WARNING: If you don't want to know what happened in this episode, don't read this photo recap!
Remember when General Zod ventured deep into the Outlands with his big ass bio-weapon and set free an imprisoned Doomsday, only to bring him to heel? Yeah, that's what he did. And he told everyone in Kandor about it. The news is supposed to rally them against the rebels on Wegthor.
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Seg is trying to conceal his thoughts and words from Brainiac, so he can't anticipate their next move. He wants to get them to the Fortress to extract Brainiac from his consciousness so that he won't be able to regain his former potency. When Brainiac learns of the plan, he paralyzes Seg's hands, so that Nyssa must take over the ship.
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Nyssa and Seg arrive at the Fortress just in time — as Seg is falling under Brainiac's sway. Hologram-Val shows up to assist, but Seg doesn't even have the strength to tell him where the boo-boo is.
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Zod consults with his weapons expert about how to make Doomsday tractable. While they're sidebarring, we go back in time about... a thousand cycles.
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So this is Doomsday before he became Doomsday. Way back when, when Kandor was experiencing civil war (surprise, surprise), a man named Dax volunteered to be part of a study. His unique DNA made him a great candidate for mutation. Unfortunately, instead of making him a superhero, the wonks made him a super-creep.
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Brainiac has fused to Seg's brainstem, so Nyssa is going to have to use a scalpel to prise the parasite from her baby-daddy's head. She's never heard of a scalpel before, much less used one, so this is going to be exciting.
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Back to a million cycles ago. Turns out, the way that the Doomsday experiment goes is this: the trial hosts - early descendants of Houses Vex and El - kill Dax by all kinds of methods (burning, gasing, breaking of bones), and then "resurrect" him, and try killing him again — after he's become invulnerable. So it's pretty traumatic stuff.
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After a successful surgery, Seg is feeling fatherly. Now free of Brainiac's brain-nanites, he wants to hold his baby. Nyssa disavows her family name, and wants the baby brought up in the El house. So they name the kid Jor-El. Jor-El??!! That Jor-El??! Yes, that Jor-El!
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Meanwhile, on Wegthor, Kem is leading a team of rebels through the underground tunnels, with Adam as his second-in-command. They come upon an area with some activity, and Kem decides to venture in alone. For better, or worse.
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And what's the thing that brings consciousness back to Doomsday? The memory of his wife, Enaj, who ran away when she saw him as a monster. That's a tough one to dredge up, but, hey, whatever gets you going in the morning.
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When Kem returns, he's followed by a ragtag crew of Sagitari who've been marooned and exposed to radiation. They're starving and near death. So he orders his team to hand over their meals to them. What a guy!
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In the Fortress, Brainiac's nanites have crept their way into hologram Val, and hijacked him/it. He's back!
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Now embodied, Brainiac summons his ship to start and hover over the Fortress. As he prepares for liftoff, he makes Seg one more offer: come with him, and harness the power of the universe. Seg's not about it, and lets the green alien take his solo trip.
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Except not. Because before he goes, Brainiac takes little Jor-El with him. Oh snap!
