“Pilot” is episode one of season one of Krypton.
This, as usually unimaginatively named pilot episode, begins with a person speaking to Kal-El, his future grandson. He is talking of the story of the House of El, not the ending that is yet to be written, but how it began. A story of sacrifice and triumph and how the House of El led a revolution against tyranny, not the story of how they died, but of how they lived.
It begins in the enclosed Kandor City. A man wearing a familiar red cloak with a familiar symbol on the back is being escorted as a young boy watches. The narrator says that this begins 200 years before his grandson’s birth, and how the House of El almost ended, with the narrator being the last of his line, as his grandfather was tried for treason. How there was the rise of a terrible new power and the end of the previous one.
The man in the cloak, Val-El, is told to pledge his loyalty to His Eminence the Voice of Rao, a figure wearing a multi-faced golden helmet. The man telling Val-El this, Daron-Vex, speaks to him quietly, telling him that all of the previous council, bar Val-El, has sworn allegiance. Val-El says that he has to protect his work, that they are not alone in the universe, that Krypton is vulnerable and that praying is not enough to save them.
Daron-Vex states that Val-El is guilty of treason and is sentenced to death. His family is struck from the register of citizens, and are now considered rankless, losing all rights and privileges. The three other members of the House of El, the young boy, Seg-El and his parents Ter-El and Charys-El, all have their house symbols – the ‘S’ logo – removed as well. Val-El is led to a catwalk that leads to a portal that opens in the field surrounding Kandor from the snowy wastes beyond. Val-El walks to the end, which collapses, dropping him down into the ice.
Fourteen years later and an older Seg-El – now simply Seg – is now fighting in a bar with two goons wearing uniform. They are demanding money from him. Seg has a smart mouth which isn’t being appreciated, and the bartender, Kem, appears to be Seg’s friend, although he isn’t participating in the fight. Seg does eventually pay up – it seems there was a pool running on just how long he was going to last and he and Ken have made a profit from this.
In the street outside the bar is a man wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap. Now, even assuming that Kandor had similar clothing to Earth – and no-one else appears to be wearing such – it seems unlikely that any would be wearing what turns out to be a Detroit Tigers baseball cap. The man enters the bar, but Seg is leaving by the rear. When Seg gets home, his father is not happy about him brawling for money. His father leaves for work at the Lawmakers Guild, but forgets his medication, so Seg states that he will take it.
Elsewhere, at the Military Guild, a woman is demonstrating combat to some students. She then fights a younger woman from the audience, easily beating her and stabbing the young woman in the hand. The older woman is Jayna-Zod; the younger her daughter, Lyta-Zod (Zod; now that’s an interesting name).
At the Lawmakers Guild, Seg does something that results in Daron-Vex offering him rank again, as part of the House of Vex, and the opportunity to bind with his youngest daughter, Nyssa-Vex. If Seg agrees, he will have rank again – as part of the House of Vex – and a place in the Science Guild. The Kandorians appear to be very big on guilds.
The man in the Detroit Tigers cap approaches Seg in the street – the latter comments on his clothing, so it is odd – and says that his name is Adam Strange. Strange says he has travelled across time and space, because someone is trying to destroy the House of El to stop the birth of the greatest hero in the universe. Strange gives Seg a Sunstone, an item that, at its base, has a modified symbol of the House of El. A familiar symbol. Strange says that Seg has to find the Fortress. He has to save Superman.
This is the pilot episode, so quite a bit of time is spent on introducing characters and some relationships between them. It’s unusual in film or television to say the least to see Krypton as anything other than that planet that’s blowing up as Superman is sent off into space. A threat is introduced but it’s not clear as yet as to whether the, so far unspeaking, Voice of Rao is a villain, a puppet of such as Daron-Vex, or something else entirely.