Don’t worry The 100, I haven’t forsaken you or written you off. You’re still in my heart!
Due to some very crazy personal circumstances in the months of April, May, and June, I fell very behind on all my shows. I was only able to keep up with Supernatural in live viewing, and that was due to an episode review obligation I have at our flagship site, The Winchester Family Business. Over the next month leading up to Comic Con I plan on catching up on all my missed shows and I’ll share my viewing experiences here. In doing the “eenie, meenie, minee, moe” in the DVR last night, the first show designated for catch up is The 100.
3.09 – Stealing Fire
Kane and Abbey kissed. They finally freaking kissed!! Three seasons of tension and longing glares and in a moment of possible goodbye forever they caved. I love it. I think this moment alone saves any doubts I’ve had about this season.
But yes, as soon as I got the press release that Ricky Whittle was taking a lead role in the new series American Gods (which is looking mighty awesome by the way), I took that to be a sure fire sign that his character would be killed off. Other signs were there too. His character hasn’t had any big moments this season and considering he was being held in lockup, he pretty much had martyr written all over him. I wondered why Pike would be so cruel as to execute him as an example, but given how the season played out, it was one of those “important for later” moments. It didn’t make it any less painful to watch, and I hope Ricky was proud of those last moments. He acted the crap out of a contrived twist.
I can tell you one thing, I’m sick of the Ice Nation. The Grounders have always abided by certain traditions and rules and to just have this bunch come along wanting to rule without playing along doesn’t make for a compelling story. Haven’t they gone along with things before? Why now? Isn’t their King moral now that the Ice Queen is dead? It just makes the whole thing more brutal for no damn good reason other than Game of Thrones goes there. Ontari is too angry, too over the top to make me think that she’ll be a real commander. But I will give her credit for taking a liking to Murphy. That is one very interesting pairing.
Titus turned out to be a pretty strange character, huh? He gave Clarke the flame, aka A.L.I.E. 2.0, shortly after he tried to kill her and killed Lexa by mistake? This show loves to go there with the “lesser of two evils” crap and somehow Ontari is worse than Clarke, but his risk was huge. I mean, he wasn’t handing over a trinket or something. It was the one thing sacred to everything the grounders are and he’s giving it to the much despised Wanheda? On the hope she’d find Luna? No wonder he ended it all in one very messy way. Maybe he realized just how badly he screwed up everything. At least he made things interesting by giving Murphy the title of fake flamekeeper.
3.10 – Fallen
So while Murphy gets all zen and then gets chained up and taken advantage for it (come on dude, you’ve had it worse), Bellamy and Monty get their chance at “do over.” The rest of the season will focus on redemption and the uneasy alliances that have to happen for survival, but I’m still not sure I enjoyed watching the people of the Ark, aka Skaikru, turn against each other so easily. It’s what I didn’t like the most about season one. I just was ready for them all to die in that season because they all had it coming.
You have to wonder, what enticed those two to the other side in the first place? At least Monty’s excuse was his mother. Kane asked Bellamy the exact question I wanted to know, was he helping them for Octavia or because it’s the right thing to do? I’m still not convinced Bellamy knows what the right thing is to do and his non-answer proves that. He’s always had some pretty poor instincts about what’s right but after all he’s been through loyalty to his sister should have been tops on the list. Again, I find his change this season inexplicable and his betrayal of Lincoln unfathomable. How can anyone ever trust him again? Turning over Pike to the Grounders isn’t remotely enough.
The star of this episode though is Raven and this is where this whole A.L.I.E. story ramps up and becomes front and center for the rest of the season. I like any story that shows just how strong and stubborn Raven is, but all those memories coming back to her at once has to be a clear cut sign that any others affected by her will have the same reaction. That cannot be pleasant, and I’m instantly thinking what will Jaha do? But I’m getting too far ahead. Raven could only fight so much and it crushed me to see Abby be forced to take the chip to save the A.L.I.E. controlled Raven from slitting her wrists. I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t like evil Abby. Not fun to watch at all, even if it created some big tension between her and Clarke and her and Kane.
3.11 – Nevermore
The Dropship gang is back together! I’m happy, but talk about group therapy. They’re bickering at one another, but these guys really do have some issues to work out. I’m actually glad the show took time to go there and not gloss things over. But man, there are just some things that one hour is not going to resolve and I wonder how Bellamy and Octavia will be able to recover at all. Those two have some real problems.
