Krypton season 2, episode 8 review: Mercy

With the second season of Krypton all but done, the surprise return of a major character threatens to upend the entire series.

This season of Krypton has been all about taking chances. Despite being a series inspired by the Superman comics, it never felt beholden to them. If anything, the series is well aware there are those watching with more than a passing familiarity with the canon. That allows Krypton to then subvert our expectations while also providing nuggets of respectful fan service. Not to mention give them a surprise.

Among such surprises during the second season, there’s been the murder of Lyta-Zod (Georgina Campbell) by Jax-Ur (Hannah Waddingham), Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe) sharing his mind with Brainiac (Blake Riston), General Zod (Colin Salmon) capturing Doomsday and, as seen in the closing moments of the last episode, Brainiac abducting Seg and Nyssa-Vex (Wallis Day) baby whom they just renamed Jor-El. Only not all surprises are welcome. Some are actually downright awful.

One such surprise occurs early on in Krypton‘s eighth episode of season 2, “Mercy.” It begins with what seems like a flashback of Seg and Lyta on a secret outing in the back alleys of Kandor. After a round of obvious flirting, Seg makes the bold proposal that he and Lyta take off for the city of Kryptonia, and they do. Then Seg reveals that the House of El has been reinstated, and that Jayna-Zod (Ann Ogbomo) has given them their blessing to undergo Binding, the Kryptonian rite of marriage.

Obviously, this is a dream sequence. Whose dream is what makes “Mercy” the most disappointing episode of the entire series. Yes, this fantasy belongs to Lyta, which also means… Lyta is still alive.

The Death and Life of Lyta-Zod

It’s safe to assume half of the people watching who saw that the love of Seg’s life wasn’t dead exclaimed, “I knew it! I knew they wouldn’t really kill her off!” The other half probably looked on in pained bewilderment and simply asked, “How?” Well, it turns out the Lyta whom everyone watched have her throat slit by Jax wasn’t the real Lyta. She was Lyta’s clone created by General Zod. The real Lyta is in a coma, infected by an alien plant called Black Mercy.

First introduced in the classic Superman story “For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the Black Mercy gives its hosts their innermost fantasies which are so potent, you almost never want to wake up. Apparently, Zod has kept Lyta under the influence of Black Mercy for several months. This also means that, until this episode, we haven’t followed the real Lyta this entire season.

It cannot be stressed enough what a massive, jumping the shark cop-out this is. Yes, the series has established that some Kryptonians, like Nyssa, are clones. Another flashback also shows that Seg, while in the Phantom Zone, really did see Zod attempt to strangle Lyta. That at least proves this was always the plan from the beginning of the season, but that’s still no excuse. Lyta’s death was the most dramatic, game-changing moment of the series. That the creators tossed it aside –and always planned on doing so — now makes this feel cheap and exploitive.

Even worse, it undoes an entire season’s worth of Lyta’s development in a single stroke. Because of course, it didn’t happen to the real Lyta.  Her need to prove herself to her son, her attachment to baby Jor-El as a coping mechanism, her reconditioning — none of it matters. Instead, Lyta’s essentially reset to where she was at the end of season one, while everyone else has moved forward, at least as far as the beginning of “Mercy” is concerned.

For the Woman Who Has Everything

There’s another reason the Black Mercy is introduced. It seems none of Zod’s efforts at reconditioning Doomsday have proven successful, as the creature keeps adapting to every psychosomatic drug they have. Hence Zod’s decision to use Black Mercy, which he conveniently discovered in the Fortress. Injecting Doomsday with the Black Zero sample does indeed stabilize him, thus making Zod able to control him.

However, in removing a sample from the Black Mercy, Lyta’s perfect dreamworld starts to collapse. This takes the form of fantasy versions of Dev-Em (Aaron Pierre), Nyssa, Jayna, and Seg harshly rebuking her for the “terrible” things she did last season. Obviously, this allows Lyta to literally face her own mistakes and take responsibility for them so that, when she eventually frees herself, she becomes a stronger person because of it.

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In fairness, once Lyta frees herself, we get some fine performances between Campbell, Ogbomo, and Pierre. Jayna, naturally, is overcome with tearful joy that her daughter is alive. Dev, however, becomes immediately suspicious that he points his laser rifle at her. Given what they’ve undergone, it’s a scene of genuine character moments. Of course, whatever tension there is becomes quickly dissolved once Lyta explains what happened.

“Mercy” also does an excellent job showing the visual differences between the real world and Lyta’s fantasy. Unlike Krypton’s usual darker color palette, whites and golds predominate the Krypton of the dreamworld, especially the costumes. It’s also the first time we see anything close to Krypton having real sunlight, too. Such contrast couldn’t be clearer during the scene which fantasy Seg and Lyta fly their skimmer from the snowy, cloud covered Outlands to the bright, blue skies of Kryptonia. As much as you can fault the writing, there’s no denying this episode has excellent cinematography.

Families United?

As for the rest of the episode, the rest of the plot focuses on Seg, Nyssa, Dev, and Jayna breaking into Fort Rozz. Supergirl fans, of course, will recognize this as the prison housing the Phantom Zone criminals from the first season. Here, it’s closer to its comic book incarnation, in that it’s also a military fortress. It’s also has the shipyards for General Zod’s interstellar fleet. As Zod plans on using this fleet to destroy the rebels along with Wegthor, Seg and company must destroy it somehow.

Aside from some Ocean’s Eleven-style cross cutting, “Mercy” also highlights how much closer Seg and Nyssa have become. With baby Jor-El abducted, both characters aren’t just united in a common cause; they’re almost in sync. When Seg allows himself to be captured as a distraction, Nyssa voluntarily gives herself up, too. When they’re brought before Zod, both Seg and Nyssa counterpunch his qualities as a leader and his blatant hypocrisy. The scene with them in prison mirrors their earlier scene together in the Fortress. Just as Nyssa helped bolster Seg’s spirits, Seg does the same for her.

Thus when both learn that Lyta’s alive, it throws a spanner into the works. Seeing Seg and Lyta lovingly embrace, while Jayna and even Dev proudly look on in approval, is meant to be a triumphant, happy moment. Thus you might miss how Nyssa looks away in uncomfortable silence. What seems like the long-awaited near union between House El and Zod has essentially all but left Nyssa out in the cold.

What does this all mean for their son, Jor-El? It seems that will have to be put on hold in favor of another round of Seg-Lyta-Nyssa romantic entanglements. Not to mention they still have an ultimately doomed planet to save from Seg’s other son.