The 100 season 3, episode 14 “Red Sky at Morning” eliminated all easy options ahead of the finale.

Everything hurts and I’m dying = The 100, a summary.

But it’s not all bad, despite the fact that everything is awful and there’s absolutely no way out of this terrible situation. Right? Right!

For one, Luna is my new favorite human. The Raven-Monty scene broke my heart. Clarke is reaching new levels of ruthlessness, and Murphy, bless his heart, might just be the most conscientious person left on the whole damn ground.

So much to discuss in this last episode before the two-part finale. Let’s dive in (get it?).

Luna: The Vampire Slayer

“Red Sky at Morning” gave us Luna’s entire, fascinating history — and offered a glimpse into how our delinquents’ lives might have turned out if the dropship had landed in the middle of the ocean, and Luna’s people had taken them in.

Luna is a lot like Lincoln, and a lot like Lexa, and yet so much more. We learn in this episode that Luna escaped from her Hunger Games conclave after they made her kill her own brother, not because she was afraid of losing, but because she knew she was going to win.

Like Lexa she wanted a better world, and maybe fleeing her ‘birthright’ wasn’t actually a way to escape it, but rather a recognition that she could never be the Commander the Grounders would need her to be. Instead, Luna left everything she’d ever known for a people with a fundamentally different way of life. She’s clearly some kind of leader, a keeper of the peace — and she’s a freaking badass. I’m so into this character.

Also, despite allegedly having lived in peace ever since, her fighting skills are legit, and I am now convinced that the world of The 100 exists in the same universe as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and that Luna is the Chosen One in more ways than one.

In all seriousness though, I love how Luna is set up in relation to Lexa, and more importantly Clarke. Luna has chosen peace, and her little refuge on the water prove that there is a way to be a Grounder that doesn’t involve kill or be killed. People usually acclimate to the society they grow up in, and most Grounders are probably resigned to a life of fighting and dying, but clearly there are those strong enough to break away.

Unfortunately Clarke, Octavia, Bellamy and Jasper are quite literally the bringers of death, because by finding the oil rig, they also let ALIE find it. Somehow, one of Luna’s people has been chipped, and they try to force Luna to take the chip and allow ALIE access to ALIE 2. Luna pretty much saves herself, but not before having to kill the man we presume she loves. And her grief is complete — her sorrow so amplified by a life of peace.

I’m glad Clarke didn’t get to her, and that Luna, for now, remains with her peaceful people on the oil rig. Selfishly I hope she comes back though, because she’s one of the most enigmatic characters she show has introduced since Lexa. With Clarke gone full Dark Side, we’re gonna need a new logic-minded, chill person to keep everyone else’s feet on the ground.

Clarke, WATER you doing?

Oh Clarke.

This season, our lead heroine has been on quite a strange journey. In season 1 and 2, the show really built her up to be a leader, but as she learned the hard way in the season 2 finale, sometimes the responsibility of saving others comes with grave personal sacrifices. Destroying Mount Weather to save her own people not only filled her with guilt and pain, but it probably also blinded her to the fact that other leaders — Lexa and Luna, specifically — aren’t always gonna make the same, hard choices that she’s made.

For Clarke, it’s very simple: Luna must obviously take the chip, in order to stop the war brewing on the mainland. Clarke, Wanheda, the Destroyer of Worlds, already proved she’s willing to sacrifice her own innocence and an entire faction of people in order to save others. The fact that Luna wouldn’t do the same simply doesn’t comprehend with her, just like when Lexa wanted to show Emerson compassion, and Clarke wanted him dead.

And if Luna won’t do what in Clarke’s opinion is required of a leader, then Clarke has no qualms about forcing her into it. She’s gone way beyond reason or logic, too single-mindedly obsessed with the one thing that’ll finally Save Her People™ (and Lexa, who Clarke clearly still believes is ‘alive’ in some form), and Octavia’s protest, that “Even ALIE gives people a choice,” barely registers.

But it’s Luna who manages to express to Clarke what I really hope she takes to heart: That at this point, Clarke is no better than the Grounders whose violent, merciless ways were so appalling to her in seasons 1 and 2.

“You believe that to defeat an enemy who will stop at nothing, you must stop at nothing. How is that different from ‘blood must have blood’?,” Luna asks her, before drugging the lot of them and sending them back to Kansas, all the ‘easy’ options exhausted.

