'Krypton' Season 1, Episode 1 'Pilot' Recap: The Good Old Days [SPOILERS]

After four years from the official announcement of its birth, “Krypton” is finally ready to give the world a full-blown experience of Superman’s home planet. It’s that trip down memory lane that’s hard to stay away from even though there are prospects of despair–it even starts that way. Superman’s family is disgraced, and his great great grandfather is executed for treason. And that’s just the first five minutes of the “Krypton’s” pilot episode.
“Krypton” takes place 200 years before the birth of Kal-El / Superman. In this story, his grandfather Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) will not only try to save their home planet but also his future grandson. But, like every great creation, we must start from the dark beginning where there was almost nothing left of house El.

The Fall of House El

“Krypton” is introduced by none other than the unmistakable cape of Superman. It is worn by his great great grandfather Val-El (Ian McElhinney) during his trial for committing treason. Daron-Vex (Elliot Cowan), the chief magistrate of Kandor City, offers him a last chance to pledge his allegiance to the voice of Rao. However, Val tells Daron to hold his breath and that he has safeguarded his scientific work. Then, Daron proceeds to declare that they are not alone in the universe and that Krypton is vulnerable. As a final slap in the council’s face, he tells Daron that praying to the voice of Rao won’t be enough to save them. That day, the house of El was declared rankless and stripped the family of all rights, privileges, and honor.

Before Val walks to the edge of the path, he looks back at the young Seg (Nicholas Witham Mueller) and tells him to keep believing in a better tomorrow. Seg tearfully tells his grandfather that he loves him. As they look into each other’s eyes, the floor opens up beneath Val and sends him plummeting to his death.
Fourteen years later, an older Seg is in a bar, engaging in a brawl with two guardsmen, fuelling the fire with witty insults. Lasting the fight for more than one minute and thirty-seven seconds won him and his best friend, Kem (Rasmus Hardiker) a massive flow of money from bets. As the two discuss their earnings for the night, a hooded man watches Seg from the shadows. The man, unfortunately, loses his target as the bar crowd clogs up his sight.
Back at their humble abode on the bottom of the city, Seg’s parents, Charys (Paula Malcomson) and Ter (Rupert Graves) try to chastise their son. However, Seg’s quick quip about their family’s demise put all the gloom in the room. Charys suggests that Seg use his brain, but she then notices that her husband has left for work forgetting his meds on the table. Seg volunteers to take it to him.

Meanwhile, the Sagitarii, Krypton’s security force is holding training led by General Alura Zod (Ann Ogbomo). She calls out her daughter Lyta (Georgina Campbell) to a hand to hand duel. Lyta easily loses. When she concedes to her mother’s command to beg for mercy, Alura stabs her hand as a demonstration for the rest of the Sagitarii to never ask nor to give it.
In the lawmaker’s guild, Daron-Vex is busy sentencing three members of the terrorist group Black Zero, to death. Seg arrives just in time to stop the fourth man from detonating a bomb in the room. This heroic act leads Daron to reinstate Seg’s rank but as a member of the house Vex. Seg is also put into the science guild and is bound to Daron’s youngest daughter, Nyssa (Wallis Day).

As they walk the streets back home, Kem comforts and congratulates Seg on his new status. They pause just in time to witness a Sagitarii hustling an old homeless man to clear the path for the procession of the voice of Rao. Seg comes to the old man’s rescue and rains a series of punches on the Sagitarii. However, his comrades save him. Lyta hustles him up a bit and releases him in an empty alley after savoring a kiss from her secret lover. Before she goes back to the “goon squad,” she sets a date night with Seg.

The Fortress

The hooded man from the bar comes back and stops Seg on his way. Seg immediately notices the man’s strange clothing, but there wasn’t any time for discussing what a Detroit Tiger is. The man introduces himself as Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) and head on dives into telling Seg that there was someone from the future who wants to destroy Krypton. Seg gets further dragged into disbelief when Adam tells him that his grandson is the most celebrated hero in the universe in Adam’s time. This threat from the future wants to prevent Superman’s birth. Suddenly, Adam seems to weaken as he falls to his knees. Before he disappears, he gives Seg a crystal-like object with the House of El’s symbol and the command to find the fortress and save Superman.

