Ricky Church reviews the fifth episode of Krypton season 2…
Now that we have reached the halfway point of Krypton‘s second season, the show really ramped things up in a number of exciting developments. Between Seg’s confrontation with Zod and the rebellion’s crisis on Wegthor, ‘A Better Yesterday’ marked a nice nice change for the season going forward as the stakes have risen considerably for everyone involved.
‘A Better Yesterday’ saw the tables really turn against Zod for the first time as Seg didn’t succumb to the reconditioning (thanks in large part to Brainiac) and Jax-Ur was able to get the upper hand and captured Lyta. It brought a fair bit of excitement to the episode as characters were placed in positions they hadn’t been in before. Colin Salmon portrayed both the vulnerability and iron will of Zod nicely, balancing his desire to protect Lyta and serve his own self-interest pretty well. It certainly brought out a bit of desperation that has not been seen in Zod for quite some time and more firmly placed he and his father on opposing sides more than any other instance. Salmon and Cameron Cuffe’s performances against each other brought their relationship to a new intensity.
It shouldn’t come as any surprise either after the tease the previous episode left off on that Brainiac is still alive in Seg, even if it is just a tiny fragment left. Blake Ritson continues to give a chilling performance as the evil AI, but its interesting to see the roles reversed. Now it is Brainiac who is serving as an ally (however reluctantly) to Seg in order to defeat Zod. Their alliance also gave us a pretty cool sequence that recalled one of Man of Steel‘s most memorable moments as Brainiac was able to predict where and when enemies would appear for Seg to shoot as he, Jayna and Dev made their escape. The fact that Jayna and Dev’s plot is now intertwined with Seg’s and the main story just adds to the feeling that everything is now coming together at this point in the season.
While Seg and Zod dealt with their new father-son dynamic, or lack of one now perhaps, the situation on Wegthor progressed in some pretty intriguing ways as Lyta sought to make peace with Val-El and Jax-Ur, even if that meant killing half of their people and holding Adam and Kem hostage. This brought out more of the moral divide that has been growing within the rebellion as Val still remains optimistic a peaceful solution can be found to turn Lyta and the rest of Krypton against Zod while Jax’s bitterness has made her increasingly more ruthless. While it may be a quick flip considering Jax was still firmly on Val’s side a couple episodes ago, Hannah Waddingham made her more ruthless turn believable after the massive and fatal setbacks their movement has had. It placed her in a new role as she essentially usurped Val’s control of the rebels by locking him up so he wouldn’t get in her way again.
It all led to the shocking development of Lyta’s potential death by Jax’s hand. Hopefully this won’t quite be the last we see of Lyta as her journey doesn’t feel complete, especially in regards to how Zod brainwashed her and the culpability of her own actions, but ‘A Better Yesterday’ has made an already tense storyline even moreso as Zod doesn’t have much else to lose now. The performances of the cast were all great enough that even the smaller moments shined, such as Lyta’s awkward reunion with Adam or Nyssa’s realization that she is indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds thanks to Zod and Lyta’s manipulations. The game has changed with this halfway point in some very exciting and interesting ways and there’s a lot to look forward to as Krypton continues its second season.
Rating: 8/10
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