At this point I’m more and more convinced that Clarke will take the chip herself. She’s so fully consumed with defeating this new enemy, and I see why: Just like with the Mountain Men, having an easily identifiable villain to fight is easy, a clear goal, a clear path to the redemption she thinks she needs.

But seeing as I doubt she’s actually gonna leave the show, she must do it in such a way that it’s possible for her to return to her own body after ALIE is defeated — if the prospect of spending a blissful eternity with Lexa in the City of Light isn’t totally irresistible, of course.

Ready player one

You guys. I am just kicking myself that I already used the “full Monty” joke earlier this season.

Monty and Harper! MONTY AND HARPER! I adore both of these people, and Harper was my second choice for a love interest for Monty (you all know my #1), so this was a very squeeful episode.

But I have so many questions! Like, have they done this before? Do we think they really like each other, or is this more of a f*** buddy kind of situation? Because while I know Monty had very good reasons for being distracted, it just didn’t seem like he was totally into it. Which you’d think he WOULD BE, because HARPER!

Anyway, whatever is going on with them, let’s just make Chelsey Reist a regular already so Harper’s story can start coming to the forefront. I basically just want season 4 to be the Harper and Luna show, is what I’m saying.

Harty/Morper/whatever the hell this ship is called wasn’t the primary focus of the Arkadia story, however, and to be honest, the (very different kind of) tension between Raven and Monty was by far my favorite part of this episode.

Raven, newly superbrained, is obsessed with destroying ALIE, to the point of going against their agreement with the other delinquents and hacking into her mainframe for a one-time-only chance to destroy the AI once and for all.

Monty is very much against this idea, for good reason. As he tells Raven, “you may be freakishly smart, but you’re not an AI.” And while he does leave Raven for a while to do the sexytimes, he runs right back to her side and refuses to leave her alone — both to keep his crazed, sleep-depraved friend company, and to keep her in line.

But Monty does fall asleep, and when he wakes up, Raven is already in the mainframe, going through ALIE’s defenses.

In the City of Light, ALIE swiftly retaliates — by calling up Hannah’s consciousness, and making her speak to Monty through the sound system.

But Monty, precious Monty, understands that whatever part of his mom is in there, it’s not actually his mother. And so he makes Raven delete her from the City of Light, in an absolutely heartbreaking scene.

It’s not as heartbreaking as what comes next, however. Raven is so close, SO CLOSE! to ending ALIE once and for all, but ALIE exits the mainframe at the last second.

And Raven breaks down, finally, devastated that she wasted their one opportunity. Monty is furious, because he told her. And this one exchange between these two helpless teens who are in way over their heads was one of the most real, human moments we’ve had on the show in a long time.

One of my favorite things about The 100 is when the delinquents get to just be friends — no romance, no rivalry, just young people connected by this terrible thing and clashing, making up, and growing closer. Raven and Monty aren’t close, connected only by their shared technical intelligence, and yet they’re sharing this horrific experience. That simple moment might just be one of my favorite scenes of the season.

Guess ALIE just needed some… space

The Polis storyline this week basically breaks down to: Murphy, Indra and Pike form a Dystopian Suicide Squad, and almost save the world, only — like Raven — they’re moments too slow.

Murphy has the ALIE core right there, ready to destroy it. And even after Emori tells him it’s a nuclear fuel cell and will irradiate the city, he’s still willing to go through with it. It’s only when Emori convinces him that everyone’s minds in the City of Light will be lost if he destroys it (which, what?! We’ll get to that) that he backs off. Because at the end of the day, Emori has the key to his rusty heart, and Murphy officially cares too much for his own good.

It’s a great moment for Murphy, but a less great moment for everyone else, because his hesitance means that ALIE has completed the mind “migration” — which, as we learn, means that she’s found her way onto the Ark.

Does that mean we’re going back into space? Does this prove my theory that Jaha was somehow chipped all along? STAY TUNED.

For your consideration

Next week on ‘The 100’ season 3, episode 15

It’s already time for the finale, you guys. I’M NOT READY. But I kind of am ready, because this season has been intense, and I just really want my faves to survive the season so we can chill for a while and get our bearings as a fandom, and write a shit ton of fix-it fanfics.

But I’m expecting the finale to blow me away, so I’m super excited for “Perverse Instantiation – Part One.”

Check out the promo below:

What did you think about ‘The 100’ season 3, episode 14 ‘Red Sky At Morning’?