Season 4 (2003–2004)
In season four, Dylan is nearly outlawed by the Systems Commonwealth he himself had restored. The Collectors (originally keepers of historical information unknown to anyone else), allied with the Spirit of the Abyss, manipulate the fragile government of the New Commonwealth to show him in a bad light. The Abyss infiltrates the Commonwealth using many other agents as well.
Eventually the Collectors unite with Tyr Anasazi and his newly united Nietzschean Prides. Tyr mistrusts the Spirit of the Abyss, but hopes to defeat it. He tries to find a map to the Route of Ages — a portal connecting all galaxies together. It is possible to weaken the Abyss by passing through it. Dylan gets the map instead, but he allows Tyr to follow Andromeda through the Route of Ages, as Tyr knows more about the Abyss. Andromeda is transported into a weird universe where thoughts manifest as reality. With Trance's help, Dylan defeats and kills Tyr Anasazi who tried to make a deal with the Abyss.
Since the Route of Ages closes before the Andromeda can get back, Dylan has to use Trance's help. She reveals that she is the Avatar of the Sun, with "the power to create and destroy". Trance destroys Andromeda and re-creates it in the right universe.
In this season, Dylan also finds a new crew member — Nietzschean Telemachus Rhade, who does not accept his race's betrayal of the Commonwealth and agrees to join Dylan. Rhade proves to be more manageable than Tyr Anasazi, whom he helped Dylan defeat.
The Magog evolve and become more intelligent and cunning. In the season finale their Worldship is rediscovered. It is heading towards the Arkology, an old space station with very pacifist population. Dylan frantically tries to convince them that they have to defend themselves, but the people of the Arkology hope to make peace with the Magog.
They pay dearly for that mistake, as the Magog never make peace with anyone. Andromeda tries to defend the Arkology against the Worldship, but is horribly outnumbered. The Arkology is destroyed with all its inhabitants. Rhade, Beka and Harper are left in absolutely hopeless situations. Rommie explodes after being shot through her stomach while saving Harper from the Magog.
Trance asks Dylan to escape on a slip fighter through the Route of Ages, claiming that now there is nothing more important than saving his life; Marlowe, Arkology's leader (who had disappeared several hours before the battle) tells Dylan that they both are Paradine, two of the few ancient beings with incredible powers. Dylan reluctantly leaves through the Route (in a strange sequence where he finds himself in a large dark room and seemingly meets another version of himself). Trance turns into a sun and crashes into the Worldship on the Andromeda.
| No. | # | Title | Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | 1 | "Answers Given to Questions Never Asked" | September 29, 2003 (2003-09-29) | 401 |
| Dylan receives a message from a collector claiming to have a hostage, and finds the remains of the Commonwealth fleet, leading them to the All Forces nullification point. | ||||
| 68 | 2 | "Pieces of Eight" | October 6, 2003 (2003-10-06) | 402 |
| Citizen 8 threatens to replace members of the Commonwealth, including Dylan, with help from his foreseeing slave. | ||||
| 69 | 3 | "Waking the Tyrant's Device" | October 13, 2003 (2003-10-13) | 403 |
| Andromeda encounters the builder of the Worldship and has to stop him before he launches another invasion by the Abyss. Ultimately the new World Ship is destroyed, but the bad guy manages to escape. | ||||
| 70 | 4 | "Double or Nothingness" | October 20, 2003 (2003-10-20) | 404 |
| Dylan is kidnapped and forced to play mind games for the amusement and monetary gain of weapon dealers. | ||||
| 71 | 5 | "Harper/Delete" | October 27, 2003 (2003-10-27) | 405 |
| "File D", a flexy that can erase people's minds, is in the hands of two warring siblings, with Andromeda and Harper trying to prevent its activation. | ||||
| 72 | 6 | "Soon the Nearing Vortex" | November 3, 2003 (2003-11-03) | 406 |
| Tyr Anasazi joins with the Collectors to find the Route of Ages, thinking it will stop the Abyss. Rhade, who lost Tyr as his prisoner, joins the Andromeda crew. | ||||
| 73 | 7 | "The World Turns All Around Her" | November 10, 2003 (2003-11-10) | 407 |
| Beka and Tyr are pulled through the Route of Ages, where the crew of the Andromeda pursue and confront Tyr as he prepares to offer Dylan to the Abyss in exchange for Nietzschean safety in the upcoming war. Dylan and Rhade rescue Beka, but are forced to kill Tyr as they escape. After Andromeda gets trapped in the Route of Ages, Trance reveals her true nature as the Avatar of a Sun and saves the crew, though only Dylan is aware of the truth. | ||||
| 74 | 8 | "Conduit to Destiny" | November 17, 2003 (2003-11-17) | 408 |
| Fate brings Dylan full circle to fulfill a planet’s destiny three hundred years in the making when the crew return to a planet where a a woman is supposed to merge with a power source. Dylan helps her do so and defeats the person trying to use her for her own gain and reveals that he was the mysterious soldier that had saved her life three hundred years before and never returned despite his promise because he got trapped in the black hole. | ||||
| 75 | 9 | "Machinery of the Mind" | January 12, 2004 (2004-01-12) | 409 |
| The crew thwarts an assassin’s attempt to steal the minds of the Commonwealth’s most brilliant scientists. | ||||
| 76 | 10 | "Exalted Reason, Resplendent Daughter" | January 19, 2004 (2004-01-19) | 410 |
