The penultimate episode of Season 4 of Stargate: Atlantis first aired on 29 February, 2008. It was written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, and holy crap Carson Becktt (Paul McGillion) is back!?!

He claims he’s been held by Michael (Connor Trinneer) for the past two years!

While Sheppard’s (Joe Flanigan) team goes off to rescue Teyla (Rachel Luttrell), Keller (Jewel Staite) figures out what and how Beckett came to be in Micheal’s holding – he’s a clone. But seeing as how we’re ramping up to the season finale, we just know that none of these things are going to be easy.

Micheal has Athosians he is experimenting on, something he shows Teyla, who is still his prisoner.

Carter (Amanda Tapping) oversees the entire affair, and works to keep her people safe. There’s lots of great stuff as everyone tries to reconcile what appears to be the return of Carson Beckett. A comrade they buried and memorialized.

Problems, and more problems keep arising, and the stakes seem to be getting higher and higher.

And no sooner do we get Becket back then we learn that he’s begin to deteriorate.

Oh, and Teyla’s unborn child… Micheal wants it. He feels that the child will have some of the same abilities that Teyla has, and will be able to use in his research.

Even as Carson continues to deteriorate, he’s no longer imbibing a drug that Michael used to keep him alive, he joins Sheppard’s team to go rescue Teyla. But things go badly, Carson is hurt, and we have to say goodbye to him again, they’re putting him into stasis, and Michael gets away with Teyla.

How’s it all going to play out in the season finale?

The Last Man was also written by Mallozzi and Mullie and brought the season to a close on 7 March, 2008.

Sheppard returns to Atlantis after another failed attempt to find Teyla. But something is wrong. Atlantis is deserted, the ocean has dried up, and a hologram of McKay brings him some troubling news… something akin to a solar flare, like in the SG1 episode 1969 has sent Sheppard 48,000 years into the future.

But the hologram of the aged McKay plans to put Sheppard in stasis until another flare gives him a chance to travel back in time. He also relates that things did not go well after he disappeared. He shares all the information that Atlantis will need to save Teyla, but he just has to get back in time first. McKay shows how Micheal’s plan plays out and what it will mean for the galaxy.

Carter and Ronon (Jason Momoa) are killed in separate actions, Keller (Jewel Staite) and McKay quit and Woolsey (Robert Picardo) takes over. There are hints at some big changes coming their way if there aren’t any changes to the timeline. Can Sheppard change it all?

The plan could work, Sheppard just needs to get to the stasis chamber, but there’s a lot of problems getting to it first. But it works, and he gets back twelve days after he left. He knows where Teyla is, and they have to get to her before she has her baby, and Michael kills her.

They get to the planet before Micheal arrives, but they trigger a booby-trap that brings the building down around them, and delivers us to the end credits for the episode. Gah.

I really like the stuff with Flanigan and Hewlett in this episode, and it’s a look at what could be, if things don’t improve for our friends in Atlantis. In fact, I like this whole thing. Next time, we take a look at one last adventure with SG-1, and then dive into the the fifth and final season of Atlantis.