Krypton S01E07 Review: Brainiac Strikes

Krypton, Season 1, Episode 7: Transformation

This episode's more of a huge 'things happen' episode, and it's pretty neat. Brainiac has basically taken over the Voice of Rao, and through a pretty awesome cold open, used his tentacles to turn the military guild members into his minions. This Voice of Brainiac ends up interacting with Daron-Vex, and basically plays around and treats the whole thing like a test of worthiness. Brainiac can detect if people are lying, and Daron ends up giving up everything to Brainiac -- including the fact that his own daughter is a co-conspirator that he was well-prepared to give up to Brainiac, willing to even shoot Nyssa to prove his reality. I really kind of wish, just like everything else, that we've spent more time with Daron to really care about him beyond "huh, what an opportunistic scumbag."

Eventually, though, as the pieces on the board move around, the characters we root end up all on the same page. Seg-El, Lyta and Zod go off to try and take down Brainiac on their own, and then Seg goes off to save Nyssa, who's branded a traitor by the Voice of Brainiac. Meanwhile, Lyta seeks the help of Dev-Em, her 'betrothed', to track down Jayna-Zod... but Dev-Em's apparently already corrupted by Brainiac, forcing Lyta to shoot her. I guess the show tries to build up Lyta and Dev's relationship in the previous episode? It really feels like they're just handwaving the love triangle they've built up between Lyta, Dev and Seg, which is... eh? Dev's been built up a little past the last couple of episodes, but not that much, honestly. 

Nyssa is probably the MVP of the first half of the episode, where her interactions with her father and her utter disgust at being turned into ''the perfect political partner" is amazingly delivered, and her understanding that Seg is helping her out not out of love but out of friendship, is pretty well done, I think. 

This all leads to the final scene, where the Kryptonians all join together to assassinate the Voice of Brainiac. Or at least expose his true nature as an alien before the crowded masses of Kandor so they will rise up and become their army. Unfortunately, Brainiac one-ups them by hovering into the air, burning in flames and acts all glowing like an angel when one of the Rao priestesses call the Voice out for not being Kryptonian anymore. Apparently Brainiac's realized the importance of religion, and ends up masquerading as this godly being, turning the resistance's attempt to get the people of Kandor to fight back against them. 

Oh, and Adam Strange finally ends up developing into something resembling a character instead of just a plot device. He gets to talk with the computer program that is Val-El about just what it means to be a hero. And while "I want to be a hero" is a well-and-tried trope in these superhero stories, they tell it relatively competently. Unfortunately, Adam Strange draws the wrong conclusions from Val's motivational talks and decides to kill General Zod instead of joining the Kryptonian Resistance. 

Overall, it's an episode that feels like it cares more about getting all of its characters in place instead of telling any real character-focused story, but it still manages to give us some great moments with Nyssa-Vex and Adam Strange, and a wee bit for Lyta and Jayna Zod. There are still some iffy parts of the episode, pacing-wise, but overall still pretty fun, I think. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Adam Strange makes blatant references to the Justice League from the present day, as well as not having a power ring, which is a reference to Green Lantern, one of the traditional members of the Justice League. 
• Brainiac calls his brainwashed bodyguards the Red Shard, which is the name of a tactical response squad in the city of Kandor that Superman was a member when he returned the Bottle City of Kandor to its original size. 
• Among the trophies in the Fortress of Solitude is the Black Mercy flower, which was introduced in Alan Moore's iconic Superman story, "For The Man Who Has Everything". 
• Argo City, mentioned by Daron-Vex, is the birthplace of Supergirl. The name Argo was taken from Superman: The Animated Series, where Argo was initially introduced as Krypton's sister planet as opposed to a city.
• Mentioned briefly by Kem are Rondors, which are a species of land animals native to Krypton, featured in some Golden Age stories.