- I could've really hurt you.
[screams]
- If anything's going to help you heal,
it's going to be the things that you love.
Why would he go out there alone?
- It wasn't his turn to be Starman.
He was trying to do the right thing.
- Without the Staff?
- The criminal always comes back to the scene of the crime.
- Cindy Burman did it.
She's a walking science experiment.
Who knows what else she's done to change herself.
- The Gambler's laptop was missing.
- Whoever has it, that's who killed him.
- I've got something.
- I seem to recall a result like this once before.
- We need to warn Cindy her dad might be back.
He may be in the tunnels under Blue Valley.
- Let me suit up.
- What if she's working with him?
- She was his lab rat. A lifetime full of abuse.
[alarm rings] And now she's finally free.
- [laughs]
- [breathing]
[suspenseful music]
♪
- Why are you so intent on believing
any of them have changed, Court?
Why are you giving someone like the Gambler a chance?
- Because... [indistinct speech]
♪
[gunshot] - [groans]
♪
I didn't do it.
[dramatic music]
♪
[soft sentimental music]
♪
- You really did not have to walk me home.
- I wasn't ready to say good night.
- I'm gonna do some more research tonight.
Maybe I can find out more about what you can do
and why.
- You're gonna research what I can do?
How?
- Wikipedia.
We'll figure this out together.
I promise.
- You're good at making my world feel less dark.
♪
- And you're good at that.
- I will see you tomorrow.
- Good night.
♪
- [sighs] - Hey.
Why you smiling?
- Just a good day. [laughs]
- What happened?
- Nothing specific. What's for dinner?
- I don't know. Your mom's at work
and I just dropped Mike off at Jakeem's.
- That's okay. I can find something to eat.
- So...
You're not gonna ask me for an update?
- Is there an update?
- Well, I've been trying to call you.
Yolanda too.
- I guess I didn't hear my phone.
- Well, Rick and Yolanda, they went down into the tunnels
with Sylvester to see if there's any sign of
Dragon King being alive. So far nothing.
- He took the Staff this time, right?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- Good.
- So... [chuckles]
What are you gonna do now?
- Sylvester's leading the JSA at the moment,
so until we hear anything from them,
I've got homework.
- [sighs]
[inquisitive music]
♪
[alarm blares] - Whoa.
I'm sorry to say, that's the wrong password.
Try again. [laughs]
[alarm blares] Try again.
[laughs]
- Hmm.
[laughs]
Why should I hack your laptop...
[suspenseful music]
When you could just do it for me
with your own gadgets.
[all repeating "try again"] [laughter]
Ooh.
[bell dinging]
- Yes.
[loud crash]
- Most of the tunnels have collapsed.
There are only a few rooms left.
♪
- What is this place?
- Whoa.
We've never been down here before.
- It's the ISA meeting room.
Someone's been working here.
- What's all this stuff for?
- It's gotta be Dragon King's, right?
♪
Sylvester, what do you think?
- I thought the Shade went after the Gambler
out of pettiness and the Crocks 'cause of blackmail.
But someone's made an awful lot of effort to cover their tracks
and almost killed me for getting on them.
This thread we're pulling,
I think it's gonna lead us somewhere big
and I don't like it.
Look at them.
The ISA
mocking me!
Even dead, they're mocking me!
[screaming]
Whoever did this,
whoever attacked me, Dragon King or not,
we are gonna find them, and they are gonna pay!
♪
[soft music]
♪
- Sylvester?
What are you doing up?
- You know, polishing silver like a useful person.
- Huh. What happened?
- I took the kids into the tunnels.
We didn't find anything.
Except for a huge painting of
Icicle and his cronies and...
Started thinking about what he did to me and...
I lost my temper.
Big time.
I must look pretty unhinged.
Again.
Thought kept me up.
I don't think I'm a person that's
good at setting examples like Pat.
I just never planned on being a parent.
- Yeah, I mean, before I met Pat,
I never thought I'd have a son.
I thought my life was just Courtney and me.
But when Pat came with Mike,
I wasn't sure how I was going to do
stepping into Mike's life.
