Ricky Church reviews the penultimate episode of Krypton season 2…
The penultimate episode of Krypton‘s second season has arrived. ‘Blood Moon’ lived up to its name as Seg, Val and the rest of the Wegthor rebellion found themselves up against the deadly and unstoppable Doomsday. It turned out to be a pretty brutal episode as nothing was held back in Doomsday’s attack with some fairly big consequences for all the characters involved. It certainly set quite an interesting and intense stage for the finale.
Before things got very bleak, ‘Blood Moon’ featured quite a few reunions as Seg met with Val for the first time this season, Nyssa returned to the rebels and the trio of Seg, Kem and Adam were together once again. Even Lyta met unexpectedly with some Sagitarri and seems to have successfully turned them against Zod. These moments were a calm before the storm that offered some hope before all hell broke loose. Cameron Cuffe, Shaun Sipos and Rasmus Hardiker shared some pretty solid chemistry in the series’ first season and they fell back into their groove easily here. It was nice to see them together again even if it was just for a brief part of the episode (and, ultimately, the season for one of them).
There was some good character development in the lead-up to the big battle, particularly with Lyta as she and her mother finally addressed Lyta’s actions in the previous season by shooting Jayna. Their scene highlighted the guilt Lyta felt for doing such an action, marking it as the beginning of her early allegiance to Zod, while Jayna also reaffirmed Lyta did it only because she was taught to be that ruthless. Georgina Campbell and Ann Ogbomo did well in making their reconnection and forgiveness feel authentic to their characters. It allowed Lyta to finally come to terms with both her decisions and who she is at heart. Otherwise she may not have been able to turn the two captured Sagitarri to her cause.
Of course, all the feel good moments didn’t last long as Zod successfully gained control of Doomsday. The monster’s arrival on the battlefield signalled a huge shift as things quickly went from bad to worst. Sipos did a fairly good job conveying the terror he felt at Doomsday’s presence while Seg and Val debated what to do next. Anyone who has read the comics or watched The Death of Superman animated film knows how brutal Doomsday can be, but it was still a surprise to see just how much Krypton did not hold back. Though there weren’t a ton of shots of Doomsday in action as people were seen flung around more than Doomsday directly engaging them (most likely due to budget) what they did show was intense. From the blood splaying everywhere to Doomsday slicing a chest open to curbstomping a man’s face, with the full head explosion shown, was unlike anything Krypton had done before. The show went further in showing Doomsday’s level of bloodshed more than most of his other appearances. It all came to a head, quite literally, with Kem’s sacrifice against Doomsday.
It was very good to see the appearance of one of Superman’s most powerful enemies was not without consequence. Not only did a significant portion of the rebellion die, but Seg had to say goodbye to Kem as the latter sacrificed himself to blow up their base and trap Doomsday in the mines. Cuffe and Hardiker’s final scene was a high point in ‘Blood Moon’ as both actors sold their friendship and what Kem’s demise meant to Seg. As if simply losing Kem wasn’t enough, Krypton took it a step further when Kem came face-to-face with Doomsday and the monster not only impaled Kem, but ripped his head clean off. Much like the curbstomp earlier it was surprising to see Krypton show such a graphic death, especially to one of its main supporting characters. Even then, though, Kem’s death was not without further consequence as the explosives they planted also blew up all of Zod’s fuel source on the moon which inadvertently destroyed Wegthor.
The visuals throughout ‘Blood Moon’ were top notch. Though Doomsday wasn’t onscreen all the time in the action scenes, Krypton made the shots available worth it. For a TV budget, Doomsday rivalled other big CGI or costume monsters from feature films. Everything from the graphic nature of Doomsday’s abilities to just him standing in front of Kem looked great. Other points of the cinematography were interesting, such as Nyssa’s big action scene that was reminiscent of 300 or other Zack Snyder-directed films or the brief shifts to a first-person shooter perspective when Kem was roaming the halls. The drastic changes in cinematography detracted from the action just a bit, but the choreography of Nyssa’s fight was well done all the same.
‘Blood Moon’ did not hold anything back when it came to Doomsday’s mindless ruthlessness, showing the full graphic nature of his attacks. It was a pretty intense chapter for Krypton that only got bleaker as Kem died and Wegthor got destroyed. The visuals, acting and action were all point and did a great job setting up Krypton‘s season finale. There is a fair bit of pressure on the finale to follow up on Doomsday’s devastating attack, especially with a couple plot threads still dangling, but hopefully next week will live up to the bar ‘Blood Moon’ raised.
Rating: 9/10
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