That was not Elizabeth

[Reichiru]

I think it was her. She's been through a lot of things we haven't witnessed... she isn't going to be exactly the way she was through the run of the show.

Elizabeth has always been the type to believe there is good in everyone. It may be naive, but it's very her. She wouldn't have known the other replicator would cause such trouble because she had probably grown to trust him.

Not to mention saving John and destroying a fellow replicator says a lot about where her loyalties are. And to chose death (or at least being shut down for the time being in the vacuum of space) was something that I don't think a replicator would ever chose. Their function is to replicate... and that can't be achieved through what she chose in the end. It showed the human still within her.

And I really don't see why building herself a replicator body is so uncharacteristic. From day one we've known what a huge fangirl Elizabeth is of the city... the last thing she'd want to do is ruin it by being stuck in their computer and frying everything. She's very idealistic and probably really thought everything would work out how she hoped. But then again, she must have forgotten nothing goes right on Atlantis. haha.

And another reason it was very dicreat and no one has pointed it out when she was talking through the computer she said is John Shepard there and through out the show she either refers to him as Colonol Shepard or just Sherpard or John but she never calls him John Shepard beacuse she is supposed to refer to him by rank casue he is Military and under her command. So it was another replicator posing as Weir that just slipped up

What? By the end of her run on the show she was calling him John quite a bit. Not to mention she was no longer his superior at this point and could call him what ever she pleased.

[Infinite-Possibilities]

I think it was clear that it was Elizabeth. Her experiences with the replicators left her a little different. Wouldn't you think they would?! Just 2 episodes ago Ronon joined the Wraith! That was by far a bigger out of character move, yet there was an explanation for it. Are you saying that the Wraith grew a Ronon clone in "Broken Ties"? Did Apophis then create a clone of Teal'c in "Enemies"? Was it not really Aiden Ford doing everything that Ford did in Season 2?

[SMB_BOOKS]

Well, besides the fact that we can come up with reasons/excuses on why she'd still be our Weir while also doing those things...I for one just want the original Weir to be alive, somewhere.

I want that too.

[Ellaneshka]

Its like Kes in Voyager, her experienced changed her and she became bitter and desperate.
I really liked Michelle's performance.

[Quinn Mallory]

My interpretation is that it was an altered Weir that we saw. Clearly, this Weir is more concerned with the welfare of the rogue replicator than the Atlantis mission. It also had a lot stronger survival instinct (especially in the beginning) than what I would expect of Weir. With how the replicator's conciousness are grouped together, Elizabeth's conciousness likely had picked up some of the other more hostile, more self preserving replicators' minds.

Even with the planned, somewhat ambiguous ending, it was a great way to wrap up the replicator storyline, IMHO.

[nx01a]

I disagree. She was Elizabeth, but not their Elizabeth. Everything she had gone through had changed her to some degree. Thus her decision making off, but she was the same old Elizabeth at her core. One can only imagine what "becoming a replicator" does to a person, nevermind all that time she spent trapped in subspace.

Thank you. That's exactly how I'm thinking about it. We can't understand what happens to a human consciousness when its uploaded into a Replicator body, much less into the chaotic hell of subspace, or having spent time in Wraith technology. Who knows how base code influence or subspace interference would affect her. WeirFran said that she couldn't trust herself. Her decision-making was off, but her 'core' did come out in her self-sacrifice to potentially save Atlantis from more rogue Replicators.

[Rich]

You're all thinking about this too hard.

I can understand the ambiguity, but that is simply down to a botch-job on the episode. With Higginson having turned down the role, I guess the writers felt the plot should go ahead anyway. So by picking FRAN, it makes it unclear if it really is Elizabeth. Messy. Also, the fact that she's a replicator adds another confusion factor - one I'm sure the episode was always meant to have. But added to the non-Higginson Weir, it just makes it a right old muddle.

However, it was Elizabeth because the episode said it was. Right at the end when Rodney makes the comment, 'I guess we know now that it was Elizabeth'. That's how TV shows make ambiguous plot points actual plot points. It happened all the time in SG-1 when they said 'I'm really me? Are you', 'Yes'. Or 'We can do this mission without Daniel, while he's away on P3X1234 counting stones, or something'. Is he really doing that or has he actually been abducted. It's the same idea. That's all we as an audience need, as far as the writers are concerned.

The more important question was why Higginson turned the role down. My guess is because it was a terrible, awful, insulting addition to the character's storyline which served no purpose whatsoever other than to tie up what was a nifty cliffhanger from mid season four.

[The Prophet]

You can't step in the same river twice.

It all depends on how you define Elizabeth; if you take a person's memory, consciousness and beliefs, and subject them to two life-altering experiences (being turned into an Asuran, then into an Energy Being); they've bound to have changed dramatically from the person you used to know.

If you know someone when you're 18, and you meet them again when they're 80, they'd obviously have changed considerably. Especially after going through the identity crisis (of being Elizabeth, but in a supressed Asuran body).

[Frontastic]

Even though it did feel quite like Elizabeth, I'm still living in hope that the real one is still out there somewhere.
I couldn't understand what TPTB could have done that would make Torri not agree to do the episode but now I get it. They took massive liberties with the character. The writting for her wasn't great and at points it felt down-right disrespectful, Torri, good call. I would love to think they could write something decent for the character so she can return in the movies in a more long-term way and played by Torri. But I think shes gone for good...