"Crime and Punishment" – Supergirl S04E18 Review

Another week, another episode dealing with the show's Alien Amnesty fallout.

It's hard to say much about "Crime and Punishment" because not much happened. Don't get me wrong: things happened. But the plot didn't seem to advance much. It's what the wags call a "character development episode" or words to that effect.

What did happen? Supergirl and Lena go to Stryker's and pressure the warden into giving them access to Lex's old cell. There are lots of journals detailing how little Lex thought of Lena, but also a clue that leads to his secret workshop. Which reveals a few more clues about Lex knowing about the DEO desert facility and his ties to Amertek. Then it blows up.

Meanwhile, the ever-annoying Otis (Robert Baker) breaks into Stryker's, kills the warden, frees the prisoners, and tells them the one who captures Supergirl will go free for good. Which I don't get. All of the prisoners are normal humans as far as I can tell. How does he expect them to slow down Supergirl, much less capture her? Supergirl goes through them like a hot knife through butter, and then Otis uses his new Metallo body with a Kryptonite heart to fight Supergirl. She has a shield provided by Lena, but Otis soon breaks it. Then Lex has Otis go to his cell and self-destructs him by remote. Which wipes out all the evidence Lex wanted Lena to find. And that she's found, so what's the point of destroying it? To keep her from going to the authorities with it? To punish Otis who has apparently done exactly what Lex told him to do? For failing when it was pretty unlikely he'd succeed? This part is a little vague.

Supergirl has already met with a prisoner Steve Lomeli (Willie Garson), who hates Supergirl but likes Kara because he runs the prison newsletter and considers himself a journalist. Supergirl switches to Kara to avoid Otis, and Steve finds and befriends her. Later he gives her a flash drive with information from Lex's computer.

There are also three subplots. The first is that Ben wants the DEO to cooperate in capturing Supergirl. This puts Haley (April Parker-Jones) in a bit of a bind, and Alex calls her on it. Haley eventually complies with Ben's orders after the President backs them up. However, she secretly sabotages his efforts to summon Supergirl to a trap. Afterward she tells Alex she did it because her daughter is living in fear because of the martial law and the attacks on aliens.

Brainiac-5 has his crisis of conscience when he considers deleting the alien registry data from the DEO databanks so Ben can't eventually get his grubby mitts on it. Somehow he calculates there's an exact 50/50 chance that doing so will cause more harm than good, and asks Nia for advice. She does a bait-and-switch by telling him he should do it, so when he protests he realizes that he shouldn't do it. Except he does it anyway but downloads a copy into his brain. This apparently makes him a target for some reason, although how anyone would know he did it isn't clear.

Finally, James undergoes PTSD therapy for Lex's various attacks on him. This triggers the serum in his body, which gives him super-senses and super-strength. He's concerned about this and tells his sister Kelly (Azie Tesfai).

In the end, Supergirl decides she's doing more harm than good as Supergirl. Judging from the previews, she temporarily "retires" as Supergirl so that Dreamer can step up and do more superheroing. Team Supergirl still doesn't know where Lex is. Eve (Andrea Brooks) shows up to rebuild Otis after Lex blows him up. And President Baker (Bruce Boxleitner) deputizes the Children of Liberty.

As I noted, not much happens. The heroes are no closer to finding Lex than they were before, or knowing what he's up to. Other than finding out it involves the DEO desert facility, which means nothing as far as I can tell. James is still having serum issues, but we figured that. Haley eventually goes on the side of Supergirl, although they've softened up her approach enough that it was pretty obvious it was going to happen. Ben and the Children of Liberty now have the DEO's anti-Kryptonian weaponry. But Supergirl is disappearing, although future press releases suggest that Eve figures out Kara is Supergirl.

Brainiac-5 and Nia still make a cute couple, and Jesse Rath still does a lot of funny stuff. Like his loudly saying to Alex that he can be inconspicuous, in the middle of the DEO. His conflict about destroying the alien registry seems a bit inflated to provide drama, but it's an adequate McGuffin

James getting superpowers seems like another attempt by the creative team to find a place for him on the show. It doesn't make him any more interesting than the other attempts to find something for James, and actor Mehcad Brooks, to do on Supergirl.

J'onn isn't in this week's episode. Not that there would have been much for him to do if he had been. But that's never stopped the creative team before. Have J'onn and James ever spent a great deal of time interacting?

Ben and Baker are still evil with no shades of grey.

Overall, "Crime and Punishment" is an okay episode of Supergirl. It keeps all the plot balls in the air, but doesn't move anything forward. Or maybe the whole Lex thing will pay off down the road based on the clues dropped here. But heck if I could see them.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?