Atavus

Earth Final Conflict Episode Review

In which things start to go off the rails.

What Happened

When Augur interferes with Da'an's connection to the Collective, Da'an regresses to an Atavus, one of the murderous beings that were the ancestors of the Taolons.

What Did I Think?

So much going on here.

Tightly wound plot and good characterization, even if Da'an himself doesn't have a lot to do besides standing around looking menacing. You will notice that the two men Da'an killed were criminals. It just won't do to have one of your good guys killing indiscriminately, even when he's supposedly turned evil.

This regression does show what the Taelons evolved from, something that until now has really only been hinted at. It is about the time in the series arc that this information would be good to see. Not too early, but dragging it on for too much longer would seem like a tease... as we saw later on, when the whole Jaridian/Taelon backstory got dragged out and snarled.

We also get a reminder of Lili's history with Da'an. Because of that history, Lili would be the logical one to become Da'an's closest human contact now that Boone is gone. Unfortunately, the writers were so forceful about shoving Liam in as the new hero that this was set aside. For Lili to have continued to get closer to Da'an would have also smoothed out some of the 'huh?' factor regarding her and the Jaridian in season three and four.

The other option would be for Da'an to latch onto Liam with some kind of plan for him, but from what I've seen, the details of that plan, if it exists, haven't been revealed. It's almost too late by now. Liam's alien aspect is something that was also handled poorly in later shows. It became the answer to whatever was going wrong. In trouble? Just have him zap it with his shakarava. Then, it went away for a while, and then they took it away, supposedly permanently, and made him completely human.

Through the background of this episode runs, for me, the most interesting story: the connection between Beckett, Liam and Sandoval. It spiked now and then in the series, but vanished in between. I loved "Revelations," even though it ended Beckett's run on the show. As far as I know, however, if you never saw the first season finale/second season opener, only "Thicker Than Blood" in the third season would remind you that Sandoval is, in a way, Liam's father. It's such a juicy little tidbit; they could have done so much more with it. It's not even mentioned as motivation for some of the clashes between Liam and Sandoval in later episodes.

Last, but not least, is the growing conflict between Liam and Doors. Another good idea that suffered from lack of execution. It constantly amazed me, for example, that no one besides Doors really questioned Liam as the leader of the Resistance. Yes, he is an alien, very smart, fancy glowing palms and all, but he's also about a week old at this point. He shouldn't be in charge of tying his shoelaces, much less a guerilla war. I'm not saying that in this episode he was wrong, but he pulled some really stupid stunts later on and nobody said anything.

It sounds like I'm complaining... well I am. This show was good. This episode, in my mind, is an example of how replacing Boone with Liam wasn't necessarily the death blow. (I liked Liam better because he had a more apparent sense of humor.) There was so much here, but it was like future episodes squandered story opportunities, playing bait and switch by hinting at developments here and there. Then, they went wandering off on tangents and introducing new characters while the ones they had languished in the background. It was just such a waste.