Ra'gel appears to tell Renee that the final conflict is near and she must prepare for it by thinking of non-violent ways to end the fight against the atavus. As she remembers all the bloodshed in the battle so far, Michaels attempts to survive an encounter with a lab full of hybrids.
While this is actually a glorified clip show, it does serve the purpose of reminding people what has gone before and how we have reached this point just prior to the end of the series. As with Art of War earlier in the season, it also shows how many missteps the show has taken along the way, writing out countless good characters until they're now down to one. Considering how many leads they're paying on this show, the only one who appears here outside of flashback is Renee. The idea that every alien race is linked in some way is an interesting one, and I wish it could have been explored earlier. I'm not quite sure that I buy Renee being primed all this time for her final challenge, mainly because there's no way the writers had any idea what they were leading to two seasons ago, but if they can pull it off, I'm willing to run with it.
Meanwhile, the Michaels sub-plot seems a bit odd. If Renee has to seek a peaceful end to the conflict, the atavus aren't making her job easier by killing another one of her lovers (and Boone, who Ra'gel reveals has died offscreen somewhere), and the loss of a hybrid vaccine seems to mean that the aliens are on the precipice of taking over. Why would they give up now after putting so much time and energy into taking out the whole human race? As I expected, Michaels dies, but it's the method that seems odd. If his second, Kirby, is trying to save his commander, how come Michaels ends up shot full of holes? Some rescue attempt. And if he was that badly wounded, I suspect he wouldn't have got as far as he did; he certainly doesn't look that badly off when he stumbles out and contacts Renee. What this all boils down to is that the last episode is Renee versus Howlyn. I can't believe it's going to be that interesting, but who knows? This series hasn't surprised me all season, so it's way past time it did.
***
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