Stars and STRIPE Part 1 – Director: Toa Fraser/Writer: Melissa Carter
This one starts with Brainwave letting Icicle know that Courtney and her family are going to be taken care of (by Sportsmaster and Tigress). Brainwave says Project New America is about ready to go and helpfully explains it for us. He’s going to use the amplifiers they stole to broadcast a telepathic attack across half the country, reprogramming people to believe in the Injustice Society’s cause. Gambler will make it look like the signal is coming from Russia to give Brainwave enough time to brainwash everyone. He warns there will be a cost, but if the plan succeeds they can form their own nation with people who share their values.
At home, Courtney and Barbara are packing to head out to a cabin in the woods. Pat has yanked Mike out of school and taken him to the garage to let him know what’s happening, but Mike gets pissed off and leaves. Crusher shows up and attacks Pat, who finally realizes he’s Sportsmaster. At home,
Tigress goes after Barbara, but Courtney saves her and fights Tigress. At the garage, Pat gets his ass kicked, but Mike jams a drill into Crusher’s back and Pat decks him with a huge wrench. At home, Barbara gives Courtney a hand, allowing her to blast Tigress with the Staff. When Icicle hears that the attempts to kill Courtney and her family failed, he sends Fiddler to take care of things. Before she goes, she gives her son some advice about how to handle bullies … with violence. 
Courtney and family meet up with the rest of the JSA (plus Shining Knight) at the cabin. In the Society’s underground lair, Brainwave is preparing for his big broadcast, but is interrupted by Cindy (still locked in her cell), who wants to join the fight. He blames her for having to kill his son and she gets mouthy, so he tells her that the entire Society (including her father) considers her to be nothing more than a failed experiment.
Brainwave heads to the main chamber (which looks a lot like the Cerebro room from the X-Men movies) to do a test run. Dragon King warns him that if the test fails, his brain will basically liquefy, but Brainwave goes ahead and
manages to tap into millions of minds simultaneously. He’s now certain the plan will work and we see the countdown is now under nine hours. At the cabin, Beth and the Dr. Mid-Nite AI try to figure out what the Injustice Society are up to. Beth reaches out to Yolanda, but she doesn’t want to talk about Henry’s death. Rick is still trying to crack the code in his dad’s diary but is one number short. He’s so desperate, he asks Justin for help, but he’s still kinda out of it. Mike and Courtney talk about the whole superhero thing and she lets him try the Staff 
(which doesn’t work for him). He wonders if he could end up being a kick-ass mechanic like his dad instead of a superhero. At Courtney’s house, Fiddler shows up to help Sportsmaster and Tigress, but when she calls them unfit parents, Tigress kills her. They leave her body in the house, along with her violin (which I think has some kind of suggestive powers). At the cabin, Pat and Barbara finally talk about him being a superhero and he says he didn’t tell her because he didn’t want to put her in danger.
Pat helps Rick break his father’s code, suggesting 1966 for his dad’s old Mustang. The Mid-Nite AI reads the journal and projects a map on the
Injustice Society’s underground lair. They now know what the Society are planning to do, but not the details. Barbara suggests they want to force people to follow their American Dream. Courtney says they should split up to get inside the tunnels and meet at the machine so they can destroy it. Beth wants to head to American Dream to tap into the Society’s computers and Barbara offers to go with her. They find the Society’s Manifesto, which talks about universal healthcare, ending 
discrimination, and forcing people to embrace clean energy. Before everyone can convert to the Injustice Society cause, the Mid-Nite AI warns that the reprogramming will kill about 25 million people. Unfortunately, Gambler is aware of the hacking and lets them know the process has already begun and since it only affects fully-developed minds (i.e. adults), Barbara, Justin, and Pat all end up immobile. Brainwave has enough control to target Pat’s mind specifically, forcing him to attack Courtney.
This is a pretty good episode, setting up the big fight in the season finale and upping the stakes by having Brainwave take control of the adults, including Pat. A lot of this episode was set-up, but it was nice to see Pat and
Barbara finally clearing the air, and it’s about time Mike learned the truth. Pat tells him to look after the dog, but I assume we’ll see him in the finale, since Brainwave can’t affect his mind. We got a couple of good fight scenes and it was cool to see Barbara and Mike saving Courtney and Pat from the bad guys. Barbara seems quite impressed by Courtney’s fighting ability, although Mike is more impressed that his dad built a giant fucking robot. It’s interesting that 
during the fight, the Staff instinctively protected Barbara, yet it didn’t work for Mike. I wonder if it’s a bloodline thing, or if the Staff is just picky about who it works for. Tigress killing Fiddler was unexpected (if the JSA waits long enough, the Society will eventually eliminate each other), but I think her son will end up with the magic violin. I’m also wondering if Cindy will somehow get out of her cell and join the fight; I’m thinking she might be pissed off enough at how her father’s been treating her that she could even fight against the Society.
Noticeable Things:
- Pat mentions that Sylvester’s parents were killed as was their FBI contact. In the All-Star Squadron comics, the team’s FBI liaison was Plastic Man, so I wonder if that’s an oblique reference to him?
Favourite Quotes:
- “That’s a robot I built and that’s an old friend of mine.” Pat explaining STRIPE and Sportsmaster to Mike.
- “I’ll be sixteen in May.” Beth’s reply when Barbara objects to sending a fifteen year-old to the American Dream offices.
- “Okay, the password is … ‘New Kids on the Block’? What does that mean?” Beth not getting Barbara’s choice of passwords.