WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for "The Alpha and the Omega," the Krypton Season 2 finale.
When the first season of Krypton ended, Zod's future looked like everything he wanted. Adam Strange saw Earth ruled by the general and as Season 2 unfolds, he shows signs of becoming the warlord and tyrant we all knew he could be after decades of comics and a couple whirls on the big screen.
As he hunts Seg-El's Rebellion, it appears Zod is one step away from spreading his reach across the cosmos. However, that comes to a screeching halt in the finale of the recently canceled series, which leaves him in a precarious position way worse than being marooned in the Phantom Zone.
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This episode begins with a fleeting glimpse of the utopia he wants -- him heading to Earth to conquer and claim it as the final trophy in his crusade. We're not sure if this is a premonition of the future or a hallucination at that point, but seeing as the rebels are battered and bruised and Val-El's out of plans, it looks like the reality to come.
Luckily, Lyta convinces Seg's resistance to use her insurgents to go after Zod, hitting him when he least expects as he raids their camp. It's a sacrificial move but the greater the risk, the greater the reward. And so, while Zod's legion attacks, they infiltrate Kandor and convince his soldiers to lay arms down in public. People have had enough bloodshed on both sides and want peace, but to usher this era in, Zod engages in combat with his parents as he thinks leading the planet to salvation is his birthright.
The brutal affair ends with Seg almost choking him to death and with his imprisonment, Krypton returns to a state of normalcy, picking up the pieces following this civil war. But it's bittersweet because Seg has to find Brainiac and Jor-El, while Lyta's left reciprocating a favor to Zod -- and it's directly linked to the vision at the beginning of the episode. It turns out Zod was dreaming because Lyta hooked the Black Mercy up to him, allowing him to bask in a fake paradise the same way she did, thinking she and Seg were to be married.
It's bittersweet karma as Zod dreams of his parents alongside him. Still, seeing as his main doctrine is peace through genocide, you can't blame her for this sadistic punishment as she knows Zod has ways of escaping the Phantom Zone, and as a mom, she just can't bring herself to kill him. Honestly, though, the latter might have been the better option because once Zod escapes from this mental captivity -- a possibility as he still has spies in Kandor -- we know the campaign of death he'd embark upon. So as cruel as this is, it's a very fitting fate for the soldier.
Ultimately, while this is the last we'll see of Colin Salmon's Zod for now, we must recognize that this is the blow that would definitely have turned him from a misguided freedom fighter to a complete villain, torturing him beyond belief along the way and breaking his soul in ways the Phantom Zone couldn't.
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.