The 100 season 3, episode 6 tested Clarke (and many of the other characters)’s morality, and introduced an Ark Station plot twist we didn’t see coming… though maybe we should have.

Whoa. How do you say “holy sh**” in Trigedasleng?

For a minute there, I really thought Clarke was going to disappoint me for the very first time. For another minute, I actually thought Monty was going to get killed off. And for the final minute, I thought I was watching Lost.

The 100 season 3, episode 6 mainly served to exacerbate existing crises, but the final reveal has the potential to be a huge gamechanger. And let’s not fail to acknowledge that the Arkadians are now officially the bad guys, which is a HUGE twist on the show’s initial premise. I love it.

Meanwhile, Octavia finally got a solid chunk of story (as did Raven, though I imagine that’s more a source of frustration for a lot of you), and Bellamy continues to make All The Wrong Choices.

Let’s dive in!

The last Mountain Man standing

The episode opens with Clarke drawing Lexa sleeping (cute, but also, whaaaat). Her creepy stalker vampire fantasy is interrupted, however, when Roan sends her a kingly gift: it’s Emerson in a box!

(Is it okay that Roan was my favorite character this week even though he wasn’t actually in the episode? I just imagine him giggling to himself about sending Clarke a man in a box. Worst birthday present ever, amiright?)

As the synopsis for this episode teased, Clarke’s morality would be tested this week. And it was. But honestly, I’m surprised she even came this close to choosing vengeance over mercy. Remember in season 2, when Finn’s punishment seemed so cruel and inhumane? The mountain really has changed her.

Luckily for the audience, Lexa continues to be the voice of reason (oh how I love her, and oh how I worry for her), telling Clarke that this whole “blood must not have blood” thing has to go all ways.

But Clarke claims there is a difference between stopping a war, and finishing one. “He deserves to die for what he did,” she says.

Titus, who is really beginning to become a major player, later sits Clarke down and explains to her how her talk of peace is putting Lexa at risk. Which is true. But I just have one question about their ensuing conversation.

When Titus says, “Did you not wipe out his people for what a few of them did to yours?” is he not just plain wrong? Clarke’s actions at Mount Weather, while horrific in hindsight, were NOT done out of vengeance. Clarke and Bellamy took desperate measures to save people. Sacrificing innocents was never their goal.

What they did, they did for the captured, innocent delinquents who were being tortured inside the mountain. When they released the gas, they didn’t want to hurt innocent people. They wanted to free innocent people, and the moral dilemma came because they had to choose one group of innocents over another. (I suppose the real moral quandary here is whether the ends should justify the means.)

Right now, if the Grounders were planning an attack on Arkadia to free their captured friends, that would be much more comparable. But let’s not be so quick to equate Clarke and Bellamy sacrificing innocent Mountain Men to save their own innocent friends with the Grounders’ hypothetical slaughtering of every human being in Arkadia out of a blind desire for revenge.

Anyway, Clarke eventually decides to let Emerson go and let him live with his regrets, which is obviously the right call, but it was nonetheless strange to see her so conflicted. Again, Clarke has never struck me as the vengeful type — but we’ve seen Emerson bring the worst out of her before, so it was definitely consistent with her character.

The worst field trip ever

Ugh, you guys, say it with me: Pike is…

But even worse than the worst is frickin’ Monty’s mother, am I right?! I always say the people who follow the mad leaders are the true crazies, because at least the leader can be excused by some twisted God complex or desire for power.

For some reason, Miller appears to be the only sane delinquent left in Arkadia, working with Kane and Octavia to save the Grounder village, while Bellamy and Pike have gotten not only Monroe and Monty on their side, but also Miller’s boyfriend?! Awkward pillow talk much? (Also why do all these people’s names begin with M? Coincidence? We ask the big questions here.)

And look, I get that Monty is probably a bit blinded by his mother’s influence, and Monroe (sad face) was always loyal to Bellamy before anyone else. But standing around a table debating whether they need to put their own people’s needs over the Grounders’ is one thing. Actually going on the mission with loaded guns, ready to kill innocent Grounders, is QUITE another.

Considering that neither Monty or Bellamy are soldiers, and therefore haven’t been trained to mindlessly follow orders, I’m not sure I get their motivation for actually going on the slaughtering mission. They could have said no, right? Please hit the comments with your thoughts.

In an effort to stop the war (and save Bellamy’s soul), Octavia sets out the warn the Grounders. The price is a bloody lip and a few bruises, but they do leave — only not before planning a nasty surprise for the Arkadian squad. This sad and baffling expedition ends with Monroe dead — and for a moment, I legit thought we lost Monty too. Transcript of my actual notes while watching the episode:

The poisonous resin explodes, and we lose Monroe and OHK MONTYU WHAT??? Are you kidding me?!!!!