I try. It's all you can do.
- Hmm. - Be your best.
And if you have a bad moment, just help them learn from it.
- Well, how's it going with Mike?
- Uh...
He's my son.
♪
I'm really grateful every day for it.
- Now where the hell are the Super Sugar Checks?
- I put everything in alphabetical order.
- That's not an answer.
- Between the rice cakes and the tortilla chips,
two from the left, one up from the bottom shelf.
It's a real breakfast of champions, Mikey.
- Oh.
- You don't like me very much, do you?
- Who? Me?
- We're different types of people, I know.
- Oh, as in you're a JSA type of person and I'm not.
- Whoa, no. Look, the JSA was made up of
all sorts of people, and we were not all best buds.
I mean, hell, I got on Dr. Fate's nerves
worse than Wotan.
- What the hell's a Wotan? Is that, like, a skin disease?
- It's Fate's archenemy.
And I think he had a skin disease.
His skin was green.
Look, the point is, you stopped Icicle,
and he's the one that put me in the ground.
So in a way, you got me justice.
- Yeah, that was an accident, pal.
- Maybe.
But going up against Eclipso,
that was real superhero stuff.
- Yeah, tell it to everyone else.
- You know, when I was your age,
no one took me seriously either.
- What'd you do about it?
- Well, I made things happen is what.
Like, I proved everybody wrong about the Star Spangled Kid
by going places and doing things
that people said I couldn't.
So maybe you and I aren't so different.
- Okay, fellas, who wants an omelet, huh?
- Oh, heck, yeah. Fancy.
- Oh, yeah. - Good morning, everyone.
- Hey. - Hey, Court.
- There's the boss. - Hi.
- So how'd it go with the kids last night?
- We came up empty handed.
- So no Dragon King, you mean? - Not yet.
- Well, what's next?
- Well, Dragon King has hidden labs across the country.
- He does? - Yeah.
The Crimson Avenger and I have tracked them back in the day.
There's one south of here I want to check out.
Courtney, I know you missed out on the tunnels last night,
but I can wait until after school if you want
to come with or you can check them out yourself.
- I'm good. You've got it covered.
Goodbye, everyone. Enjoy the waffles.
- Omelets. We're having omelets.
- Does she not know the difference?
[bell rings]
[indistinct chatter]
- The tunnels are empty. That's good.
- Yeah, because that means we still have a chance
of catching this perp ourselves.
That's what Starman said we should do.
- Wait, he did?
- I--basically.
Look, we gotta step outside of our comfort zones, Jakeem.
- I like my comfort zone.
It doesn't have crocodile people in it.
Besides, doing this ourselves,
I thought we were supposed to form a team.
[locker slams] - Go to class, freshmen.
- Brian, Travis. - No, no, no, no.
We're collecting money for the hungry.
- And the hungry is us, so let's make it happen.
- Yeah, consider it a tax for being, well, losers.
[both laugh] - Sounds fair.
- Look, I really wish we could figure this out, fellas.
- Oh, yeah.
You know what?
I really wish these bullies were nicer to us.
- What?
[playful music]
- Give us your money, please.
- Or else I'm gonna have to hit you
really, really hard in your quite handsome faces.
You're breaking my arm.
- If I catch you messing with freshmen again, Travis,
I'll break way more than that.
- [groans] What do you care?
- I don't. - [groans]
[dreamy music]
♪
- Wow.
- You know what? I got an idea.
[dramatic music]
♪
- Well, that's fun.
[suspenseful music]
♪
You have so many uses.
[Staff chimes]
[line trills] [phone ringing]
- [whispering] Hello.
- What's up, doc? - Mr. Pemberton?
- Hi, I'm at one of Dragon King's hidden labs
in the middle of Nowheresville in the sticks.
I can't get in. Can you disable the locks?
You're the hacker.
- I'm in the middle of a test, and I'm not a hacker.
- Oh, come on, Beth. It'll only take a sec.
I'll be your best friend.
- Send me your location
and I'll see if there are any systems I can plug into.
