Earth: Final Conflict: Bad Genes

Renee finds Sandoval and Tate attempting to destroy an Atavus hive. Stopping them, she kills one Atavus but rescues another, a child, who turns out to by Yulyn, Howlyn's son.

I have two questions within the first two minutes of this episode which are never explained. Firstly, why does Howlyn want his son dead? Just because he won't feed on humans like the rest of his kind, he's still Howlyn's son. Doesn't that count for anything? It also seems a bit odd after seeing Howlyn and Juda's relationship that he would even have had a mate for long enough to have a child. And if he has, why have we seen no other Atavus children thawed during the course of the season? My other question is when Tate managed to get out of custody and rejoin Sandoval, and why Sandoval is trusting him again after he switched sides a few episodes back. Once again it seems the writers are forgetting what they did only a short while earlier.

A lot of things happen here without being adequately wrapped up. Renee suddenly develops maternal feelings for the Atavus child although the fact that she found she'd been made sterile last season isn't brought up, when there's a chance for some strong emotional drama surrounding the fact. Street is picked up by Hubble and by the end of the episode still doesn't seem to have been released, and Sandoval comes within sniffing distance of the Resistance hideout once again but seems incapable of making the connection. Why is everyone so afraid of altering the status quo on this show? There are four episodes left; can't we pretend it's heading for some kind of conclusion?

The main problem with this is that it's just so boring. There's endless talking between Renee and Yulyn, people moving from one place to another, being found, then moving on again and the end result is to put Yulyn back in stasis where he came from. Why? Sandoval and Howlyn know where the place is and can go and finish what they started. Does Renee not care that it isn't safe for the kid? We never find out how or if the kid can survive without feeding; if he can, surely (ludicrous though the premise would be) it's only a matter of convincing the Atavus to become vegetarians…

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