Kal-El activates the Fortress by combining the keys to it. Somewhere, Zod does the closest thing to squeeing that meglomaniacal world destroyers do. Kal-El also submits to what he doesn't realize is another round of reprogramming, but that gets interrupted by Chloe's unexpected arrival in the Fortress. Zod takes a moment to curse those pesky kids, but lets Kal-El leave, assuming the boy will keep his word because hey, Zod didn't turn Chloe into an icicle. But no. Chucklehead, I mean Kal-El, is nothing if not his earth father's stubborn, sometimes contrary son. Lana is pretty, smells good and has glass in her hair, so Kal-El blows off his promise to return to the Fortress by sundown.
In an understandable fit of pique, Zod punishes him by stripping of his powers because (a) he's a bitch like that, and (b) being Zod, he overestimates the degree to which Kal-El would be upset at the loss of his powers. Zod probably thought the kid would come running back to the Fortress to get his powers back because dude, who doesn't want *powers*?
But, you know, Kal-El and pie = OTP (who needs powers when you can have pie) and so Zod has to wait until the kid gets himself shot to have another chance at him. But Zod's also pissed because Jor-El's idiot son almost got Zod's future vessel destroyed. So he imposes the dreaded life-exchange, which will work in concert with Brainiac's attempt to gain Kal-El's faith and manipulate him into thinking Jor-El is Teh Ebil and needs to die by destroying the pretty ice palace by the Antarctic sea (Solitude).
That phalanx of crystals that lit up in both Solitude and Vessel is a critical element; I think that's actually where Zod's essence is imprisoned, which is why it's not as simple as downloading himself into Kal-El either during the summer between Covenant and Crusade or when Kal-El was standing in the Beam of Kryptonian Enlightment in Arrival. Solitude is when the download should have occurred; it's why Brainiac brought Kal-El back to the Fortress, but dammit, that pesky blonde human got in the way *again*.
I'm not sure how Reckoning fits into all of this, unless it's just Zod fucking with Kal-El for screwing things up back in Solitude; that could be it, especially if Zod knows he has to bide his time while Brainiac gets the pieces of what is at least Plan D (at this point) into place.
Lionel could fit into all of this because he's Plan F or G or somesuch. I don't find the fact that he's warned Chloe and Clark about Brainiac in the past to be inconsistent with him being controlled, ultimately by Zod/Brainiac. If anything, all of Lionel's warnings and clues have served to push Kal-El back into dealing with the entity he believes to be his father (whom Kal-El also believes is housed at the Fortress) and into viewing Brainiac as a big threat, which we saw played right into Zod/Brainiac's hands at the end of Vessel. It's just that Kal-El is a lot more stubborn than either Zod or Brainiac anticipated, so things aren't as straightforward as they'd otherwise be if the boy (a) would just do what he was told and (b) didn't have such a propensity for denial/avoidance about things.
At least, that's one way it could all be tied together from a "Zod's been large and in charge from the get-go" perspective.
part II
In an understandable fit of pique, Zod punishes him by stripping of his powers because (a) he's a bitch like that, and (b) being Zod, he overestimates the degree to which Kal-El would be upset at the loss of his powers. Zod probably thought the kid would come running back to the Fortress to get his powers back because dude, who doesn't want *powers*?
But, you know, Kal-El and pie = OTP (who needs powers when you can have pie) and so Zod has to wait until the kid gets himself shot to have another chance at him. But Zod's also pissed because Jor-El's idiot son almost got Zod's future vessel destroyed. So he imposes the dreaded life-exchange, which will work in concert with Brainiac's attempt to gain Kal-El's faith and manipulate him into thinking Jor-El is Teh Ebil and needs to die by destroying the pretty ice palace by the Antarctic sea (Solitude).
That phalanx of crystals that lit up in both Solitude and Vessel is a critical element; I think that's actually where Zod's essence is imprisoned, which is why it's not as simple as downloading himself into Kal-El either during the summer between Covenant and Crusade or when Kal-El was standing in the Beam of Kryptonian Enlightment in Arrival. Solitude is when the download should have occurred; it's why Brainiac brought Kal-El back to the Fortress, but dammit, that pesky blonde human got in the way *again*.
I'm not sure how Reckoning fits into all of this, unless it's just Zod fucking with Kal-El for screwing things up back in Solitude; that could be it, especially if Zod knows he has to bide his time while Brainiac gets the pieces of what is at least Plan D (at this point) into place.
Lionel could fit into all of this because he's Plan F or G or somesuch. I don't find the fact that he's warned Chloe and Clark about Brainiac in the past to be inconsistent with him being controlled, ultimately by Zod/Brainiac. If anything, all of Lionel's warnings and clues have served to push Kal-El back into dealing with the entity he believes to be his father (whom Kal-El also believes is housed at the Fortress) and into viewing Brainiac as a big threat, which we saw played right into Zod/Brainiac's hands at the end of Vessel. It's just that Kal-El is a lot more stubborn than either Zod or Brainiac anticipated, so things aren't as straightforward as they'd otherwise be if the boy (a) would just do what he was told and (b) didn't have such a propensity for denial/avoidance about things.
At least, that's one way it could all be tied together from a "Zod's been large and in charge from the get-go" perspective.