Worst.... Finale.... EVER....

[Lord Balls]

WOW, felt like a bad star trek episode. Atlantis has officially jumped the shark.

[ToasterOnFire]

Somebody on another forum said Michael is becoming a "moustache twirler" like from the old Perils of Pauline serial. I think that would put him into 2D territory.

You saw that post too? I'm waiting for Michael to tie up Teyla on some PG railroad tracks and rub his hands, cackling evilly, as the train approaches. Can our heroes save her in time???

[DigiFluid]

What a terrific 100th episode that would make. Especially if it was done entirely in black and white.

Hah

[Southern Red]

You saw that post too? I'm waiting for Michael to tie up Teyla on some PG railroad tracks and rub his hands, cackling evilly, as the train approaches. Can our heroes save her in time???

And Rodney will be playing the maniacal piano music. Hee. I might even enjoy that.

[Jackie]

You saw that post too? I'm waiting for Michael to tie up Teyla on some PG railroad tracks and rub his hands, cackling evilly, as the train approaches. Can our heroes save her in time???

that would have made it a little more exciting...lol.

The a flying squirrel and talking moose...TNT...you get the picture.

[dasNdanger]

Regarding complaints about Michael...

Some things to keep in mind.

First, this episode was NOT about Michael. It was about the Lanteans, and what became of them. There was no time for any in-depth study of Michael - we got that in Kindred (and previous Michael episodes). We know what he is - what his attitude is. All this episode needed to do was establish how far he'd gone, and how bad things have gotten since Sheppard's disappearance.

Think about it - Michael - once a Wraith who killed in order to give his body sustanence, now kills for the sheer pleasure of it, without physical hunger driving him on. Even in Kindred I still felt sympathy towards him, but in TLM, I lost all of that...he murdered for the sake of murdering...he's bloodthirsty and hateful and evil. They had to establish this with as few scenes as possible, and they did so quite well.

On the flip side, if the Lanteans are able to undo all of this - who knows what Michael will become. He may NOT become as evil as we saw in TLM - he may still have redemption...we just don't know - and will not know - until next season.

das

[KindlyKeller]

Amazing finale. There seemed to be a great deal of positivity last night in the General thread, but that's getting drowned out now as usual.

I love alternate timeline stories myself, so I took to this quite easily. Sheppard's reactions in the cold start when he gets to Future Atlantis, especially when he steps outside and looks out over the desert, were just amazing. I thought Joe did a great job in this episode.

The alternate timeline glimpses were well-done, and I liked that we had a mix of the scenes being played out normally and McKay narrating over images.

I wish more of you could have enjoyed it, because the feeling I left that episode with was one of deep satisfaction, and it was quite nice. A great finale.

[Jackie]

Regarding complaints about Michael...

Some things to keep in mind.

First, this episode was NOT about Michael. It was about the Lanteans, and what became of them. There was no time for any in-depth study of Michael - we got that in Kindred (and previous Michael episodes). We know what he is - what his attitude is. All this episode needed to do was establish how far he'd gone, and how bad things have gotten since Sheppard's disappearance.

Think about it - Michael - once a Wraith who killed in order to give his body sustanence, now kills for the sheer pleasure of it, without physical hunger driving him on. Even in Kindred I still felt sympathy towards him, but in TLM, I lost all of that...he murdered for the sake of murdering...he's bloodthirsty and hateful and evil. They had to establish this with as few scenes as possible, and they did so quite well.

On the flip side, if the Lanteans are able to undo all of this - who knows what Michael will become. He may NOT become as evil as we saw in TLM - he may still have redemption...we just don't know - and will not know - until next season.

das

It was???

They all died! How is that a story arc?

The synopsis was "Sheppard returns after another unsuccessful attempt to find Teyla and finds the city abandoned."

The arc is why the city was abandoned?

The city was abandon becuase sheppard went 45,000 years into the future.

Here the arc could have taken a few different roads. Instead, of finding out what happened to mankind...he found out through a hologram of mckay that after he went missing, everyone died. Everyone dyingis a plot device to move the story into the direction of Sheppard going back in time.

Then the plot turns back into...the search for teyla.

It wasn't about Micheal, the hybrids or most importantly...Teyl's baby or Teyla.

The whole ep was how everyone died 45,000 years ago and "Sheppard needs to go back press the old reset button.


nothing substantial there.

[Homer 120]

Just watched it and it was a GREAT season finale! The thing that made it for me was the music at

Spoiler:

Carter's death scene

and the CGI was AMAZING!

And I think some people missed the point of the whole episode, The whole point was John had returned which changed everything. Which was what MacKay was trying to do in the first place.

10/10 for this one!

[Irish Eyes]

You saw that post too? I'm waiting for Michael to tie up Teyla on some PG railroad tracks and rub his hands, cackling evilly, as the train approaches. Can our heroes save her in time???

We need our manip queen...


Regarding the episode, this was the weakest of the four finales IMO. Not that it's a terrible episode, but in no way does it approach The Seige 2.

This type of episode is fun, but the whole point is they will go back and change things so it never happens. Therefore, I'm not invested in anything we saw. I know they'll save Teyla, and that means Ronon will never leave and be killed. They'll work on a cure for Keller. You get my drift. It all becomes a big "so what" for me. And that's why it shouldn't have been the finale.

A finale needs to have something that makes the audience eager to find out what happens next. Well, I'm sure they'll all survive and then go save Teyla, thus wiping out the future we've been shown. *shrug* Whatever.

I wanted something, oh I don't know, with more teeth to it? Give us some real consequences.

