Krypton’s Heroes Assemble in “Transformation” 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Three Zods, an El, and a Vex walk into a bar…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is an episode about true colours. In the case of Daron, that would be coward’s yellow as he throws his own daughter under the Brainiac bus after the failed coup against the Voice of Rao.

We see Jayna beating a speedy, strategic, and singular retreat to escape Brainiac’s tentacles so when Lyta runs into Dev later, it immediately felt like a trap. Even knowing that, it was still startling to see him get his arm blasted off. House Zod’s got nerves of steel.

And it turns out Nyssa’s got some stellar fighting skills too, apparently picked up from a Sagitari lover. Not to put too fine a point on it but it’s becoming more and more clear that Seg’s the least able fighter of this lot.

That they both got sucked in by Daron’s desperate plea for mercy and then surprised when he immediately turns on them and calls for the guards speaks to some near-fatal youthful naïveté on their part.

Daron’s anti-religion background was interesting. In a previous discussion with Jayna, we learned that he married into House Vex which could mean that he was Rankless before that. Furthermore, under Brainiac’s questioning, it’s revealed that his parents were Cythonnites.

For those paying attention, he never states that his parents were killed in the Rao takeover. He only says that he “never saw them again”. Since we now know there’s a Cythonnite cell hiding out and guarding Doomsday, it’s possible they’re still living there.

I mean, if he was your son, wouldn’t you go into hiding too?

My favourite scene here was Grandma Jayna staring down General Zod. So many layers of meaning in that silent evaluation.

On the surface, you have the Primus of House Zod, who has dedicated her life to the protection of her city and planet, suspicious of a potential threat. On the next level, you have a military leader whose mission has been to hunt down and eliminate Black Zero finding out her alleged grandson is their leader.

And then deep down, we have the woman who left her own brother out to die of exposure in order to survive, who still spars with a computer-generated version of him to keep the hurt fresh, coming face-to-face with the first male Zod she would’ve known since her father.

Jayna’s true colours are a revelation to Lyta when she has to admit that backing the Vex coup was the price she paid for saving Lyta from execution. This is information Lyta has to process on top of Seg insisting on saving Nyssa because Nyssa had backed him when he wanted to save Lyta.

For a woman raised in the House with the most clear-cut mandate of them all, Lyta’s life has gotten extremely complicated lately.

Elsewhere, in the Fortress of Solitude, Adam Strange throws the most dismal pity party ever with Holo-Val as his sounding board. His true colours are morose greys and whiny browns, I guess.

Multiple issues for me while he rambled on about heroism:

1.  What the heck is in his flask and how does it still have contents after all the times we’ve seen him take swigs? Is he refilling with Kryptonion booze or does it have a direct line to a bottomless jug in the Phantom Zone?

2. If he’s so good with the tech in the Fortress, why does he need Holo-Val to fix his Zeta thingy? Couldn’t he have run the diagnostic and repair program himself?

3. The rate of speed of Superman’s cape disintegration seems to have stalled. Shouldn’t there be a correlation to the events unfolding in the current storyline?

4. Knowing that Brainiac’s removal of Kandor is the trigger for the collapse of Krypton and that Krypton’s demise is what motivates Seg’s son to ship Supe off-planet, shouldn’t he be hanging out with Brainiac’s private guard encouraging a rapid evac?

Needless to say, I have very little sympathy for Adam Strange of No Nicknames in this context. He’s been an enigmatic ally so far but I have a hard time framing him as an antagonist worth taking seriously. The only significant thing I can see him doing before the season end is grabbing General Zod and Zeta-thingy-ing him back to their own time.

Oh, I guess I should mention that our intrepid heroes miss their chance to zap Brainiac into a catalyst for the mob’s fear and anger. Instead, Brainiac takes the opportunity to finesse them all into a frenzy of faith-driven adulation.

I gotta admit, that was a stellar bit of showmanship right there. Nothing like transforming into a figure of living flame to drive your point home. And politically? Promising the Rankless that all ranks will be eliminated, that all will prosper, and everyone will live forever? The double meaning of such pledges will escape the hordes until they are all stew in the Brainiac melting pot.

Krypton airs Wednesday nights at 10pm ET/PT on SYFY.