I know I’ve been calling “foul” on Bellamy’s actions this season, but what happened is done and the consequences must be addressed. He hurt a lot of people, ones that he never thought about at the time of his quick decision to follow Pike. Niylah was the prime example because her father was one of those that he killed in that ambush. There is a human element behind every decision, and in this episode and the next one, both Bellamy and Clarke are learning the hard way that their actions go well beyond just a couple of individuals. There are real impacts that stretch across whole communities. Oh screw it, I’m still not getting Bellamy’s motivations. I’m still having a hard time believing that he would do all he did considering his friendship with Lincoln. Was he thinking that Lincoln wasn’t like the other grounders so he didn’t count? That was Octavia’s point, he wasn’t thinking. He was lashing out because that is what he does. He sees that he did wrong, which is why he’s helping now, but he still won’t admit that he screwed up. He’s still defending what he did. It’s weak, but the whole premise of his turn was, so we’ll have to side with Octavia on this one.
Remember Raven? The one in true peril here? In between her horrible drama of trying to get A.L.I.E. out of her head, she has to endure Jasper and Clarke rehashing their differences since Jasper is still pissed that Clarke killed his girlfriend. Did Clarke have this coming? Oh yes. But the timing of him lashing out was certainly interesting. He should have done that the second he saw her, not now. Not to mention he’s showing his weakness and A.L.I.E. loves weakness! Raven as A.L.I.E. even tries to turn Jasper against Bellamy as well but Bellamy has already gotten his share from Octavia. There’s nothing Jasper can do to make him feel worse.
I know that this show loves to put these people in impossible situations and see how they react, but what the writers did to Monty was just too cold and pushing things too far. How could he be forced to kill his mother? I know she kind of had it coming, but no one should have to face something that horrible. Sure, she was chipped, but she could have been saved. Maybe I had always hoped for the happy ending for her and Monty after their heartbreaking goodbye in Arkadia. Her death was not inevitable and she would have made for a great redemption story. Deaths become too predictable on this show and I think Hannah’s lost any impact it was supposed to have with forcing Monty into this.
Speaking of useless deaths, I’m already horribly pissed that we’re about to lose Sinclair for no good reason after seeing him in this one. He is the best adult ever because he had no grievances. He was just there to help them survive. That’s why he has to die. There’s no room for rational, level headed behavior in this scenario.
One point was made in all this drama that was quite compelling, each one of these characters has lost someone that they deeply love. Clarke lost Lexa, Bellamy lost his girlfriend (sorry, name escapes me), Monty lost his mother, Jasper lost Mya, Octavia lost Lincoln, and Raven lost Finn. All these guys have is each other. That counts for something, and despite their differences in the end they pulled it together for Raven. Hey, we’ll take a win any way we can.
3.12 – Demons
I thought for sure I was going to hate this one. It’s a total change of pace from what we’ve gotten so far; a slower paced suspenseful story pushing Clarke to face her demons in a most agonizing way. It’s about time she and Emerson had their showdown, and it’s every bit as brutal as we think it would be. He puts her friends in the same situation that his people were in at Mt. Weather and it’s terrifying, even if I knew everyone wasn’t going to die otherwise we’d have a very boring show. The interesting part is Clarke surrendered and he could have killed her easily enough. His quest for poetic revenge ultimately got him killed. Putting the flame in him was pretty damned badass. It was a darned good illustration of what happens if the wrong person takes it. Liquefied brains for the win! But did Sinclair really have to die during all this? What was the point?
I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how Jaha, Abby, and entourage made it to Polis before Pike and Kane. I’m assuming they drove, but they would have had to chipped people just an hour or two before. The logistics don’t add up for me. I’m not happy that the Grounders were overtaken so easily, but at least with Ontari overtaken we know that her life span is short. Not sure why I’m rooting for the Emori/Murphy love story all of a sudden, but I am.
So what have we learned from these four episodes? Because Bellamy was a spineless dumbass he ultimately was responsible for Lincoln getting killed which has now thwarted Clarke’s plan of finding Luna and a rightful leader for the flame she’s carrying that should be in Ontari but Murphy is helping her hide that fact from her people in his role as fake flamekeeper to Clarke’s real one. Ontari decides instead to hurt anyone that questions her rightful place as leader instead of proving she deserves the damn thing, but then she falls into Jaha’s trap anyway and now she’s controlled by A.L.I.E. 1 instead of A.L.I.E. 2. Along the way individual grievances are aired, sons are forced to kill their mothers, and we are having way too many weepy funeral scenes for my liking. You deserved better Sinclair and Lincoln!
Coming up, the final four episodes of the season. At least those didn’t go anywhere near what I predicted.
