'The Last Man' (420) General Discussion

[jckfan55]

Kind of a "meh" episode for me. Really just a setup for next season.
Plusses: Keller didn't annoy me. And I was pleased to see Sam written in character.

[Ltcolshepjumper]

i hope no one mentioned this earlier but anyway here it goes.

i don't think that rodney was stupid enough to just send sheppard back in time. of course he would have predicted that people would question sheppards story etc. and he'd tell him something only mckay knows so shep would "identify" himself and his story.

that aside. a bigger thing gets on my nerves. rodney wouldn't just change the time line because for all he knows it could make it even worse. based on the intel gathered in his time he could make a few possible scenarios of the 'changed history' and than tell sheppard what they must do to change it the right way. look now they destroyed one facility and killed everyone. it doesn't change the fact that teyla has her baby, and Micheal conquers the galaxy. this way they just made it worse. much worse (come on people no way they could have survived those blasts).

what i'm trying to say is that what we saw was just one of possible scenarios or simulations mckay showed to sheppard. next season we'll just see sheppard again coming through the gate and than they really fix the timeline.

Uh, no. Look at the info for Search and Rescue. And, Mckay wanted to avert one thing only- Michael's rise to power. To do that, all shepaprd needs to do is to make sure that Michael doesn't get teyla's son. they survive and are trapped inside the wreckage.

[Jumper_One]

WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

BEST SEASON FINALE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

wow I dunno what to say. this incredible ep concludes an awesome season! this ep was a real shocker imo, I didn't expect something like this. ok we all knew Shep would travel into the future but...wow. seeing Atlantis covered in sand was pretty cool, a very different color but I still prefer the water. the beginning was pretty straight-forward, Shep's freaked out and Rodney err I mean the hologram explains the situation

then he tells Shep how thing went wrong and this was where the ep got truly exciting! first Teyla, then Sam, Ronon (and Todd) and Keller err Jennifer Teyla's death wasn't a surprise, Michael had no reason to keep her alive once she'd given birth. Sam... wow! this was the best death ever. after some time I finally realized I was holding my breath, this was just amazing. it was probably the most heroic death she could've imagined. Jack would be proud, Hammond and Jacob too. Ronon, well now we're talkin'. train an army, infiltrate one of Michael's bases and die in the process. oh and let's not forget about Todd 'indeed' so...Jennifer and Rodney. huh. yeah so what? it'll be interesting if we'll see any effects of the virus in s5 but I guess they'll come up with a cure anyway (let's not forget about Carson )

both Shep and McKay were great, especially Rodney. and the hologram's still him. I remember him saying 'I was down in the infirmary having suffered a severe injury' classic McKay! also it was cool to see Jeannie again and of course Woolsey. I guess this is another reason for TBTB's decision regarding s5. another thing I enjoyed was Keller, this was definitely one of her better eps and I'm really looking forward to seeing her again in s5. last but not least: LORNE! Major General Lorne! wow (ok let's forget for a moment that it took Jack what? less than 10 years from Colonel to Maj General and this is 25 years later. anyway...) that was a great idea. I knew there had to be someone willing to help Rodney with his plan

and then of course they go rescue Teyla but she's not there and all hell breaks loose. the building explodes and aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh 'to be continues' aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh why? why are they doing this to us?????? *cough* um ok so once again this was an incredible ep! fortunately we don't have to wait until september for the conclusion which will be (and this is an understatement) VERY interesting

woohoo s5!!!!!

[sabresiren]

Just a thought here, but what if nothing in the Last Man was the truth except for the end? Think about this, Sheppard was gone for 12 days--not the couple of months HoloMcKay told him he was missing. (Good aging make-up, BTW).

What if Michael had boobytrapped the stargate where Sheppard went through in the beginning sequence of the story-with the intent of capturing whoever stepped through? He zaps Sheppard as soon as he exits the other side-maybe in one of his laboratories-and feeds Shep with the whole timeline story.

