Several months ago, I was haunted by the question as to why Alia had powers under a yellow sun in Savior and under a red sun in Pandora and came up with a theory explaining it. The theory can be found at the link below:
Basically it said that Alia was a prototype version of Brainiac. But since then, more information has been presented and I came up with a scenario that is much more likely. I also realized that I wrongly interpreted a scene in Kandor, and the clarification of that scene is what really got me going. The scene I’m talking about is the one where Chloe sees Jor-El opening the vent on the camera she set up at the farm. Until yesterday, I thought Jor-El put the Book of Rao in the vent, but after watching the episode again, it seems like he took it out of the vent. It’s clear to me now that retrieving the Book of Rao was his reason for showing up at Smallville since he had no knowledge of Clark living there. It’s obvious that the real Jor-El, whose memories the clone Jor-El in Kandor had, placed the Book of Rao in the vent on one of his earlier trips to Smallville, quite possibly to hide it from Black Zero during that Kryptonian civil war that destroyed Kandor. So therefore the clone Jor-El came to retrieve it. This raised a big question---since Jor-El is dead, who has the Book of Rao?
Well, in Persuasion, we found out that Alia was the one who killed the Jor-El clone. She was working alongside Zod, but did not give the Book of Rao to him, because he would have it in his possession by now, had that been the case. Some people probably think that Tess has it and took it after her men kidnapped Jor-El by going through his pockets. But I can’t believe that because that would mean that Tess & Alia were working together because it’s obvious based on motive that the person who took the Book of Rao is the one who murdered Jor-El, as they would not want anyone to know they had the Book of Rao. So if Tess has the Book of Rao yet Alia killed him, it would mean that she & Alia were partners of some sort and she had Alia kill Jor-El to end any trail to the Book of Rao since Jor-El would have surely told Clark or someone else about it had he been allowed to live. And I’m just not willing to believe that Tess & Alia forged some sort of alliance, since Alia was not fond of humans. So in my opinion, Alia is the one who killed Jor-El specifically for the motive of taking the Book of Rao & preventing anyone from finding out about it.
My opinion is that the reason Alia was not loyal to Zod & killed Jor-El for the Book of Rao without giving it to him is because Brainiac possessed her.
Now is where I will lay out some facts & mix up some speculation with the facts to establish my theory:
1. Brainiac’s true objectives are to free the real Zod’s spirit from the Phantom Zone & also to amass as much knowledge as possible about everything. This was clearly apparent in season 5, again in season 7 (in the Apocalypse timeline), and again in season 8 in Legion when Brainiac took over the Fortress for the purpose of increasing his knowledge.
In Legion Chloeiac said these lines to Clark:
“Your father’s gone and all the knowledge this Fortress ever held finally belongs to me”
“My hunger is never satisfied. Knowledge is what fuels me”.
The Book of Rao would certainly satisfy the hunger for knowledge requirement of Brainiac. And he is programmed to release the real Zod and does not particularly care for his clone because Zod’s clone being free while the real Zod’s phantom is left to rot in the Phantom Zone would not satisfy what Brainiac was programmed to do.
