User blog comment:Shadow001/Failsafe/@comment-108.15.114.103-20111105025921/@comment-3465526-20111105200940

Deus Ex Machina means "God out of the machine" -- in early Greek theater, when the writers had written themselves into a corner and had no way to resolve their story they would literally have an actor play a god who came down on ropes from a hidden "machine" -- then the God would use his/her God powers to make the story come out right. It's generally considered lazy writing.