‘DC’s Stargirl’ Cast Breaks Down the Big, Emotional Moments In “Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite”

Furious over his parents leaving him with his no-account uncle Matt, Rick tells Courtney that he doesn’t want justice for his parents’ deaths: he wants revenge. According to Gellman, that feeling isn’t going away any time soon.

“That’s going to be Rick’s struggle the whole season,” Gellman said. “He has influence of Courtney, who does have such pure intentions. And Beth, who’s very kind hearted. And same with Yolanda [Montez]. So he has these three people who want him to join the mission for the right reasons, and he fights himself on that. Because his whole life, he’s had no explanation for how his parents were taken from him. The fact that that’s what put him in such a miserable set of circumstances, and now there’s someone to blame for it. So it’s going to be really, really challenging for him to let that go. To make it more about justice in general, than about blood for blood.”

In a sweet, sad scene towards the end of the episode, nerdy Beth stands outside a Halloween party completely alone. She’s been ditched by Stargirl and Wildcat (Yvette Monreal), who have gone after Rick Tyler; and the only “person” she has to talk to is Charles McNider (Henry Thomas)… Or rather the AI version of McNider, the original Dr. Mid-Nite, who is installed on some incredibly powerful goggles Beth has started wearing. And for the first time, she realizes that nobody really likes her — including her parents.

“I believe we only did two takes of that,” Washington recalled. “My goal was just to keep that moment really real, and of course grounded. … Most of us as humans, as we’re growing up, have been in those moments where we really, really want to be a part of something. But maybe what we want to be a part of, doesn’t seem like it wants us to be there. So that moment of her feeling like she’s alone… Even though she’s often alone, I don’t think she’s ever really felt alone. So that was like, her first moment of really being like, ‘Wow. I don’t have friends. I’m not a part of anything. I’m just by myself.'”

In the comics, both Rex Tyler and Rick Tyler deal with serious addictions… Specifically to Miraclo, the drug that gives them super-strength for an hour (changed to a semi-magical hourglass in the TV series); but often to other things, ranging from the thrill of superheroics, to drugs. TV’s Rick Tyler’s path won’t shy away from that, but perhaps deal with it in a different way.

“Rick spent his life powerless,” Gellman said. “And sort of voiceless. And then suddenly he has something that makes him dangerous, in a real way. It gives him the tools to hurt the people who have hurt him… So you’re definitely going to see Rick become more and more attracted to that power. And that’s going to be a question of: does he use the way his father wanted him to? And in a way that makes his legacy proud? Or does he abuse it? And he really struggles to make the right decision, and makes both of those decisions. In the comics, Rex Tyler develops leukemia from overusing Miraclo. We don’t see that in that way, but we definitely see Rick struggle to make the right choices now that he has the power that’s super super significant.”

As mentioned above, Beth spends a good portion of the episode working with Charles McNider who doesn’t exist outside a computer program. Turns out, though Henry Thomas wasn’t on set to read his lines, Washington didn’t need anyone but herself.

“Sometimes we would have someone reading off-camera dialogue, which was always really helpful,” Washington said. “If not, I literally just memorized my lines and his lines. I’m not even kidding. I just learned pages and pages and pages of dialogue, and would do the scene. I would listen to it in my head, how I think he would say it. And then I would just react to it, and say my lines out loud. So I would really just learn both. Which is honestly crazy, and I don’t know why. I’m really grateful I have a great brain, because it’s a lot.”

Funnily enough, when Decider talked to Luke Wilson, who also stars on the show as perennial sidekick Pat Dugan, he mentioned that Brec Bassinger memorized most of his lines. So perhaps a two-woman show version of DC’s Stargirl is in the offing?

“This is true!” Washington said, laughing. “I don’t know why she does that, but she does. Brec and I actually live together in Atlanta. That’s interesting. Because we actually have never really talked about that, but you’re totally right. I do know that she does that. And she knows that I do that. So maybe that’s just something that we do. I don’t think anyone else on our cast does that, I think it’s just us. It might just be our personality types. I think we like a little bit of control, and so we just need to know everything.”

While everyone else in the episode gets to joke around and attend parties, Rick is standing moodily in the background, seething with rage. For Gellman, it was imperative to not just switch on and off when trying to capture the character.

