Finale Puts Krypton on a Highway to “The Phantom Zone” 

Thank Rao that Syfy announced Krypton’s renewal before this episode aired. With all the crazy cancellations flying around, it would’ve been too nerve-wracking not knowing if there was going to be a continuation to this story.

There were a lot of big characters M.I.A. in this finale such as Jayna (dragged off to safety by assumed-to-be-dead brother) and Daron (last seen crashing his skimmer in the Outlands). Meanwhile, we only catch glimpses as the story progresses of Adam Strange (presumed dead when he throws himself and his Zeta-Beam Device in front of the Ona-bomb to save Seg and Kem).

Of course, we have some new arrivals to fit into the picture. No longer The Voice of Rao hosting the Sentry, we saw Brainiac build himself a whole new body with which to survey his newest acquisition.

His ship is close by and with Kandor’s protective shield down, it’s a simple matter for it to begin the “bottling” procedure which will add the city to his collection by ripping it from the surface of Krypton. Said ripping will eventually lead to the destabilization of the planet and its final destruction.

The Rankless are in chaos in the streets when Lyta and Dru find Seg and Nyssa. Dru insists that Seg take them to the Fortress of Solitude so that he can bring Val-El back. Turns out Grandpa’s been hiding in the Phantom Zone ever since his execution. Well, he was hiding until Zod stole his controller. After that, technically, he was trapped, I guess.

Dru-Zod always justifies his actions and he explains that he stole the controller because stopping Brainiac “required a Zod, not an El” although he realizes now that he is both. Of course, now he thinks Val-El is the last, best hope for stopping Brainiac.

Despite the heart-warming reunion, Val-El quickly corrects their assumption that he will know how to stop Brainiac. He has no hope for a better tomorrow.

Inside Kandor, we watch Dev wake up and test out a new arm (which has been replaced from the shoulder joint down even though he’d only lost it from slightly above the elbow) and get dressed. He orients himself with what appears to be end days and then heads to the Sagitari locker room to find that everyone is getting ready to flee.

Meanwhile, Lyta and Nyssa have snuck away from the menfolk to get back to the city. They part ways to serve their different purposes. Lyta follows Dev into the locker room and rallies the Sagitari into an organized plan of attack on Brainiac while Lyta heads to the Genesis Chamber to withdraw the embryo of her and Seg’s child from the main bank.

In the streets, all Kandorians are treated to Brainiac’s special sort of crazy as he addresses them while his ship digs tentacles into the ground around the city.

Val-El explains Brainiac’s world-collecting as a form of conservationism where he traps the entire world in suspended animation in order to preserve and examine the minds of all the inhabitants at his leisure. As he explains, we glimpse Adam Strange wandering through a very crowded Earth-like street scene filled with motionless people.

So, the blast from the Ona-bomb sent Adam into Brainiac’s collection? Okaaaaaay…

Meanwhile, Nyssa’s giving orders to the Genesis Chamber’s Oracle AI to release Kor-Vex, the child she and Seg made at their binding ceremony. Once again, blood is the key as she has to confirm her identity with something that looks vaguely like a glucose measurement tool.

There’s a fabulous moment of levity built into this scene when she pulls a weapon to encourage the AI to hurry up it’s processing of her request. The punchline is that it works.

Seg and Dru are having a debate over what is worth sacrificing in order to negotiate with Brainiac. Dru wants to offer up Val with all his knowledge of potential futures. Seg is a hard no on that idea. Dru reveals that in his timeline, Lyta never shared much with him about his father only that “he was lost in the Bottling of Kandor” which sets Seg back on his heels a bit.

Nyssa, cradling her embryo carrier, and Jax-Ur, having nabbed the Codex, run into each other on their way out of the Genesis building. Although Nyssa admits to her hand in helping her father’s plans, she defends her child as an innocent who should be allowed to choose his path.

Struck by her naïveté, Jax decides to clarify a few things for her and reveals the Vara Protocol to her, explaining that Nyssa was actually killed in the same skimmer accident that killed her mother, but that she had enough neural activity to merge her consciousness with a cloned body. The revelation throws Nyssa whole sense of self into tailspin and Jax takes the opportunity to offer her a new path.

