Headscratchers / Stargirl (2020)

As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

ISA secret identities

• Most of the group, even in the flashbacks, didn't wear masks, and in Tigress's case, the mask covers one eye. Given that Pat, presumably through the JSA archives, had headshots of the ISA members, shouldn't the police have them as well, while theoretically a small town would be a good place for them to hide as the ISA have set themselves up as key figures in the community, in the era of the internet shouldn't someone working for the FBI have found photos of them online, noticed that they looked like known criminals, and at least investigated.
  • Perhaps someone did investigate them and ran afoul of everyone's favorite musical hypnotist. There's nothing to see in Blue Valley. All just a coincidence.
  • We know the Gambler is an expert hacker, so he probably had a hand in scrubbing their online footprint. It's also possible Henry Sr. can erase/scramble memories with his Telepathy.
  • Episode 10 has Brainwave recount how he was previously arrested while robbing a bank, indicating that the ISA have probably all been arrested and imprisoned in the past. However, given he then went on to marry the woman who arrested him, it's probable that he served his time legitimately and was subsequently released; we don't know how old all of them are exactly, considering decades have passed since Henry gained his powers and hasn't aged a day. So, it's likely that metas don't age/age slowly, like in Doom Patrol (2019), and they've all just served their sentences, waited the time out, and are currently all considered to have served their time as far as the legal system goes. Combined with the Mahkents' wealth, Gambler's hacking skill, Brainwave's telepathy and Fiddler's music, and Blue Valley's closed-off nature, it's liable they've just quietly swept their past convictions under the rug, and nobody is aware of their murder of the JSA or subsequent crimes, so they're not actively wanted for anything.

Rick and Beth's costumes

• After confronting Courtney, Pat is shown walking out of her room with all the gear she stole that she hasn't yet given away and putting it into a box (presumably without Courtney watching him do it). So how did she get her hands on the costumes of Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite?
  • Pat hid the stuff in the basement, in the same place he had hidden the staff. Courtney may not have known exactly where Pat put the stuff, but it wouldn't take much digging to find it.

Time Travel

• I haven’t seen the show yet, but the show's Wiki states they were crime fighting since the 1900s, so has that been explained or has Courtney made a joke about how old he is?
  • That probably means the 1900s as in '20th century', as in 'since before 2000'. Not, literally, 1900. At no point is time-travel mentioned in the show regarding those two, and Pat describes his youth implying he grew up in the 70s/80s.
    • The photos and costumes of the JSA and the Seven Soldiers we have seen look like from an older time, despite the photos being in color.
  • We get a flashback in Season 2 which shows the fateful night when the ISA destroys the JSA occurred in December 2010. Presumably, the group Pat was in beforehand (Seven Soldiers of Victory) were in the late 90's and/or early 00's.

Yolanda’s moral beliefs

• Yolanda’s views on killing seem a bit jumbled in the season finale. She makes it clear that she doesn’t believe in taking a life due to her religious beliefs (which would later take a tragic turn when she murders Brainwave in cold blood), but in previous episodes, not only does she threaten (and nearly attempt) to cut down Henry Jr., she casually slashes multiple goons in Dragon Kong’s lair; granted, they’re all Ambiguously Human, but as far as Yolanda is concerned, they’re just creepy masked men. Is this an inconsistency?
  • It may be that she was taught Thou Shalt Not Kill and tries to hold herself to that, but doesn't always succeed in doing so. Plus, there's a big difference between killing in the heat of battle when someone's actively trying to kill you (as with Dragon King's goons) and actually watching someone die by your hand (as in the finale). With Henry, she seems to have had a first urge to kill him, which is fairly understandable, but ultimately chose to stick to her beliefs.

