Review: Krypton 2×02 – “Ghost in the Fire“
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Director: Marc Roskin
Writers: Kiersten Van Horne
Starring: Cameron Cuffe, Georgina Campbell, Shaun Sipos, Colin Salmon, Wallis Day
Reviewed by: Cameron Tevis
Summary
Zod’s forces continue to scour Krypton in search of Doomsday. However, Doomsday has broken free and attacks a vessel in the search party.
Meanwhile, Val and Jax-Ur meet with the colonists on Wegthor to rally the resistance.
Elsewhere, Seg and Adam wake up to find themselves captured by Lobo. Lobo. While Lobo introduces himself, he throws Adam’s Zeta beam into a nearby river. Despite Lobo’s theatrical self-introduction, they still have no clue who he is. This surprises Lobo since he believed everyone’s heard of him. Seg realizes Lobo was hunting Brainiac when he captured them instead. Seg promises to take him the lifeless body of Brainiac in return for their freedom.
Lyta-Zod asks her father to allow her to train conscripts to help locate Doomsday and maintain order. He denies her request. He knows he needs her safe. But to satiate her on some level, he allows her to train Sagitari within Kandor.
Seg and Adam lead Lobo back to Brainiac’s body. However, Lobo’s scanners read that Brainiac is no longer in the body. As a result, Lobo decides to kill Seg and Adam. To everyone’s surprise, Seg manages to deflect the attack. Lobo’s scanner goes off and reveals that Brainiac fled inside Seg’s body.
Nyssa is reunited with Val and Jax-ur. Nyssa immediately tells them of Zod’s plan to use her to get information.
Lobo and a Brainiac-possessed Seg battle it out. Seg finds he is stronger and smarter than normal. But he is still unable to stop the main man, Lobo. Adam uses one of Lobo’s own weapons and fires at him while his back is turned. This stops Lobo, but Seg and Adam run for it when they see Lobo begin to heal.
Lyta begins letting her anger get the best of her. She beats a pupil so badly he is hospitalized. In order to manipulate her and bring her back to a sense of normalcy, Zod gives Nyssa’s baby to her to remind her of Seg’s sacrifice.
Seg knows he can’t bring Brainiac back to Krypton and decides to stay on Colu.
Positives
Lobo takes center stage in this episode. Emmett J. Scanlan does a great job bringing the Main Man to the screen. He is humorous, rash, not too bright, ruthless and outright fun to watch. He steals each scene he is in. It will be interesting to see where they take his character. They recently announced a Lobo spin-off series was in development at Syfy. If this is just a taste of what that show might be like, then I can’t wait to see the pilot.
Negatives
Lyta-Zod’s decline is too much too quickly. She hasn’t had enough happen to her to become as cold and ruthless as she has become. I have no issue with her character going to a dark place, but the rate at which she did makes it less believable. Every time she does something even more drastic than before, it takes the viewer out of the scene to ask themselves, “where did that come from?”
Verdict
This season has been a great follow up so far. The pacing is faster than last season, while the visuals are as good as ever. The tease of Doomsday is great and hints that they will have the big encounter with him at the end of the season. I only hope Lobo is required to help them stop Doomsday.
