I was hoping this would be one succinct article on the matter instead of a 20+ part journey over the better part of a year. Talk about wishful thinking on my part.

Same here. I got through the first two parts without even seeing an attempt to explain the Conjecture, and gave up.

Sorry to disappoint. My goal isn't to provide a pop science oversimplification but rather lay the foundation for actually understanding the mathematics.

if you go to terry tao's blog at www.terrytao.wordpress.com theres a bunch of lecture notes that do a sexy job of building up to the poincare conjecture and related sexy facts