Icicle – Director: Michael Nankin/Writer: Colleen McGuinness
This one starts eight years ago, with Jordan Mahkent (aka Icicle) and his son Cameron, watching helplessly as their wife and mother (Christine) lays dying in a sickbed. Jordan tells Christine he’ll make everyone pay for making her sick, but she urges him to forget about that and go on with his mission to make the country safe. Her reasonable side soon disappears when she tells him to destroy anyone who gets in his way. After she dies, Icicle goes outside to rage and freezes the entire garden, watched by his son.
In the present day, Courtney is ready to ditch school to hunt down any other Injustice Society members that might be in town, but Pat cautions her not to do anything stupid. At the hospital, we see a coffee cup move telekinetically in Brainwave’s room, but I’m assuming it was done (inadvertently) by Henry King Jr., not his comatose father. Icicle is there too, but doesn’t speak
to Henry. He does call William (Wizard) Zarick, who ignores the call and lies to his wife about it. He does find time to help his son Joey with some advice on magic tricks. At school, Joey does a card trick with Courtney, but gets the wrong card. She pretends he picked the right one to save him being humiliated, something Cameron Mahkent sees but doesn’t comment on. Someone wrote “slut” on Yolanda’s locker and Courtney offers to help her clean it, but Yolanda’s not too receptive. Pat visits the hospital and talks to Dr. Chapel about Brainwave. When he finds out Brainwave was left outside the hospital in his civilian 
clothes, he realizes there must be other Injustice Society members in town. Icicle visits Wizard and gives him shit for not warning him about someone using Starman’s staff. We learn that Icicle did kill everyone he blamed for his wife’s death (for exposing her to some kind of toxin) and we find out that Wizard stumbled into his magical powers, killing his master before his training was complete.
Pat gets a call from school about Mike getting in trouble, so he informs Mike he’s going to learn responsibility by getting a paper route (and we find out Pat’s favourite video game as a kid was Paperboy). At the American
Dream offices, Jordan looks over the foundation’s plans for renovating downtown. But when Barbara hears about the planned destruction of her favourite childhood theatre, she convinces Jordan not to knock it down, even though it’s a money-loser. Steven Sharpe’s not too thrilled about that. At school, someone painted a flower scene over the word “slut” on Yolanda’s locker and Cindy Burman (who obviously wrote the word on there to begin with) is giving Yolanda shit about it. (Apparently, Cindy is pissed off that Yolanda dated Henry even 
though she knew Cindy had a thing for him.) Courtney defends Yolanda again, but Yolanda tells her not to since it’ll just bring more shit down on both of them. Courtney realizes Cameron Mahkent is the one who painted the flowers on Yolanda’s locker. At American Dream, Jordan invites Barbara to join the meeting about the new theatre project, but she’s expected at home for family dinner. On the way home from school, Courtney finds a star pattern frozen into the grass of Blue Valley Park.
Courtney tells Pat about the ice in the park and he figures it’s a trap, but Courtney says she’s going back to look for Icicle … with or without Pat’s
help. He has no choice but to go with her, but when they get to the park, Icicle ambushes them and freezes up the STRIPE armour. Barbara gets home in time for family dinner, only to find Pat and Courtney are gone and Mike and the dog have gorged themselves on Cheetos. At the park, Courtney has some trouble with Icicle but Pat knocks the villain onto a nearby bridge with a remote-controlled fist. A 
school bus full of kids (including Joey Zarick and Beth Chapel) is returning from the talent show and drives onto the bridge. Icicle freezes the road and the bus crashes, teetering on the edge of the bridge until Pat breaks free and pushes it back up to safety. As the kids exit the bus, a truck drives onto the bridge and Icicle causes it to run over Joey Zarick as Courtney and Pat watch helplessly from a distance.
William and Denise Zarick find out their son is dead and William takes his wand and goes after Icicle. At the garage, Courtney tries to deal with her
first time watching someone die and tells Pat how Joey was the first person at school who was nice to her. Pat takes her to the old JSA headquarters to show her the artifacts that belonged to his dead friends, hoping to impress upon her how dangerous the superhero life is. But instead of scaring her away, it just strengthens her resolve and she has the idea of creating a new JSA to fight the Injustice League. Wizard 
confronts Icicle about Joey’s death, but Icicle kills him too. Officially, Zarick died of a heart attack, but his wife seems to know better. We see Barbara attending a meeting about the new theatre (which will be named after Zarick) and the rest of the family eating dinner at home. Afterwards, Courtney sneaks back to the JSA headquarters and collects (or steals) all the JSA artifacts.
This is a really good episode, that gives Courtney her first look at how dangerous her life as Stargirl could be, not just for her but for innocent bystanders too. This should give Courtney some insight into what Pat has been feeling for the last ten years, after seeing all his friends slaughtered. I’m not exactly sure why Icicle killed Joey; maybe he knew
Wizard would come after him and that would give him an excuse to get rid of a weak link in the Society. Or maybe he’s just a sociopath. Courtney’s idea to recruit a new JSA makes sense but Pat can’t get past losing the originals, so he can’t fathom ever replacing them. We see Courtney appropriating various JSA artifacts, including Green Lantern’s power battery, Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite’s masks, Hourman’s hourglass, and a pen that apparently has something to do with Johnny Thunder’s T-bolt. It’ll be cool to see who she gives each artifact to.
Noticeable Things:
- Icicle mentions doing work in other communities and specifically mentions a couple of places that will be familiar to DC comics fans: Hatton Corners, Indiana (where the Teen Titans first got together), and Middleton, Colorado (where Martian Manhunter first arrived on Earth).
- We get to see a name patch on the janitor’s shirt that reads “Justin”. That helped me figure out who he really is.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I have a three-point plan … find them, surprise them, kick their asses.” Courtney’s elaborate plan to deal with the Injustice Society.
- “A kid died today and that’s exactly why we have to, Pat.” Courtney’s counterargument when Pat tries to use Joey’s death to convince her to quit being a superhero.