Supergirl 4x18 : Crime and Punishment review

                                              

Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it.

Supergirl returns from it's hiatus with a rather great episode. Beginning with the after math of Red Daughter's assault on the White House martial law is declared in National City. The people are almost instantly calling Supergirl (who didn't commit the crime as we know) a terrorist and traitor. Supergirl gets confronted by people who aim a gun at her, taken a back by all this Kara goes to see Lena and Alex who say they will do all they can in helping to expose Lex and his scheme. Kara tries to figure out just why and how Lex achieved what he did and says could he have used Bizarro to achieve his goal? or maybe a shapeshifter? Alex shoots down the Bizarro mention but doesn't have an answer for now much like Lena. Kara and Lena do come up with a plan for the time being however. They go and speak to the warden who had been keeping tabs on Lex in prison. Lena recently learned that he knew of Lex's outgoings from time to time while he was supposed to be locked up. Upon arriving at the jail they meet the warden and he confesses that while he did help Lex he has no real knowledge of his true plan. They manage to get him to allow them to investigate Lex's cell. Inside it they see ramblings in his journal and a chess board. Inside one of the pieces a note left for Lena which says that Lex knows about Lena's experiments earlier in the season with the black rock and how one of her subjects died. Across the way from Lex's cell is another inmate who Supergirl tries to get information from. He is not friendly towards her and tells her that he is no rat. Back at the DEO Colonel Hayley and Alex are shaping up for the visit of Ben Lockwood and his team who are out for Supergirl's blood. They even come equipped with an order from the president and to Alex and Brainiac-5's surprise the Colonel lets Supergirl know that it's a trap coming to the DEO. 

Back at Stryker's Island prison and Otis Graves shows up. With orders from Lex he questions the warden and threatens him. He comes on talking over the PA in the warden's office and says that Supergirl must be apprehended before letting an entire row of inmates out of their cells. This leads to the best part of the episode which sees Supergirl taking on inmates that are rushing towards her and a fully Metallo powered up Otis Graves. The two get into a chaotic brawl that leads from room to room with Otis mainly getting the upper hand. Supergirl gets badly injured which leads her to smartly turning into her reporter look as Otis finds her cowering in a corner of the room. She says she is in the area reporting on inmates and manages to convince Otis that she is no threat to him. I actually really liked this scene as I always did wonder if Supergirl would ever just randomly change into her Kara Danvers persona to evade criminals that have the upper hand on her. As for Otis he just stole this entire episode with funny comedic timing and witty references to some classic movie lines. Back at Lex's cell we see Lena who finds a secret room behind a painting that Lex had placed on the wall. Inside is all of Lex's files and cameras that are monitoring the entire prison. I was hoping Kara would meet Red Daughter here but alas she didn't. While Supergirl and Lena are inside the secret room Otis walks into Lex's cell, right in the middle of the room we see him speaking on the phone to Lex himself. His chest begins to glow bright green as within seconds he is exploded leaving kryptonite all over the prison area. Supergirl manages to escape with Lena as you'd expect.

The episode comes to a close back at Cat.Co where we see James Olsen who earlier in the episode had attended therapy. He had gotten some relaxation techniques from a therapist which he uses but to no real avail as at his office the black rock that Lena had injected into him begins to fully take control of him. His senses go off the charts as he feels both a mental and physical increase. He calls his sister before saying that he needs to question Lena about what is really happening. Back at Stryker's Prison and Kara who is again in full on reported mode meets up with the same guy from earlier across from Lex's cell. Turns out he idolizes Kara Danvers and was a reported / news breaker of sorts before being arrested. He ends up giving Kara a USB drive with all of Lex's files from his now destroyed computer in that secret room Lena found. Kara ends the episode by saying that reporting / the press is better than a lot of things. Even wearing a cape. And that's how it ended. All in all this episode started incredibly slow but morphed into a really strong episode. Supergirl laying low going forward is an interesting concept and with only a handful of episodes left everything is really heating up well. Until next week then Ms Danvers!

★★★★