| Dylan hunts down a notorious outlaw who has kidnapped a Commonwealth leader’s daughter. Things are revealed to not be what they seem: the daughter was set up to be murdered by her insane father and the outlaw is actually more of a Robin Hood type charchter rather than a villian. After stoppin the woman's attempted assassination by her own father, Dylan invites the outlaw and his coalition of more than 1,100 planets to join the Commonwealth in exchange for his freedom and allowing him to marry the woman. | ||||
| 77 | 11 | "The Torment, the Release" | January 26, 2004 (2004-01-26) | 411 |
| Dylan is arrested and tried by the Collectors and Triumvirs for high crimes against the Commonwealth. | ||||
| 78 | 12 | "The Spider's Stratagem" | February 2, 2004 (2004-02-02) | 412 |
| When the Andromeda intercepts a shipment of Living Armor, Dylan goes in search of its creator and learns a deadly secret. | ||||
| 79 | 13 | "The Warmth of an Invisible Light" | February 9, 2004 (2004-02-09) | 413 |
| While trying to escape pursuing ships and low on fuel, Andromeda ends up in a dead galaxy and try to use a new device of Harper's, which accidentally transfers Dylan to an alternate universe where he died a hero after stopping the Nietzchean rebellion three hundred years ago and Andromeda has been turned into a museum. In the new reality, the Commonwealth never fell, but Harper, now part cybernetic and manipulated by the Abyss, has taken it over with Rhade as his second in command and Beka the general of the rebellion. Dylan teams up with the alternate Rommie and a part of Trance that enters that reality looking for him to stop Harper. With the help of Beka, Dylan leads a counter-rebellion on board Andromeda and tries to reach out to Harper, believing he still has good in him. Alternate Rommie and Beka defeat Harper's forces, but Rhade activates Andromeda's self-destruct. Harper, who Dylan did reach, decides to surrender, but Rhade kills him as the self-destruct reaches zero. However, Andromeda reveals she tricked him and orders Rhade to surrender as Harper's rule has now been overthrown. Beka and Rommie plan to work together to restore the Commonwealth to its former glory with the help of the Andromeda and Dylan has Trance return him to his world with Harper's device. Before she does, Trance gives him a "gift," the word "Almathea" and upon his return, Dylan finds out he has only been gone thirty seconds. There, he learns that by rigging up the Eureka Maru to the Andromeda, the ship can now reach a nearby star, but unless one goes supernova, they won't be able to refuel. Dylan learns that one of the stars is Almathea and orders Andromeda to it. Almathea goes supernova and Andromeda is able to refuel. Trance mourns the loss of Almathea as the star sacrificed itself for Andromeda. | ||||
| 80 | 14 | "The Others" | February 16, 2004 (2004-02-16) | 414 |
| The crew steps in to mediate an apocalyptic war in order to halt genocide and cure a fatal disease. | ||||
| 81 | 15 | "Fear Burns Down to Ashes" | February 23, 2004 (2004-02-23) | 415 |
| The Collectors trap Dylan in a life or death test using former crew member Rev Bem as bait. | ||||
| 82 | 16 | "Lost in a Space that isn't There" | April 5, 2004 (2004-04-05) | 416 |
| The crew discover that Beka's behavior is being influenced by the Abyss after a Restorian attack, forcing Dylan to carry out a dangerous plan to rid her of its influence by travelling into Beka's mind. Dylan ultimately manages to trap the Abyss in a VR matrix, but it starts to take over Andromeda so Trance enters the matrix and uses her powers to defeat it. | ||||
| 83 | 17 | "Abridging the Devil's Divide" | April 12, 2004 (2004-04-12) | 417 |
| Harper is captured by the Patriarch to build a bridge across time so he can bring an army of the future to the present, but the future is not what it seems. | ||||
| 84 | 18 | "Trusting the Gordian Maze" | April 19, 2004 (2004-04-19) | 418 |
| The Triumvirate sends a beautiful spy to tempt Dylan and retrieve the Star Map. | ||||
| 85 | 19 | "A Symmetry of Imperfection" | April 26, 2004 (2004-04-26) | 419 |
| Rommie’s emotional decisions sever her connections with the ship’s systems, leaving the Andromeda vulnerable to a Magog attack. | ||||
| 86 | 20 | "Time Out of Mind" | May 5, 2004 (2004-05-05) | 420 |
| The Abyss sends agents to murder the True Collectors and find their hidden library. | ||||
| 87 | 21 | "The Dissonant Interval (Part 1)" | May 10, 2004 (2004-05-10) | 421 |
| Andromeda saves a transport from Arkology, a peaceful society on a space station, who is now the target of the Worldship. Dylan also learns of his true heritage as a Paradine. | ||||
| 88 | 22 | "The Dissonant Interval (Part 2)" | May 17, 2004 (2004-05-17) | 422 |
| When Dylan can't move the Arkology, he chooses a stand off which he can't win. Things go badly: Rhade is surrounded, Rommie is destroyed, Harper is found by a Magog and Beka is presumably killed while Arkology is destroyed and Andromeda is invaded by Magog and severely damaged with the only survivors being Trance and Dylan. Dylan tries to destroy the World Ship by firing every Nova Bomb Andromeda has at it, but does little damage. Andromeda repels the Magog by venting her atmosphere and Trance convinces Dylan to abandon ship in a Slipfighter for the Route of Ages while she deals with the World Ship. As Dylan heads into the Route of Ages, Trance pilots Andromeda into the center of the World Ship, firing every missile the ship has as she goes to clear the way, saying her goodbyes. As Andromeda loses power, the ship enters the center of the World Ship and Trance goes supernova apparently destroying the World Ship. Dylan enters the Route of Ages where he encounters another version of himself. The two Dylan's stare at each other for a moment before the other one walks away. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Andromeda Episodes, Episode List
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