2. In Beast, Clark used the black Brainiac crystal that we first saw in Solitude to open a portal to the Phantom Zone when he tried to send Davis there. That crystal was a part of Brainiac, just like Milton Fine (which is what Jor-El told Clark in Vessel). Jor-El’s exact words in Vessel were “Fine is merely an extension of the craft that can regenerate in any form”. Therefore that black crystal was indeed one of the forms that Brainiac took since it came from the Black Ship aka Brainiac. Another very interesting thing to note is the timing. Not long after Beast, actually the very next episode in Injustice, we found out that a voice from the orb started speaking to Tess & told her to destroy the black Brainiac crystal that was in Clark’s possession. It should also be noted that in Beast, Clark inserted the black Brainiac crystal into the crystal console at the Fortress. This is what’s so interesting about the timing, because the very next episode (Injustice) is when the voice started being heard from the orb. In that episode, Tess told the voice that the crystal was destroyed. However, in Kara, Kara told Clark that only a Kryptonian could destroy the blue crystal Zor-El gave her, and that blue crystal was very similar to the black Brainiac crystal. So by similar logic, the black Brainiac crystal nor any other Kryptonian crystal can be destroyed by a human. Based on the events in Beast & Injustice, my thoughts are that plugging the black Brainiac crystal into the Fortress reactivated Brainiac in that crystal & he was able to communicate with the orb, even using the orb as his mouthpiece since both the technology of the orb & that of the crystal was Kryptonian. I should also point out that when Clark inserted the black Brainiac crystal, the Fortress was still damaged due to Brainiac’s previous presence in it, which may have also played a factor in reactivating the copy of Brainiac in the crystal. The voice even gave away the location of the crystal to Tess since she found it easily without having to ransack Clark’s barn or house. Then, once Tess brought it to the mansion, she witnessed the crystal being absorbed by the orb, either by it turning into that black ooze or by it turning into energy & being collected into the orb. The orb of course knew this, so in the last scene in Injustice, Tess told it something it already knew. Possible proof that the black Brainiac crystal was absorbed by the orb was how the orb was able to move on its own & break out of Tess’ vault in Doomsday, which it was never able to do before. It should also be noted that the Legion would have had no idea about this since their knowledge of the future was one that didn’t include Chloe. So to them Brainiac was defeated in 2009. But what changed & what they weren’t aware of in Legion when they visited Clark was that Chloe’s survival would lead her to run off with Davis, which led to Clark inserting the black Brainiac crystal into the crystal console to reactivate another source of Brainiac. This is something that did not happen or need to happen in the timeline the Legion was aware of when they showed up in Legion.
3. The voice of the orb isn’t the voice of Zod, Faora, nor any other Kandorian we heard. On top of that, the Kandorians while in the orb were not able to speak since they didn’t have bodies. They existed in the orb simply as pieces of DNA (that we saw Jor-El place in the orb in Kandor) that formed into bodies once the orb opened up. The only ones we have ever seen who could talk from a device/piece of technology like the orb are the Jor-El AI, Brainiac & Zor-El's programming in his blue crystal which imitated Lara in Blue. We know it wasn’t Jor-El, since he wouldn’t want the orb opened. It wasn't Zor-El's programming in his blue crystal since that crystal was destroyed. That leaves only Brainiac. And now that I think of it, the voice sounded like a scrambled version of Brainiac’s voice that we heard at the very end of Abyss.
4. Alia was seen to have powers under the yellow sun, as seen when she used heatvision & superspeed in Savior and when the sun’s radiation was being reflected back to Earth as red in Pandora. The only one we’ve seen having powers under both suns was Brainiac. He had powers on Earth & powers on Krypton (in Apocalypse). We also know that in season 7 he possessed Casey Brock and needed time to reconstruct his body after he broke out as that ooze in Wrath. By the time we saw him in Persona, he already had his body back, though he was in need of repair. So I think he possessed Alia when she was released from the orb. But unlike the scenario with Casey Brock, he couldn’t just leave Alia in a coma, since she was one of Zod’s troops and he would likely investigate if he found her in a similar coma. So instead, he possessed Alia and gathered/deposited the materials needed to reconstruct his body at an unknown location. Once he had enough materials, the ooze that possessed Alia exited her & covered the collected material & formed into Brainiac.
5. Brainiac has shapeshifting abilities, as we have seen in season 5 when he took the form of Jonathan Kent in Oracle and again in season 7 when he took Lionel’s form in Persona & Kara’s form in Arctic. So once Brainiac reconstructed his body, he used Alia’s form to move around unrecognized. Another important piece of evidence is that Jor-El did not know who attacked him & gave him the mortal wounds that killed him when Clark asked him in Kandor. So this rules out Tess, Zod, and pretty much any Kandorian since he would likely know them since the DNA samples he placed in the orb would have been marked. This could mean that by Kandor, Brainiac had already reconstructed his own body & was able to shapeshift into a form that Jor-El wasn’t familiar with. Perhaps he took his classic Milton Fine form, since Brainiac hadn’t been invented until a few years before Krypton’s destruction, based on how Lara spoke of Brainiac in the 1986 flashback scene in Lara when she was in Smallville with Kara. So Jor-El would likely be unfamiliar with his Milton Fine form. And killing Jor-El for the Book of Rao would fall right in line with how he killed Dax-Ur for the knowledge he needed to repair himself in Persona.
