'Stargate Universe' Season 2, Episode 18 Recap

['Stargate Universe' – 'Epilogue']

This week's episode of 'Stargate Universe' played like a love letter to the show's fans. Seeing these characters grow old together felt especially poignant in light of the show's cancellation and the recent news that the story will not continue with a TV movie or miniseries.

'Epilogue' was epic, ambitious and moving -- exactly the kind of dramatic and clever sci-fi storytelling that viewers will remember for years to come. And it was funny too! Really, really funny.

It might be tempting for some to call this a filler episode, since the big, epic developments all seemed to concern that other Destiny crew – the one that traveled back in time some 2,000 years and founded a new society on a faraway planet. But their story served to inform and celebrate the characters we've come to know and love.

The alt. crew flashbacks also taught us new and important things about our heroes, and the episode solidified the idea that, as Alt. Camille said in the final act, the "mission is and always will be the journey itself."

Watching the alt. crew living together for years and striving to reach their full potential was satisfying and rewarding.

It was great to see Eli reach his full potential and be recognized as the genius that he is (He wrote ALL the textbooks and served as Novus' most quoted philosopher!).

Watching Col. Young remain the group leader while alienating others seemed appropriate. His long relationship with a dying TJ was lovely and heartbreaking, and I wouldn't be surprised if those scenes made several fans tear up before the night was over.

So everyone (not named Brody) had a ton of babies! Makes sense, I guess, since they were trying to rebuild society and everything. I was a little on the fence at first about the ep's "who hooked up with who" obsession, but it was nice to see that the entire ep wasn't all about that.

Most of the alt. pairings didn't really come as a surprise. Matt married Chloe in a quaint outdoor ceremony. With poor Volker dead and gone, Greer and Park were free to have seven (Seven!) babies (not that the timid Volker would have stood a chance against Greer, I'm guessing). Eli fell in love with Corporal Barnes (whoever she is). Varro and James got married, because why not!

The only ones who didn't settle down and procreate were Camille and Brody. Camille went on plenty of dates, but she didn't find anyone as appealing as her soul mate from Earth.

And Brody ... oh Brody! He seemed to instantly morph into crazy combative guy as soon as everyone reached the other side of the Gate. The founder of enemy nation Futura ("That's so stupid.") hilariously ended up a crotchety, mustachioed geezer who complained about all the annoying dancing going on everywhere and how those damn kids kept tearing up his lawn. I did a laughing spit-take at the end of that scene, and I wasn't even drinking anything.

Back on present-day Novus, everyone was pouring through impeccably preserved Kino footage and personal journals. Eli and the boys rigged an uplink from the Novus bunker to The Destiny to transmit all the historical archives to the ship. But the clock started ticking when the planet started to tear itself apart. Hello manufactured plot device!

OK, so the unstable planet thing actually led to some pretty cool suspense/action scenes with debris crashing all around the crew and Young, Eli, TJ and Varro going all 'Die Hard' and climbing up the side of the wall on a shoddy emergency ladder. I really thought Varro was a goner here (and so quickly after saving TJ's life). But he' lived on to pine after TJ for another day.

You gotta feel for TJ. She has two strong and capable men falling all over themselves to get her attention, but she just found out that she only has a handful of years to live. It made sense that the Tanarans would find a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease, since they're more technically advanced than we are. But, sadly, the cure wasn't uploaded to Destiny in time, and it looks like TJ's situation has become more desperate than ever.

I was expecting the historical archives to reveal something damning about Alt. Rush. Our Rush was acting way too upset and disinterested in learning about Novus and the Alt. Crewmembers lives. But Volker seemed to put Rush's attitude in perfect perspective when he suggested that it killed him to learn that they all got along fine without him.

'Epilogue' was easily one of the best episodes of the series ever, and it was also one of the most ambitious hours of 'Stargate' to ever hit the screen.

Other thoughts:

- Good to know that, when faced with death an extinction, humanity will not allow beef jerky or elevator music to die out.

- Strong performances all around this time. Extra kudos to Peter Kelamis as crotchety Brody.

- So what are they gonna do with all of those new people on the ship? Those new supplies aren't gonna last forever.

- So the warring factions on Novus finally settled their differences in light of the impending worldwide disaster. And they created awesome spaceships! Maybe these people really do belong together.

- I almost reached for the Kleenex when Chloe told a dying Young, "We are home." Almost.

- I liked the way this ep combined the Kino footage, diary narration and proper flashbacks to tell the story of Novus. And that final visual sequence of the city evolving was pretty damn cool.

- Only two more episodes left. (Sadness.)

'Stargate Universe' airs Mondays at 9PM.

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