In the wake of Lyta’s death, the rebellion’s leadership finds itself at odds. Nyssa sets off to deliver the Codex to Zod in return for her son, but can Dru Zod ever be trusted? Seg begins to rely ever more heavily on Brainiac.

Last week’s Krypton ended with a fairly big shock, as Jax cut Lyta’s throat live on air before the horrified population of Krypton and her son, Dru Zod. It’s impossible to escape, in a pop-culture so soaked in comic book properties, the notion that perhaps this isn’t a death that will entirely stick. Even more so when you consider the slowly ticking over subplot surrounding Nyssa’s origins in the background. Nevertheless, when the episode opens we are left in no doubt that there was no trickery or sleight of hand on Jax’s part – she really did cut with that knife and Lyta really is no longer in this world.

The reactions which spring from this are perhaps expected, but nonetheless compelling. On Wegthor itself, Val is horrified by the ‘monster’ Jax has become, and rallies most of the rebellion behind him in support of her immediate removal as their leader and locking her up. To assume this means Val is soft or naïve would be a mistake though – when it comes to his consideration of their next move, and his dialogue with Zod, it’s quite clear that just because he lacks Jax’s brutality doesn’t mean he lacks for resolve at all.

Seg, Jayna and Dev are all predictably devastated in their respective ways. Seg has lost the love of his life, Jayna her daughter. It’s perhaps Dev who gets the meatiest serving of remorse though, as he recounts his experiences of Lyta’s personality shift under what he presumed was the simple influence of Zod himself and which hindsight tells him was the precise moment when she must have been somatically reconditioned. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not quite sure how the extremely complicated relationship between Dev and Jayna might play out, and this episode doesn’t give any further concrete answers, in the best of ways.

Plaudits must also be given to Wallis Day though, who continues to make Nyssa the most compelling character in every scene in which she appears. Having secured the codex, she heads straight to Zod to hand it over in exchange for her son. For a moment it looks as though this most devious of Kandor’s political elite might have allowed herself to be hoodwinked, but soon enough the Nyssa we know and love is present and correct. While the episode leaves her less room for the moral grey area the character occupies so majestically, it does give us plenty to like about her. Once again, she isn’t the frail, frightened mother figure other shows might have turned her into. That said, she’s still capable of empathy, and there’s a particularly touching exchange between her and Jayna, which is at once deeply warming and also so very Nyssa. She’s always been the worst sort of political intriguer, the one who won’t even have the courtesy to lie as she stabs you in the back – and this quality bleeds over even into her most human moments, as she offers comfort with a decent side-order of brutal honesty.

But what of Zod? Salmon has done a fantastic job of always keeping the character just the right side of frothing cartoon moustache-twirler while leaving us in no doubt of his inbuilt fanaticism, and the way in which he reacts to his mother’s death is equally compelling. There’s a cold, buttoned-down aspect to his fury, and you believe him when he tells Val that in killing Lyta, Jax has removed the last leash of compassion upon him. Still, there’s not much in the way of demonstrative behaviour from Zod – he has a plan and he’s going to continue with it, and he’s not afraid of putting himself in harm’s way to do so.

And as for poor Seg – as time goes on he finds himself in ever more situations in which accepting Brainiac’s help is the only sensible answer. What’s less clear is exactly what Brainiac might be after himself, and how this relationship of co-dependence between the two might ultimately play out.

Verdict: Firing on all cylinders and compelling from the first moment to the closing credits. Easily one of the best genre shows on TV at the moment. 9/10

Greg D. Smith