Krypton S01E01 "Pilot" Recap

Superman, or Kal-El as he's known to Kryptonians, is yet to be born. It's 200 years before he's been born and the story of how the house of El almost ended is told. Seg-El is Superman's grandfather but at this story's beginning he is a mere child witnesses his grandfather, Val-El, being executed for treason. The ones to execute him are the corrupt regime leading the city of Kandor that don't approve of Val-El warning that they aren't alone in the universe and that their people are in danger. See and his parents are stripped of their privileges and banished to the lower class slums.

Fourteen years later, Seg is a misfit prone to getting into fights. He'll use it as a way to make money but possibly also as a means of lashing out over the discontent he feels about his life. His life is modest as he still lives with his parents, all bearing the weight of the shame that was inflicted on their family name.

Chief magistrate Daron-Vex, the same man who ordered the execution and exile of the Els, summons Seg to inform him that he is arranged for a marriage between Seg and his youngest daughter Nyssa. This will reinstate Seg to the upper classes. Secretly, Seg is involved in a relationship with a woman in the military, Lyta-Zod.

Adam Strange, a man from Earth in the future, tracks Seg down and gives him a Sunstone bearing the El symbol and warns him that someone else is coming from the future to try to destroy Krypton and prevent Seg's grandson from ever being born because he will be the greatest hero in the universe. He tells Seg to find the "fortress". Seg brings it to his parents and tells them what he was told. Meg's father takes the stone, saying it's too dangerous to carry it around in the public. Seg is upset when he finds out that his parents won't be able to come with him to the upper class but they insist that he must go and live a better life. Seg takes the stone back in secret. Secretly, Seg's parents discuss whether or not to tell him about a family secret and whether he is ready for it.

Seg is nearly caught by some guards while carrying the Sunstone but manages to run away with it. They continue to search for him until his mother rescues him using a mysterious spaceship she is flying. She brings him to the hidden Fortress of Solitude and shows him Val-El's research hidden within. Val had found an alien threat to Krypton but was killed to keep this secret. Seg's parents weren't able to get back into the Fortress but with this Sunstone being gifted to Seg, this is the first time they've been able to get back in. Charys, Seg's mother, warns him that they will be coming for them and to keep the Sunstone safe to be able to finish Val's work since it's all that matters now. She gives him a way to escape but closes off the way so that she will be arrested without Seg being able to stop her.

Charts is brought before the council and shouts out to the people that her father was right and they aren't alone in the universe. She refuses to acknowledge the existence of the Fortress or to say who was in the ship with her since the scanners picked up two bodies. Seg wants to turn himself in but his father, Ter, turns himself in instead. When Charys draws the weapons Ter had on his body, Jayna-Zod (Lyta's mother) shoots her dead.

Seg is devastated and breaks up with Lyta. He seeks refuge and solitude in the Fortress. Adam assures him that there is a brighter future for him and his offspring to come, but it is fading due to an threat known as Brainiac that moves from world to world devouring them whole and now it is meddling with the timeline in an effort to erase Superman. Adam shows him a cape belonging to Superman that has a strange glowing effect on it that gradually eats away at it. When the cape is gone, time will be up to save Superman and the universe itself.

Krypton airs on Wednesdays on Syfy at 10/9c.