What I got from Bloom the engineer's comment to MacLaren about things being in the hands of the Director was that the whole scenario had been gamed out from beginning to end, and this is the way it needed to happen. Perhaps some other complication would've arisen had they done it the "straightforward" way.

I know this discussion is old but I just got to this episode and it pissed me off it how bad it was. They couldn't shoot the soldiers even though they knew they'd be dead soon anyway. They don't even bother trying to flip the switch before the soldiers can shoot them because they can just take the next body which means the needless deaths here are all the extra consciousnesses they have to send back, however that works.

The only way to explain all the choices they made in this episode is that they wanted that final scene with the soldiers being taken over which is just bad writing.

@Mrsalty said:

I know this discussion is old but I just got to this episode and it pissed me off it how bad it was. They couldn't shoot the soldiers even though they knew they'd be dead soon anyway. They don't even bother trying to flip the switch before the soldiers can shoot them because they can just take the next body which means the needless deaths here are all the extra consciousnesses they have to send back, however that works.

They weren't allowed to kill the soldiers as long as they could still leave and be able to reach safe distance. Once it was too late, only then did they become fair game. Yes this compulsive obedience to the rules ended up costing some of their own people their lives. But they've said it was hard wired into the Director that he literally couldn't take lives outside of the established framework.

The only way to explain all the choices they made in this episode is that they wanted that final scene with the soldiers being taken over which is just bad writing.

The only thing that mattered was making sure the button got pressed. If you have the rogue soldiers try to shoot it out with their douche bag CO it's possible they kill each other and no one's left alive. By making him use up all his ammo so he couldn't kill himself, then taking him over, they ensured the mission would be successful and the world would be saved. At the cost of a handful of their people being sent for the express purpose of eating a bullet - willing volunteers, ready to die for the cause. From the point of view of cold blooded time traveling strategy it makes sense.