Dr. Mid-Nite's location

• When Beth first puts on the goggles, Chuck the AI tells her that he's located at the JSA headquarters, which is confirmed when she can't hear him in the ISA underground passages due to jammers. But after Jordan breaks the goggles in the Season 1 finale, Beth treats it as if he's gone for good instead of just losing the interface.
  • Even if they are only an interface, the googles are still a piece of technology Beth cannot replicate. Without them, the AI might as well be gone for good, because she can no longer access it.
    • Except she manages to get the goggles working, but the AI seems to have forgotten her. Which makes no sense if the goggles were just an interface.
    • As it turns out, there's a reason for that. The real Dr. Mid-nite was using the goggles to communicate.

Just how common are superheroes?

• There were multiple superhero teams active in the United States not too long ago, and most of those heroes have now fallen into obscurity. This suggests that superheroes are quite common in this setting, if someone who flew through the air shooting energy blasts isn't still a household name just eight years later. But if that's the case, then why doesn't Pat or someone else suggest trying to contact some superheroes who are still alive, get them to help in Blue Valley, rather than sending a bunch of untrained kids into danger?
  • Possibly he doesn't know any of them well enough to have their contact info. Most of his contacts seem to have been in the Seven/Eight Soldiers of Victory (now defunct and presumably scattered to the winds, if not dead), and the JSA. Plus, there may well be a Superman Stays Out of Gotham kind of thing going on—there might be a hero active in, say, Philadelphia, but who knows whether they would agree to come over to Blue Valley and leave their place undefended to fight the ISA.

How is Rick paying for all that food?

• Rick is an unemployed teenager living with an uncle who barely supports the two of them. Where is he getting the money to buy the large quantities of food he's feeding to Grundy on a daily basis?
  • Didn't the first episode of season 2 imply he was stealing it?
    • That was Grundy breaking into places to get food. Rick seems to have taken it upon himself to feed Grundy to keep him away from town. In episode 4 we see Rick buy a dozen cheeseburgers and fries from the diner to "feed the dog." So the question stands, how is he paying for it?
    • Do we know he's unemployed? Maybe he's been able to get a job during the last six months, especially since he's now more confident and likable. Plus Barbara could've put in a good word for him somewhere.

Going from California to Nebraska

• At the end of Season 1, it's around Christmas time, and Sylvester Pemberton is in California, asking where Pat is. Cue Season 2, which takes place around six months later, and Sylvester is still MIA. What exactly is he doing that it takes half a year to drive from California to Nebraska? Did he take the wrong left turn at Alberqueque?
  • Most likely they'll explain it when he finally does show up.
  • Never stated outright, but it's mentioned he went to check on his sister and visited her grave before he came to Blue Valley. Given that he probably doesn't have any money (since he's almost certainly legally dead), he may well have had to hitchhike halfway across the country.
  • Finally answered in Season 3: That wasn't Sylvester. It was the Ultra-Humanite transplanted into his body. He took so long to get to Blue Valley because he was tracking down everyone who'd ever been close to Pat, doing thorough research so as to properly impersonate Starman.

Rick being charged with Matt's assault

• How did the cops figure Rick was even capable of laying that smackdown? Wouldn't they think it was more likely Matt was attacked by a bear?
  • Most likely as soon as Matt was conscious, he pointed the finger himself. Probably they don't know how he did it, but it wouldn't really matter.
    • Wouldn't it? Why not assume Matt was confused?
  • Good point. Maybe Rick was so stricken with guilt that he turned himself in?

Can the staff not tell the difference between Courtney and Eclipso possessing Courtney?

• The staff is intelligent, so why does it work for an Eclipso-possessed-Courtney the same way it would for the actual Courtney? Does it not consider them sufficiently distinct entities? If Only the Chosen May Wield, then why doesn't it reject Eclipso for not being one of the chosen?
  • Maybe it was trying to help Courtney fight him off?
  • Courtney and the Staff are connected. Eclipso corrupted the Staff through that connection.

