DC’s Stargirl Recap With Spoilers: Courtney Gets Her First Recruit in “Wildcat”

Following the death of her classmate, Joey Zarick, due to the machinations of Icicle last week on DC’s Stargirl Courtney Whitmore is more determined than ever to fight the Injustice Society, though now she knows she will need a team of heroes in order to stand a chance. Having secretly taken the heroic artifacts of the various fallen JSA members from the team’s headquarters, Courtney is on a mission to find her new generation of justice and put together her team. As the title suggests, she has her sights set on a new Wildcat and you can read all about her recruiting attempt in the spoiler-filled recap below.

Warning: spoilers for the fourth episode of Stargirl‘s first season, “Wildcat”, below.

The episode opens three months ago with Yolanda Montez waking up for school, greeting the day. She’s excited and happy, running for school student government office and has the support of her family and her boyfriend — Henry King Jr. Later, at home, she’s doing homework when she gets a text from Henry asking for sexy photos, which she sends. The next day, she wins the election and as she’s giving her speech, Cindy sends the photos to the entire student body, effectively ruining her life.

In the present, Courtney looks over the JSA artifacts she took from the team’s headquarters and tries to figure out what to do with them — including the pink pen Pat warned her about. She also looks through the school yearbook trying to figure out who could take up each of the heroic mantles. At breakfast, Mike says he wants to invite a friend over for dinner while Courtney is revealed to not really have any friends yet. She heads out, but not before suggesting to Pat that the villains could be the authorities.

At school, Henry bumps into Yolanda which prompts Cindy to harass her. Courtney intervenes, getting on Cindy’s bad side. Courtney chases after Yolanda, but she wants to be left alone. At his shop, Joey’s mom Denise brings her car to Pat for some work while at the Injustice Society lair, Jordan encounters Dr. Ito, aka Dragon King. He says he will never betray him, unlike others including The Shade. Ito says he’s been “working on his daughter” while Jordan says he’s accelerating Project New America. Ito says he’s glad that the Wizard is dead and asks for his body. Jordan says he can have it.

At school, Courtney finds Yolanda in the gym boxing and says that she needs Yolanda’s help. Courtney invites her over for dinner. At home, Yolanda asks her mom if she can go to Courtney’s for dinner. Her mother says no. Yolanda is grounded indefinitely. The next day, Courtney meets Yolanda at the gym and confesses that she blew up Henry’s car. She also lets Yolanda know that what happened was not her fault. Yolanda reveals that her parents treat her like she doesn’t exist.

At the shop, Denise returns to thank Pat for his kindness. She’s leaving town and tells Pat not to trust this town and that her husband didn’t have a heart attack. She realizes she’s said too much. She speeds off and Pat starts to put things together. At home, Courtney shows Yolanda the staff. They try on costumes. At first, the Wildcat suit is baggy on Yolanda, but when she puts on the cowl it transforms, the suit shifting to fit Yolanda perfectly.

They look up on Wikipedia what Wildcat’s powers were and start testing them, discovering her claws which promptly are used on the toaster. They also test out her agility, landing on her feet, though they do draw the line at jumping off a building. While talking, they witness Henry heading to the hospital to visit his father and Courtney tells Yolanda that Henry’s dad is Brainwave. They decide to check the visitor log to ferret out the villains. Wildcat climbs up the building to get in. Inside, she manages to get the visitor log, but she’s nearly caught in Brainwave’s room. However, both Stargirl and Yolanda witness Principal Bowen playing violin for the comatose villain. As the pair leave, Beth observes them and hears Stargirl call Wildcat “Yolanda”.

Yolanda decides that she needs to get her own life back before wearing a costume. She goes home and makes an impassioned plea to her family asking for their forgiveness so she can move forward but they reject her and call her a disgrace. Up in her room, the Wildcat suit is waiting for her. Yolanda suits up. Courtney has her first recruit.

As the episode ends, Pat goes to the junkyard looking for some specific parts and discovers a friendly black cat as well as Denise Zarick’s totaled Jeep. Joey’s hat is in the vehicle as well, suggesting a grim fate for the widow.

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