“I took playing Rick super seriously, and he wasn’t a guy, at the beginning, I could snap into just like that,” Gellman said. “I definitely, early on, kept to myself during filming episodes. I kept to myself more and was respectful, but definitely asked cast and crew for space. Because I relate to Rick, I’ve experienced loss before, and anger. But he’s just on such a constant intense level of that, that definitely I needed my mind to be there in the hours and minutes before filming. It wasn’t just like pop out of laughing and joking with everybody, and then go into it.”

One fun little scene halfway through the episode finds Beth heading to Courtney’s house to talk to her about being a superhero, only to discover her mom, Barbara (Amy Smart) and step-brother Mikey (Trae Romano) prepping for Halloween instead. And in classic Beth fashion, she drives them up the wall.

“Amy is so, so great, and she’s so fun,” Washington said. “And so is Trae. So it was really great working on that scene. I just remember, that whole time, we were eating Kit Kats. Because the scene is during, obviously it’s Halloween. There’s candy. So we were eating all the candy that was around the set, and we’re joking about it. We’re taking candy and putting it in our pockets, we’re like, ‘We’re going to take this candy home!’ So it was really fun. Amy is a really, really funny person. I feel like we don’t get to see that enough. She doesn’t get to showcase that enough. But she’s actually a hilarious human being.”

The emotional highlight of the episode happens towards the end, as Rick finds out that his parents didn’t die in a car crash: they were murdered by a monstrous beast called Grundy, and by extension the Injustice Society of America. As he watches, Beth’s goggles project a rudimentary hologram of the event, which crests in his parents’ car essentially crashing through him. It’s a haunting moment, one that plays not just with the effects, but over Gellman’s face. And even though the hologram didn’t exist in real life, the crew worked overtime to make sure Gellman could properly channel that moment.

“I knew that Beth’s projection was going to move through me, and that I was seeing my parents,” Gellman recalled. “Our production did such an amazing job of giving us visual cues. We had someone from our visual team wave this sort of green wand past me, the same way that you see the car going through me. That simulated the car, and gave me the pacing of how to turn with it. David [Straiton], our Episode 5 director, was just incredible. Was really great at explaining the tenderness of that moment specifically. And it was a dance. Middle of the night, having David there, having [showrunner] Geoff [Johns] there, having [writer] Melissa Carter there. Having, like, all of our creatives there, really talking about what that scene at the tree meant. And how much of a culmination it was of the episode in such a breaking point in Rick’s journey. So when that came around, it felt like a very sacred flower was working there. It was very intimate. Everybody communicated it well. The car scene, it was just brutal. That was a great opportunity in a really fast scene to, like, slow down and breathe. Really let Rick process how brutal the way his parents died. Those people weren’t just taken away from him by a tragedy. Those people were ripped out of his life by this evil force that has a shape but doesn’t have a face yet. Just a massive, massive moment for Rick’s journey.”

So what’s next for Beth, now that she has a super-team and a computer friend? First up, figuring out how to exist in normal, human society; and not just hang with her parents.

“You will get to see Beth break out of her shell a little bit,” Washington said. “And it will be really fun, and it will be scary, and we will also be so proud of her, at the same time. Which I think is going to be a really great journey as we get to see her character come to life.”

That’s not all, though… She’ll be getting into the action, as well as providing tech support, as teased by Washington. “Ooh. I can tell you that I will drop you a little something, and I can say that there might be a little bit of both. It’ll be really fun to see, though. Primarily, for the most part, I would consider Beth the brains of the JSA.”

As for Rick, now that we’ve seen him at his low point, there’s nowhere to go but up, right? Well, not exactly. He’s got hope, but it’ll be a long journey before he becomes the hero he’s meant to be.

“Rick, where you meet him in Episode 5 is kind of in the middle of the ocean, drowning,” Gellman said. “There’s potentially a lifeline thrown to him by Courtney. All of a sudden, there’s an opportunity to be a part of a team. He has to go on a journey that involves dealing with all of his demons and the ghosts of his parents. All of a sudden, this tree that was sort of a grave isn’t there anymore. They destroyed it. We’re going to get to watch this guy completely tear himself to pieces — and maybe rebuild himself, and maybe not. And that’s kind of the fun journey of Season 1 for him.”

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. DC’s Stargirl airs Mondays on DC Universe and Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.