Then when he's good and finished brainwashing Sheppard, he sends him back to Atlantis with the coordinates to the planet and a new mission to save Teyla in mind.

The whole last portion of the story? a set-up to get Sheppard and his team to that torture chamber where he has the building booby-trapped.

Michael would figure that McKay would bee-line to the technology--naturally--and that it would be a piece of cake to blow the Atlantians up and get them out of his hair. He gets rid of the gnats flying around his head, and walks away with Teyla's baby, as planned.

There's nobody left to stop him and his plans for galactic domination are in the bag. (Boy! is he a nut case or what?!)

Of course living through that kind of building collapse would be next to impossible--unless our guys beamed out, dropped into some sort of tunnels or structure below, found some really big desk to cower under, or a new alien friend intervened. (I sure don't think Chaya would show up at this critical moment and "help" out!).

Jamie

[Klenotka]

No offense but even with my love for Atlantis I can't see how anyone can enjoy Dr. Who.

Sorry but I have to react here.
Dr.Who is a fantastic show, and Blink (as mentioned) is one of the best episodes of Dr.Who and TV shows ever. How many episodes have you seen? Blink was even nominated for few awards as the best drama and as the best screeplay.
I don´t say that everybody has to love Dr.Who but it´s soooo different from Atlantis that you simply can´t compare that. I could say hundred things that Doctor has and Atlantis doesn´t or what Atlantis has and Doctor doesn´t. But you can never compare it bc...well, Dr.Who is british show, with typical british humor in some places and is it very well written. SGA is a popcorn show. I am not saying it´s bad to be a popcorn show, I am just trying to show the difference.

Sorry for OT.

[JohnDuh]

the building probably falls in a such a way that the team is stuck but not crushed

They will be beamed out by the ghost of Thor!

[Ltcolshepjumper]

Just a thought here, but what if nothing in the Last Man was the truth except for the end? Think about this, Sheppard was gone for 12 days--not the couple of months HoloMcKay told him he was missing. (Good aging make-up, BTW).

What if Michael had boobytrapped the stargate where Sheppard went through in the beginning sequence of the story-with the intent of capturing whoever stepped through? He zaps Sheppard as soon as he exits the other side-maybe in one of his laboratories-and feeds Shep with the whole timeline story.

Then when he's good and finished brainwashing Sheppard, he sends him back to Atlantis with the coordinates to the planet and a new mission to save Teyla in mind.

The whole last portion of the story? a set-up to get Sheppard and his team to that torture chamber where he has the building booby-trapped.

Michael would figure that McKay would bee-line to the technology--naturally--and that it would be a piece of cake to blow the Atlantians up and get them out of his hair. He gets rid of the gnats flying around his head, and walks away with Teyla's baby, as planned.

There's nobody left to stop him and his plans for galactic domination are in the bag. (Boy! is he a nut case or what?!)

Of course living through that kind of building collapse would be next to impossible--unless our guys beamed out, dropped into some sort of tunnels or structure below, found some really big desk to cower under, or a new alien friend intervened. (I sure don't think Chaya would show up at this critical moment and "help" out!).

Jamie

I don't think that's the case. And Sheppard stepped through to Atlantis. Michael couldn't have been on the other side. And Mcihael could not have come up with something so elaborate. he did not know that much about earth. he didn't even know about Carter. No, I think it was real. It would lessen the importance of such an episode. Also, Mckay confirmed the solar flare. they survived, somehow. And, HoloMckay never said shep was missing for just months. they looked for him for months. Shep went back in time to a point 12 days after he stepped through to the future. The solar flare did not send him back to the exact time he stepped through.

[scififan1963]

The season 4 finale "The Last Man" was an exceptionally enjoyable episode to me. I have been a fan of The stargate SG-1/Atlantis tv series since the original movie. Like Stargate SG-1 before it, Atlantis appears to be switching into "high gear". The new episode showed me the writers and actors are pushing character development to new frontiers and doing it very well. A successful show needs to do this periodically to keep the fan base interested. I am definitely interested and cannot wait to see season 5.