6. Brainiac can also create multiple copies of himself once he’s in his own body. This happened a great deal in season 5 and happened again in season 7 when one copy of him was destroyed on Krypton in Apocalypse while another copy was still on Earth that took the form of Kara in Arctic and eventually switched back to his regular form. This ability would go a long way in helping him survive and fool Clark, though from what I’m thinking, it may have not even been necessary.
7. Tess didn’t even know the Book of Rao existed, so therefore she would have no idea to specifically look for it. If she searched his pockets after he was kidnapped & took it, then that would mean that she & Alia had an alliance of sorts (for Alia to take the blame of killing Jor-El) and that to me is highly unlikely.
The Bottom Line: My thoughts
Based on all the facts & assumptions I laid out above, I will now lay out the scenario that I think happened.
In Beast, Clark inserted the black Brainiac crystal in the Fortress and activated the copy of Brainiac in that crystal. The copy of Brainiac in the crystal then communicated with the orb (either in Clark’s barn cellar or while plugged into the FoS) and used the orb as its mouthpiece to talk to Tess & told her to destroy the crystal in order to release the life in the orb. This was a trick to get Tess to steal the crystal & bring it close enough to the orb so the orb could absorb it or turn the crystal into ooze that would cover & possess the orb. This happened around the events of Injustice. Once Doomsday was buried in Doomsday, the orb opened & released Zod, the Kandorians, and Brainiac. As Alia was released in both timelines, she was possessed by the Brainiac ooze. I will refer to this Alia as Brainiac-possessed Alia. Brainiac-possessed Alia started collecting deposits of materials needed to reconstruct Brainiac's own body. Various weeks passed by, and by the events of Pandora the latest (most likely much earlier), he finally reconstructed his own body.
Even though the events of Pandora will not happen in the current timeline's future as in the original Pandora (doomed future) timeline, by the time that elapsed from the opening of the orb until the events of Pandora, Brainiac had reconstructed his body in the original timeline. This is very important since it can get confusing. So to clarify what I said, I will state it differently. Let’s say the events of Pandora, which is in the original season 9 timeline, took place X days after the day the orb opened, which would be just after the last scene in Doomsday. What I’m saying is that those same X days after the day the orb opened in the altered timeline (the one currently happening), Brainiac (as the Brainiac-possessed Alia) would have also reconstructed his body, but didn't because the Brainiac-possessed Alia confessed to murdering Jor-El & sacrificed himself when Alia's body was burned in Persuasion.
Now we must go back to the original timeline since the altered timeline is based on it. In Pandora, which took place several months after the construction of the towers (probably spring of 2010) when Zod had been in control for quite some time, the Alia that killed Chloe was Brainiac in his own body after shapeshifting into Alia’s form. In the original timeline, the events of Kandor did not happen & Clark never met Jor-El’s clone & did not try to save Zod as Jor-El told him to in Kandor. Instead, the Book of Rao was never uncovered by Jor-El and Brainiac was hanging around the Kandorians disguised as Alia waiting to find something. After killing Chloe, Brainiac in Alia’s form supersped & time traveled back to 2009 with Lois because now he would have his own body much earlier on in 2009 without having to reconstruct it. This now takes us to Savior, where there are now 2 Alia’s—one of them is the 2009 Brainiac-possessed Alia seen in the Luthor mansion and the other is Brainiac in his own body in the form of Alia who time traveled from 2010. The 2009 Brainiac-possessed Alia met the actual Brainiac in the form of Alia & it was decided he/she would take the role of a spy in this timeline after the 2 planned it out. The 2010 Brainiac in the form of Alia allowed his body to be impaled with that sword in Savior (which would not kill him) in order to fool Clark & he allowed Clark to bury him. Once Clark buried him, Brainiac as Alia rose & continued with his plans. In Kandor, the Brainiac-possessed Alia alerted Brainiac that Jor-El was captured and he had the Book of Rao on him. Brainiac then sped to the mansion, took the Book of Rao & killed Jor-El in his Milton Fine form, which the Jor-El clone did not recognize, later on when Jor-El was released. By this time, Brainiac had the Book of Rao & any trail leading to him or the Book of Rao was gone. The Brainiac-possessed Alia sacrificed himself (similar to how Brainiac did in Vessel to free Zod) by confessing the murder of Jor-El. That copy was destroyed when Alia’s body was burned in the Kryptonian funeral in Persuasion.
