The 100 season 3 is finally here. I hate to be cliché, but I can’t help it: The show is better than ever. Again. What an episode!

The season 3 premiere of The 100, titled “Wanheda, Part 1,” was everything I was hoping it would be and more. Three months after the events at Mount Weather, all the character dynamics have shifted, relationships have formed or been broken, and the show has — unbelievably — taken a step up from its already incredible season 2.

The writers have mastered the art of not giving the audience what they think they want, but surprising them with what they actually want. And season 3, episode 1 told such a brilliant, compelling story I’m almost willing to forget the Miller/Monty bait-and-switch. (Nah, jk. Sort of.)

Strap in, everyone. The best show on television just got even better.

Welcome to Arkadia, the city of… light?

Three months after Mount Weather’s defeat, Camp Jaha — now Arkadia — is beginning to settle into something that looks a lot like peace. Abby is Chancellor, with Kane assuming position as her second in command, and the two have clearly grown close.

We learn that the ceasefire between the Sky People and the Grounders has held for three months, which means that everyone’s priorities have started to shift from “omg let me try not to die today” to “hmm a piano, let’s play a jaunty tune.” Well… everyone but Jasper, who is a walking reminder (because he reminds everyone, loudly) of what they had to do to the Weathermen in order to live this life of relative luxury.

Bellamy has found himself a lovely lady named Gina, who is delightful and I love her (and she’s surely doomed, so let’s enjoy her while we can), but he seems to be the only one* in a stable relationship. Octavia and Lincoln are at odds because Lincoln wants to be a Skyperson while Octavia wants to be Trikru, and we also learn that Raven has fallen out with Wick — it’s such a serious falling-out, in fact, that Steve Talley is permanently off the show. At least there’s Kabby, right?

Lincoln has been training the Hunger Games tributes delinquents in the arts of combat (and isn’t that just the best idea any of these people have ever had?). Some people want their birth control implants taken out. They hang out at The Bronze in the evenings. Everything is as close to good as it’s ever been.

*Apart from, you know… Miller.

Joyriding through the apocalypse

This episode introduced our new dream team: Bellamy, Raven, Jasper, Monty, Miller, and Octavia (and Finn’s necklace, *sob*). Can we get a hell yes? I was going to write about how these are literally all my favorite people, but then I remembered that almost every single person not included is also my favorite, so. You win this round, show.

After a shirtless scuffle (that’s it, that’s the whole scene), Bellamy hands Lincoln a guard uniform marking him as a member of their people. He then heads out on a scouting mission with what we have to assume is his permanent squad. They’ve got a car now, and Raven is designated driver.

Although Jasper is now a drunken mess, and blames Monty for Maya’s death, he goes on the mission, and brings an iPod. They all jam to Violent Femmes’ “Add It Up,” Miller sings “something won’t let me make love to you” to Monty (and by “something” he means the writers), and everything is glorious.

But their cinematographically stunning moment of teen normalcy is interrupted when the tracker picks up a signal from Farm Station, one of the parts of the Ark that broke off in the fall to Earth. After four months, it seems unlikely that they should still be alive, especially since the tracker is in Ice Nation territory, but they gotta go. You see, Monty’s family is from Farm Station. And so is Miller’s boyfriend.

You guys. What does this mean?!

I’m assuming that Miller’s boyfriend is not, in fact, Monty. Unless those secret boyfriend theories are on to something. It’s not key to the plot or anything, but I honestly think it’s strange that the writers did not just make Miller/Monty a thing. Guess we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out, if it plays out at all. This is exciting news nonetheless, and here’s hoping the Farm Station survivors are still out there somewhere.

In Ice Nation territory, the dream team comes across a small party of Ice Nation warriors, one of whom is carrying the tracker. Jasper, who has a death wish now, walks right up and takes it; the Grounder begins to slit his throat, and Bellamy shoots him. In the ensuing fight, Octavia spears a Grounder with her sword, killing him… and that’s it. That’s the end of their ceasefire. It was fun while it lasted.

Going back, the team splits up. Bellamy sends the rest back to camp while he and Monty track down Kane, who has been meeting with Indra in secret. She has news of Clarke, who is now hunted by all Grounders, and they follow a lead. Unfortunately, they fall into an ambush, and I stg if Monty doesn’t survive this season I will… write an angry article or something. So not that much of a threat, I guess. Moving on.

I am become death, destroyer of worlds

One of the awesome things about The 100 mythology is the intricate Trigedasleng language, cooked up by David J. Peterson. At this point, we know enough words that clever fans were able to figure out ahead of the episode that “Wanheda” had to refer to a leader (heda) of some sort. Wan refers to “wan op,” which means to die (wind + up). Thus Wanheda very literally means die-leader, or as Indra explains, “Commander of Death.”

The Grounders believe that by killing her, they’ll absorb her power. And the Ice Nation Queen really wants that power.

We catch up with Clarke in the woods, where she’s hunting panthers, because of course she is. After a badass takedown, she takes her bounty to a trading post, where we meet her new girlfriend Niylah. What’s this ship name then? Niylarke?

Niylah is wearing one of the 100’s original wristbands, and speaks perfect English, which at first had me convinced she was a delinquent who’d somehow assimilated with the Grounders. That was not the case, but it does lead me to wonder if we’ll discover original Ark survivors casually being part of Grounder clans. Maybe the Farm Station did make it to Earth, and the Ice Nation turns out to be super nice people who took them in? Haha. A girl can dream.

After Niylah and Clarke sleep together, Clarke wakes up from a nightmare. But as she’s trying to escape, she’s captured by the Grounder who came looking for her earlier. Do we think Niylah secretly sold her out? Or did he recognize Clarke on his own?

Jaha Ex Machina

The episode opens with John Murphy, the best character to ever grace our TV screens, who has been locked in the hatch bunker for three months. He’s been watching a bunch of TV (we can all relate to that one), and through the recordings we learn a bit more about how the world ended.

We learn that Allie (A.L.I.E.) was created by a woman named Becca, and took her likeness. We learn that the guy who shot himself (Chris) let Allie out, whatever that means. We learn that Allie was designed “to make life better.” And the real problem? “Too many people.”

Everything suddenly makes a whole new kind of sense.

After a psychedelic shirtless heavy metal trance sequence and a The Martian-style video confessional, Murphy is on the verge of shooting himself. He doesn’t, and then he is saved by Jaha, who has the audacity to claim that he kept Murphy locked up to protect him.

But you know what? Jaha is a goddamn lunatic with a god complex, so what did we expect? I have to admit, I’ve struggled to see his purpose on the show (and I’m still half-terrified they’ll pull a BSG and try to pull some cheap “the angels made me do it” nonsense), but at this point I’m just along for the ride as far as Jaha is concerned. He is CRAZY. I am very entertained.

He gives John a little blue pill (drugs! It’s drugs, right? Dumbo hallucinogenics? What else could it be?!) which will transport him to the City of Light. Where there is “no pain, no hate, no envy.”

But Murphy, who if nothing else has an astounding sense of self, rightly surmises that these are pretty much his core qualities. Except then Emori comes along on a boat, and yeah, maybe there’s a little bit more to Murphy than he likes to admit.

They leave the island, but Jaha is still seeing Allie. He claims he’s converted a nuclear warhead into a power source, but heh. We’ll see how that one turns out for everyone.

Very important questions


Credit: LydiaStilinski

What did you think about ‘The 100’ season 3 premiere?

Here’s the trailer for next week’s episode of The 100, titled “Wanheda, Part 2”: