WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "Shiv, Part Two," the latest episode of Stargirl.
Stargirl just revealed what happened to Icicle's wife -- and why he wants to reinvent America.
In "Shiv, Part Two," Jordan Makhent went on a business trip with Courtney's mother Barbara Whitmore. While he was there, he took care of some personal business as well and killed one of the men he deemed responsible for his wife's death.
After he left Barbara at dinner, Jordan broke into the room of a man referred to only as Mr. Reilly. He sat waiting in the dark for Mr. Reilly to return, then confronted him over his work at a company called Bannerman Chemical. Reilly was taken aback at first, but quickly realized the trouble he was in when Jordan explained his intentions.
"I hear you've done quite well for yourself over at Firebrand Chemical," Jordan started, taking a folder off the nightstand and flipping through it. "You've been promoted four times in the last seven years! Vice President of Acquisitions. That is a far cry from managing waste disposal for Bannerman."
The reference to Bannerman gave Reilly pause. "What do you want?" he demanded after a moment's hesitation.
"What do I want?" Jordan repeated with a humorless chuckle. "I want a country free of companies like Bannerman, who poison water supplies, who bulldoze over a dump site and then watch as a public school gets built on top of it, who deny any wrongdoing even when members of those communities get sick and die. Like a school teacher, who loved her students as much as she loved her own son. Her name was Christine Mahkent."
"I had nothing to do with that," Reilly insisted.
"But you did," Jordan shot back. "You may not have given the orders or gotten rich off the soaring stock prices like your superiors, but you didn't blow the whistle. You could have saved so many lives, including your own."
As Reilly began to back away, Jordan transformed into his Icicle alter ego. Before Reilly could escape, Jordan blasted him with his ice breath. Reilly froze in place and fell, shattering on the floor off-screen.
As revealed in the series' third episode, Christine Mahkent died after a painful illness, although the cause of her sickness was left a mystery. With her dying breath, she told him to make the world a better place for their son Cameron -- and that he should destroy anyone who got in his way. He took those words to heart and assembled the Injustice Society to carry out Project New America, the details of which have not yet been revealed.
Notably, Bannerman Chemicals is a reference to the comics -- and, specifically, to Hourman. In the comics, Rex Tyler was employed as a chemist at Bannerman Chemicals. His time there led him to develop a "miraculous vitamin" he deemed Miraclo, which gave him the super strength he became known for as a superhero. He kept the formula for Miraclo a secret up through his death.
This, of course, ties Stargirl's Hourman to Icicle and his crusade. Rex has not yet been linked to Bannerman on the show, but the DC Universe series has followed the comics pretty closely, so the odds he worked there are good. Indeed, if Hourman worked for Bannerman, that could be why Icicle led the ISA to kill the Justice Society of America. What's more, he may have sent Solomon Grundy to kill Rex and his wife Wendy for their association with the company that killed Christine. However, until the show reveals more about Bannerman and Rex, that connection remains only speculation for now.
DC Universe's Stargirl stars Brec Bassinger as Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl) and Luke Wilson as Pat Dugan (S.T.R.I.P.E.). The series airs Monday on DC Universe and Tuesdays on The CW at 8 pm ET/PT.