It’s the penultimate episode of The 100 season 2. And true to the show’s style, everything took a turn for the worse.
It’s official: The 100 has gotten so dark, I actually can’t see what’s going on. Seriously though. In those tunnel scenes I couldn’t see anything. Dear color graders (you know I love you), maybe up the brightness just a tad?
Anyway, so, that’s the last I’ll say about lighting this week, because WHOA. I’m surprised. I’m confused. I feel personally betrayed. And that, my friends, is the beauty of The 100.
The funny thing is, we’ve always known that Lexa is not like the other Grounders. She values peace in a way few Grounders do, and exactly because of this instinct to be merciful, Lexa fights extra hard to prove (to her people and herself) that she is as cold and clinical as she can be.
Her betrayal of Clarke and the alliance was, ironically, the most anti-Grounder thing she could have possibly done. Because here’s the thing: yes, she put her people first. But blood did not have blood. While Clarke was being calm and mission-focused, Lexa was riling her people up for a fight, ready to kill everyone who’d ever tried to hurt her people. “Blood will have blood. The Mountain will fall.” Everyone fell for it, including us.
But by choosing to retreat from a fight, after treating with their enemies and abandoning their allies, Lexa never actually got blood for blood. Some Grounders might see that as a cowardly move, and I think it’s going to backfire spectacularly.
But let’s talk about other stuff first, and come back to this at the end when we’ve had time to calm down and no longer want to angrily throw stacks of paper at Emerson (hands down, funniest part of the episode).
Echo! Echo… echo… echo…
That name really foreshadowed the total lack of despair Bellamy must have felt at the end of the episode, huh?
Guys, when will we learn not to take things The 100 gives us at face value?! Fess up, how many of you were already kind of beginning to ship BellamyBellamy (thanks Dorothy Fortenberry, I’m still giggling about that one)?
It all seemed perfect. She was hot, she had that sexy slashed mummy look going for her, and she was ready to muster an – albeit pathetic – army up behind the enemy lines. Did you see the way the Grounders were let out of the mountain? Those poor bastards couldn’t have put up a fight if they’d wanted to.
Thinking everything was going right (hahahahaha oh Bellamy), Bells hops back into the vents he now calls home and emerges to conveniently – and temporarily – save Maya’s dad. Miller works his magic, and by magic I mean muscles, and that’s one group of delinquents safe. Only problem? Monty’s in the other group.
This was hilarious. Jasper, Bellamy and Maya run off to save the last 12 kids, and as soon as Monty conveniently reveals that he evaded capture, they completely abandon the other 11. The #Jonty was strong this week. But was anyone else a little bit upset Miller didn’t join the Monty-and-maybe-everyone-else-if-they’re-nearby rescue mission?
The hilarity stopped very quickly of course, when they got to the Grounder cages to find Maya’s dad dead and the inside army gone. Damn. And speaking of damns…
Hey Raven, water you doing? #DamJokes
Wick and Raven, I’m counting on you two to be the new powercouple. You can never ever betray each other on the turn of a dime because the story calls for it. My heart can’t handle it.
Also, I’m reeeeeally liking the CSI feel their scenes have. So much banter and science talk I don’t really understand.
But at least their mission was simple enough: they went to the dam to blow up Mount Weather’s external power generators, which would turn off the power holding the door shut for exactly one minute until the backup generator turned on.
It’s basically the post-apocalyptic equivalent of saying, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” And hey, it worked on Lincoln……. (Think about it.)
Of course the damn dam is not left unprotected. Wick has his first kill, and then they pull a Bellamy and conveniently blow up their foes while miraculously surviving with only minor cuts and bruises.
Then the most beautiful, heartbreaking scene happens. Wick wakes up and tries to carry Raven (whose brace is broken) away, only to realize he can’t do it. She starts to speak, and he cuts her off. “I’m not going anywhere without you.” But that’s not what she was going for. “Please don’t leave me.” It’s Raven finally, at the end of all things, allowing herself to be fragile. Letting Wick in, just as everything seems lost.
It’s a good thing the promo showed them alive (…for now), because I was just waiting for the screen to cut to black and the gunfire to start. Oh god. Nothing like certain death to make you truly appreciate how much you NEED some of these characters to survive, right?
Octavia of the…?
Well. So much for our “Lexa dies and Octavia becomes Commander” theory, right? In a parallel universe, this totally could have happened, but I guess this is more interesting. Or whatever. I’ll just write a fanfic about it.
Octavia gets ONE moment of feeling like she belongs this week. Indra dubs her “Octavia of the Tree People,” and states, “you’re one of us now.” Octavia is visibly elated, because all she’s ever wanted was to find a people that accepted her.
This only makes her choice at the end of the episode so much stronger. Because ultimately, she’s always going to be part of a tribe of two: herself and her brother. It’s nice to see that even after everything, Octavia still stays true to that.
She’s her own person and she’s been going down her own path this year (without Bellamy or Lincoln getting a say), but ultimately, you can’t take away the years she spent on the Ark with her brother. He’s the only one who never abandoned her, and she’s not going to abandon him now.
They hear the retreat signal, and Indra leaves. The Sky People leave. Octavia is alone. Octavia of the nothing – for now. Because of course she’ll only rise up stronger after this (if she survives). She and Lincoln are both anarchists, ultimately, and I truly believe they’re the key to some kind of new society – not quite Grounders and not quite Sky People. But it all depends on what happens next week, of course; I’m officially done trying to make predictions!
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