“Hope” is episode nine of season one of Krypton.
In the previous episode, “Savage Night”, the Voice had been successfully attacked and had fallen in the Genesis Chamber – but his body was not found. That’s because the Voice was not dead – if he can even be considered to be alive any longer. The Voice found Ona and sent her to Seg and the others at Ken’s bar. The words on her face started glowing then Adam rushed in and, using his device, created a force barrier of some type between Ona and the others, just before she exploded. Adam himself was on the wrong side of the barrier. Did he manage to teleport out or not?
The episode opens with the Voice killing a woman. Afterwards, she is bagged by the Sagitari and Nyssa speaks to their leader, Dar-On. The Voice has killed the chancellor and many of the others on the council and Nyssa tells Dar-On that the Voice is an alien, Brainiac, who intends to take the city. Nyssa wants the Sagitari to help, but by the sounds of it there aren’t many left, the Primus has turned traitor, the council is dead or in hiding and Black Zero is walking the streets. In short, things are not good.
Seg finds Lyta; it’s chaos on the streets and it’s only going to get worse once the people realise that there is no-one actually in charge. They have been searching for the Voice for three days but not found him/it, only a trail of mangled bodies. Lyta tells Seg that Dev-Em is recovering and wants to get back in the fight; Seg tells her in return that they need a lot more like Dev.
Lyta wants to know if Seg sent Kem to Kryptonopolis to help him or to help Seg. Lyta is concerned that Seg thinks they are in a fight they can’t win. Seg responds, saying that Adam had told Seg that Seg’s grandson will save the universe, and Seg couldn’t even save Adam. Afterwards, Seg has a vision of being onboard Brainiac’s ship whilst he is sleeping.
Lyta finds Zod who has picked up some substantial weapons. General Zod isn’t looking for the Voice. As the fall in the Genesis Chamber didn’t kill the Voice, Zod says that the only way to fight someone that cannot be killed is with a weapon that is unkillable. He’s referring to Doomsday, whose vault was found in “Civil Wars”. That’s a really, really bad idea.
Daron-Vex was captured in the previous episode and handed over to Jax-Ur, the leader of Black Zero. Daron knew her under another name, and asks how one of the most respected members of the Science Guild, the protégée of Val-El, could end up like this. She tells him it started with a betrayal by someone she trusted – Daron, of course. Jax-Ur wants answers out of Daron, and is going to inflict pain on him until he finally answers her questions.
General Zod tells Lyta that in order to save Seg and the others, the Zods have to make the hard choices. He says that Doomsday, like any apex predator, will focus on the most formidable opponent first – Brainiac (not always true; apex predators tend not to try and get in fights they might lose). Lyta points out that, once Brainiac is dealt with, Doomsday will come after them. Zod says they will return Doomsday to stasis, which sounds absurdly optimistic. They have to protect Krypton by any means necessary.
Lyta and Zod arrive at Doomsday’s vault, which is shut. Seg arrives then and asks how they plan to get in, as opening the vault door requires the blood of an El and a Zod, and he won’t do it. Zod tells Seg that Seg doesn’t need to, before turning to Lyta. Previously, Lyta had asked who Zod’s father was, and he said he didn’t know. Now he does; it’s Seg. Which means that Zod’s blood is that of a Zod and an El, so he can open the vault himself. And does. It’s empty.
Not as worrying as it looks like though. Zod had perhaps confessed to much to Jayna and she thought Zod didn’t come back to merely save Krypton, he came back to rule it. So she and Seg got to the vault first and opened it. Seg tells Zod that Doomsday’s stasis chamber is far beyond reach. Then Nyssa calls with a problem. Doomsday’s containment is failing and Raika says that they fear they damaged the chamber when it was removed. It’s ancient technology, so it may fail in days, or weeks. Or hours. Hours would be bad.
So, the most destructive killing machine ever genetically engineered is about to get loose. The Voice is proving very hard to find, let alone kill. Brainiac is on his way. Lyta is having to deal with issues between loyalty to her mother and to her son. Things are not looking good.