Posted in: DC Universe, Movies, Review, TV | Tagged: Cameron Cuffe, Colin Salmon, entertainment, krypton, Shaun Sipos, syfy, television

Krypton Season 1, Episode 5 Recap: House of Zod

This article contains spoilers for the Krypton season one episode – House of Zod.

But this also has massive spoilers for the rest of the season… so be warned.

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There are two major things going on at once here. Seg (Cameron Cuffe) is trying to get away from the Black Zero contingent that captured him and Lyta (Georgina Campbell) is about to be executed for being a traitor. So it's not surprising that some of the other characters get pushed off to the side for the episode. When we last saw Seg, he had busted free and was outside, which lead the Black Zero folks to go after him, except he doubled back and went back into the base where he discovered another prisoner named Raika (Sonita Henry). She leads Seg out and into her group that discover he is an El and take him to their leader, Amireh (Beatrice Comins) and the group who worships the Ice Goddess Cythonna. They speak a language Seg doesn't know, but we can tell they don't like El's and some want him dead, but Amireh order Raika to heal Seg's wounds and tells the others in her language that she can only learn what the El knows if he's alive. Seg picks up on the danger and convinces Raika to let him go into the Outlands and give him a respirator. We'll pick back up here in a minute.

In Kandor, besides Adam (Shaun Sipos) and Kem (Rasmus Hardiker) arguing over the best way to find Seg, there is the matter of Lyta about to die and Nyssa (Wallis Day) going to Jayna (Ann Ogbomo) offering to save Lyta in exchange for her loyalty to House Vex when it goes to take down the Voice of Rao. We get a flashback to Jayna as a little girl (Asiatu Koroma) competing with her brother Vidar (Malachi Hallett) in training by their Father's guidance. When her brother doesn't show the killer instinct that a Zod needs, he is chided and Jayna makes a move, showing that she can do what is necessary. We get to see their final test as the siblings are sent out into the outlands during a storm. Once they reach a certain point, there is a respirator that will give them the oxygen to return. But there is only one. She offers to share it, but her brother tries to take her out. Jayna counters and breaks his leg, leaving him behind and taking the respirator. She returns, trying to tell her father that her brother needs help, but he doesn't care. He welcomes Jayna to House Zod and gives her the necklace that she passed on to Lyta when she passed the test.

Daron (Elliot Cowan) is not happy that Nyssa made the offer to Jayna, putting their whole plan at risk if the Voice of Rao does not get his sacrifice. We also find out that he is romantically involved with Kol-Da (Andrea Vasiliou), which complicates things a bit. Dev-Em (Aaron Pierre) visits Lyta, talking about his love for her and that he knows she doesn't love him. She kisses him and says she does. At the execution, Jayne nods to Nyssa who notifies her father and the execution is cancelled, Kol has recanted and Lyta is to be fully reinstated. Guards then go into Kol's cell and kill her, making it look like a suicide. When Lyta tries to talk to Jayna about what happened, Jayna tells her that she is her greatest pride and failure.

Back in the Outlands, Seg's respirator fails but he is able to use it to fix his communicator and call to Adam and has a message for Lyta. Now back in charge, Lyta listens to the message then takes Adam and another Sagitari into the Outlands to find Seg. But Black Zero finds him first and takes him back to their base. Lyta and crew come in and blast a few and save Seg. As they clear the base, Lyta comes across their leader (Colin Salmon) and they fight until he sees her necklace and shows her the one he wears… and that She is the one who gave it to him as he is her son. And while we could guess what that mean, if you watch the two videos below they spell it out in a bit of a shocking way.

I liked this episode for two reasons, the look into the House of Zod and what it means to be one of them. Because of the comic history of General Zod, the house gets a bad reputation, but in a lot of ways it is one of the most noble houses on Krypton. The second thing I liked is the introduction of Cythonna, a different deity than Rao. I like the idea that Krypton has a pantheon of Gods that they merged into a mono-theocracy. I'm curious if Amireh is the equivalent to the Voice of Rao or just a leader of the group. I'd really like to see them explore both the House/Class system on the planet and the religion/mythos.

And with that final reveal the series changes everything we know. The two videos below have massive spoilers in them. The bottom video confirms that Colin Salmons character is General Zod from the future come back to stop Brainiac. And now we know he is the son of Lyta Zod. He had come back in time to save Krytpon from Brainiac who ends up stealing away the city of Kandor for his collection and destabilizing the core of the planet causing it to explode two-hundred years later. Meaning if they stop Brainiac now, Krypton will never be destroyed and Kal-El will never go to Earth. It also means that Adam Strange's information is wrong.

The other video below shows scenes from upcoming weeks where we see that the Voice of Rao has indeed become Brainiac, there is a bigger plan that involves Nyssa and General Zod's big plan to stop Brainiac is to unleash Doomsday. This show just turned it up to 11.

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