As for Brainiac, I do not believe he is the time traveler trying to alter history.  Brainiac was always destined to come to Krypton and steal Kandor; but in the original history, the Kryptonians were prepared enough to beat back Brainiac and prevent him from destroying the entire planet (Brainiac’s M.O. being to take a sample and then destroy the whole - his collection of rarities is because he made them rare).

But history has been changed.  Seg-el’s grandfather was silenced.  Krypton has not prepared.  And Brainiac is now going to succeed in destroying Krypton.  Jor-el will never be born.

There is a mastermind at work here moving chess pieces, but I don’t think it’s the future incarnation of Brainiac.

The masked person is definitely an issue, but wasn't Adam's warning about Brainiac? I may have zoned out a little.

Brainiac and his ship both looked awesome. The green makeup could easily be corny, but it wasn't.

Question: Do sunstones have any ability to store or emit actual energy from a sun? Or is it just a name?

I was really impressed.  For me, this is what the DC movies should be.  The episode covered many serious and depressing situations, but it has the hook of a genuine character at its center - a surprising Han Solo type rogue that turns out to be Superman’s grandfather.  Despite the drama in his orbit, Seg-el keeps a sense of fun and wonder to it.

The Man of Steel movie had a lot of this too (though I believed it failed with characters like Pa Kent), but Batman v Superman and Justice League (with the exception of Aquaman) lost their way.  You need to have genuine, relatable characters at the core - a collection of one liners and some brooding won’t cut it.

The other thing that surprises me about Krypton is the blend of the Christopher Reeve movie history and the Man of Steel history.  Looking at the cape - that’s the Reeve cape with the yellow shield on the back.  Reeve is the original history likely from a timeline where Seg-el’s grandfather was not disgraced and executed.  The new history will be the Man of Steel version.  This series could be the actual bridge of the reboot explaining why things are different.  That’s something I didn’t expect to see.

And one last bit as I often do - I already see where part of the plot is going.  Who is the mystery villain trying to alter history?  Not sure who it is yet, but I think we’ve seen that person already.  Though silent, the person in the golden mask (“The Voice of Rao”) is the one pulling the strings; and the characters noted he was popping up in places he wasn’t expected to be.  I’m confident he’s our time traveler, but who’s under the mask?

The only fact I can offer so far is that I believe it would have to be someone well versed in Kryptonian history.  An interesting choice would be the Legion of Super-Heroes villain The Time Trapper - a character whose motivation has often been to erase Superman from history.

Far fetched?  Maybe not.  The series has already introduced a Legion character with Dev-em.