‘Krypton’ Season 2, Episode 5 ‘A Better Yesterday’ Recap: Desperation

Holy mother of fraggin frack! That’s probably the best way to summarize this week’s episode of Krypton. That ending – that damned ending shocked me to the core. More specifically, it left me gaping like an idiot much longer than damned necessary. It’s Krypton’s best and most surprising episode ending yet. And the entirety of the episode isn’t far behind. “A Better Yesterday” has the perfect blend of emotion, tension, and surprises that grips you and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very last second.

As Krypton’s midseason episode played out, my expectations climbed up a notch. And at the same time, it made me a lot more excited for the rest of the second season. Seg (Cameron Cuffe) finally confronted General Zod (Colin Salmon) once and for all. And while Seg was trying to break the tyranny on Krypton from the inside, Lyta (Georgina Campbell) was up in Wegthor fighting for it. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Jax (Hannah Waddingham) takes Lyta hostage. And that’s where it all goes tragically and drastically sour for all sides of the war.

Recovery

After the rebels failed to take over the base station,  Lyta took the survivors captive. However, as a sign of good faith, she also lets them go except for Kem (Rasmus Hardiker) and Adam (Shaun Sipos).  The only thing she asked of the surviving rebels was to relay a request for a meeting to Val (Ian McElhinney) and Jax.

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At the rebel base, Val confronts Jax about weaponizing the codex. And she insists that it was their only fail-safe. Jax was desperate. And it was all because of one person. Though Val couldn’t quite believe it, he has to accept it was Nyssa (Wallis Day) who led them right into the waiting jaws of Zod’s trap. When Aarame (Kae Alexander) and the other rebels come back to their base, they also find out the truth. And at that moment, Jax shows more humanity than she’s shown in the past.

Meanwhile, Nyssa also returns to Zod’s camp with the codex safely tucked under her clothes. What she doesn’t expect, however, is the warm welcome she receives. Unfortunately, it’s for her role in killing the rebel’s ground forces. And once she finds out, she’s devastated. She has unwittingly been made a traitor to both sides without her even noticing.

Back in Krypton, Seg presents himself to General Zod with the guise of being semantically reconditioned. But, once Zod got close enough, Seg lands a blow to his face and corners him with a blaster. Zod is mystified by how Seg managed to overcome the semantic reconditioning. But, he doesn’t miss the little sideways glance and little pauses his father makes as if he’s talking to someone beside him. What he doesn’t see is a green monster still living inside Seg’s mind.

Retaliation

Seg takes Zod to his office and orders him to open a communication line with Lyta so he could tell her the truth about Zod’s brainwashing. However, a solar flare is making communication impossible. So, Seg turns to grill Zod about what he did to Lyta. Unfortunately for Seg, the answer isn’t what he wants to hear. As Zod claims, the only thing he took away from her was the grief and pain she felt after shooting her mother and after losing Seg. Everything else was Lyta making her own decisions. And that’s where Zod’s own threat comes up. If it comes down to it, Lyta might choose her son over Seg.

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Meanwhile, in the Outlands, Dev (Aaron Pierre) and Jayna (Ann Ogbomo) are trying to rally their own forces against Zod. Sadly, no amount of peptalks could restore the respect Jayna had once before. And she and Dev are left to fend for their own. On the long ride back to Kandor, Jayna asks Dev if he ever thought of joining the rebels ever since he deserted the Sagitarii. And he admits he did. But, Dev couldn’t stomach serving under Jax who was the leader of the Black Zero men who killed his family. With that, he also offers the realization that he’s only ever truly in one person. And that’s no one else but Jayna.

Negotiations

After receiving Lyta’s request for negotiations, Val tries his hardest to convince Jax to give it a chance. Being the El he is, he still believes that there remains some good in Lyta. However, it seems Jax is banking on a lot for her suspicions. It turns out, the root and cause of her lost eye was none other than Lyta in a past negotiation before the rebellion even sprang to life. However, when Val mentions using the knowledge of Seg’s return to convince Lyta to turn and reveal Zod’s brainwashing to the people of Krypton, Jax relents.

