Renee is told that her destiny lies on the mothership, but on arriving there she finds a returned Liam Kincaid. Now, with his help, she must find a way to end the war with the atavus.

Considering the entire season has been something of a disappointment, it's a relief that this episode manages to see out the series in a reasonable way. That said, it's hardly perfect, preferring to go the easy route to the finish rather than chucking any surprises in. Indeed, the only twist is the abrupt return of Liam, as if to say that the mistake of killing him off has been realized. As if to prove that he should have been there all along, it's a good 20 minutes after he arrives that Renee finds herself back in command. It's a shame she does at all, as I rather liked Liam being in control again. After this opening spurt, however, he seems awfully superfluous to the whole story; Renee has a team of grunts who are there to get killed by the Atavus, and Liam may be there to provide a bit of danger as we wonder if he will bite the dust as well. In actual fact, he eventually seems to be present to give Renee someone to trust, as she certainly doesn't seem to believe Ra'gel.

Everything else goes pretty much how you might expect. Howlyn is killed (although in a surprisingly low-key way by one of his own men), Sandoval meets a grisly end and Renee trundles off into the sunset. Now, let's take these in turn. Howlyn was obviously going to die, but it does look briefly as if he can be redeemed. It seems a little odd that the only way of dealing with the atavus is to kill the lot of them bar Yulyn, Howlyn's son, especially as Renee then drags stasis pods containing the whole race onto the Taelon mothership. Presumably she'll be dumping them somewhere rather than trying to make friends with them.

Next: Sandoval. I expected him to meet a nasty end, but I still think him sneaking off quietly to an island would have been funnier. Here he seems curiously obsessed with Renee and her death, something that hasn't been very well built up to as Howlyn has been the one after her until now. It's good to see him finally tracking down the Resistance base (although he manages it so easily you wonder how it's escaped his attention before) and see the sets being taken apart by a gunfight, but his final demise, while satisfyingly horrible, doesn't quite sit well. Shortly after watching this, I went back over past seasons to pick out some highlights and was reminded of Sandoval's Run. What happened to this Sandoval, the one being controlled by the Taelons and unhappy with what he'd done with his life? It seems a little odd that he's so unrepentant on his deathbed when he'd seemed so before. I never remember him being completely irredeemable.

Finally there's Renee. We all expected a happy ending for her, and This is pretty much the obvious ending for her, particularly as it provides the series with a very Gene Roddenberry ending, ie a group of assorted aliens go forth into space to make peace with the galaxy on behalf of Earth. Ironically, after a disappointing season, when I saw this ending it hit me that this is a series I'd actually be interested in seeing, as the characters (bar Renee perhaps) have the potential to hold a spin-off together. Then again, it could all go badly wrong like, it has to be said, this show has. It's had its ups, it's had its downs, it's dragged itself back from the brink a couple of times, but in the final analysis Earth: Final Conflict has been a disappointment and could have been so much better, if only people had left well alone from the outset. What is particularly sad, though, is the way the series seems to have cruised through four years of renewals while other more worthy offerings have fallen by the wayside. I have to admit, I do think I'm going to miss the series, but not this latest incarnation. I'm going to miss the earlier days when it really had something. I'm delighted this season is over, and that's a shame considering how much I used to look forward to the show.

***

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