- Got it. I'm using MapQuest.
I hope it still works.
- Okay, actually, I found something.
- How's it coming? - Just hold on.
- Popcorn. You did it, Beth.
No wonder McNider retired. You're a genius.
- Gosh. Thanks, Mr. Pemberton.
No. No, no, no, no.
Stop. - What is it?
- My goggles are giving me the answers to the math test.
- That's great. Congrats.
- No, that's cheating. I gotta go.
No. [sighs]
[foreboding music]
♪
[Staff chimes]
- Scary, huh?
[Staff chimes]
Glad I don't have a dust allergy.
[hissing]
[lizard hisses]
Reminds me of my mother,
but you're cuter.
♪
Hey, handsome. [chuckles]
- Whoo-hoo, there you go.
- Thanks. - Thanks, Mary Ann.
- And tell Zeek I said hello.
- Zeek?
- A lunch date in the middle of the week?
Oh, we should do this more often.
- Absolutely, yeah.
- Hey, what has got you so distracted?
- Well, it's Courtney.
I mean, you've noticed it, too, right?
She just hasn't seemed like herself.
You know, it's like...
- [laughs]
- I'm sorry, is there an inside joke I'm not getting?
[chuckles]
- She has a crush on someone, Pat.
- So that's what this is? - I think so.
- What? - Yeah.
- Who's the guy? - I don't know.
I mean, she'll tell us eventually,
but hey, this is what we wanted for her, right?
To just be a normal teenager once in a while.
- Yeah. - Hey, bud.
- Hello, Barbara. - Hi, Paula.
- Are those sweet potato fries? Omega-3s, baby.
- Have a seat. Make yourself at home.
- We've been taking a page out of
your do-gooder handbook there, bud.
- Meaning what?
- We're doing our own investigation
into Stephen Sharpe's murder.
- And how's that going?
- We started by interrogating everyone he owed money to.
- That's a whole lot of people with motive to whack him.
We dangled them off of a tall building to get answers.
[laughs] Hey, get this.
We're not the only ones that putz paid back before he died.
I mean, he paid them all back.
- We thought it was impossible for a degenerate
like Sharpe to truly change,
but we're thinking maybe he did.
- Okay, look, investigating that,
it was a good idea.
Though I can't condone your tactics,
I do appreciate your dedication.
But your work is done, so thank you.
- No, no, no. We're not done.
We're gonna help you solve this thing, bucko.
[laughs]
- Don't you have more important things to do
like checking in with your parole officers?
I don't know, your cholesterol levels?
- Our cholesterol levels are pristine.
Hey, you want to hear a weird bonus
to being heroes for once? - [laughs]
- It's kind of super-charged
our lives in the bedroom, if you know what I mean.
- [trills]
- [laughs] Hey-oh.
[laughs]
- Say, Maria, we'll get the check please.
- Got it!
- Okay, everyone, grab your notes,
a pH meter, and a lab partner.
- Want to be a team?
- So you can apologize
for leaving me out of the JSA meetings again?
- No. - Too bad.
Groveling looks really good on you.
- Okay, you're the one who's been
ditching out on us at lunch.
- Fine. Partners. Sure.
- Hey, so you grew up in Blue Valley, right?
- What are you asking me?
- More chemistry, less talking.
- Well, Cameron and I have been hanging out.
- Mm.
- He's in a bad place right now about his dad.
I feel guilty about what happened.
He doesn't know...
- You can't tell him, Courtney.
Cameron is gonna be just fine.
He's basically a nice guy.
[sighs] Though he's not so nice to me.
No one is besides you, really.
- You've changed.
Other people will see that eventually.
- Why are you talking to me about this
and not Catgirl or someone?
- Because I knew you wouldn't judge me
and that you'd give it to me straight.
- Yeah, I'm kind of good at that.
I kind of like the idea of you and Cameron.
[soft music]
- Thanks.
I do too.
- But no one wants to hear how awful their father is.
Was.
I mean, you should know.
Wouldn't you rather still think Starman was your dad
instead of some degenerate who didn't want you?