Brainiac’s End Game:
With everything I entailed, we have at least 1 copy of Brainiac (if he didn’t make other copies of himself) who has all the knowledge of the Book of Rao and will finally accomplish his end game. And the end game is to free General Zod from the Phantom Zone and have him possess Major Zod’s body.
And that’s my prediction---Major Zod will be saved from succumbing to the evil that General Zod succumbed to, but will be mortally wounded by Brainiac & have his body possessed by General Zod, the destroyer of Krypton. This would accomplish both of Brainiac’s prime objectives (freeing General Zod & acquiring vast knowledge from the Book of Rao).
I actually came up with the end game after watching Kandor & listed it as the 3rd option in a poll I posted in my thread:
I actually got some feedback in post #25 of that thread from Skaterpen357. He seems to think the redemption angle would be interesting too. I could definitely see it happening. It would show tremendous progress for Clark to actually do something nobody was able to do & that’s prevent Zod from going evil. At the same time, his triumph would be ruined by Brainiac, who would make General Zod absorb Major Zod & finally become the one & only Zod of the Smallville universe. It would also bring the Zod character where he needs to be (General Zod).
Basically it said that Alia was a prototype version of Brainiac. But since then, more information has been presented and I came up with a scenario that is much more likely. I also realized that I wrongly interpreted a scene in Kandor, and the clarification of that scene is what really got me going. The scene I’m talking about is the one where Chloe sees Jor-El opening the vent on the camera she set up at the farm. Until yesterday, I thought Jor-El put the Book of Rao in the vent, but after watching the episode again, it seems like he took it out of the vent. It’s clear to me now that retrieving the Book of Rao was his reason for showing up at Smallville since he had no knowledge of Clark living there. It’s obvious that the real Jor-El, whose memories the clone Jor-El in Kandor had, placed the Book of Rao in the vent on one of his earlier trips to Smallville, quite possibly to hide it from Black Zero during that Kryptonian civil war that destroyed Kandor. So therefore the clone Jor-El came to retrieve it. This raised a big question---since Jor-El is dead, who has the Book of Rao?
Well, in Persuasion, we found out that Alia was the one who killed the Jor-El clone. She was working alongside Zod, but did not give the Book of Rao to him, because he would have it in his possession by now, had that been the case. Some people probably think that Tess has it and took it after her men kidnapped Jor-El by going through his pockets. But I can’t believe that because that would mean that Tess & Alia were working together because it’s obvious based on motive that the person who took the Book of Rao is the one who murdered Jor-El, as they would not want anyone to know they had the Book of Rao. So if Tess has the Book of Rao yet Alia killed him, it would mean that she & Alia were partners of some sort and she had Alia kill Jor-El to end any trail to the Book of Rao since Jor-El would have surely told Clark or someone else about it had he been allowed to live. And I’m just not willing to believe that Tess & Alia forged some sort of alliance, since Alia was not fond of humans. So in my opinion, Alia is the one who killed Jor-El specifically for the motive of taking the Book of Rao & preventing anyone from finding out about it.