Lyta’s Sagitari squadrons are quickly and easily annihilated by Brainiac. Dev reassures her that she made the right call, likening it to a decision her mother, as Primus, would’ve made. The guilt of everything is finally too much for her and she confesses to Dev that she is the reason her mother did what she did and why Jayna isn’t with them now.

Seg is busy evacuating the Kandorians into the tunnels that lead out of the city and looking for Nyssa when Dru takes his leave of him to make his pitch to Brainiac. Seg refuses to let him trade Val, appealing to his sense of lineage. Dru accuses him of sacrificing all Kryptonites for his lone grandfather, knocks him out of the way and then continues.

Dru’s “the needs of the many” argument goes sideways when Seg points out that if Brainiac had Val’s knowledge, he will have the ability to collect more worlds than ever. To this, Dru responds that as long as Krypton is spared, he’s okay with that.

Dru’s audience with Brainiac goes about as well as can be expected while Seg argues with Val about their options. In the meantime, Kandor’s bottling is approaching completion and we see Lyta and Dev immobilized with everyone else still in the streets.

Dru escorts Brainiac into the Fortress of Solitude where Seg is still trying to convince Val to flee. The would-be alien overlord takes a good look around before approaching Seg and Val on the central platform where Seg pulls a weapon and threatens to kill his grandfather. Brainiac expresses his disbelief and then flicks Seg off the platform.

With his eyes on Val, Brainiac comes close enough to swipe an arm through him to prove that it’s actually Holo-Val and laughs that Seg thought he’d be able to fool him.

At the Phantom Zone panel now, Seg confesses he only want him on the platform and activates the portal which sucks Brainiac up and into the Phantom Zone.

Score one for Seg. Finally, one of his plans works out. Of course, he takes a victory lap a little early, laughing it up when Brainiac sends back some tentacles to grab him and drag him into the Phantom Zone with him.

Val-El, in the flesh this time, comes rushing in to try to pull Seg back down (while Dru stands by like a lump, by the way) but Seg looks over to the Superman cape that had been nearly completely disintegrated at the beginning of the finale and as he is drawn further into the Phantom Zone, the cape is replenishing. With some sort of understanding that this is the way things are supposed to work out, he bids his grandfather good-bye. Again.

With Brainiac’s influence removed from this dimension, his ship desists the bottling and the city’s generator resumes operation, putting the protective dome back into place. Lyta, Dev, et al reanimate and rejoice at their second chance. Val and Dru give each other a hard stare before Val tries to reopen the portal and Dru pushes him out of the way in order to destroy the panel altogether.

In that moment, the sigil on Superman’s now-totally-restored cape changes. The mark of House El is replaced by that of House Zod and this segues into, one month later, Dru-Zod declaring the beginning of a new era. With the victory over Brainiac, he pronounces Krypton’s future assured and that they will never be vulnerable again.

The Rankless (and we see Kem in that queue) will be conscripted into the Sagitari to ensure military might. He heralds a world without terrorism and without insurgency (and we see Val in the Fortress working on a new Phantom Zone panel and Jax-Ur arriving with Nyssa).

He predicts that Krypton will reach out to new worlds throughout the universe and conquer them all. Our final glimpse of Adam Strange is of him wandering through the perfectly still city to find an enormous statue of General Zod at the centre of it all.

Back in the Council Chamber, Zod assures his congregation that he will protect those worlds that surrender peacefully but will force any who resist to kneel before him as he makes all the leaders of all the other Kryptonian city-states kneel. The crowd roars. Lyta and Dev totally DON’T roll their eyes. Let’s keep in mind that half the Zods in Kandor are still running around loose. Can’t imagine Grandma Jayna’s gonna be super keen on Dru antics.

Finally, in the stinger scene, as Kandorians celebrate overhead, Doomsday is awake and actively working on escaping his cryo chamber. Boom. Boom. BOOM.

Krypton returns in 2019 with Season 2 on Syfy.