We found out those stupid equations at the waterfall were done by the Commander's son and they are him trying to find a way to make the portal go both ways.  He has now apparently made it work and BAM that's the "cliffhanger" going into the season finale next week.

Oh thank god I'm not the only one.  Yes, I pretty much thought the same thing when I saw that as well as a few other things.  One of which I mentioned in a disturbingly similar post to yours just ten mins ago.

Ok, so this is nickpicky and damn nerdy but it did bother me a bit.  If it would take some mega future computer like "Theeee Eyeee" one hour to factor an equation for god knows what set, then it would take a human way, way longer then a few weeks or months to do the same calculations by hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watc…

"A curtain of stars, miles of them, are scattered, glowing, across the sky and their multitude humbles me, which I have a hard time tolerating.  She shrugs and nods after I say something about forms of anxiety.  It's as if her mind is having a hard time communicating with her mouth, as if she is searching for a…

"I wish I had a father!?"

Well, while I do agree with your overall tone here, I mentioned in my post above that Commander Taylor says that Lt. Washington was OTG (oh christ look at me) for a few days.
So…hey..look at that!  The writers at least tried to cover their asses on this totally stupid plot hole/plot contrivance.  That's a stab at…

Ugh..I can't believe I know this, but I'm pretty sure at the beginning of the episode Commander Taylor said that Lt. Washington was away guarding a survey team at an outpost or something and that's why she wasn't in charge and it fell to Jim.