My opinion is that the reason Alia was not loyal to Zod & killed Jor-El for the Book of Rao without giving it to him is because Brainiac possessed her.
Now is where I will lay out some facts & mix up some speculation with the facts to establish my theory:
1. Brainiac’s true objectives are to free the real Zod’s spirit from the Phantom Zone & also to amass as much knowledge as possible about everything. This was clearly apparent in season 5, again in season 7 (in the Apocalypse timeline), and again in season 8 in Legion when Brainiac took over the Fortress for the purpose of increasing his knowledge.
In Legion Chloeiac said these lines to Clark:
“Your father’s gone and all the knowledge this Fortress ever held finally belongs to me”
“My hunger is never satisfied. Knowledge is what fuels me”.
The Book of Rao would certainly satisfy the hunger for knowledge requirement of Brainiac. And he is programmed to release the real Zod and does not particularly care for his clone because Zod’s clone being free while the real Zod’s phantom is left to rot in the Phantom Zone would not satisfy what Brainiac was programmed to do.
2. In Beast, Clark used the black Brainiac crystal that we first saw in Solitude to open a portal to the Phantom Zone when he tried to send Davis there. That crystal was a part of Brainiac, just like Milton Fine (which is what Jor-El told Clark in Vessel). Jor-El’s exact words in Vessel were “Fine is merely an extension of the craft that can regenerate in any form”. Therefore that black crystal was indeed one of the forms that Brainiac took since it came from the Black Ship aka Brainiac. Another very interesting thing to note is the timing. Not long after Beast, actually the very next episode in Injustice, we found out that a voice from the orb started speaking to Tess & told her to destroy the black Brainiac crystal that was in Clark’s possession. It should also be noted that in Beast, Clark inserted the black Brainiac crystal into the crystal console at the Fortress. This is what’s so interesting about the timing, because the very next episode (Injustice) is when the voice started being heard from the orb. In that episode, Tess told the voice that the crystal was destroyed. However, in Kara, Kara told Clark that only a Kryptonian could destroy the blue crystal Zor-El gave her, and that blue crystal was very similar to the black Brainiac crystal. So by similar logic, the black Brainiac crystal nor any other Kryptonian crystal can be destroyed by a human. Based on the events in Beast & Injustice, my thoughts are that plugging the black Brainiac crystal into the Fortress reactivated Brainiac in that crystal & he was able to communicate with the orb, even using the orb as his mouthpiece since both the technology of the orb & that of the crystal was Kryptonian. I should also point out that when Clark inserted the black Brainiac crystal, the Fortress was still damaged due to Brainiac’s previous presence in it, which may have also played a factor in reactivating the copy of Brainiac in the crystal. The voice even gave away the location of the crystal to Tess since she found it easily without having to ransack Clark’s barn or house. Then, once Tess brought it to the mansion, she witnessed the crystal being absorbed by the orb, either by it turning into that black ooze or by it turning into energy & being collected into the orb. The orb of course knew this, so in the last scene in Injustice, Tess told it something it already knew. Possible proof that the black Brainiac crystal was absorbed by the orb was how the orb was able to move on its own & break out of Tess’ vault in Doomsday, which it was never able to do before. It should also be noted that the Legion would have had no idea about this since their knowledge of the future was one that didn’t include Chloe. So to them Brainiac was defeated in 2009. But what changed & what they weren’t aware of in Legion when they visited Clark was that Chloe’s survival would lead her to run off with Davis, which led to Clark inserting the black Brainiac crystal into the crystal console to reactivate another source of Brainiac. This is something that did not happen or need to happen in the timeline the Legion was aware of when they showed up in Legion.
