S04.E18: Crime and Punishment (2019.04.21)

[MarkHB]

Quote

Kara and Lena head to Stryker's Island to search for clues on how to defeat Lex. At the prison, Kara tries to befriend a nosy prisoner, Steve, who may have insight into what Lex was doing, while Lena studies an array of puzzles Lex left behind in the hopes of discovering his whereabouts. While there, a prison riot breaks out and Kara must find a way to stop the prisoners without revealing her secret identity as Supergirl. Meanwhile, Kelly encourages James to talk to someone for his PTSD.

[Jediknight]

Otis is Kenny, awesome.  Soon he's going to beg Supergirl to throw him in a dark cell, just to stop dying every couple of weeks.

Mozzie being a fan of Kara is nice.  Although, he doesn't think it's strange that on the same day 2 random gorgeous blondes ask about Lex.  Come on, Mozzie, make the connection.

Everybody being wrong about Haley is a great move by the show.  We all had her pegged as a villain, but she's actually an ally, and doing the right thing.

[cambridgeguy]

So if Kara magically wears her full Supergirl costume under her civvies when she's Kara Danvers does that mean she also magically wear her civvies under her costume when she's Supergirl?  Because unless she has something like Barry's ring there's no way to explain where she kept a change of clothes.

[Lantern7]

I"m just drifting towards the finale at this point, occasionally bobbing my head to ask questions. For instance: where did Kara get clothes to change into when Otis was stalking her? In the prison?

Right, plot. Supergirl is framed for attack the nation, everybody gets lathered up over it, Brainy gets into a moral dilemma where he picks the absolute worst course of action (didn't Tony Stark upload sensitive information to his brain after Secret Invasion?), James gets powered up, and Otis continues to exist for some reason. Oh, and Lockwood gets the OK to deputize the Agents of Liberty (because what this raging fire needs is napalm), and Kara realizes she's in a situation where the costume doesn't help as much as being herself. Did I miss anything?

[mommalib]

Glad Haley is a good guy.

[AnimeMania]

A gorgeous blonde woman in a miniskirt walks past prisoners who have been locked up for years. What do the prisoners shout? "Welcome to Strykers, Supergirl!"

[UNOSEZ]

I always knew Haley was more or less an agent of good... You just have to hand wave the clothes situation with Supergirl.. Or you'll go mad... I wonder how it'll work out with James.. If he'll keep whatever power is going on inside him... So even tho I knew Alex and James' sister were on their way there... They're on their way there... 

[The Crazed Spruce]

2 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

So if Kara magically wears her full Supergirl costume under her civvies when she's Kara Danvers does that mean she also magically wear her civvies under her costume when she's Supergirl?  Because unless she has something like Barry's ring there's no way to explain where she kept a change of clothes.

In the comics in the Silver Age, Superman (and, presumably, Supergirl) used to compress his clothes into a really thin, compact bundle ('cause, y'know, superstrength and all), and slip them into a hidden pocket in his cape. Probably the same deal here.

[tennisgurl]

So basically, just about everyone in this show is an idiot, as usual. So Kara just keeps running around doing Supergirl stuff, not thinking that this could end in problems, meanwhile everyone in the world has apparently decided that just NOW Supergirl has gone crazy and murderous after her years of saving people, and even try to shoot her, even knowing that she is bullet proof, and is currently in the middle of pulling a guy out of a burning car, and as usual, no one can ever tell that Kara and Supergirl are the same person, no matter how freaking obvious it is. 

I would have kind of loved it if Otis if all people was the first person in the whole franchise to see who Kara is right away. I am actually really liking Otis as a villain/henchman this season, he is a ton of fun, a decently credible threat, and even has moment of depth. He was weirdly pleasant to Kara when he ran into her, and even has some thoughts on systematic prison issues apparently!

Glad that it looks like Haley is going to be on the side of the good guys, more or less. She might be a serious hard ass, but I think she really is like that because she thinks its for the best for the country, but is willing to help out with the increased levels of bullshit going on. I think thats a much more interesting character than just being a thorn in Alex's side. 

Lex and Lena really do have an interesting relationship, even when he isnt on screen. I think he does love her and respect her brilliance (she might very well be the only person he does care about) in his own twisted way, and I also think that, as much as she hates to admit it, Lena does still love him. Hates him too, but its complicated.

[thuganomics85]

Nice to see that the everyday citizens in this show are just as dumb as... well, the everyday citizens of any superhero.  Almost everyone seems to take the President at his word, and are all about bringing down Supergirl.  Even the freaking guy she saves from a car crash is all "Thanks for the assist, but you are still a traitor, so you suck, Supergirl!"  It is times like this where I almost wish superheroes would just be all "Fine, I"m out!  Y'all have fun fucking things up, when I'm not around to save y'alls sorry ass!"

