The 100 season 3, episode 8 brought us back to Kane and Bellamy’s struggle. Unfortunately, they’re fighting on opposite sides of the war for Arkadia’s soul.
Yes, I’m still bummed about Lexa. But there are a lot of things I love about The 100, and this episode brought home exactly how brilliantly frustrating the Pike storyline has become. The 100 is nothing if not evocative.
We hate this guy, so hard, and it’s almost unbearable to see him win, and win again. The entire basis for his power is that he is Chancellor, and for some reason, that is enough for people to give him complete and unquestioned power to run Arkadia into the ground. (Even though literally no previous Chancellor has been obeyed like this.) It’s infuriating.
And I realized something while watching this week’s episode: The world of The 100 has become an uncomfortable place. Lexa’s death was not only upsetting because of who Lexa was and what she stood for in the real world; within The 100‘s reality, she was a beacon of hope for a better future, in a world that had become increasingly dark and desperate. However complicated Lexa was, her endgame was always peace for everyone, not just her own people. How many others can claim that goal? This is not a fun show right now, and we’re a long way from the season 3 premiere joyride.
Related: The 100 podcast special: Reacting to season 3, episode 7
But I like that. I like being challenged by good storytelling. I like being angry at characters I’m supposed to be angry at. Bonnie Tyler’s “I Need a Hero” kept running through my head as I was writing this review: “Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods?” she asks, and that’s our problem. Lexa was The 100‘s — or at least Clarke’s — hero, and we desperately need a new one. (Of course Clarke herself has always been the show’s true hero, so hopefully this is when she truly gets back in the game.)
But this is the season’s midpoint. We’re in the cave, guys, and things have to get a lot worse before they can get better. I’m along for the ride, and I hope you are too.
Pike 2k16: Make Arkadia Great Again
Kane is right: Pike is a dictator, not a leader. Like Battlestar Galactica did to brilliant effect, The 100 is reflecting the real world politics of its time, and we can only hope to learn from these fictional characters’ mistakes. That’s what makes good storytelling great, and I applaud The 100 for going down this route with Pike.
At the beginning of the episode, Pike and his crew are shocked to discover that the Grounders are fighting back against the ruthless, massacring Trikru invaders. Like, why don’t they just lie down and die, right? Ugh, Pike.
I was thinking what could possibly have prompted his insane attitude, and then I realized: He’s a history teacher, right? So he probably spent all his life reading exciting war stories, imagining sieges and knights and battles for valor and glory. He arrives on the ground, and boom: A clear and unambiguous enemy attacks, its warriors dressed like monsters and killing helpless children. Here is Pike’s chance to become the hero he always dreamed himself to be. I get it. These Grounders probably don’t seem quite real to him, and he has blinded himself to the clear evidence that they are human beings, as opposed to creatures of pure evil.
So, as much as I hate Pike (and hate to give him any sort of leeway), he is clearly scarred by his experiences, and blind to reason.
And if that’s not bad enough, Pike ropes #MyBoyMonty into spying on their people. Blasphemy. But Monty, like Bellamy, is clearly conflicted. Where Bellamy follows Pike because he needs to believe that what he’s done is the right thing for his people, Monty follows Bellamy because he’s seen Bellamy do right by his people. Bellamy may still believe he’s doing just that, but Monty sees right through Pike’s lunacy. He’s following Bellamy.
Meanwhile, I was delighted to discover that #MyGirlHarper has joined Kane’s resistance! Kane, Harper and Miller. On the same team. Have they been reading my fanfiction? (Jk I only write Minty fanfiction, and only in my dreams.)
Harper also has the best line of the episode: “Or we could just shocklash Pike’s fascist ass and hand him to the Grounders.” Not only is this exactly what Kane tries to do later, but it’s also just a much-needed dose of reality for the characters and the viewers. Pike is the worst, and they need to get rid of him like yesterday. This is absolutely, nothing like Finn, who was a desperate child acting out of fear and shock, no premeditation to his actions whatsoever.
With a rebel yell, she cries
YEAAAAAHHH!
Kane, Harper and Miller are not only a collective trinity of perfection, and my dream softball team, they’re also smart. Pike’s plan to double-cross them turns into a double-double cross, and boy do I love it when the good guys are smarter than the bad guys.
Kane enlists Sinclair (Sinclair!!!), who gets himself arrested, all in an elaborate effort to stage a Grounder prisonbreak and distract the guards while Kane captures Pike.
Unfortunately, Kane’s compassion is also his downfall. He can’t run over Bellamy, and Bellamy knows this. He puts himself in front of the car, and Kane has no choice but to surrender.
