The following contains spoilers for Stargirl Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2, "Frenemies - Chapter One: The Murder" and "Chapter Two: The Suspects," which debuted Wednesday, Aug. 31 and Sept. 7 on The CW.

Stargirl experiments with different narrative styles every season. Stargirl Season 1 played out like a high school drama, while Season 2 explored the horror genre with significant Stephen King influences. Now that Stargirl is in its third season, the current storyline is leaning into camp while dipping its toe into the noir genre. This is confirmed through the recurring Nathaniel Dusk Easter egg seen on the marquee and posters of Blue Valley’s cinema.

In DC Comics continuity, Nathaniel Dusk is a private investigator whose stories take place in the 1930s and are written in the style of film noir. Some of the tropes associated with the genre include a murder mystery with multiple suspects, a hard-boiled detective and a femme fatale. Stylistically, film noir thrives on extreme light and dark contrasts to convey the moral ambiguity of its characters, and the dark tone of the story. Stargirl Season 3 plays into all of these ideas.

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The first noir trope Stargirl presents is the murder mystery in Season 3, Episode 1, "Frenemies - Chapter One: The Murder." Steven Sharpe/The Gambler returns to Blue Valley to make amends with the people he's wronged. While both heroes and villains are profoundly distrustful of his motivations, he's honest in his desire to change. During his time in hiding, The Gambler discovered the existence of a biological daughter who was put up for adoption by her mother while he was looking to erase his activities from the web.

Deciding he wants to become a father his daughter can be proud of, The Gambler commits to making life changes, beginning with a reparation of damaged relationships. This decision gets the attention of at least four of his enemies: Cindy Burman, The Shade and the villainous duo of Tigress and Sportsmaster As former members of the Injustice Society of America -- which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary -- each of these individuals has a bone to pick with the Gambler, but only one of them is responsible for his murder. This fulfills the second noir trope of multiple suspects in Season 3, Episode 2, "Frenemies - Chapter Two: The Suspects."

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There are two recurring characters in Stargirl who are fulfilling two more noir tropes: the hard-boiled detective and the femme fatale. The detective is typically depicted as a cynical man whose investigative methods are often informed by a dark past. He is not beyond using violent methods to get information out of suspects. He's also known to become attracted to the femme fatale, who either ends up changing his worldview or contributes to his tragic downfall.

The character that's filling those shoes of the hard-boiled detective in Stargirl Season 3 is Sylvester Pemberton most notably in "The Suspects." As a man without a life outside of being Starman and a member of the Justice Society of America, Sylvester spends most of his time obsessing over The Gambler's murder and violently interrogates The Shade on two different occasions. Later in the episode, Sylvester admits to being a changed man post-resurrection -- for the worse. The memory that's haunting him is not The Shade telling the Justice Society to murder Bruce Gordon to stop Eclipso, but the fact Sylvester himself came back to life when his teammates did not.

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With Sylvester wrestling with survivor's guilt, he is not at all interested in romance. But there is a character fulfilling the femme fatale archetype in Stargirl Season 3: Cindy Burman. As a character that's defined by moral ambiguity, the femme fatale is known to change her loyalties as it conveniences her goals. While depicted as a clear-cut villain in Seasons 1 and 2, Cindy is seeking to atone for her villainous past by joining Courtney Whitmore's Justice Society in Season 3.

Though Cindy is seemingly committed to her heroic goals, she is also shown to not have completely given up her villainous methods, which is bound to put her at odds with Courtney and the rest of her team. To convey Cindy's ambiguity, Season 3 is fulfilling one last noir trope: extreme light and dark contrasts. When Cindy shows her more heroic qualities, she gets placed in brightly-lit settings like the school cafeteria. When she starts behaving in a more suspicious fashion, she is seen in dimly-lit settings such as her father's basement.

While Stargirl's third season has only just begun, it's already fufilled four of film noir's most famous tropes in the span of two episodes. The Nathaniel Dusk Easter egg is not just a wink to one of DC's pulp action heroes; it's a strong confirmation that the show is telling a noir story this time around.

Stargirl: Frenemies airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. on The CW.