Once again, I'm very impressed by Stargate Universe, or at least the concept behind "Epilogue." As the crew sift through the archives and look for supplies, we see interspersed through the episode brief clips of the crew starting from their first days on the world to death. It's fairly expansive since there isn't too much plot in the present, allowing us to see the development of culture as well as the relationships that take place.
What the episode does effectively is link the crew in the past, which forges their own path, to the crew in the present. We see characters pairing off--Young and TJ, James and Varro (weird pairing, wouldn't you say?), Greer and Park--but we also see Eli's fears of being alone, before the writers take the happy route and randomly through him in with Corporal Barnes. The scenes of TJ having ALS really hits home not only because we see her suffering in the past, but also because it has present-day implications, and we know the inevitable will happen (unless a cure is found in the Ancient database).
More importantly, we see the evolution of the society, starting from scratch to a thriving culture with grand skyscrapers. There is a real sense of accomplishment. The people who made this happen are essentially the same characters in the present and it gives a fresh perspective on them, that they can make it on their own if they want and it gives them hope for enduring until they reach Earth.
Because most things had to be wrapped up in this episode, the writers created lots of situations to reach the end easily. It's par for the course, so it's not surprising, but I wanted to point them out. The scientists aren't even going to try to extrapolate to find the other ships (couldn't they look through the archives for speed and trajectory?). The scenes of two people looking at each other straight into childbirth were a little awkward. Varro taking a plunge would be a laughable way to end a love triangle, but he's still alive, though badly injured. The people evacuated years ago and Destiny reaches the planet just days before everything goes to hell. What are the chances of that?
Score: 9.0/10
