Krypton’s second season has been one battle after another. The season started with Seg stuck in the Phantom Zone, battling haunting images of his friends and family. He quickly—at least to we viewers—found his way out of the Zone, thanks to Brainiac, whose attempts to use Seg backfires into both of their consciousnesses battling it out inside Seg’s head. Eventually, Seg gets rid of his unwelcome passenger, but he and Nyssa lose their son to the megalomaniacal green baddie in the process.

While on Brainiac’s homeworld of Colu, Seg and Adam have a clash with Lobo, a frighteningly unstable mercenary who’s hell-bent on killing Brainiac, and is happy to take Seg and Adam out in the process. Brainiac actually helps Seg win this battle, but it really was just another means to an end.

Then there was the battle for Seg’s love, with a back-and-forth love triangle between Nyssa, Seg and Lyta. At times, the triangle seemed to be straightening out, especially when it appeared that Dru-Zod let his mother be killed at the hand of Jax-Ur, and Seg promised Nyssa that he’d be there for her and baby Cor-Vex—sorry, Jor-El (raise your hand if you saw that one coming!)—through it all. But, lo and behold, the dead Lyta—the brutal, uncompromising, General Zod-supporting Lyta—was only a clone, and the real one wanted her man back, thank you very much. (Or, rather, Seg went running when he realized she was alive. I can’t blame him, though. True love is a pretty powerful thing.)

Quick tangent: Nyssa’s admission to Seg that she feared he was the love of her life was one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the whole season. Nyssa’s grown so much as a character since we met her in season one, and she deserves better than to be relegated to baby mama/second best. Especially after leading the impressive, deadly and successful attack on the Sagitari guarding Doomsday’s ship so that the rebels could get off of Wegthor. But I digress.

The resistance’s battle against Doomsday was a short one, but it was no less powerful in the aftermath: Kem’s sacrifice showed how far he, too, had come since the early days of season one and the destruction of Wegthor showed just how unexpectedly world-altering the consequences of war can sometimes be. (Quite literally, since the latter will likely have some serious repercussions for the entire planet of Krypton.)

And then, of course, there was the battle against Dru-Zod, who took control of Kandor when Seg and Brainiac went missing and proceeded to keep control through any means necessary—and even some that were definitely not. People fought him on many fronts, from Val-El, Jax-Ur and the rebels on Wegthor, to Jayna and Dev in the Outlands, to Nyssa, Seg and Adam, who fought wherever, whenever and however they could.

But no battle hit as hard as watching Seg and Lyta physically take down their son in the season finale, in a fight that had far-reaching implications for the future of Kandor and all of Krypton. It wasn’t easy to watch, as much as I’d been longing for someone to give Dru his due since Krypton’s first season finale. Both sides nearly did the unforgivable—Dru attempting to stab his mother and Seg nearly strangling his son—but Kandor was finally relieved of their despotic ruler and Lyta and Seg could still look at themselves in the mirror.

It was a fight that wrapped up the most major battle of the season, but as shown by the end of the episode, which saw Lobo arrive on Krypton to “request” Seg’s help in hunting down Brainiac, Nyssa searching for the scientist Sardath on a Rann that appears under attack by what looks an awful lot like a squadron of Thanagarians (!!!), and Brainiac traveling with “his son” toward Earth. There’s a lot left to tell in this story, and more battles to be fought.

So it was disappointing, to say the lease, when Syfy announced last week that Krypton won’t be returning for a third season—at least, not on their network. But if there’s anything Krypton’s taught us, it’s that there’s always hope, especially for those who side with the house of El. And as Seg’s grandson says in episode 11 of Justice League Unlimited, “I believe in second chances, I believe in redemption, but, mostly, I believe in my friends.”

We just might see this broody and brilliant show—and our friends—again, so long as we believe. But even if we don’t, we can have faith that the Man of Steel (and his family) will always win in the end.
 

For more news, features and conversation on Krypton, click here. New to the series? You can stream all of season one on DC Universe.

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