Shadows Cast by a Final Salute

Andromeda Episode Review

In which Tyr gets away.

What Happened

As I understand it, Tyr's plan went something like this:

He changed his DNA to match his son's. His son is the genetic reincarnation of Drago Musevni, first Nietzschean ever, so Tyr passed himself off as the Second Coming to the Prides. In particular, Tyr messed with the Drago Katzov Pride, they being the meanies who massacred his entire family.

He convinced them that he was going to reunite all the Nietzschean Prides, and sent them off to wreak havoc across the new Commonwealth. This, of course, annoyed Dylan, who investigated. Tyr also set them up to steal Drago's bones from the Andromeda and take off in the Eureka Maru.

Naturally, Beka doesn't want to lose her ship, so they follow and get it back. They find it, however, in orbit around the Drago Katzov homeworld, where the Drago Katzov fleet is waiting for them. Tyr's tinkering, meanwhile, has left them with a problem: if they try to escape to slipstream, the slipstream drive will fall out of the ship and blow up the planet.

Dylan is seriously pissed that Tyr has set him up to commit genocide, and follows Tyr to the asteroid where the Kodiak Pride lived until the Dragos slaughtered them. He guilts Tyr into undoing his damage to the ship, but while he's doing that, things have gotten completely out of hand.

The High Guard fleet has arrived to crunch the Drago Katzov, and a group of Commonwealth enemies have arrived to crunch whoever's available. As Dylan watches, the whole area of space erupts in a battle that destroys most of the ships involved. Tyr takes off in a slip-fighter to raise his son, leaving Dylan and the others to contemplate the possible end of the second Commonwealth.

What We Learned

• Nietzscheans have no sense of humor.
• Trance doesn't care about the bones. Neither does Dylan.
• Tyr will entertain no questions from his flunkies.
• This is between Dylan and Tyr.
• Tyr has been putting elements of this plan together for the past three years.
• The Kodiak ancestral home orbits the Drago Katzov homeworld of Inga's Redoubt. It's beautiful, if you like abandoned asteroids.
• Hesitation is weakness. Dylan has always made Tyr hesitate, and he is not fond of Dylan for it.
• Tyr has often wished Beka was a Nietzschean.

Best Lines

Harper: "What did I ever do to you?"
Tyr: "You made me laugh... just not out loud. I hope you get the chance to do it again."
Harper: "We'll double-cross that bridge when we come to it."

What Did I Think?

A little fuzzy around Tyr's motivations and the details of how much of this he intended to happen. (Did he really imagine he'd overthrow the Commonwealth?) There were several very strong character scenes towards the end, however, between him and each of the others. I particularly liked his conversations with Beka and Harper.