3. The voice of the orb isn’t the voice of Zod, Faora, nor any other Kandorian we heard. On top of that, the Kandorians while in the orb were not able to speak since they didn’t have bodies. They existed in the orb simply as pieces of DNA (that we saw Jor-El place in the orb in Kandor) that formed into bodies once the orb opened up. The only ones we have ever seen who could talk from a device/piece of technology like the orb are the Jor-El AI, Brainiac & Zor-El's programming in his blue crystal which imitated Lara in Blue. We know it wasn’t Jor-El, since he wouldn’t want the orb opened. It wasn't Zor-El's programming in his blue crystal since that crystal was destroyed. That leaves only Brainiac. And now that I think of it, the voice sounded like a scrambled version of Brainiac’s voice that we heard at the very end of Abyss.
4. Alia was seen to have powers under the yellow sun, as seen when she used heatvision & superspeed in Savior and when the sun’s radiation was being reflected back to Earth as red in Pandora. The only one we’ve seen having powers under both suns was Brainiac. He had powers on Earth & powers on Krypton (in Apocalypse). We also know that in season 7 he possessed Casey Brock and needed time to reconstruct his body after he broke out as that ooze in Wrath. By the time we saw him in Persona, he already had his body back, though he was in need of repair. So I think he possessed Alia when she was released from the orb. But unlike the scenario with Casey Brock, he couldn’t just leave Alia in a coma, since she was one of Zod’s troops and he would likely investigate if he found her in a similar coma. So instead, he possessed Alia and gathered/deposited the materials needed to reconstruct his body at an unknown location. Once he had enough materials, the ooze that possessed Alia exited her & covered the collected material & formed into Brainiac.
5. Brainiac has shapeshifting abilities, as we have seen in season 5 when he took the form of Jonathan Kent in Oracle and again in season 7 when he took Lionel’s form in Persona & Kara’s form in Arctic. So once Brainiac reconstructed his body, he used Alia’s form to move around unrecognized. Another important piece of evidence is that Jor-El did not know who attacked him & gave him the mortal wounds that killed him when Clark asked him in Kandor. So this rules out Tess, Zod, and pretty much any Kandorian since he would likely know them since the DNA samples he placed in the orb would have been marked. This could mean that by Kandor, Brainiac had already reconstructed his own body & was able to shapeshift into a form that Jor-El wasn’t familiar with. Perhaps he took his classic Milton Fine form, since Brainiac hadn’t been invented until a few years before Krypton’s destruction, based on how Lara spoke of Brainiac in the 1986 flashback scene in Lara when she was in Smallville with Kara. So Jor-El would likely be unfamiliar with his Milton Fine form. And killing Jor-El for the Book of Rao would fall right in line with how he killed Dax-Ur for the knowledge he needed to repair himself in Persona.
6. Brainiac can also create multiple copies of himself once he’s in his own body. This happened a great deal in season 5 and happened again in season 7 when one copy of him was destroyed on Krypton in Apocalypse while another copy was still on Earth that took the form of Kara in Arctic and eventually switched back to his regular form. This ability would go a long way in helping him survive and fool Clark, though from what I’m thinking, it may have not even been necessary.
7. Tess didn’t even know the Book of Rao existed, so therefore she would have no idea to specifically look for it. If she searched his pockets after he was kidnapped & took it, then that would mean that she & Alia had an alliance of sorts (for Alia to take the blame of killing Jor-El) and that to me is highly unlikely.
The Bottom Line: My thoughts
Based on all the facts & assumptions I laid out above, I will now lay out the scenario that I think happened.
In Beast, Clark inserted the black Brainiac crystal in the Fortress and activated the copy of Brainiac in that crystal. The copy of Brainiac in the crystal then communicated with the orb (either in Clark’s barn cellar or while plugged into the FoS) and used the orb as its mouthpiece to talk to Tess & told her to destroy the crystal in order to release the life in the orb. This was a trick to get Tess to steal the crystal & bring it close enough to the orb so the orb could absorb it or turn the crystal into ooze that would cover & possess the orb. This happened around the events of Injustice. Once Doomsday was buried in Doomsday, the orb opened & released Zod, the Kandorians, and Brainiac. As Alia was released in both timelines, she was possessed by the Brainiac ooze. I will refer to this Alia as Brainiac-possessed Alia. Brainiac-possessed Alia started collecting deposits of materials needed to reconstruct Brainiac's own body. Various weeks passed by, and by the events of Pandora the latest (most likely much earlier), he finally reconstructed his own body.