Ohhh. They were kidding me. For god’s sake JRoth

So yeah, clearly Monty is still my fave, even though he makes bad choices. I predict (read: hope) that he’ll be the next one to turn on Pike.

RIP MONROE: Sigh. I understand that the delinquents had to lose one of their own to remind them of how serious this is, and I am unabashedly relieved it didn’t have to be Monty. But it’s always sad to lose one of the original crew, and I’m very sorry to see Katie Stuart leave the show. You will be missed!

In more bad news, Pike and Hannah of course blame Octavia for what happened, and it seems like Bellamy does, too. (At this point I would not be surprised to find out that Pike is in fact the other AI, brainwashing them all with his stupid blind conviction.) Pike and Bells decide to uncover the traitor in their midst, and we’re led to believe they’ll go after Kane. Uh-oh.

To sum up this storyline: Miller and Octavia are the best, and literally everyone else is the worst. Good times.

Who the hell is Bucky Wells?

(You know, just in case you forgot.)

Now stuck between two crazy fanatics, Abby and Kane are acting as the sole voices of reason trying to calm everyone the f*** down. So far, they’re failing spectacularly. Their only allies are Miller and Octavia (who is currently incapacitated)… yeah, this will not end well. At least they have “hope,” right? ;)

Right now, the lesser of two evils is Jaha, who is handing out forever chips to willing Arkadians who just want to escape their pain. It’s not a drug, Abby learns; it’s a neural inhibitor blocking the brain’s pain receptors.

That in itself is pretty sketchy. There’s a reason we aren’t all amped up on painkillers and antidepressants in real life, after all. But it turns out there’s another terrible side-effect: People who’ve ingested the chip begin to forget about Wells their sources of pain!

Jaha has forgotten his son (…and I’m sure he’s not the only one, eh? Wonder if Clarke ever accidentally swallowed one of those things!), and Raven appears to be forgetting Finn, who is of course the main source of her own heartbreak.

But that’s not all: Jaha and ALIE recruit the now doped-up Raven to access the Ark’s mainframe, in search of an “upgrade” — another AI, which they find out was actually on the supposedly destroyed 13th station. Cue Michael Giacchino, because we’re in for a Smoke Monster worthy reveal!

“No, WE’RE the survivors of Flight 815!”

I knew it. Well, okay, I had no idea, but somehow as soon as the remains of the 13th station were revealed, it felt like it had been obvious all along that this would eventually happen. All the way back in season 1, the fate of the 13th Station was set up as a mystery that would eventually demand an explanation, and I’m so glad we’re finally getting one.

Last week, we were curious about why the Grounders who captured Murphy seemed to know about the forever chips — and really, we probably should have been even more curious about why they all seemed to know about the City of Light in the first place.

Turns out the 13th space station, the one that was supposedly obliterated to unite the other 12 and form the Ark, crash-landed on Earth some unknown number of years ago (do we know the exact number?). A piece of it, bearing the letters “POL IS” (which I assume once spelled out “POLARIS”*) closes out the episode. So now, let’s consider the possibilities.

Are some of the Grounders descendants of the 13th, uh, tribe? Are these, perhaps, the Nightbloods? (This would explain why their blood mutated, because they’d be less resistant to radiation damage.) Surely not all the Grounders could have descended from this station, right?

And do we think the other AI is running around messing with the Grounders’ minds? Actually, at the beginning of the episode when Lexa claims the past leaders spoke to her in her dream, the fleeting thought did cross my mind that she had a chip implanted in her head as well which allows her to “see” things that aren’t there.

I also have to give a shoutout to an old favorite show of mine, Lost, which I’ve been reminded a lot of during these past few episodes of The 100. Not only was the Bellamy/Clarke scene last week highly reminiscent of the Jack/Kate scene from the third season of Lost, but this whole idea of there being other survivors of the space stations is very “The Other 48 Days.”

I love this twist though. It just serves to blur the lines further between the Arkadians and the Grounders, and to tie them all into this crazy technology which will probably take center stage as soon as Pike is (hopefully) disposed of. I’ve been into the Jaha storyline ever since we learned that the City of Light might be a virtual reality, so I’m super excited to see how Grounder mythology will tie into it all.

*Yes, it did! Via “Bitter Harvest” (and, notably, “Unity Day”) writer Kira Snyder:

For your consideration

http://lxparrilla.tumblr.com/post/140011819686/lets-call-it-hope

Next week on ‘The 100’ season 3, episode 7

In “Thirteen,” Lexa continues fighting Clarke’s fight, and we’ll be treated to a super rare flashback sequence! I can’t wait!

Check out the promo:

I want more ‘The 100’ news!