Synopsis
Jayna grapples with her torn loyalties as Seg fights for survival within the heart of Black Zero.
Review
Remember how I said previous episode “The Word of Rao” (reviewed here) injected Krypton with political intrigue? Well it grabbed that intrigue by the horns and damn well ran with it.
Through the first four episodes Krypton had a fairly rapid pacing. Not so fast as to meddle with my experience. Just perfectly paced to ensure there’s an immediacy to the action and a kind of breath grabbing level of excitement.
The crux of this episode is that it acts as a part-two to “The Word of Rao”. With Seg on the run in the bad lands and Lyta sentenced to death for the failure of the Rankless Initiative.
This episode, written by Lina Patel, leans heavily in to the Game of Thrones elements of its storytelling. We’re watching several storylines play out at once. On first glance they appear disparate but it soon becomes clear that they are all connected in one way or another. In the end everything boils down to the continued battle for power in Kandor.
Although there is a brief mention of Brainiac in this episode the threat of his arrival has taken a backseat for now.
“House of Zod” also introduces us to a new subsection of the Kryptonian populous. The believers of the ice goddess Cythonna. They live out in the badlands and Seg soon finds himself caught up with them whilst on the run from The Commander.
Speaking of Commander, shock horror, he’s General Zod from our time period! What could he possibly have travelled back to the time of Seg-El for?
Once again the prize does to Nyssa and her father Daron-Vex for master manipulators. Nyssa cleverly manoeuvres Lyta and Jayna, playing on their fractured mother-daughter relationship. Daron, on the other hand, is revealed to be in a relationship with Kol-Da although he quickly manipulates her words to stay Nyssa’s execution.
It all begins to sound very complicated but it plays out well on screen. The Krypton team has found their groove and it’s really working for them.
Sadly that cliffhanger regarding The Voice of Rao from the previous episode isn’t picked up here. The character fails to appear in this episode altogether so I’m still holding my breath to see what happens next with that one!
Verdict
“House of Zod” is once again an action-packed episode of the fledgling series. It features a little more posturing than previous episodes but there’s still plenty going on to hold the audiences’ attention.
The episode suffers from spending less time with Seg but overall its ensemble is coming together nicely.
7/10
In the next episode…
Krypton stars Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El, Georgina Campbell as Lyta Zod, Ian McElhinney as Val-El, Elliot Cowan as Daron-Vex, Ann Ogbomo as Alura Zod, Rasmus Hardiker as Kem, Wallis Day as Nyssa-Vex and Aaron Pierre as Dev-Em.
The series airs on E4 here in the UK and on SyFy in North America.
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