Seg brings home the object to his parents. When he mentions the fortress, his parents fall into a stunned silence. They try to play it coy and reminds him of his upcoming ranking. Seg becomes upset upon knowing that his parents won’t be joining him in the new life Seg faces. As he walks out, Seg secretly takes the crystal with him. Charys turns to her husband and suggests they tell him. She insists that it does not matter if Seg is ready or not.
Nyssa and Seg meet in the Genesis chambers. A machine eerily tells them about the future of their unborn son. The female voice of the device dictates that their son would be named Kor-Vex and he will serve in the lawmakers guild. Seg asks Nyssa if it didn’t bother her that everything about them is already planned out. Nyssa replies that she was lucky enough to be allowed to bind with someone so she’ll take what she can get. Nyssa reveals that everyone (including her and Seg) are only game pieces to Daron. However, a more significant revelation lives in Nyssa’s statement where she says that her father just thinks that he was the one who chose Seg. Later that night, Seg and Lyta wrap their arms around each other in a bittersweet moment as they talk about the bindings that threaten to end the romance between them.

The Last El

Two Sagitarii catch Seg walking home after the curfew. Afraid that they might crucify him because of the crystal in his pocket, Seg fights and runs away. He stumbles into a dead end but is saved by his mother in a “borrowed” spaceship/skimmer. In a few minutes of banter, Charys reveals that she’s been following him, that the crystal is sandstone, and that she’s been keeping a secret from Seg. She drives the skimmer outside the city’s barrier to this secret, which is none other than Val-El’s Fortress of Solitude. The sandstone is the key to open it.

The Fortress of Solitude is what Val-El meant when he told Daron about safeguarding his work. As the mother and son explore the chamber, Charys explains that Val-El found an alien presence out to consume other worlds. And it is headed to Krypton. Charys thinks that now that they have the key to the fortress, they could continue Val’s work. Before Seg could process everything, Charys was alerted by the military, who are tracking the skimmer she took. The duo successfully heads back to their home. However, the Sagitarii finds them. Charys forces Seg into a hiding place and tells him that Val’s work is all that matters now. Charys offers herself to the Sagitarii by declaring to work for Black Zero.
Seg visits Charys in prison soon after. But stresses the same things she said before Charys was caged. The sandstone is not all about her; it’s about their entire civilization in Krypton. Before Seg could argue further, Alura Zod comes in and orders him out. Alura tries to bargain a merciful death with information for Charys, but Seg’s mother refuses to give in.

In the courtroom, Charys repeats Val’s declaration before his death. As Daron pressures Charys to tell them who aided her within the stolen skimmer, Seg grew more and more restless by the side. To protect his son, Ter rushes to the front and confesses after telling Seg that he loves him. As the guards try to chain him, Ter snatches one of the guard’s guns. Alura shoots him squarely in the chest. Charys falls in despair beside her husband. She too grabs the weapon and Alura proceeds to kill her as well.
Afterward, Daron and Alura engage in a heated discussion about the hidden fortress. Daron is desperate to find it. He doesn’t want a member of house El helping Black Zero with everything it holds. He was blaming Alura for killing the most important people to find it. However, Alura is not having any of it and turns his arguments against him. She points out that Daron was the one who gave Seg a rank and a guild. Daron then gave the alleged threat from the house of El a chance. She then walks out on a troubled Daron. Daron turns to see the voice of Rao behind him.
Lyta joins Seg in his grief, sorrowfully whispering her wish to undo what Alura did. Seg breaks their embrace. With tears in his eyes, he tells her that they could never have found a way to be together. Seg keeps walking away in silence even as she asks where he was going.

Seg goes straight to Kem. Kem helps Seg get a skimmer which he rides out to the fortress. Adam appears again, and Seg vents out his anger on him. He blames him for his parent’s death. If Adam didn’t bring the sandstone, none of it would’ve happened. He tells Adam that none of it mattered. Then Adam asks him why he was there if he believed his own words.
Seg answers that he didn’t know. But Seg thinks that if he finished his grandfather’s work, then his parents wouldn’t have died in vain. As Adam gets back on his feet, he brings out Superman’s original red cape and tells Seg that it belongs to his grandson, Kal-El. The mantle serves as an hourglass. When it disappears, their time is up.
Adam tells Seg that there is something that is destroying planets. It’s called the collector of worlds, but its real name is Brainiac (Blake Ritson). It ruins the worlds it gets ahold of, and it’s coming for Krypton as well as everything else. Adam says that Seg’s parents believed in him to stop the threat. The only question is if he was willing to try.

‘Krypton’ Pilot Episode Overall Verdict

What seemed like an out of reach premise built up to be a promising trip for Krypton and Superman’s British accented grandfather, Seg-El. The tragedies of the first episode have set out a vast plain of possibilities in the next chapters. But most of all, it has set into motion a dozen or more questions of how it would all play out. Directors Ciaran Donnelly and Colm McCarthy should seriously gear up if they want “Krypton” to soar high above the claws of the desperate profit title–because it is not so far from its reach just yet.
“Krypton” continues next Wednesday, March 28th, with “House of El” at 10/9c on SyFy.