It’s a nudge for Bellamy’s conscience, yes, but the break doesn’t come until Pike sentences Kane to death.
“The rules were established to serve a world of the past, not of the future,” Kane tells Pike. “I beg you one last time to see the world as it is. Not as it was, or as you want it to be.” Beautiful line and beautiful sentiment, but he’s literally talking to a rock. Pike is a lost cause, and at this point, Bellamy is our best hope of a happy ending — or what passes for a happy ending on this show. I’m very, very worried, you guys.
Pike tells Bellamy that he hopes Kane’s execution “makes it clear where people’s allegiances need to lie.” And it does: Bellamy finally, at last, about goddamn time realizes that he’s on the wrong side of this civil war. I knew he had it in him.
In the hallway, Bellamy and Monty reveal that they know about Harper and Miller’s involvement with Kane. But when Monty’s mother asks, they don’t give up their friends — their people. This is Bellamy’s tribe, and he isn’t loyal to Pike, after all. He’s loyal to his people, always.
It’s a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. And since Miller and Harper are literally my favorites at this point, I’ll take it! Bellamy and Monty are welcome on Kane’s softball team any time.
But what’ll happen to Kane?! The trailer for the next episode is super ominous, but I find it very hard to believe they’ll kill him off only two episodes after Lexa. But what do I know?
Thanks for the memories
Raven and Jaha enlist Jasper, Arkadia’s token drunk layabout (sigh), to steal the chipmaker from Pike. Jasper easily agrees, because this whole “no pain” scenario is obviously exactly what he wants right now.
And this episode got me wondering: Are we supposed to sense something between Jasper and Raven? The line “for what it’s worth, I think you’re more than that” definitely got me intrigued. But I’ve been burned before. Cute “hey, you’re a great thief” sentiments evidently don’t mean what I think they mean on The 100, so I’m not trusting my intuition when it comes to TV couples ever again. Hashtag Minty forever.
Speaking of Monty (when am I not?), the key to getting into Pike’s office is Monty’s password, which Jasper guesses (it’s “Earth.” And here I was hoping it’d be “Nathan”… or “Harper”. Either works), but at the last minute Raven has doubts. Turns out she hasn’t just forgotten the sources of her pain: She’s forgotten the sources of her happiness, too. Her first kiss, how she got Finn’s necklace.
The City of Light is not about making people happy, after all. It’s about leeching them: the more minds are hooked up to ALIE, the more powerful she becomes. Yeah, that won’t be important later or anything, I’m sure.
Raven is smart enough to figure this out though, and turns against ALIE. ALIE is confused. I liked that scene, and I like where this is going.
For your consideration
- WHERE WAS ABBY THIS WEEK?!, please and thank you.
- “What kind of bartender are you?” “First off, I’m not a bartender.” Yes, I lol-ed. Never die, Sinclair.
- Harper. Sinclair. Miller. Murphy. Monty. The 100 has a wealth of great characters, but it truly comes to life because of its incredible secondary cast. I just want all their stories. Is anyone working on backstory comics for these people? Can I?
- So, Miller and his boyfriend. I just… I dunno. I’m waiting for the scene where the show actually gives me a reason to like Bryan, you know? I want to, honestly. But they’re on opposite sides of the war, and after being separated for so long and believing the other to be dead, I just feel like there shouldn’t be this divide between them. Double-crossing each other, keeping secrets, it’s just not OTP material. I’m expecting Bryan to switch sides, which will inevitably lead to the pair making up, but at this point, it’s hard to see why they should. I see more chemistry between Miller and Lincoln at this point than between Miller and his supposed long-term romantic interest, and I really hope Bryan does something to make me like him.
- All that said, for symbolic value I appreciated the hell out of that Miller/Bryan kiss, because I love that we’re living in a time where an interracial m/m kiss can be domestic, undramatic, and full of nuance and conflict. Don’t get me wrong, I like that their relationship is complicated. But Miller is the best, and he deserves the best, so let’s let Bryan be the best.
- Bellamy was so sad about Kane’s sentencing, but what did he think would have happened if his plan to capture Clarke had succeeded? It’d be her sitting in that chair and getting a death sentence. I wonder how he’d have reacted to that.
- Is Monty’s mother the true big bad of the season? Daaaamn. Sometimes I think she’s worse than Pike.
Next time on ‘The 100’ season 3, episode 9
Note that The 100 is taking a break, and will return March 31 with “Stealing Fire.”
Here’s the promo for the next episode:
Out of my mind with worry for Kane, not gonna lie, but I’m choosing to stay optimistic. They wouldn’t, would they?
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