Krypton S01E05 Review: Zods Do Not Kneel

Krypton, Season 1, Episode 5: House of Zod

Huh. This is an interesting episode. On one hand, the running theme of Primus Jayna-Zod being challenged over and over to betray her duty in order to join in a conspiracy with the house of Vex in order to save her daughter while we flashback to how the House of Zod trains her and her brother to basically fight as if to the death, because mercy will cause them to be unprepared. It culminates in young Jayna-Zod being forced to leave her brother to die when the two of them are sent into some trial by fire (or by ice, as it were) to get to some spot in the wilderness of Krypton's icy wastes, onnly to find that there's only one respirator left. The mother-and-daughter pair of Jayna and Lyta has been the most interesting characters in Krypton so far, and the whole concept of the House of Zod being extremely driven by honour, combat and survival of the fittest is well-delivered. It leads to a different decision in the present day, where instead of choosing honour over a loved one, Jayna ends up paying the price to House Vex in order to secure her daughter's release. She gladly saves her daughter, but also tells Lyta in no uncertain terms that she is her greatest shame.

 

The Vex house is a bit less interesting, mostly because Daron's pretty uninteresting himself. He's apparently in love with Kol-Da, the false-witness that is meant to take Lyta down, but ends up being forced to order her assassination in order to get Lyta off the hook and in turn make the House of Zod (and thus the military guild) ally with him. That random wrinkle of Kol-Da being in love with Daron is so unnecessary. Nyssa-Vex, thankfully, is a lot more endearing, whether it's in her political machinations with Jayna-Zod or her conversations with her clearly less competent father regarding how to best take control of this situation. 

It's a shame that the rest of the storylines in this episode falls thin. We've got both Dev-Em and Seg-El confessing their true, true love for Lyta, and that honestly just feels like lobbing in a love triangle for the sake of a love triangle. Dev is a flat character, and I cannot honestly say I really care about him. Whereas Seg is still stuck in the rut of being a generic nice hero. Seg's storyline has him escape from the Not-Black-Zero dudes when Colin Salmon's character walks away, but before we get much clarification about this mysterious person (we don't get any hints about Colin Salmon until the final shot of this episode) Seg saves another prisoner... 

And then Seg is brought into a different cult who worships Cythonna, the goddess of ice, and hates Els, and also holds the key to saving Krypton from Brainiac. This revelation is done so haphazardly and feels so shoehorned in that it almost ruins any goodwill I have from the Zod stuff in this episode. It feels so convoluted for them to introduced this huge facet of Kryptonian society when so much about the other pre-existing ones they introduced in the past four (!) episodes are still nebulous. We haven't even met anyone that actually hails from Black Zero, and I can't even call Colin Salmon's character or faction by any proper name since they don't have one yet. The world-building is commendable, but it's done so clumsily and it really wouldn't hurt to give some space to both build up the facets of this world and make them memorable, or, failing that, actually build up the other characters. Out of the main 'save Krypton' team, Seg just feels mostly flat, I can't name you a single thing about Adam Strange beyond 'plot device that sometimes makes bad quips', and Kem... Kem's all right, I suppose. 

After being freed, Adam Strange and Lyta head off to rescue Seg, but not before Nyssa overhears Seg's anguished dying declaration of love for Lyta... and honestly? I really find it hard that both Nyssa and Lyta fall in love for Seg. We are told this, yes, and Lyta and Seg at least has the excuse of having a long history and a pre-existing relationship, but there is not much chemistry between either couple that makes the attraction really believable. Thankfully, this is quickly redeemed when Lyta and Colin Salmon's character face off against each other. Both of them have the same Zod necklace (as in, the exact same object) and Colin Salmon's character reveals himself to be Lyta's (possibly time-travelling) son.... which means that he's General Zod himself. Which is exciting, because General Zod's cool, and Colin Salmon's a great actor... but of course, we have yet to untangle the huge mess of introdumped world-building that we haven't really explored yet. 

Overall, the episode has some good points, but it's bogged down by trying to fit in too much without really spending the legwork or time to make me care about a lot of the plotlines, so it really just feels packed to the brim but hollow at the same time, Zods notwithstanding. All the Zods both time-travelling or otherwise are great. It's a shame they're attached to a bunch of other far, messier storylines. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The huge revelation that Colin Salmon's character is, in fact, Lyta's son, implies extremely heavily that he is General Zod himself. Dru-Zod is of the same generation as Jor-El, Superman's father, and since Seg-El is Jor's father, General Zod should be a generation below Lyta-Zod as well. The fact that General Zod is older than Lyta implies further, of course, that he is time-travelling, just like Adam Strange.  
• "You kneel to no one", says the elder Zod to Jayna, which, of course, is a spin on the memetic and infamous "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD" line from Superman II. 
• As mentioned a couple of episodes back, Cythonna is the Kryptonian goddess of ice, and a rival to the god Rao. Apparently, she has a cult that worships her in this show. Cythonna herself features as the main antagonist in the one-shot Superman: The Last God of Krypton.