The 100 Review: Blood Must Have Blood, Part One, aka Clarke Had That Coming

Sorry Clarke, but you had that coming.

Oh man, what an amazing and wonderful twist at the near end of “Blood Must Have Blood.” It makes perfect sense! The Mountain Men have their backs to the wall, they don’t need the Grounders anymore, so why not offer a deal to return the captured Grounders in exchange for retreat? That’s perfect! Yeah, it sucks for the remaining 45, but this story since the beginning has been about sacrifices and weighing decisions for the greater good. The 45 left behind resulted in rescuing hundreds more, not to mention preventing a lot of bloodshed.


I’m sorry, but I actually cheered when Lexa explained herself to Clarke. “It’s what you would have done.” Damn straight. Clarke’s mission this whole time has been rescuing her people, aka her friends, and her obsession has come at great cost of many others. She hasn’t had much regard for the Grounders inside. She forged the alliance with the promise to save them, but they were never her main focus. Bellamy showed far more regard for those Grounders inside than Clarke ever did. I don’t think Lexa took Clarke’s personal rejection very well either, but that’s another story. Of course that’s assuming that the Grounders truly have retreated. There’s still one more installment this season, and you know there’s probably another twist coming.

Yes, these have been some very harsh lessons for Clarke the leader. Despite her good intentions her focus became too narrow and borderline obsessive, putting lots of people in harms way to save a few of their own. Her only mission was getting them out. In the path of making the “tough choices,” Clarke had forgotten who she is and what her moral responsibilities are to everyone under her lead. 250 people were sacrificed in Tondc to prevent the future deaths of more Grounders, not to save her 45. Abby noticed, Octavia noticed, and maybe in the end Lexa noticed. Clarke fell into the common trap of inexperienced leaders, which is ignoring the greater good for her own obsessive purposes. She insisted everyone follow her lead and didn’t listen to the advice of others, except Lexa. She pulled her “authority” way too many times on her own people, even those far more experienced than herself.  In the end, she was blindsided and unprepared for the developments that happened. Every great leader has a plan B and Clarke was left with none.

Clarke and Lexa’s story is a perfect parallel with Cage and Dante Wallace as well. Clearly Cage’s single minded purpose has doomed his own people as well. He’s executing his own for betraying him, pitting families against families within their own ranks, all with the single minded purpose that they can live on the ground. Except Dante Wallace knows better. What happens when they do get to live on the ground? The mountain has been their fortress, their protection from all people out there. He knows it’s a savage world. He has done what’s best for his people, and making enemies of both the Grounders and the Sky People while roaming the earth freely is not the best idea. Cage is too blinded by his obsession of being able to step outside and breathe the air, he’s forgotten that the safety of his people come first. His half baked idea that capturing more Sky People means more bone marrow didn’t sit well with Dante, who clearly sees that plan is mired in failure.

Then there’s Octavia. She finally won over acceptance from Indra, being called one of them. It was a short lived moment of triumph, but obviously Octavia knew her priorities. She couldn’t retreat. Bellamy was still in there. But still, she must have left a great impression of bravery, because when Indra held that knife to her throat and dismissed her as her second, she didn’t kill Octavia. She left a small cut on her neck. Given the Grounders warrior code Octavia’s defiance meant she couldn’t keep her rank, but it’s a remarkable gesture that she was able to keep her life. That’s Indra’s way of telling her good luck, and it’s pretty awesome. She wishes revenge against the Mountain Men as well, and I suspect her motivation was due to the discovery of that Reaper. Who wants to fathom a guess that it’s her brother or son? I’m really, really, hoping Indra comes back to help in the finale somehow.

Also awesome, Wick and Raven. Yep, I’m with them being a pair now. He’s a really smart and level headed dude, and can see through Raven’s act very easily. She’s scared and she can’t keep pushing people away. I still think he’s too good for her!   I’m still trying to figure out how they got into the mountain so easily, and if they could get in why couldn’t others? Bellamy had to go through some pretty gnarly stuff to get in. Did Bellamy perhaps leave a door open for them or something that I missed? Ah well, it’s beside the point. They did their act of sabotage and were captured together, refusing to leave the other alone.  I’ll be pretty pissed if they went through this trouble to put them together only to have one of them die because of these short sighted Mountain Men.

Considering just about everyone is trapped, I’m not feeling so much terror for Bellamy anymore. For one, he lived up to his promise and freed the Grounders. That has to earn him some points in the long haul. He’s done a lot of great damage inside, and he has ended up being the true hero in this story, no matter what the outcome. His actions have been far more morally grounded than Clarke’s. All I can hope is that his good deeds won’t go unpunished, meaning that someone will come through for him when his luck finally does run out.