You don't want him to feel like us.
♪
[playful music]
♪
- There she is.
- Operation: Dragon Queen is a go.
- Shh. - Okay, you go.
- No, you go. - No, we agreed, you'd go.
both: You go. You go first.
- You said you were gonna go first.
- No... - Wait, I don't...I'm scared.
- We both go. Come on.
Hi. - Yeah, hi.
- What do you want?
- We have a preposition for you.
- Okay, that's not what you mean,
but go ahead.
- All right, look, let's face it.
Courtney and the others are not your biggest fans, necessarily,
and a woman with your skills
needs to be appreciated.
- Even worshipped.
- Um...and that appreciation is just not coming from the JSA.
So what do you say you ditch those ingrates
and you join us?
The Young All-Stars.
- [laughs]
Oh, well,
that is adorable. [laughs]
- Is that a yes? It sounds like a yes.
- It's never gonna happen. Like, ever.
And I mean that in the nicest way, okay?
- But we haven't told you the perks.
Hey, there's perks.
- What did she say? I couldn't hear.
- Well, maybe she doesn't like the name.
- The name is the best part.
- It's a little long, you know?
- We should workshop the name.
- Sylvester searched the lab. No Dragon King yet.
- But he could still be out there,
so what do we tell Cindy?
- She's part of the team.
She needs to be brought up to speed on everything
and I bet she could help.
- I still don't trust her, okay?
But I guess I'm open to it if that's what Courtney wants.
- Court.
- Earth to Courtney Whitmore.
- I'm listening. - No, you're not.
- Yes, let's loop Sylvester in.
- That's not what we were talking about.
- Hi.
- Hi, back at you.
- How's it going, guys?
- Dude, we're in the middle of a conversation.
- Okay. - So get lost.
[tense music]
- What exactly is your problem?
- I am staring right at him.
- Rick, knock it off.
I am so sorry, Cameron.
We're right in the middle of a project.
- It's for the science fair.
- Well, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Sorry. - It's okay.
- I'll see you later. - Yeah.
- Don't tell me you're hanging out with that creep.
- He's not a creep. Do not say that.
- Okay, kind of bad timing, Court.
We are trying to find a killer. We need you.
- Yeah, Sylvester's great, but...
- He has a temper. - Oh, and you don't?
Look, guys, I am focused on the case, I am.
But I'm helping Cameron, too, okay?
We're the JSA, right? We help people.
- Okay, what does Cameron Mahkent need help with?
- Listen, I finally found someone I like.
Can't you just be happy for me?
- Truthfully, no. Not when it's him.
I'm sorry, Courtney, but Cameron's dad...
- Cameron's not his dad anymore than I'm mine, Yolanda.
That's not fair to him or me.
♪
- So...
you're dating Courtney.
- Why does that matter to you?
- Courtney and I are friends now.
Didn't you hear?
Real BFFs, so just looking out for my girl.
- Really?
- I know it's hard to believe,
but people really do change.
- [scoffs]
- Have you?
- What is that supposed to mean?
- Have you told her about summer art camp?
Between second and third grade.
I guess it was less of a camp and more of an institution
where little angry boys could learn to stop breaking things.
Right?
- Why are you doing this?
- Were the walls padded?
Shrinks talking about your mommy.
- [breathing heavily]
[thunder crackling, wind howling]
♪
- I don't know why you want to hurt me,
but everything you just said
proves that you haven't changed.
- Maybe.
♪
- Yeah, and then she just walked away.
- I've never seen Courtney like that.
- Me, either.
- Okay, guys, it does sound like
you kind of went after her a little bit.
- You're on her side?
- There are no sides, Yolanda.
You shouldn't think that way ever.
I mean, you guys know the story.
The JSA got into a fight
about what happened with Bruce Gordon.
We never fully reconciled.
Then my choice about Bruce made us pick sides,
and that eventually destroyed us.
I just--I should've listened to Pat.
I should've done whatever
I had to do to bring the team back together, but...
Learn from my mistakes, please.