So, after White Collar, Mozzie apparently went on to be an Edward Snowden-type whistleblower, who got thrown into a cell next to Lex!  Wouldn't mind seeing the character again.

James is going to therapy at least, but that cure Lena gave him clearly has some side effects that will cause problems!

Glad Haley ended up coming around, and prevented Ben from trapping Supergirl.  But Nina did have a dream that Ben will end up finding the truth about Brainy, so he'll likely rear his ugly head again.  Especially since the President Baker agreed to deputize the Children of Liberty (again, how in the hell was he ever President Lynda Carter's VP?)

It's nice to see Lena and Kara working together, but it's probably only going to be a matter of time before Lena's inadvertent involvement will come into play, and cause the new trust to fall by the wayside.

[AnimeMania]

I am guessing that Otis' explosion was just a harmless release (to humans) of Kryptonite and not the catastrophic destruction leading to all the prisoners becoming collateral damage as Inmate Mozzie predicted would happen.

When Mr. Warden W. Warden removed the guards from the cell block, did he accidentally tell every guard in the prison to go home for the day? Does opening every door in a prison lead to prisoners fighting each other? I would of had a different objective if I was an inmate.

I liked that the man was so scared of Supergirl after she saved him that he ran-limped to try to get away from her. That is horror movie level scared!

[ottoDbusdriver]

So, where did Kasnian Supergirl go ? Back to Kasnia ?

How exactly did Lex build a secret lab inside his prison cell ?

Kara changing into her street clothes in prison to fool Otis was pretty dumb -- even for this show.

Martial law with a dusk-to-dawn curfew -- I would think that that would be bigger news on the screens in James' office, but only one of them referenced it.

[VCRTracking]

I've had stupid moments before, but I've never, ever been "continues shooting when bullets clearly have no effect whatsoever" stupid.

Always great to see Willie Garson and I loved him calling Supergirl out.

As much as we all want Lena to be like "I knew all along, ha ha" if Kara's secret is blown, they've clearly set it up that she'll be hurt and feel betrayed that Kara lied to her and that'll cause a rift. I think it will be after they defeat Lex in the finale and he reveals it as a final F U.

Edited April 22, 2019 by VCRTracking

[immortalfrieza]

8 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

I've had stupid moments before, but I've never, ever been "continues shooting when bullets clearly have no effect whatsoever" stupid.

I think even someone so stupid they can barely even figure out which side of the gun goes where in real life wouldn't be that stupid. However, people shooting (or in the case of the prisoners punching) a nearly invincible superhero despite the fact that it should be widely known that they are an all but invincible and even see it themselves and continuing to do so is a trope older than superheroes themselves. Since it's happened to Superman himself a million times I'm not surprised to see it. That doesn't mean it isn't incredibly ridiculous and should have been phased out decades ago, but there you go.

On that note, I was expecting (or at least hoping) that Otis had pumped Kryptonite into the prison or SOMETHING to actually make the scenario with the prisoners seem half plausible. I can see Otis just did that to slow Supergirl down but the prisoners had no excuse.

20 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

So basically, just about everyone in this show is an idiot, as usual. So Kara just keeps running around doing Supergirl stuff, not thinking that this could end in problems, meanwhile everyone in the world has apparently decided that just NOW Supergirl has gone crazy and murderous after her years of saving people,

Another time tested (AKA REALLY stupid and long since overdone) superhero trope. When the superhero is framed EVERYBODY except a select few will always believe the superhero is guilty from the first accusation thrown, no matter how much good they have done or how many dozens or even hundreds of times it's happened and been disproven before. Some superheroes even spend as much time running from the police/military/even other superheroes as they do actually helping people as a result of this happening to them over and over and over again, Spider-Man come to mind. At least Spider-Man has the excuse of having a constant smear campaign being run against him his entire existence, but Supergirl?

[bros402]

When she was fighting the prisoners, why did she even bother hitting them? She could have just walked through the mob and let them punch and hit her - there was nothing any of them could have done to stop her.

Loved seeing Mozzie from White Collar, he's a fun actor - hope we see him again.

[BaggythePanther]

On 4/22/2019 at 12:45 AM, tennisgurl said:

So basically, just about everyone in this show is an idiot, as usual. So Kara just keeps running around doing Supergirl stuff, not thinking that this could end in problems, meanwhile everyone in the world has apparently decided that just NOW Supergirl has gone crazy and murderous after her years of saving people, and even try to shoot her, even knowing that she is bullet proof, and is currently in the middle of pulling a guy out of a burning car, and as usual, no one can ever tell that Kara and Supergirl are the same person, no matter how freaking obvious it is. 

