WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for this week's episode of Krypton, "House of El," which premiered Wednesday on Syfy.


More than five years after its release, director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel remains divisive, for its dour tone, its characterization of Pa Kent, a destructive battle in Metropolis that would've left more than 100,000 dead and, most of all, the controversial ending in which Superman snaps the neck of his foe General Zod. For fans still a bit raw about that latter scene, this week's episode of Krypton undoubtedly brings unwelcome memories rushing back.

Developed by David S. Goyer, who wrote Man of Steel, the Syfy drama is set on Superman's home world 200 years before his birth, where his grandfather Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) must restore his family's honor, save Krypton from impending destruction by Brainiac, and ensure his grandson's destiny as the greatest hero in the universe. It's a tall order, complicated by the planet's ruling theocracy, a rigid caste system involving guilds, arranged marriages and genetic engineering, and a forbidden romance between Seg and Lyta-Zod (Georgina Campbell), daughter of the head of the military.

Georgina Campbell as Lyta-Zod on Krypton
Georgina Campbell as Lyta-Zod on Krypton

Yes, Zod. It's unclear what Lyta's familial connection is to the future General Zod (mother, most likely?), but that certainly adds a Romeo & Juliet-style wrinkle to the story. However, it isn't the name of Lyta's house that makes the character interesting but rather her worldview and her relationship with her mother Jayna-Zod (Ann Ogbomo).

On the surface, the dynamic between the two appears straightforward, with Jayna as the stern military parent repeatedly disappointed by the shortcomings of her child, who may not be suited for the Sagitari, Kandor City's elite guard. In fact, when we meet the Zods in Krypton's pilot, Jayna uses her daughter to make twin points during combat training: that the Primus of the Military Guild doesn't play favorites, and that, surrounded as they are by foes, the Sagitari can't afford to show weakness.

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"Black Zero! Beasts of the Outlands! Factions within other city-states!" Jayna tells the assembled Sagitari as she pins Lyta to the floor. "All of them seek to annihilate us. We are Sagitari. The tip of the spear that guards this city. We never ask for mercy. And we never give it!" To underscore her point, she sinks a knife through her daughter's hand.

And yet, Jayna turns a blind eye to Lyta's clandestine romance with Seg-El, whose family was stripped of its rank and ostracized, and even covers for the young man when he's caught visiting his imprisoned mother. Jayna later kills Seg's parents when they point weapons at the Voice of Rao, Krypton's enigmatic leader, a move characterized by an accusing chief magistrate Daron-Vex as "an act of mercy."

In this week's episode, "House of El," the Sagitari prepare for a crackdown on the "rankless," Seg's home district in the lowest rung of Kandorian society, in an effort to root out members of Black Zero. Lyta realizes no good can come of that, as the Sagitari are heavily armed and led by a commander who doesn't distinguish between the terrorists who tried to assassinate the Voice of Rao and the everyday rankless "shitheads" simply scraping to get by. When Lyta's pleas to her mother, Primus Zod, fail, she resorts to the only option remaining to protect the rankless, and possibly Seg: She challenges Commander Quex-Ul (Gordon Alexander) for leadership of the Sagitari, invoking an ancient tradition granting her the right to a duel.

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Dismissing the warnings of her intended, Dev-Em (Aaron Pierre), that Quex will show no mercy (there's that word again), and the concerns of her mother, Lyta is determined to engage in a fight to the death, not only to ensure the "rankless initiative" doesn't turn into a bloodbath, but to prove something to herself and to Jayna. "A mother who doesn't believe her child is capable of being a warrior," Lyta coolly observes. "[...] I see it in your eyes, mother. I always have. You try to hide it, but you don't think I will ever be worthy of the Zod name."

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With that, Krypton becomes as much about Lyta pursuing the honor and respect that have eluded her as it is about Seg-El restoring the name of the House of El. What follows is a brutal fight that that no one in the audience expectes Lyta to lose, not because she's established herself as a great warrior (she hasn't), but because her death would bring to an abrupt end what promises to be one of the drama's major storylines. The question is how Lyta wins, and what she might do in victory.

Despite enduring a sustained, bloody beatdown from Quex-Ul, Lyta ultimately gains the upper hand, first breaking his arm and then, despite his plea for mercy, snaps his neck and drops his limp body to the floor. Because that's how Kryptonians, or at least members of Kandor's Military Guild, roll, apparently. "We never ... ask ... for mercy," a breathless Lyta proclaims while staring, unblinking, at her mother.

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The duel's deadly outcome makes sense within the rules established for this fictional world: Had Lyta spared Quex-Ul, she'd be viewed as weak by her mother and the Sagitari under her command, and potentially face threats from her vanquished rival. But her decision is clearly -- transparently, even -- crucial to her character arc. Not only is Lyta's relationship to Jayna altered, she becomes active in her new role as commander rather than reactive as a rank-and-file member of Fourth Squad Sagitari. But that comes with additional responsibilities that will no doubt one day place her in direct conflict with Seg-El.

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However, as "logical" as Lyta's killing of Quex-Ul may be, that scene is impossible to view outside of the long shadow of Man of Steel, in which Superman snapped the neck of a homicidal Zod, purportedly to save a group of innocent bystanders. (He also killed Zod in 1980's Superman II, although there the villain's demise was far more ambiguous.) Goyer has repeatedly attempted to explain the rationale for the scene, with limited success, so it's tempting to interpret Lyta's killing of Quex as an effort to revisit the controversy or to retroactively introduce some kind of historical precedent. And, hey, maybe it is, even if it doesn't really work in that context.

But it does work within the parameters of Krypton's story, and what we know about the Military Guild and, to a limited degree, Lyta-Zod. Her disregard of "mercy" is a fitting callback to the lesson so painfully instilled by Jayna-Zod, rather than a jarring break -- or is that snap? -- with what the audience perceives as her established character.


Airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy, Krypton stars Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El, Shaun Sipos as Adam Strange, Georgina Campbell as Lyta-Zod, Elliot Cowan as Daron-Vex, Ann Ogbomo as Jayna-Zod, Rasmus Hardiker as Kem, Wallis Day as Nyssa-Vex, Aaron Pierre as Dev-Em, Ian McElhinney as Val-El and Blake Ritson as Brainiac.