So if Courtney wants to hang out
with Cameron Mahkent, let her.
- We still have a murder to solve.
- I still think Cindy's not telling us something.
Maybe about her dad.
- Okay, go with your gut. Follow it.
- I still have to fix the hourglass.
- Okay, we'll work on that. Beth.
[phone ringing] - Sorry.
Hello?
- Hey, hon. How was your math test?
- Horrible. I cheated.
- You what? - I can't talk right now.
I'm in the middle of a JSA meeting.
- Barbara said that the Crocks
were following up on some leads.
- Honey, the Crocks?
If they can help, we can certainly do something.
- Yeah. Give us an assignment.
Better yet, a special mission.
- Ooh, yes, we're ready for a special mission.
- Oh, come on, we're more than ready.
both: Come on, special mission.
- We'll talk later tonight, okay?
- Okay. - Bye.
They want me to give them a "mission."
- It's always hard when the family finds out.
Gets involved.
My sister, Merry, she did.
- Henry's mom, right?
Merry Pemberton.
- Brainwave killed her.
[solemn music]
♪
- So what do I do?
- First rule I have:
protect the family.
[soft rock music playing]
♪
- You okay, hon?
- So there is one big difference between us.
You see the good in people, and I see the bad.
- What are you talking about?
- I talked to Cameron about you.
- What? Why? - I was doing you a favor.
I know his grandmother is a freak like Jordan.
I saw her eyes get white with ice last summer
because I made her mad.
So I wanted to push Cameron's buttons
and try and trigger him, and...
I did.
He has his family's powers.
And you already knew that, didn't you?
- I'm going to help him control them.
- [scoffs]
Cut bait, new girl.
I've read this story, and it only ends one way.
And I wouldn't finish that.
[pensive music]
♪
- Rick, hey, you're still here. What's going on?
- I can't figure the hourglass out.
- Rick, you can't be so hard on yourself.
Your dad had a lifetime of education
before he invented that thing.
- How can I be Hourman
if my strength gives out after 20 minutes?
Or two?
- It's gotta be the limiter.
- The what?
- Well, there's this thingy, for lack of a better term,
on the hourglass that limits it to working only an hour a day.
That's gotta be busted.
- Wait, so if I just remove the limiter,
you're saying that this is going to work 24 hours a day?
- I'm not sure,
but whatever you do, just be careful
because your dad created that for a reason.
- Yeah, well--
- If you need me, just call. All right?
I'll see you tomorrow?
- Yeah. See you tomorrow.
♪
[pensive music]
♪
- Beth. - Hey.
We came as soon as you called.
- We know there's a lot happening fast.
- Mm-hmm. - How can we help?
- You can help me the most if...
You can help me the most if...
If you stay out of my life as Doctor Mid-Nite.
- Well... - What?
- This is dangerous, Mom.
Sylvester's sister was murdered because she got involved.
Dr. McNider's daughter.
If Dragon King is out there,
or whoever it is,
I don't want anything to happen to you.
- Beth... - It scares me.
So I'm asking you,
please,
stop calling me.
Stop helping.
Just stop.
♪
- We understand.
- Oh, Beth, I understand.
- [chuckles]
♪
[breathes deeply]
[dramatic music]
♪
[foreboding music]
♪
- Okay.
[sighs] The answers have to be here.
They have to be.
[lizard hisses]
Ew.
[groans]
[sighs]
[squeaking]
Mm.
[furtive music]
♪
[knock on door]
- Court.
Hey, buddy.
♪
- It's beautiful.
Don't you think?
- I do.
- I was talking about the ice hotel.
- Yeah, no, so was I. - [laughs]
But this could be a perfect example
of what you might be able to do.
- Maybe we can go there sometime.
[soft music]
♪
Or...
Maybe I can bring it to you.
- Oh, my God.
Ooh. - [laughs]
[tense music]
- It's beautiful. - [chuckles]
- And cold. [chuckles]
♪
- [sighs]
I knew it.
I am gonna kick her ass.
[tense music]
♪
- Greg, move your head.
- Mad Ghost!