Let’s talk about season 5!
Yes, I know we have nine months to get into all this, but I’ve been sitting with this episode all alone for a week, unable to talk to anyone about it, so I don’t care that this review is already super long: I HAVE A THEORY and I need to share it right now.
In the flash forward, Clarke implies she’s been radioing Bellamy every day for six years without getting a response (Ryan Gosling’s got nothing on her). She wonders why they haven’t returned, more than a year after it’s been safe to come down.
And when a ship does come down, it’s not Raven’s rocket, but a “prison transport” from the Eligius Mining Corporation — which was smoothly referenced earlier this season, when we learned that Becca originally developed the Nightblood for them, to protect the crew from solar radiation.
And that would appear to be our main conflict for season 5: a small patch of land, and (at least) two separate peoples fighting to live there. Maybe the prison ship is carrying an advance group — maybe a hundred, wink wink — sent down to test survivability. Skaikru vs Grounders/Mountain Men. Time is a circle.
There’s no way of knowing why Eligius is here, and why now. They could have always been planning a return to Earth after the second apocalypse (there’s no reason to assume they’d be as clueless about what’s been going on on the ground as the Ark survivors clearly were), or they were actually called back by the ALIE tech that was presumably lying dormant until Clarke powered the Ark back up. For all we know, they got the ‘call’ from ALIE the moment the Ark became operational again. (Hell, they could be in cryo sleep.)
But I’m thinking: should we really be so quick to assume that Bellamy and co. have been living in isolation on the Ark for six years while this was happening? Who’s to say they’re even on the Ark anymore?
Even if the ALIE tech didn’t make contact with Eligius, it’s pretty hard to miss a glowing ring in the sky when flying in from outer space. Raven, Bellamy and the others might be Eligius prisoners now, or maybe they’ve joined up with them, realizing that this is their best bet to get back to the ground. Maybe this happened recently, or maybe their days on the Ark were numbered the minute they activated the ALIE tech. Maybe they’ve been separated. Maybe one of them betrayed the others for Eligius. Maybe they’re in danger, and Clarke needs to rescue them. Maybe some of them are coming down on that ship. Maybe maybe maybe.
Obviously I could spitball ideas all day; the point is that they made the time jump really long for a reason — clearly, some shit’s been going down. Six years is just too long to leave seven characters in stasis, even if the story is skipping over that part. And it would be a shame to skip over that part, since they just got them back to space!
We have no idea where they are or what they’ve been through for the past six years. They deliberately didn’t show us anyone but Clarke in that flash forward. That’s exciting! I’d love to see the show using that ambiguity to really surprise us in season 5, and what better way than to weave the Space Squad into this seemingly out-of-nowhere storyline, giving us an ‘in’ to learn more about Eligius through the eyes of the people we already know?
If Eligius is our Battlestar Pegasus to Arkadia’s Galactica, we need a character-connection to carry us through and tie the two factions of characters together, after all.
It’d also answer the question of “what the hell did they do up there alone for six years?” without going full-on Sense 8 on us (or should I say… Sense ∞ ?). If we’re gonna get a mix of flashbacks and ‘present time’ in season 5, surely their source of conflict can’t be solely interpersonal? Or maybe it can? Maybe they really are a fully functioning 7 (plus?) person society up there.
But involving them in a bigger plot would make their flashbacks really exciting and directly relevant to the new storyline. Plus, when they meet back up with Clarke, they’ll be strangers to her, and to us, rather than just have been sitting around waiting to go home again.
Of course in all likelihood, what actually ends up happening is some impossible-to-predict fourth option! I just don’t think we should assume that things are as they appear in the flash forward — this is The 100, after all, and things are never that simple.
So that’s my theory, to get the speculation train rolling. And now I’d love to hear yours!
For your consideration
- Murphy and Monty’s side-mission was incredible. They got to talk about Jasper, again calling back to the very beginning, and Murphy is such a gossip, I love it. And even though Murphy picks the machine he’s making the smart choice — exactly the choice Monty made in 402 — and he does go back for Monty afterwards. The boys’ group hug session is so cute, and also leads me to believe (hope) that Monty and Murphy are BFFs in the future. <3
- There are so many moments and pieces of dialogue in this episode that stand out to me but my favorite scene might actually be the one where Raven, Emori and Harper are working on the rocket together. Just three ladies getting shit done. Thank you, The 100, for being so matter-of-fact about this, to the point where I think we even forget to notice or appreciate it sometimes.
- You guys, how cute were Emori and Echo’s reactions to Raven in Zero-G? Emori was so excited and Echo was just totally baffled by it all.
- “Can’t we give her another minute?!” What a wonderful moment of humanity for Emori, which also adds another layer to the tentative connection that’s formed between her and Clarke.
- Serious question: are Monty’s hands okay?
- The shot of Clarke’s eyes in the flash forward weirds me the hell out. From that angle, Eliza Taylor looks almost too much like Evan Rachel Wood in Westworld for it to be a coincidence. (“I’m in a dream,” anyone?) The extreme blue-ness of her eyes also gives me major The Host-vibes. Does it mean anything?! Is it just a stylistic choice?! Aaahhhhh!
- I didn’t screenshot it, but did the rings on the side of the tower corresponded to Lexa’s back tattoo? I don’t know if the Lexa connection was intentional, or another implication of the Becca-Grounder connection that still hasn’t been fully explored.
- “The bunker’s GONE silent.” What does that mean? Is Clarke just referring to when Praimfaya hit, or has she been in contact with them since?
- Before even seeing this episode, I’d decided that “I See You” — the song that plays in the flash forward — was my favorite track off Tree Adams’ The 100 season 4 soundtrack. I think this is a good indicator that I’ll like season 5.
- How cool would it be if season 5 opens with a reprise of Bellamy’s “we were born in space” narration, but this time it’s Clarke going, “I was born in space”?
- If we’re going by the time jump playbook, someone’s gonna 1) have a flash forward beard, 2) have lost an eye (my money’s on Miller), 3) have broken up with their s.o./gotten together with someone unlikely, 4) have a new best friend (Monty/Murphy anyone?), 5) have had a baby, and 6) have a dark secret that will be revealed over the course of the season. IS IT 2018 YET?!
Alright gang. That’s it, that’s The 100 season 4. Hopefully we’ll have some cool content here on Hypable to tide you over until the show returns in early 2018. May we meet again.
Until we do, in the immortal words of Jack Shephard…
(Like I was not gonna use that GIF, please. ?)
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