very complicated and deep emotion that Barbara Whitmore induces in him with his own family and with his own history. And I think it’s possible for him to be both sincere about that stuff and lie at the same time.”
DC’s Stargirl airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
DC’s Stargirl: Jonathan Cake Tease The Shade’s Duality After “Summer School: Chapter Ten”
