'The Last Man' (420) General Discussion

[chensuu]

Just another reason why McKay found it soooo imperaitve to change the timeline....if all was well and good on Earth 25 yrs in the future then why the hell change things other than to bring your friends back? They had to make it look like things were bad EVERYWHERE not just in the Pegasus galaxy in order for things to seem more plausible.

I don't get this at all. Rodney wasn't planning on changing anything until he found out Keller was dying. If I missed something please tell me because it's bugging the heck out of me.

[MerryK]

Beautiful episode. I don't know why it being an alternate timeline cheapens the deaths—it's all fictional anyway, and the acting and scenarios were no less moving. I was in tears, especially when it came to Sam and Keller. Keller handled herself well in this episode, especially as she died, and Sam was brilliant. I loved her farewell to Rodney, knowing what she was going out to do and knowing that he was the only one of her friends she could say goodbye to. The only thing that could have been better was if she had given him a packet to deliver to the rest of SG-1. Okay, so the ending was "meh", but the rest of the episode was beautiful.

[Mekarri]

Well, even with all the casualties, if the expedition manages to set things straight within 7 years or so, that's still a win. Consider the fact that, otherwise, the Wraith would have thrived, possibly, for millenia. That's millions of people, maybe even billions, that would have died at their hands(literally, get it? the hand life sucking thingy? Oh, I crack myself up...) over that time. I'd say the price is more than worth it. Unless, of course, like I said, it ends with the expedition abandoning Atlantis and leaving the Pegasus Galaxy deep in...well, you know what...

No the Atlantis team made thing much worst for the people in the Pegusus Galaxy. Remember the Wraith was running rampant before they came. They use to feed but it was regulated. SGA woke the Wraith all at once when they kill the queen in rising. Everything else kind start from there. What is really kinda of missing is that the natives aren't more pissed off with SGA. There should be a lot of resentment and anger toward SGA.

[LoneStar1836]

No explanation was given as to how Teyla's child provided the stepping stone for Michael's mutant army to conquer the Pegasus Galaxy. What happened to the child? Without feeding on life force, what makes the mutants more powerful than the Wraith?

That has to be one of my biggest problems with this whole episode. It make no sense that this baby leads Micheal into becoming the big bad that brings down the Wraith with his band of mutants. What makes them so much more powerful than the Wraith? Yeah, he's tainting their food, but the Wraith could have still banded together to take out Michael before he poisoned the majority of their food sources. They could have even come to SGA's doorstep and begged for some help. I'm sure Todd could have helped in that regard.

That's one of the main reasons I was just not invested in this episode. Michael suddenly becomes some big bad that is just too powerful to combat and all because of that friggin baby.

[Southern Red]

Well, it's finally happened. I no longer care what happens to any of these people. Well maybe with the exception of Ronon. So a building falls on them in the last second. ROTFLMAO! Why don't you pull the other leg? We know something miraculous happened to save them all except for any nearby redshirts. So much for the big cliffhanger.

I was all set with my fresh box of tissues, but alas it remained unopened. I could not for the life of me begin to tear up over something that is likely never to happen. The whole thing was too slow with too much narration. I commented that DH really had a lot of dialogue to learn, but my husband pointed out that he was off camera a lot and could read some parts. What a relief. JF on the other hand just fed him questions regarding what happened to various team members. No wonder he looked so bored. The acting between these two was good as usual, but something was missing. Excitement, a sense of urgency maybe. Dunno. It started great with just Sheppard but slowed down considerably when old Rodney showed up.

There was good stuff though: General Lorne, Ronon and Todd, heroic Sam and ...um...oh yeah my husband wants that glove controlled screen thing so very much.

There was also bad: Michael is dangerously close to comic book villain territory. Where was Carson? No wonder he was so afraid to go into the chamber last week. The sandstorm didn't strip Shep like a skinless chicken. Shep survived 700 years in stasis and could still keep on going. And the baddest of the bad: McKay/Keller. Dear God make it stop. The girl is way too young for him. I'm sure there's more but blessedly I forget.

I have enjoyed some of this season, mostly the ones with John/Ronon and John/Rodney but this one just seemed like a clip show with new clips. It didn't grab me.