How Starman body is still in good shape

• When Starman returns he explained that when Courtney became the wielder of the staff his bond with the Staff woke and resurrected him, but still he was dead for more than a decade, why exactly did his body not rot at all?
  • It's possible the staff healed him as it resurrected him. Personally, my guess is that something—or someone—more powerful than the staff healed and resurrected him, and we'll find out in a later episode.
  • Episode 4 reveals that he now has a Healing Factor thanks to all that time wielding the Staff, which presumably kicked in as soon as he was killed, then took about a decade for him to fully heal.
  • Given the revelation in episode 12, it's possible that the Ultra-Humanite and Dragon King did some work on his body as well.

How the Green Lantern's ring ended in a box

• If Green Lantern alongside his ring were in the last battle against the ISA (for the green flames around the building), then how did his ring end up in a box for her daughter.
  • My guess is that Pat picked it up (along with the other JSA memorabilia), buried their bodies, and sent the ring to Jennie. Though why he didn't send the lantern along with it is unknown. Speculating here, but it may be that Alan left the lantern at home before going off to fight, and that Pat took a while to find it. Then, since he hadn't heard anything from Jennie, he (correctly) assumed that it hadn't gotten to her/had been intercepted, and kept the lantern, since the ring wouldn't be much good without it.

How are the original JSA members so young-looking?

• Charles McNider's profile that Chuck showed Beth indicates that his year of birth was 1914, which means that even at the time of his "death" in the Pilot, he should have been well into his 90s (since the prologue takes place in December 2010), yet he looks to be in his 40s at most. Sylvester and Pat were around long enough to remember the Ultra-Humanite from before he put his brain into Dolores Winters' body, which means they must be at least in their eighties, considering that "Dolores" was in contact with Dragon King before he took on his reptilian form (which happened in the aftermath of World War II). Again, they don't look any older than their 40s at most. Does the JSA have access to a secret Lazarus Pit or something?
  • More likely, time travel was involved.

Why couldn't the staff tell that something was up with Starman? SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3!!!

• We've seen that the staff can pick up on its wielder's thoughts and emotions to an extent, as shown when it responded to Courtney's emotional state in "Shining Knight." So why couldn't it tell that something was off with "Starman" when he used it? Was Ultra-Humanite just that thoroughly in character?
  • Well, it's very natural for someone who fully immerses themself in a role for a long enough time to start having difficulty distinguishing between their original identity and the role (it occasionally happens with real-life actors, too), and it's worth remembering that he didn't start wielding the Staff until after months of being Pat. So, yes, he may have been that much in character, and most likely deliberately forcing himself to be more in character whenever he had his grubby mitts on it.
  • Additionally, it's worth remembering that it's explicitly stated the Staff only works for him because Courtney thought it should.

Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite

• Let's assume the previous episode takes place not long before this one. In that episode, it was stated that Yolanda's school-wide humiliation took place three months prior. However, if the timing of these episodes is in October (as this episode takes place on Halloween), then three months earlier would be July, when the normal school year isn't likely to be in session. Am I missing something, or is this an actual goof on the part of the writers?
  • Since Halloween is the last day of the month, "three months" might count October, so her humiliation might have happened at the end of August, which is when school usually starts.
  • That would make sense; you'd probably want to have the new student government start in the first few days of school.
• Where did the footage of Rex Tyler's death come from? That was a country road in the middle of the woods. Were there surveillance cameras out there?
  • It might be an extrapolation of data, rather than actual footage.
  • Could also be possible that the JSA members had ways to keep tabs on one another in case of emergency, like maybe live footage from satellites or some such other resource.
    • Dr Fate and the Spectre are confirmed to have been members of the JSA, and none of the new JSA have that much of a clue how some of their gear works, who's to say there isn't a little Magitek involved?

What was Cindy doing for six months?

• So, at the end of Season 1, Cindy gets The Black Diamond and makes plans to use Eclipso against the new JSA. That was around Christmas, but she doesn't launch her plan until summer of the following year. What the hell was she doing for the intervening six months?