NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Krypton”, including a major character death, are present in this review
Krypton’s penultimate Season Two episode certainly isn’t wanting for excitement, as the final battle for Wegthor fully erupts, with Zod predictably unleashing Doomsday upon the moon’s rebels! “Blood Moon” certainly lives up to its name, being one of the most violent and bloody episodes of Krypton to date, as Val and his forces make a final stand against Doomsday, with the rest of Zod’s Saggitari not even bothering to show up to the battle for the most part. As any Superman/DC fan no doubt knows however, Doomsday alone will provide plenty of danger for the rebels, who are inevitably overwhelmed by the unstoppable beast before long.
Before we get to the bloody carnage on Wegthor however, the heroes must come up with a plan, since they can’t warn Val that Zod’s fleet has now been completed, and is ready to wipe out the resistance. The only choice is for Seg and Nyssa to go up to Wegthor directly, while Lyta, Jayna and Dev stay behind in the Outlands, in order to care for the ailing Lyta, who has a lingering fever after her time under the influence of the Black Mercy. This provides a pretty effective dual story direction, one that keeps the action focused in one plot, and the drama focused in another. This also has the effective advantage of allowing the Lyta-focused subplot to provide welcome breaks from the otherwise relentless action on Wegthor too, after the rebels finally see just what kind of monster they’re up against.
The happy reunions with Seg are certainly well-earned, as Val and Kem finally see for the first time that Seg survived his time in the Phantom Zone after the events of Krypton’s first season, though there’s no time to distrust Nyssa, as Zod’s one lone ship begins to arrive. This presents a pretty impressive first showcase of Doomsday’s incredible strength from here, after a group of rebels try to stand against Doomsday on the surface of Wegthor, only to be effortlessly wiped out in brutal fashion. As cool as this is to see however, the rebels suddenly deciding to fight Doomsday, despite Val ordering a retreat, only to predictably get themselves slaughtered, feels pretty dumb. I get that these aren’t formally trained soldiers, but surely, after they’ve exhausted every bit of their firepower, without Doomsday even suffering a scratch, that should indeed be an indicator that maybe the rebels should flee!
Regardless, Val quickly realizes that Doomsday is unstoppable, after his entire initial ground force is easily wiped out by the creature, and Adam corroborates that Superman is the only person who ever successfully stops Doomsday in the future. This quickly makes Val realize that the only way to be free of Doomsday is to trap him on Wegthor, which leads to Val ordering an evacuation of the moon. The plan is actually pretty inspired too, with the heroes ultimately deciding to flee on Zod’s own ship, since Doomsday’s heat signature was one of the only ones that the sensors detected. Thus, Nyssa splits off to fight with a secondary unit of rebels, who take the ship from the handful of Saggitari on board, providing another badass and highly enjoyable action sequence in the process!
With the power grid on the fritz at the rebel base though, Seg and Kem have to try and find a way to bomb the explosive minerals necessary to collapse the mine, which now requires a short-range detonator. After the rest of Kem’s unit also gets themselves easily murdered by Doomsday to boot (seriously, how are Val’s rebels this stubborn and this reckless?!), Seg volunteers to sacrifice himself by detonating the mine… Only to have Kem get behind a force field that prevents Seg from doing so, after Seg is knocked out, and initially drops the detonator. You can obviously see where this is going. Seg finds himself unable to stop his friend from making the sacrifice play, and has no choice but to flee to the modified Skimmer, escaping Wegthor alongside everyone else on Zod’s ship, while Kem encounters Doomsday once again. Just as Doomsday stabs Kem through the chest and holds him up however, Kem cheekily flips Doomsday off, right as Doomsday rips Kem’s head off, resulting in the detonator explosion that not only destroys the mine, but also all of Wegthor! As much as Kem’s time as a resistance champion was frustratingly short-lived, his final scene and ultimate sacrifice helped to make up for this, since he truly was given a hero’s death, while also having the honour of seemingly neutralizing Doomsday for good, at least in this continuity.
Regarding the subplot with Lyta, Dev and Jayna, it’s similarly appealing, albeit for opposite reasons as the core Wegthor storyline. With Lyta having no choice but to sit out the mission on Wegthor, so she can rest and recover from the lingering toxins of the Black Mercy, Lyta is allowed to address the fallout from her actions against both Dev and Jayna during Season One. Having to seek forgiveness for both loving Seg over Dev, and shooting Jayna over Zod, Lyta must own her difficult choices with two other characters, who have also made a lot of difficult choices. The result is plenty of outstanding character moments and emotionally gratifying reconciliations, which are almost interrupted by two snooping Saggitari! Luckily though, Lyta being revealed as alive provides convenient proof that Zod is deceiving the Saggitari. Since Lyta is also still Primus too, she recruits the two soldiers to assist the heroes in the coming fight against Zod. Despite not being able to participate on Wegthor, it seems that Lyta is still finding ways to be useful in the Kryptonian conflict, and that’s awesome to see!
“Blood Moon” has enough action, destruction and fallout to function as a pretty satisfying season finale for Krypton, but there’s one episode left in the show’s sophomore season, making one wonder how the show plans to top these events before the season closes out. Still, the violent and action-packed confrontation with Doomsday, which sees both the shocking death of Kem, along with the destruction of Wegthor in its entirety, nicely sustained the bulk of the episode, while the more quiet and emotional moments between Lyta, Jayna and Dev kept the pacing smooth and even-handed. The question of Seg’s survival is ultimately rather pointless, since even the promos for the season finale quickly reveal that Seg is alive, not to mention that Adam apparently getting two broken legs from a tunnel collapse also doesn’t appear to be any kind of issue at this point, but whatever. Now that Wegthor is gone, and Zod’s fleet is complete, it’s time for the rebels to take the fight directly to Krypton’s iron-fisted oppressor, particularly now that Zod has lost his best means of reliably crushing the rebellion before they can truly march against him!