The second season of Syfy’s Superman prequel series, Krypton, begins Wednesday night. The first season’s finale aired more than a year ago, so your memory as to exactly where we left the Man of Steel’s grandfather might be a bit hazy. (Especially if you’re anything like me. A year’s a really long time, y’all.) Let’s take a quick look back before we move forward.

Seg-El, grandfather of the man we know as Superman, is living on a Krypton 200 years prior to its destruction. There’s unrest amongst the people, with classes divided and a trippy new Kryptonian leader known as the Voice of Rao—who sports a creepy mask/helmet thing and has an even creepier political platform—”attempting” to make the people of Kandor’s lives better. At the start of the season, Seg meets a strange man who says he’s from the future, and he needs Seg’s help to save his future grandson, oh and also, the entire universe. Although Seg and his compatriots do their very best to thwart the Big Bad—in this case, Brainiac—they don’t exactly come out winners at the end of the season. In fact, the season finale sees Seg (and Brainiac, which is the glass-half-full side of this situation) sucked into the Phantom Zone.

Aside from Seg and Brainiac, you’ll also remember these folk:

  • Adam Strange: The aforementioned man from the future who brings the news that someone or something is coming to the past to make sure that Kal-El’s never born.
  • Lyta Zod: Seg’s “it’s complicated” kind-of girlfriend and—surprise!—mother to General Zod.
  • General Zod: Son of Lyta and Seg, and the future nemesis of Superman who’s returned to the past to supposedly find a weapon to defeat Brainiac, but is also pretty happy to find himself in a position of power.
  • Nyssa-Vex: Seg’s arranged fiancée and ticket out of the rankless and into the science guild, who eventually falls down on the side of good even though it seems like she’s only looking out for herself. Maybe.
  • Kem: Seg’s long-suffering best friend and local bartender.
  • Val-El: Seg’s grandfather, who supposedly died when Seg was 10, but was actually just trapped in the Phantom Zone. (A holographic version of Val also hangs out in the Fortress of Solitude like all good El men seem to eventually do.)

In addition to our hero sacrificing himself to the Phantom Zone to save Krypton, the end of the first season sees General Zod taking over command of Kandor, apparently not in any real hurry to get back to the future. As if that’s not bad enough, Lyta, Seg’s most trusted friend, seems to have sided with her time-displaced son. And Adam Strange is stuck frozen in one of Brainiac’s bottled cities!

As you can see, while I summed it up pretty quickly here, a lot happened in the course of ten episodes. This leads me to believe that Krypton’s second season will be equally fast-paced, if not moreso. Krypton’s brisk pace is one of the show’s best qualities—there’s very little time spent on non-essential side plots. And although it seemed at times that the various storylines were extremely disparate, watching them all come together and realizing how much groundwork the writers had laid throughout the season to make the connections believable remains something to applaud.

But if you watched the first season, you know the best part of the show is the characters. Regardless of whether or not you’re a Superman fan, it’s easy to get caught up in the lives of Seg and his friends. Rooting against General Zod, in any of his forms, is a delight, and it’s wonderful to know that no matter the generation, the House of El is full of heroes. (Although Kal-El obviously gets it from both nature and nurture—Jonathan Kent is totally #dadgoals.)

If the trailers are any indication, our heroes have a lot of Bad to contend with in Krypton’s second season. (General Zod taking over! Brainiac being Brainiac! Doomsday on the loose! Lobo!) It’ll no doubt be a race to start from finish, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What are your biggest hopes and/or fears for Krypton’s second season? Let us know!
 

Krypton returns with its Season 2 premiere tomorrow at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. CST) on Syfy. For more news, features and conversation on Krypton, click here.

Mandy Curtis writes about comics, specifically the Young Adult DC Ink line, and TV for DCComics.com. You can find her on Twitter at @mandyannecurtis.