[asmir47]

Watched the episode earlier and thought on the whole it was pretty good....
I knew from looking at Joe mallozzi's blog roughly what it would be about but there were a few really good surprises....
These are a couple of pics taken from JM's blog from a while back which kind of spoiled bits of the ep but which i thought were good...

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

here's are a couple of the things I didn't like....

namely, urgh, the God awful gate CG and that building at the end..... took me right out of the ep when I saw it...and the way the walls fell were pretty comical..the one at the left fell waaay too fast...
If only TPTB would spend a few thousand bucks on retrofitting the 'outside' gate to look like the Pegasus one, they wouldn't have to keep using those naff CG gates which are usually out of scale AND have the glyphs on both sides!!! (anyone know what was happening at the left of the gate on the first shot? really blurry and looks like they've tried to blend what the gate should look like at the back and the light up glyphs...D'oh)

Spoiler:

The back of the CG gate has glyphs on it.....and is the top left looks wierd

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

[Klenotka]

I like Robert Picardo (Trekkie in me) but he looks like a lost puppy in that uniform

[Integrabyte]

I like Robert Picardo (Trekkie in me) but he looks like a lost puppy in that uniform

His presence was the highlight of the episode

[Falcon Horus]

What one would you say was better?

1. The Siege II - tops them all
2. First Strike
3. Allies

And this one doesn't even make the list.

I should have said, that there was a lot of information in the eppy, and where things were going and the team was all heading off in different directions.

If you put it that way... no argument there... my cat only smiled, at least it looked like he was smiling. Can't say that was a lot of information to process.

I mean, I know why, but I wanted to see them struggling to make those decisions, to see the impact that Shep, Sam and Teyla's death. And why Ronon felt he had to leave. I wanted to see him struggling with the chain of command and getting pissy with Woolsey.

They don't want to write that. It's not interesting enough... It' doesn't fit the 3 B's - Boobs, Bombs & Butts.

I know we had time restraints. But for me to get me emotionally attached to an ep, I need to feel the hurt and the anguish and why people decide to leave their family and go off their own. I need to see and feel the luff of the team, and yes we got it to a degree in Shep and Rodney, but not the overall impact if that makes sense.

That would have required a 21st episode.

I want someone to rip my heart out.... although obviously not literally.

Outch! I know what you mean... Though I felt a stab when they found Teyla. Deja-vu back to Doppelganger.

[Pitry]

Well, I'll give credit where credit's due - while I've been generally extermely unhappy with this season so far, they did a hell of a job with this episode! When it's not about the next explosion or the next cool CGI shot, it seems Stargate Atlantis can still deliver a mature, even touching at parts episode.

Good bits - FINALLY! Some Ronon development. And yes, I definitely mean the Ronon workign with Todd bit. Yes, that is character development - to bring hmi to such a sitution, and show that after all, he cna resist shooting the wraith on sight - and even die with one. Other than that it was a wonderful surprise to see Todd now too. Did I mention he should so become a regular?
McKay and Keller. I'm generally against it, but once again, the specific route they took is the charcter development one. After everything, it was lvoe enough for someone that made him try and change things. A bit reminding of - Window of Opportunity, out of all things. But it had a very nice catch - Rodney knowing that he and Keller might never fall in love, but still chooses to undo it all. A bit the opposite fo the point of WoO, but still to an incredible effect.

All in all, a solid story, a good episode and something to leave me with a good taste in the mouth from a season that left me mostly unhappy. Hooray!

[Falcon Horus]

Some Ronon development.

There's one small, teenyweeny problem. This was all AU so technically that never happened. Oops!

So Ronon is still Ronon after The Kindred II when we start season 5 and he wouldn't have had that kind of development.

[Integrabyte]

There's one small, teenyweeny problem. This was all AU so technically that never happened. Oops!

So Ronon is still Ronon after The Kindred II when we start season 5 and he wouldn't have had that kind of development.

Dont tell anyone but he'll have an episode where he can develop as much as he wants