To be fair, as far as the public knows 4 years ago Supergirl went evil for no reason. This time she actually had a reason to get angry, when Congress repealed the Alien Amnesty Act. But there should be more people who believe in Supergirl, not just because they like her, but because they're skeptical of the government.  

I wish they would have considered the possibility that the culprit was a Supergirl from another earth but since J'onn and Superman are off world and Alex doesn't have her memories there is no one else that has experience with that.

Someone on the A.V. Club speculated that James might turn into Mr. Action from Countdown to Final Crisis. I'm just curious to see how this story turns out.

[ALenore]

On 4/21/2019 at 9:48 PM, Lantern7 said:

Brainy gets into a moral dilemma where he picks the absolute worst course of action

I can't figure out why he didn't just change all the information in the database. I was sure that was what he was going to do. Change all the information to apply to long-dead people, then play dumb when asked about it.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 1:45 AM, tennisgurl said:

So basically, just about everyone in this show is an idiot, as usual.

Hokey smokes, I was only partially hate-watching this week but there were several huge plot holes and contrivances in this ep. Is Brainiac (I refuse to call him "Brainy", which is infantile) an idiot savant or is it bad acting? He never fails to annoy me whenever he shows up.

[Rushmoras]

For those who said in that other episode's thread that Lex is probably mind controlling everyone in prison, I just have to say - ha-ha! You were wrong! Told you, that the whole freaking system there is freaking corrupt. All you need is a big bag of money and voulia - turn a maximum security prison in to your personal SPA and resort. 🤣

Also, Otis, you dumb f**k, don't recognize that the chick in prison is identical to the chick in Kaznia? Did they fry your brain while making you in to a Kryptonite fuelled Robo-Cop?

[mxc90]

On 4/23/2019 at 2:59 AM, BaggythePanther said:

So basically, just about everyone in this show is an idiot, as usual.

This episode had a lot of idiots.

But the biggest idiot was the owner of the diner Alex and Kelly had coffee. All the lights were off and the window blinds were down (little sun light came through). No wonder there were no other customers in there (they didn't know the place was open for business). Runner ups were the guy try to shoot Supergirl, the prisoners thinking they could beat her up, and the fool that was rescued couldn't at least say "Thank You" before running away.

I tried crossing my arms, breathe in/out, and tap while watching this show. It didn't work. Anxiety went up!

Surprised James' special safe place wasn't Superman's arms.

This show had some unintentional jokes as to where exactly did Kara pull out that outfit/glasses and one push makes Supergirl .......ahh forget it.

[BaggythePanther]

7 hours ago, Rushmoras said:

Also, Otis, you dumb f**k, don't recognize that the chick in prison is identical to the chick in Kaznia? Did they fry your brain while making you in to a Kryptonite fuelled Robo-Cop?

After seeing Kasnian Supergirl in that wig a few weeks ago, I wish Kara did wear a wig or something. I know having Kara in a wig would probably be a headache from a production standpoint, but the dark hair does do a lot to change her appearance.

[Perfect Xero]

On 4/22/2019 at 1:21 PM, VCRTracking said:

I've had stupid moments before, but I've never, ever been "continues shooting when bullets clearly have no effect whatsoever" stupid.

I just wish they'd gone all the way with it and had the guy throw the gun at her once he realized the bullets had no effect.

[shantown]

43 minutes ago, Perfect Xero said:

I just wish they'd gone all the way with it and had the guy throw the gun at her once he realized the bullets had no effect.

Me too! Would have been a perfect bit of physical comedy. This show gets so dark and heavy handed sometimes, but Supergirl is such a cheery force of good, I wish the show worked in comedy more often!

[Lantern7]

1 hour ago, Perfect Xero said:

I just wish they'd gone all the way with it and had the guy throw the gun at her once he realized the bullets had no effect.

You too? Here's where my mind went. Maybe Clark fears the guns themselves have Kryptonite?

4 hours ago, mxc90 said:

Surprised James' special safe place wasn't Superman's arms.

WOW. I can't see that. Lex Luthor in Smallville? Different story.

As for Kara's clothes being hidden . . . that would include shoes. I vaguely remember seeing them, and I can't imagine those being easily concealed.

[AnimeMania]

14 hours ago, mxc90 said:

I tried crossing my arms, breathe in/out, and tap while watching this show. It didn't work. Anxiety went up!

Well the therapist did say that it would take a little while for the exercises to work, but don't worry, they will be giving you different therapy exercises each week to try to help you get through each episode.

[mxc90]

9 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Well the therapist did say that it would take a little while for the exercises to work, but don't worry, they will be giving you different therapy exercises each week to try to help you get through each episode.

Thank you!

I'm determined to make it work. I need to calm myself, especially during the President and Lockwood scenes!