[xylyx3d]

why doesn't any one seam to care that sam's character was portrayed as weak and indecisive and the Phoenix as the most innept ship in the fleet? come on people pay attention! this episode was a good idea in theory but sam and the Phoenix ruin it! she retreated when she had an advantge and didn't even bother returning fire unitl the ship was practicly blown out from under her. she would never do that and the Phoenix should have been able to withstand that kind of fire power for several minutes with no damage! ugh this episode was lousy, thank god it didn't really happen. the ending was sucky too. it would have been better if rodney had looked at the screen and seen some horable information and said his favorite line "oh crap" and the "to be continued posted over a black screen

[jelgate]

On a more serious note, my opinion about this episode. In the whole SGA franchise I had one episode I loved and it was "Before I sleep". I love that episode because it involves time travel and whatnot. I am a sucker for those so, you guys can imagine that TLM is on the top spot now for me. The episode had more inconsistencies than SGA S1 and S2 put together. I am willing look past those because David's performance was flawless and because they finally gave me something I wanted: the real SAM.

The good:

1. Rodney not willing to give up.
2. Sam forcing the IOA to give her The Phoenix and her teamwork with Rodney.
3. Lorne shoving the temporal prime directive where the sun don't shine. He finally convinced me that he deserves to be on SGA as a regular.
4. Keller dying
5. Ronon seeing the light and being honoured to meet his end alongside a brother in arms. Todd has done well this season.
6. Michael, one nasty bad guy with great potential.
7. Zelenka for showing us that he is still around


The bad:

1. 1969/VOY and DS9 rip off
2. Earth has 3 ships + The Phoenix. I understand that the Odyssey is our strongest ship but why give Sam an unfinished ship? What was the Apollo doing? Seeing that Atlantis was under threat why not commit both to the PG? One of them to stay in orbit to protect Atlantis and one of them to give Sam help. Ridiculous really.
3. It is hard to believe that Atlantis the most advanced thing in stargate does not have any surprises under its sleeve.
4. IOA chaos

The ugly:

1. From an astrophysics point of view the episode was 5 ly off. I had a module with general stuff on red giants and supernovas and my course was way different. Through natural causes a sun will never become a red giant in such a period of time. It takes a lot longer.
2. Plothole over plothole regarding science.
Conclusion: Ignoring the flaws, it was enjoyable.

Just because something ignores a rule of science does not make it a plot hole.

[xylyx3d]

see my review for more information on this lousy episode

[Charon]

Time episodes. As a viewer and a fan, I do not often enjoy seeing possible outcomes, good or bad, and then having them wiped out because of blah blah blah, take your pick. Now, after disconnecting myself from my own hysteria, I can appreciate some of the opportunities the characters were given. The last stand by Ronon and Todd was well done as was Carter's ( quiet and thoughtful). Hewlit is always fun to watch.
As for the last seconds, I can only be hopeful that TPTB know what they are doing and this does not turn out to be part of Bob Newhart's dream.

[Integrabyte]

Just because something ignores a rule of science does not make it a plot hole.

Define a plot hole Jelgate..Anyone can given ambiguous answers...

[placid]

And more things could continue. I didn´t miss Teyla at all
. I wouldn´t mind if she just...disappeared. It was her best performance in an entire season - lying dead on the ground.

haha, totally, I was hoping she'd finally be written out... instead she gets her best performance ever.

[reddevil18]

No the Atlantis team made thing much worst for the people in the Pegusus Galaxy. Remember the Wraith was running rampant before they came. They use to feed but it was regulated. SGA woke the Wraith all at once when they kill the queen in rising. Everything else kind start from there. What is really kinda of missing is that the natives aren't more pissed off with SGA. There should be a lot of resentment and anger toward SGA.

I don't think you got my point. Even with the millions of casualties that the expedition is indirectly responsible for, if they finish of the Wraith and any other major threat in the galaxy within the next 2-3 years, it's still worth it. Why? Because, if all went according to plan, the Wraith would do their thing for millenia to come. That means that probably billions of people would lose their lives over that timespan. All in all, it's worth it. It's a case of seeing the bigger picture and thinking of the future, of coming generations. Without the Wraith, the PG civilisations can slowly advance and grow. In the long term, the expedition coming to Atlantis is a good thing.

[xylyx3d]

to the contrary, unless you give specific reson why know science does not apply it is a plotole. however it is now accepted that a star can go super nova in as little as 10,000 years, this is only a recent discovery and so it isn't unreasonable to assume that this start for some unknow reason is starting to go critical now

[reddevil18]

Define a plot hole Jelgate..Anyone can given ambiguous answers...

Well, as long as such rules have already been contradicted on the show and new technology, which is improbable, if not impossible, is used, you really can't consider a contradiction of real life rules of science a plothole.

[somme]

A better ending, (although even more 1969) would have been for Mckay to send shepard through too soon/late and have him end up way in the past on some random world, (as the gate wouldn't have been there and may have "jumped" to another gate.)

In a sense he would have all the time in the world to get back as that's how time works but his sense of duty and loyalty to Teyla (and the others) would have forced him to try and find a solution as quickly as possibly.

Might have been better than a rushed explosion.