Krypton didn’t have a mid-season finale, but the halfway point came with a major shock. Jax-Ur, in desperation and not seeing another way, carried out her threat and slit Lyta-Zod’s throat. Jax stunned everyone, broke a few character’s hearts, and, I have to admit, I really thought it was some kind of elaborate deception. From what I can tell, unless this is a really long-game con, it wasn’t. Much of the ironically titled “In Zod We Trust” deals with the after-effects of this tragic event.

The first few scenes are about the hard shock of the killing, broadcast all over Krypton via pirated com channels. Seg and Jayna are crushed, in slightly different ways, and Dev-Em watches them carefully while dealing with his own sense of loss. Zod reacts in typical supervillain style, venting his anger on an underling who had the bad luck to deliver news Zod didn’t want to hear at this particular time.

Val and the rebels are also horrified by what Jax did. She justifies her actions and starts barking out orders on what to do next. Val halts this and makes an impassioned speech about what she’s done and who they are supposed to be. By the end of it, the rebels turn on Jax and Araame, her aide/henchwoman, taking them both into custody. Jax seems utterly stunned by this turn of events. Nyssa rides the elevator back from Wegthor, and tells Zod she has his prize and demands the return of her son.

Dev-Em does his best to keep his two heartbroken comrades moving, but they’re not really responding that well at this point. Jayna and Seg bicker, and Dev makes peace between them. They’re both shocked to hear about the brainwashing from Seg, and Dev looks back over recent events and realizes he’s failed his former fiancé. In the midst of all this emotional outpouring, Seg’s stowaway starts speaking up, making observations Seg doesn’t want to hear. Seg uses this as his own rallying point and gets the others moving again. Dev overhears some ominous plans regarding Nyssa on the com channel he’s tapped into. Adam worries about Seg having seen the execution, and Val starts making announcements about how things will be different going forward. He naively coms Zod to offer sympathy, and is floored by Zod’s demand and threat. Nyssa gets taunted by the Sagatari dispatched to pick her up, and they reveal themselves as far from honorable. Nyssa starts showing glimmers of why I liked her so much first season, and then there are a few quick reunions. Val wrestles with what to do, and Kem, never one to be much bothered by higher moral considerations, makes his own view plain. Adam disagrees, but the others aren’t convinced.

Nyssa is brought to their temporary safe spot, and realizes what Zod’s orders for her were. Nyssa explains about the Codex and the precautions Val took before helping her in her attempt to get Cor back. Seg comes up with the bare bones of a desperate plan that Jayna doesn’t like, but Nyssa agrees to. Zod stops in on some of his scientists long enough to threaten them. Jax, still stunned to be in a cell, justifies her actions again, then starts staging a jailbreak with the help of Araame. Jax is just as ruthless with herself as she is with everyone else.

Zod’s rant about Nyssa escaping gets interrupted when the woman herself shows up, confusing everyone. Nyssa and Zod have a clash of wills on several fronts, and she gets her demands met (and her son back). She keeps bargaining, and Zod outlines some of his plans to her. There’s a very apt turn of phrase as Nyssa makes her escape with some help. Val discovers Jax’s escape and more bad news besides that. Seg develops some skimmer trouble, and makes a bargain to save himself, Nyssa, and Cor. Zod makes a delivery and a threat.

Nyssa and Seg meet back up with Jayna and Dev, having scored at least a partial victory, finally, against Zod. Adam takes his turn to be delusional about being able to reach someone and talk them down, since Val had his go earlier. Val, Adam, and Kem find Jax and recapture her. She offers them a stark choice that finally rouses some sentiment in Kem. Nyssa commiserates with Jayna, but she ends up walking out on the talk.

Val gets in touch with Zod, who is back to smug and irksome as he makes his next set of demands. Val shows some backbone Zod didn’t see coming, and makes a hard choice that upsets Kem. Val then sends Jax off to find herself and get away from the resistance. Zod, annoyed by the events of the day, collects his new toy from his science lackeys and goes to test it. Dev and Jayna share a tender moment. Does it bother anyone else that he’s essentially hitting on his ex-fiance’s mother, and that she seems fine with it?

Seg has another chat with his unwelcome guest, who makes a lot of observations about emotions. Seg gets an offer that sounds like bad news to me, but decides to accept it. At least he finally tells someone what’s going on, and I think he made a good choice of who to tell. The episode ends with Zod going hunting, and he’s picked a hell of a target to go after.

What I liked: I don’t like Lyta getting killed, but at least they had the guts to go through with it and not undo it immediately, so points for that. I understand Jax and why she did what she did. I don’t like it, but I get it. Nyssa did some great stuff. I’m glad Seg isn’t keeping his secret completely to himself anymore. Val made a tough call and got his hands dirty.

What I didn’t: Zod is just annoying. It’s like they’ve given him a checklist of villain tropes to cross off as he goes now. Val and Adam are both blindingly naïve at different points, and both of them should know better. I guess they’re following Avengers: Endgame style time travel rules rather than the more standard ones, since Zod’s mother has now been killed before he was born and he shows no signs of conveniently fading away. Either that, we’ll find out Lyta wasn’t his mother, or she’ll somehow come back. Or the Codex has what they need, I guess.

It was a decent, not great, episode. I’ll give it a 3 out of 5.