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In the negotiations, Lyta has only one condition: full surrender. After that, no one else will die. Instead, Jax, Val, and the rest of the rebels will be sorted out into the guilds that fit them best with no dire consequence. Val tries using the Seg card. Unfortunately, Lyta and Seg have already met. And Lyta believes he’s down with their son faithfully waiting for her return. At that moment, Jax knew they were in for it. But, she had one last trick up her sleeve. After expressing her defiance, Jax suddenly shoots a laser out of her mechanic eye patch killing every Sagitarii around. Then, she proceeds to punch Lyta out cold and keeps her hostage.

Hostage Against Hostage

After the solar flare, Zod reconnects his communication with Lyta. And imagine their surprise when it’s Jax that comes into view instead of Lyta. Zod quickly takes advantage of that moment and quickly disarms Seg and becomes the one holding hostage. But, a greater challenge is spat on his door with Jax’ terms. He has one hour to get all of his Sagitarii off of Wegthor or Lyta dies.

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When Val finds out just how serious Jax was with her threat, he confronts her. He asks her not to stoop to Zod’s level of tyranny. But, Jax is far beyond reason right now. Her desire to win the war has made her like Zod. So, she turns on Val and takes him hostage as well.

After a while, Zod agrees to Jax’ deal. And Seg cooperates with his son for a split second just to save Lyta’s life. He even tries to bargain with Zod. Once he gets Lyta home, they can talk it all out as a family. Unfortunately, Zod no longer craves the pride of his father and sees no point in talking anymore. He doesn’t need Seg anymore. So, he knocks him out with the butt of the blaster.

Complicated Allies

True to his word, Zod’s forces immediately start evacuating Wegthor. And in turn, Jax uses Val’s unblemished word to assure the tyrant of Lyta’s safe return. However, Zod makes one request to speak to his mother which Jax grants with the condition of having nothing fishy passing between them. Meanwhile, as the troops are evacuating, Nyssa breaks out Adam and Kem. She separates from them, however, and sets out to get her son back.

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As Kem and Adam traverse the tunnels to get back to the base, they find some unusual bioreadings from behind a massive wall. And Kem made it clear that when they blew the tunnels up, everyone inside died. However, when he realizes who are the people behind the wall, he immediately tells Adam they should head back to base.

On the other hand, when Seg wakes up, he hears Lyta begging Zod not to compromise his vision for the sake of her life. Suddenly, time freezes and Brainiac waltzes into the picture. As it turns out, there is a very tiny fraction of him that held onto Seg’s brain after their separation. But, ever since, it had done Seg a lot more good. Brainiac (Blake Ritson) helped Seg overcome the semantic reconditioning. And right now, he’s giving tips on how to defeat Zod. Seeing it’s better to work with each other for the sake of their lives, Seg agrees to work with Brainiac. When he finally snaps out of his trance, he launches himself at Zod which abruptly cuts the connection with Lyta. But, after a series of punches, Zod manages to put his hands around Seg’s neck.

Confrontations

While Zod and Seg were busy dicing each other, Jayna and Dev have successfully infiltrated his building disguised as Sagitariis. They come busting into Zod’s office just in time to save Seg from dying a pathetic death at Zod’s hands. Unfortunately, when it comes to it, Jayna couldn’t shoot Zod. Before Dev could do the deed for her, Zod manages to escape them and alert the Sagitarii.

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Now, Jayna, Dev, and Seg have to deal with escaping the Sagitarii infested place. Fortunately for them, Brainiac’s on their team for the time being. And he kind of upgrades Seg serving like this Sagitarii detector GPS in his head and turning him into a master blaster shooter. Just as they escape the building, Jax comes back onto the broadcast where all Krypton can see her. It turns out, what Kem and Adam discovered in the tunnels are Zod’s true Sagitarii forces. The people he claimed to be evacuating were captured rebels dressed in Sagitarii suits. Zod betrayed them. And Zod betrayed his mother.

What’s strange is Zod isn’t taking pride or confirmation for the deception Jax claims he made. In fact, he looks a little confused. And when Jax declares the punishment for him as she drags Lyta into the picture, he couldn’t quite believe it. With him, Jayna, Seg, and all of Krypton watching, Jax slowly slits Lyta’s throat.

“Krypton” continues next Wednesday, July 17th, with “In Zod We Trust” at 10/9c on SyFy.