DC’s Stargirl: SPOILER Dies in “Brainwave, Jr.”

DC’s Stargirl is a series that is no stranger to consequences and, unfortunately, that means tragic deaths. The series opened up with the death of nearly the entire original Justice Society of America and since then the series has also seen the demise of The Wizard and his son, Joey — a loss that Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl (Brec Bassinger) took particularly hard. Unfortunately, this week’s episode, “Brainwave, Jr.” saw another character lose their life in a showdown with the Injustice Society of America and it’s one that will have a major impact on not just Courtney, but the rest of the JSA as well.

Spoilers for this week’s episode of DC’s Stargirl, “Brainwave, Jr.”, below.

As viewers saw in last week’s “Brainwave”, Henry King, Jr. (Jake Austin Walker) had finally not only come into his own powers to the point that he could actively control them, but also learned a great deal about his father, Brainwave (Christopher James Baker) — and even appears to be willing to align himself to his father’s view of humanity, one that sees them all as monsters. That changes, however, when his father wakes up from his coma and has no memory of the past ten years. Instead of the cold and difficult father Henry knows, his father has emotions and even hugs him as he grieves for the death of Henry’s mother — something that because of his memory loss he wasn’t aware of.

When Henry begins to realize that something nefarious may have happened to his mother, he watches his father’s video diaries and begins to believe that Jordan Mahkent (Neil Jackson) killed his mother, but Jordan ends up getting to his father and taking him back to the ISA. Hoping to save his father, Henry reaches out to Courtney who decides that the JSA needs to help him not only get to his father, but get back her Cosmic Staff which Jordan has as well.

As one might guess, the JSA isn’t thrilled, but goes along for Courtney’s sake. Yolanda/Wildcat (Yvette Monreal) in particular is not thrilled because of how Henry slut shamed her previously. Still, Henry goes along with the JSA to rescue his dad and when it becomes apparent that there is no saving Brainwave — his memory is restored and he returns to his villainous self — he sticks by the JSA as they flee, even helping pry open a gate so that the heroes can escape. But Henry himself is unable to escape. He ends up in a faceoff with his father, who reveals that it wasn’t Jordan who killed his mother. He killed the woman he loved himself and wants Henry to join him. If he doesn’t, Brainwave is prepared to kill him, too. Henry chooses to reject his father and true to his word, Brainwave kills him. Before he dies, though, Henry apologizes to Yolanda and tells Courtney that people are good and that his death should not change her mind.

It’s a surprising end for Henry, but it’s one that Walker recently told us brings things full circle.

“So, I really feel like it comes full circle. I never wanted to approach Henry as just this bad guy. I knew there was so much to him just from what Geoff has told me,” Walker said. “And I’m a big comic guy, so me, I was going down the rabbit hole of Infinity, Inc. and just thinking, oh man, are they going to have Mr. Mind in his head at some point? Has it really the Henry doing any of this? I was really going down a deep dive with it. But yeah, I really loved how these come full circle, and how people gave him a chance, which I thought was really cool.”

Were you surprised by Henry’s death in “Brainwave, Jr.”? Let us know in the comments below.

DC’s Stargirl airs Tuesdays at 8/7 on The CW. New episodes debut Mondays on DC Universe.