"Remnants": "Surface Impressions Vs Inner Realities"

Remnants

“I sat down with Joe and we had a lengthy conversation about the origins of the story,” script coordinator Alex Levine wrote in his scifi.com blog, “and in the midst of this conversation (which was going very well, by the way) something clicked and Joe realized that just talking about the origins of the story would give away the third act twist. And who wants to watch more than half of an episode knowing what the twist is? How lame would that be? So we went back to basics and started over.”

We here at Solutions encountered the same dilemma when we actually read the third act twist in the audition sides for Dr. Vanessa Conrad, played by SG-1 veteran Anna Galvin (“Collateral Damage”). So, to solve the problem, we stopped at a certain page in the sides and used writer Joseph Mallozzi’s blog entries as a guide as to how far we could go with the spoilers. “Remnants”, directed by William Waring, includes three storylines that, according to Levine, “dovetail in the conclusion.”

“First, there’s Sheppard and his mainland troubles,” Mallozzi revealed in his weblog during the production of the episode. “Then, there’s McKay and his Zelenka-assisted investigation of the mystery find. And, finally, there’s Woolsey and his good news/bad news/bizarre news day.”

Sheppard and his mainland troubles: Sheppard has flown a Puddle Jumper to the mainland of Atlantis’ new home planet and is captured and bound. He begins to try to free himself when he gets one of the biggest surprises of his life when his captor reveals himself. But how could it possibly be him—he’s supposed to be dead, shot by Sheppard himself about two years before! What’s even worse, Sheppard faces one of the darkest forms of torture that he could have ever imagined.

McKay and his Zelenka-assisted investigation: McKay flew a Puddle Jumper out of the underwater bay and recovered a device left behind in the ocean by an ancient alien race.

Woolsey and his good news/bad news/bizarre news day: Woolsey is up for his nine-month evaluation from the IOA. He’s nervous, but while entering the transporter in the city, he meets Dr. Vanessa Conrad, a scientist in her late 30’s or early 40’s who just arrived from the Apollo. She is everything he finds attractive in a woman, including her choice of recreation: Yahtzee. Woolsey and Conrad part ways on a first-name basis as he reaches the floor of his quarters, hoping that maybe Vanessa would join him there for … a meal. The doors close on her instead. The bad news? Richard learns that Vanessa’s not exactly his type after all.

There it is. You’ll just have to watch the episode tonight to the Sci Fi Channel at 9 PM (or its rerun at 11 PM) to find out what Mallozzi meant when he told Levine, “It’s about surface impressions versus inner realities.” And if that’s not telling you what the third act twist is without actually telling you what the third act twist is, I don’t know what is. …

Preview Videos – Beware of For Real Spoilers! –

Solutions Coverage –

[Image from MGM.]

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