Even though the events of Pandora will not happen in the current timeline's future as in the original Pandora (doomed future) timeline, by the time that elapsed from the opening of the orb until the events of Pandora, Brainiac had reconstructed his body in the original timeline. This is very important since it can get confusing. So to clarify what I said, I will state it differently. Let’s say the events of Pandora, which is in the original season 9 timeline, took place X days after the day the orb opened, which would be just after the last scene in Doomsday. What I’m saying is that those same X days after the day the orb opened in the altered timeline (the one currently happening), Brainiac (as the Brainiac-possessed Alia) would have also reconstructed his body, but didn't because the Brainiac-possessed Alia confessed to murdering Jor-El & sacrificed himself when Alia's body was burned in Persuasion.
Now we must go back to the original timeline since the altered timeline is based on it. In Pandora, which took place several months after the construction of the towers (probably spring of 2010) when Zod had been in control for quite some time, the Alia that killed Chloe was Brainiac in his own body after shapeshifting into Alia’s form. In the original timeline, the events of Kandor did not happen & Clark never met Jor-El’s clone & did not try to save Zod as Jor-El told him to in Kandor. Instead, the Book of Rao was never uncovered by Jor-El and Brainiac was hanging around the Kandorians disguised as Alia waiting to find something. After killing Chloe, Brainiac in Alia’s form supersped & time traveled back to 2009 with Lois because now he would have his own body much earlier on in 2009 without having to reconstruct it. This now takes us to Savior, where there are now 2 Alia’s—one of them is the 2009 Brainiac-possessed Alia seen in the Luthor mansion and the other is Brainiac in his own body in the form of Alia who time traveled from 2010. The 2009 Brainiac-possessed Alia met the actual Brainiac in the form of Alia & it was decided he/she would take the role of a spy in this timeline after the 2 planned it out. The 2010 Brainiac in the form of Alia allowed his body to be impaled with that sword in Savior (which would not kill him) in order to fool Clark & he allowed Clark to bury him. Once Clark buried him, Brainiac as Alia rose & continued with his plans. In Kandor, the Brainiac-possessed Alia alerted Brainiac that Jor-El was captured and he had the Book of Rao on him. Brainiac then sped to the mansion, took the Book of Rao & killed Jor-El in his Milton Fine form, which the Jor-El clone did not recognize, later on when Jor-El was released. By this time, Brainiac had the Book of Rao & any trail leading to him or the Book of Rao was gone. The Brainiac-possessed Alia sacrificed himself (similar to how Brainiac did in Vessel to free Zod) by confessing the murder of Jor-El. That copy was destroyed when Alia’s body was burned in the Kryptonian funeral in Persuasion.
Brainiac’s End Game:
With everything I entailed, we have at least 1 copy of Brainiac (if he didn’t make other copies of himself) who has all the knowledge of the Book of Rao and will finally accomplish his end game. And the end game is to free General Zod from the Phantom Zone and have him possess Major Zod’s body.
And that’s my prediction---Major Zod will be saved from succumbing to the evil that General Zod succumbed to, but will be mortally wounded by Brainiac & have his body possessed by General Zod, the destroyer of Krypton. This would accomplish both of Brainiac’s prime objectives (freeing General Zod & acquiring vast knowledge from the Book of Rao).
I actually came up with the end game after watching Kandor & listed it as the 3rd option in a poll I posted in my thread:
I actually got some feedback in post #25 of that thread from Skaterpen357. He seems to think the redemption angle would be interesting too. I could definitely see it happening. It would show tremendous progress for Clark to actually do something nobody was able to do & that’s prevent Zod from going evil. At the same time, his triumph would be ruined by Brainiac, who would make General Zod absorb Major Zod & finally become the one & only Zod of the Smallville universe. It would also bring the Zod character where he needs to be (General Zod).
Comment