[JSPuddlejumper]

Keep in mind, casual fans have no idea if some or any of the actors will be back.

But, the ending was too cheesy.

If they left it at John coming back...10/10 episode.

However, with the cheesy ending, I give it a 8/10.

[elbo]

I don't know if this is the worst finale ever, but i know for sure that is not the best and i'm disappointed in their projections of future events. I also have a general reluctance against time travel plots, so here we go.

But the future developments:

1. Woolsey and the IOA, cutting back the PG funds, personal and humanitarian mission. This is very beliveble, i wonder why they didn't do it a long time ago. This is their policy, of inter-galactic raids and thefts, prejudicies against all individuals not-earth-born no matter of race or species. From IOA perspective, there is nothing more to be gained from PG, maby an Earth invasion, now that we have that fancy ships. There are only 2 decisions that an organisation such as IOA can take, with the advantage they have by keeping everything secret to the people they work for: 1) over-powering and raiding few planets that known to have ZPMs or hunting infos about ZPMs and obtaining the power requirments to bring Atlantis in a A51 warehouse. 2) if first option is not possible, keeping a limited scientific staff in Atlantis base and few guards, with no off-world atributions and game over. This is what IOA does and guess what, they DECIDE.

2. Lorne making general, is possible over time, but i really cannot see him leading SGC; he doesn't have the blink for it, same as Landry character; they are just background decoration, ok in military standards, but not at that level with the development the got.

3. Sam going rogue and making childish tactical mistakes, no chance in hell. She is a devoted military officer, with respect and discipline to the chain of command and while is possible to risk her life for a personal view or revolt, she wouldn't risk the life of an entire crew and a valuable piece of technology, by going alone against an unknown numers of hostils, after shady intel. Lame projection.

4. I didn't spoke much about Michael, but the writers are begining to piss me off with this super-villan and 'everyone else is stupid' obsession. A race or a species could acomplish galactic genocide or domination, but not a individual alone. Even if he has the knowlege, he would never have the resources to pull something like this, or the time for that matter when some many parties are aware and looking for him. Even if the Wraith are stupid enough to fall for it (with the repicators they joined forces to stop the common threat, which threaten their food supply not killing eachother when aware of an ouside threat), Atlantis under military management would never fall for it and let an individual with so few resoucers and still based on organic technology unshielded ships, give them the middle finger, while Daedalus and Apollo probably running cargo transports in MW. So not only that Michael galactic rise is unrealistic and poor written, but it became obsessive and i'm tired of it. I understand a 2 epidodes parter, but 4 consecutive episodes including a finale and a premiere about someone who says 2 lines/episodes and has a plan who may look interesting maby only for kids, is too much. The Wraith or the Asurans never got as much screen time in the all show and while i understand the desire for trying something new, get over it, geez!

5. McKay and Keller, why not. Esposure to the hoffan drug? It is radioactive now?

6. Ronon, training, fighting, shooting and blowing stuff is always possible.

Well, i said that it may not be the worst finale ever, because the 'Uneding' is a strong challanger. Let's give the viewers some artificial development of their favorite characters, using the time-travel or the paralell-reality crap and making ridiculosy artificial-looking old people who sounds exactly the same like their younger versions, just that they speak slowly. This is not my thing, i don't feel neither their drama or serenity, just the writers inability to develop the chracaters properly and inside the show without pressing forward button. And the paralell reality is worst, as they want to make us belive that right next door is another reality with just few variations from the current one and of course the same characters in a different scenario, like they even are born in 1 of 1 billion paralell realities.

But now they got the intel from the future and everything will be different because of a RANDOM solar flare. I liked the ending of the finale though, but in general i am disappointed with the conclusion of a great season and their best. I was able to digest 'Kindred' and Michael in it, but this is too much.

[FallenAngelII]

It's not total crap but it's by far inferior to the previous 3 season finales.

There wasn't much drama as it was obvious John would make it back. After all, if he didn't, then everyone would be dead and the show would end. So we all knew he'd make it back.

All the episode had was John and Rodney chatting + "flashbacks" to what happened in the now alternate timeline. Interesting, fun, entertaining, sure. But yeah, filleresque.

And the end of the season was the entire building blowing up. And we know they won't kill them off now. It'd be illogical to kill off that many important characters (John, Rodney and Lorne).

So they all probably survived + scrapes. A big filler + suspense at the end since we don't know how they'll end up.

So, yeah, inferior to the previous finales.

It would've made a good filler episode. But as a finale, it's kinda meh.

[DigiFluid]

but it's by far inferior to the previous 3 season finales.

I've seen this same sentiment around a few times and still haven't quite been able to wrap my head around it... 'Allies' was just painfully stupid, and 'First Strike' was an infuriating exercise in "let's see if we can stuff enough cool effects shots into one episode that they don't notice how staggeringly stupid the plot is for this episode."

Dumb rescue mission ending aside, this is easily the best Atlantis finale since "The Siege". All IMO though, of course.

[FallenAngelII]

I've seen this same sentiment around a few times and still haven't quite been able to wrap my head around it... 'Allies' was just painfully stupid, and 'First Strike' was an infuriating exercise in "let's see if we can stuff enough cool effects shots into one episode that they don't notice how staggeringly stupid the plot is for this episode."

Dumb rescue mission ending aside, this is easily the best Atlantis finale since "The Siege". All IMO though, of course.

Yes, "Allies" was a big blah because they were blackmailed into getting tricked. But at least it and "First Strike" had an epic feel to it.

This one was filleresque + a quasi-epic finish that's not very epic. It didn't feel very season finalish at all.

A good episode is not necessarily a season finale.