"In Zod We Trust" – Krypton S02E06

Another week, another bunch of shenanigans on Krypton in "In Zod We Trust". And the worst thing about the episode is the title. Bad wordplay? Really? Next week's"Zod and Monsters" doesn't sound any better. Also, the episode title lies: Nyssa never trusts Zod to keep his end of the bargain they've made: Cor for the Codex. Nobody trusts Zod except the endlessly loyal Sagitari. And he throws one of them to his death in a Darth Vader "moral building" maneuver which is anything but.

The most satisfying part is Lyta appears to be actually dead. The creative team will probably find a way to undo that, but for now everyone on the show is acting like she's dead. Jayna is upset at the death of her daughter. Seg isn't happy and Dev isn't either albeit in a less emotional Aaron Pierre kind of way. Val and the Rebels are shocked Jax killed Lyta and imprisoned her and Araame; whatever the heck Araame is and what role she plays in Jax's plans.

We also get a couple of satisfying reversals, neatly set up by writer Nadria Tucker. Zod tosses a Sagitari over the balcony to his death. Later, Nyssa gets hold of her son Cor and jumps to her "death" the same way... except Seg is waiting in a flyer to catch her.

There are the usual dumb machinations which indicate Kryptonians aren't the brightest schemers in the universe, but to one degree or another that's been a problem with Krypton since day one. Ditto for the plot gaps. We've never seen enough of Jayna and Lyta together for Ann Ogbomo to be convincing showing Jayna's grief. As such, the scene near the end of her and Dev holding hands and Jayna sobbing her heart out doesn't stick the landing.

Ditto for Jax getting all in Araame's face when Araame questions Val's intelligence. We haven't seen that much of Jax and Val together for Hannah Waddingham to sell the respect she has for Val, both in that scene and in a later one where I guess we're supposed to believe she's been making the tough decisions so Val can mount up and ride his moral high house over the horizon.

Which is a shame, because turning Val into a big ole hypocrite who blows up innocent civilians to get an advantage over Zod--after he earlier had Jax imprisoned for killing one person, Lyta--is actually a decent plot point and moral question. I'm curious to see how Adam and Kem react to Val killing a few dozen (hundred?) people. Much less Seg when he finds out.

But that's for the remaining four episodes, if the creative team remembers to do it. For "In Zod We Trust", we start with Jax cutting Lyta's throat. That backfires on her, as Val points out she's become as big a tyrant as Zod. And again, we've had a lot of shorthand for Zod being such a tyrannical thug. Colin Salmon gets to turn loose the villainy this episode, albeit in tropish ways. "Ooh, look, he tossed a minion to his death! Ooh, look, he threatened his head scientist!" It feels a little unwarranted: we haven't seen much of Zod being all evil and villainous. But I'd rather see him evil and villainous than the mildly wishy-washy "I'm trying to think of the future of Krypton" ruler he's been in the first five episodes of this season.

Jax's throat-cutting also backfires as far as provoking Zod to become a big(ger) meanie. That's good for us the viewer, but bad for the Rebels. Zod gives Val an hour to deliver Jax or he'll wipe out all the Rebels. He also chats with Nyssa, who is bringing him the Codex. Two abusive Sagitari escort her to Zod and make mildly sexual threats. Nyssa kills them, and Seg, Dev, and Jayna show up and rescue Nyssa.

Imprisoned in a cell, Araame (Kae Alexander) fawns over Jax. Jax cuts a comm implant out of her arm, stabs a guard with it, and escapes with Araame. Adam, Val, and Kem find out, and go after them. Val kills Araame, and, awwww, now we'll never find out what the heck she brought to the table. Jax surrenders rather than shoot Vax, but tells him now he's going to have to get his hands dirty because up to now, she's been doing all the dirty work. Val exiles her from the Rebels, so Ms. Waddingham is gone for now. I doubt she's gone for good.

Nyssa convinces Seg to let her go to Zod. She trades the Codex for Cor, and once she has the baby she does the aforementioned leap from the balcony to the flyer. The flyer is damaged in the escape and Brainiac does his mental ghost thing with Seg, showing him how to reroute the power to avoid a crash landing. They get to the outpost/bar, and we have the aforementioned scene of Dev holding a sobbing Jayna.

Also, giving Zod the Codex seems a dumb move. Yes, it lets Seg and Nyssa get Cor back. But given she walks into his office pretty easily, why not just easily walk into the nursery or wherever Zod is keeping Cor and rescue the baby? Instead she ends up giving Zod exactly what he wants.

We also have a scene where Brainiac appears to Seg and points out/convinces him he's going to have to let Brainiac help him if he wants to beat Zod. Seg finally gives in and tells Nyssa they're going without Dev and Jayna, and he's "working" with Brainiac-in-his-head. And I must say, I like Brainiac a lot more as a voice/face in Seg's head than last season when Brainiac was doing all-out planet conquering, behind-the-scene machinations, and Force grabs. Brainiac acts a lot more like... well, Brainiac. Kudos to Blake Ritson, who has gotten a lot more to do characterization-wise this season as a corrupter than last season as a conqueror.

Zod needs to Codex to build a weapon. He's been pressuring a Sagitari and her team to finish it. Once she does, Zod takes it, goes out into the Outlands, finds Doomsday, and prepares to shoot him with the weapon. And next week's previews promise the origin of Doomsday, so presumably Doomy has some genetic material the Codex, and thus the weapon, can affect.

That's it for this episode. We get assorted other reactions to Lyta's death along the way: Seg screams in grief, Dev looks mildly constipated (but he always looks mildly constipated), and Nyssa tells Jayna she would have stopped Jax if she had known she was going to kill Lyta. Uh-huh, sure.

Still no sign of Lobo although he's been in some previews. But we get Zod all evil and villainous, the return of Doomsday, and Brainiac acting all analytical and calm and rational and Palpatine-corrupting. That gives us some villainy to explore the more subtle viewpoint and rationale of Jax, who says she's just doing what needs to be done while cutting a throat or two.

So while it's still hard to feel much for the characters and the Superman history is all over the map, I enjoy Krypton as an exercise in low-grade SyFy Channel Star Wars knock-offing. It's why I keep watching it: We've got Zod as Darth Vader, Brainiac as Palpatine, Seg as Luke Skywalker, Val as Obi-Wan and/or Yoda, and Adam and/or Kem as Han Solo. Even Nyssa gets to do some Leia heroics occasionally.

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