TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Krypton Season 01 Episode 06: Civil Wars

After last weeks bombshell that the one true General Zod was back in the past, and that he was trying to stop Brainiac as well, I was curious to see what the fallout would be. Turns out, that would be “Civil Wars”, which I felt was the best episode of the series so far.

The show actually did a good job of holding off on the fallout to build up the other storyline in this episode. With the alliance of Vex, Zod, and other houses now in order, it was time to take out the Voice of Rao. And remember, they didn’t know about Brainiac’s infection of him, which added even more tension to the events.

While I haven’t been a fan of the main Vex, he definitely did a good job tonight, and his conversations with Zod were on point and tense. And then bringing in Em as well to add even more intrigue made the buildup even better. Even though you kind of knew that the attempt would fail, you had to wonder how it would fail. Turns out, it did so with both honor and tragedy.

A little sidetrack here, I was very surprised with how the infected Voice of Rao was portrayed here. It’s clear that Brainiac infused his consciousness into him, and he’s not just a vessel like the mother from before was. This allowed more personality to come into play, and I found it fascinating. He’s actually trying to learn about the people of Kandor, and I think that makes him an even more dangerous threat. His conversations with the young one were particularly creepy because we knew what he meant by being “joined” with her mother.

Finally, let’s get to the Zod of the matter here. This whole storyline was tense from start to finish, and it had some great twists and character moments. First off, we learned that Adam hasn’t been telling the full truth. I honestly hadn’t remembered, and I don’t others did either, that Adam didn’t say anything about Krypton’s destruction to Seg. All he mentioned was Superman and gave him the cape. He never mentioned that he was the “Last Son of Krypton”.

This single reveal, though known to us, basically shattered Seg and Lyta’s world, literally and figuratively. They’re fighting to stop Brainiac from destroying Krypton right now, but if it’s going to be destroyed in about 200 years? What’s the point? Then, we got dropped another bombshell that Brainiac actually WASN’T from the past, he had always been here. Which makes sense given that in the comics he did take the city of Kandor for his collection.

Again, a single reveal has changed the entire game. Especially when we consider Adam’s story so far. Who gave him the warning about the enemy? Why did they think it was Brainiac and not Zod? What’s more, if Zod can be believed, which is a hard thing to swallow, then what is the real threat to Krypton? Could it be that Zod changing the timeline now to ensure Kal-El never goes to Earth? It’s possible. But it’s still unclear.

What really sold these scenes were the actors and actresses. From Seg trying to piece together the truth and the lies. To Lyta being both honored to meet her son yet sad that Seg apparently isn’t his father (which would make Jor-El his brother for the record). And Adam doing all he can to get Seg to believe him about the future, it was all very well done.

Oh, and we got the first look at Doomsday, who looks pretty good to be honest. And in this version of the story, he was created by BOTH House-El and House-Zod. Interesting.

In the end, “Civil Wars” helped not only expand the world and universe of Krypton, but completely changed the narrative and how we are to perceive what’s going to happen. I’m very excited to see where it all leads.