The fourth season of the SCI FI Channel's Stargate Atlantis ends tonight with an episode called “The Last Man.”  According to the network, the season ender will have John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) returning to Atlantis after a mission, only to find the city totally abandoned, all systems dead and the ocean replaced by a wide expanse of sand dunes.

To find out more about Stargate Atlantis' season 4 finale, read on for spoilers.

Sheppard returns to Atlantis disheartened by another unfruitful search for Teyla (Rachel Luttrell), but immediately senses that something's amiss.  He soon realizes that a city has been abandoned, all systems are down and the ocean has become an endless sand dune.  A significantly older-looking McKay (David Hewlett) appears as a hologram and gives Sheppard some devastating news.  Apparently, a freak anomaly has sent the lieutenant colonel more than 40, 000 years into the future, hence the absence of life and civilization.  McKay presents Sheppard with a risky plan to get him back to the past, a plan that will also reverse a future that went horribly wrong.

According to executive producer Joseph Malozzi, the season finale contains a “final shot that will have fandom buzzing from final fade to the opening shot of season five.”  Malozzi also revealed that the episode will be “a bit of tearjerker -- I defy you not to cry or feel sad or pity or slightly dizzy.”

“Hopefully, [fans] won't have to wait too long for the Season Five premiere -- or there could be a riot,” Malozzi also wrote on his blog.  “I love these types of time travel episodes in which the ultimate fate of our beloved characters are foretold -- some telling, others tragic, all touching.”

Alongside tonight's episode of Stargate Atlantis, the SCI FI channel will also be airing a one-minute sneak preview of Stargate: The Ark of Truth, which premieres on DVD on Tuesday, March 11 and picks up where Stargate SG-1 left off.  The DVD includes an audio commentary with writer, director and producer Robert C. Cooper, actor Christopher Judge and director of photography Peter Woeste. Bonus features are also included.

Catch the season 4 finale of Stargate Atlantis tonight at 10/9c on the SCI FI Channel.


-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: SCI FI Channel, Gateworld.net
(Image Courtesy of SCI FI Channel)