Krypton, ‘The Rankless Initiative’ Plot Summary:
Krypton’s third episode continues the story of Seg-El trying to find the Sentry sent by Brainiac and preventing it from latching onto a host. Meanwhile, Lyta-Zod takes the spotlight in this chapter of the series as she attempts to peacefully lead a mission aptly named “The Rankless Initiative,” the episode’s title.
This episode heavily focused on Lyta-Zod as she tries to fit into her new role and take command of Kandor’s forces. In the previous episode, she overcame a tremendous obstacle to achieve her new leader status. However, we see her still struggling and fighting for respect and for her voice to be heard – even from her own mother. The predicament she finds herself in only escalates in each scene. She has to make some tough choices in regards to not only her friendship / relationship with Seg-El, but also the prejudice and elitist mentality of Kandor’s upper class. To best describe that prejudice, either your family has a rank, meaning you are a “somebody,” or you do not have one, meaning you are a “nobody.” As she eventually finds out, members of her own squad do not fully embrace her and are aligned with the mentality of the rich and powerful.
The other subplot sees Seg-El and Adam Strange discovering that the Sentry inside of Brainiac’s shell is gone and has potentially latched itself onto a host. Their mission throughout the episode is to locate the Sentry and preventing it from latching onto a host. As you might imagine, that plan does not work successfully and, hence, we get our first real glimpse of Brainiac – sort of, anyway. It is not quite Brainiac, but the essence of him inside a Kryptonian host. This leads to one of the best scenes in the entire episode involving the host and Seg-El, which provided a great tease for what is to come.
As for the performances in this episode, Georgina Campbell shined once again as Lyta-Zod. Her arc so far has been very well-written and she makes the viewer empathize with her character despite the common perception that anyone with the name of Zod must be a villain. Cameron Cuffe does a spectacular job in this episode. He gave a strong performance that ranged from heartfelt to intense. Cuffe’s scene involving the Brainiac tease brought out a moment in which Seg-El displays the heroism normally associated with his famous grandson.
In terms of the smaller roles, Shaun Sipos gave an improved performance as Adam Strange, but Rasmus Hardiker was the surprise of the episode. His character, Kem, was written to a much higher quality and gave the show more heart and stakes. Sadly, some of the other cast either had minimal screen time or did not make the most of it. Wallis Day’s character, Nyssa, was a prime example of that. Her brief role, as well as that of Val-El (Ian McElhinney) and Daron-Vex (Elliot Cowan), were likely casualties of the heavier focus on Georgina Campbell’s Lyta-Zod. That is not necessarily a critique of the choice to focus more on Lyta-Zod, but hopefully we get more of these characters in the upcoming episodes.
On the technical side, the special and practical effects were excellent. Despite the nature of television’s budget constraints, the crew did a great job of making the effects feel believable and real. The cinematography did not stand out in any way, but did nothing to negatively impact the episode, so it is hard to be critical of that. This episode and the one prior were both written well and have ended in a way that made me wish I was binge-watching it so I could instantly begin the next episode.
“The Rankless Initiative” is a solid entry into the Krypton story. As the episode went on, it gave the layered impression that Kandor was destroying itself from the inside out and the darker color grading matched the tone perfectly. It mirrored the atmosphere of the Krypton sequences in both Man of Steel and Superman: The Movie in which there is a feeling of impending doom and the people of Krypton, particularly those of rank and power, are only making it worse. Hopefully the show can stay balanced moving forward and continue to climb in terms of quality. As of right now, Krypton is sustaining and improving – unlike the Krypton in the show itself.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
