The 100 season 6 opens with “Sanctum,” an overwhelming and over-saturated episode of television that propels the veteran CW drama into unchartered territory.

WOW, you guys. Just wow.

Once upon a time, The 100 was the little show that could. Now, it is a CW juggernaut: The 100 has been on our screens for more than half a decade, and somehow, it still finds ways to reinvent itself and overwhelm its audience.

It deserves way more credit for that than it’s getting, but hey, I’m just one woman. 😉

This week, The 100 returned for its sixth season, and if the premiere episode “Sanctum” is anything to go by, this is the season where our favorite over-the-top genre-defying apocalypse opera fully gives into its own potential with reckless abandon. Just the way I like it.

The 100 season 6 premiere episode “Sanctum” is, in five words or less, a lot of a lot. Watching it just once will give you whiplash, so if you haven’t yet, I suggest giving it one or two more views to fully absorb and digest everything that happens. I know I needed to, plus I’ve had a full month to process it all. Hopefully my thoughts will be somewhat coherent. (No promises!)

Beyond being a complete sensory overload, “Sanctum” is a solid opening hour of a semi-reset version of The 100 that deftly straddles the line between old and new. Unlike last year’s “Eden,” which pulled the brakes and allowed its heroine the rare luxury of self-reflection, this one had the somewhat daunting task of plunging everyone into completely different, unpredictable and overwhelming new circumstances without abandoning any of the (many) unresolved conflicts and tensions from season 5.

And hey, that’s a wild horse to straddle. Mostly, Jason Rothenberg and his (partially) new writing team did a phenomenal job, with “Sanctum” working extra hard to reassure its audience that the show isn’t going to forget about the things keeping our heroes apart even as they’re facing what should be completely all-attention-consuming new circumstances.

What I would have liked to see more of, and what I hope we’ll get in future episodes, is what actually keeps our heroes together. Considering the amount of unspeakable pain and betrayal they’ve all subjected each other to, it’s starting to feel like circumstance, not sentiment, is what unites them.

At some point, Abby says to Raven, ”What I did with the collar is unforgivable,” and Raven responds, “Then why bother apologizing?” And she’s right. These people need to start doing nice things for each other. Being a ‘good guy,’ right now, is defined as seeking personal redemption, but it should be as much about being good to each other. (Or have I just been watching too much The Good Place?)

But “Sanctum” provides enough precious little moments showing our heroes caring about each other and their well-being that I’m not too worried about this season undervaluing the core relationships. Because whenever someone lashes out in this episode, it is towards the people that matter most to them. All in all, this episode sets up a hell of a lot of great character and relationship journeys, while also indulging in the sheer excitement of the new world.

Is the episode perfect? Not completely. There are issues to get into. But before we dive into the good, bad and baffling moments of “Sanctum,” let me just say that I had a blast watching it, and it made almost all worries I had about season 6 and the ‘reinvention’ of The 100 fly out the window.

Season 6 is going to be absolutely nuts, but it is all going to be rooted in how these people feel about each other, which is all I ever wanted this show to be.

Let’s discuss The 100 season 6 premiere episode “Sanctum”!

The best of both worlds

At the top of the episode, we get a redux of Monty’s final message to Clarke and Bellamy, played to the rest of the selected (if not elected) leadership group established at the end of season 5: Raven, Murphy, Emori, Echo, Shaw and Abby. And, of course, Monty and Harper’s son Jordan, who is handling the shock of losing his parents and being around new people for the first time in his life almost too well.

(We don’t get a lot of Jordan in this episode, but what we do get is amazing. Shannon Kook and his big smile is a gift.)

Everyone is mad at Clarke, of course (some things never change), but hey. It’s been a very long day. Monty had a few decades to meditate on Clarke’s sins vs. virtues and chose her as one half of his ideal leadership duo, so let’s give the rest of SpaceKru a minute. They’ll get there.

The team reacts to Monty and Harper’s deaths the only way they really can in a 40-minute episode that has a lot of plot to burn through: brief shock and swift internalization.

Raven, who of course was particularly close to Monty and will — or should, anyway — feel his loss most keenly, chooses to drown her pain with sex (I hope this wasn’t a deliberate season 1 callback), pulling Shaw away for a very steamy little scene that certainly sets the tone for this new season: everything is heightened. We get closer to these people, physically and psychologically, than we ever have before. And we’ll feel everything they feel — joy as well as grief — just a little bit more starkly. I’m not mad about it.

There isn’t much time to lay about and be cute, however, because plot has to happen, and so the Alphaventuresquad (sorry Toni, I’ll never do it again) prepare to take their small step for man, their giant leap for… Monty.

We’re on a moon!

One of the coolest aspects of “Sanctum,” for a world-building nerd like me, was the reveal that the ‘planet’ our heroes discover is, in fact, a moon! This is a cool, real-science-based choice, since many of the likely-habitable places in space discovered in recent years have in fact been moons orbiting gas giants.

We don’t know yet if the massive planet Alpha orbits is a gas giant or if it could be habitable as well; it would definitely offer new possibilities if there were in fact two habitable planets in play, but considering how small a part of our own Earth The 100’s characters squabbled over, I’m sure one single modestly-sized moon provides plenty of territory for interesting stories to span across (incidentally also brand new ways for characters to ‘retire’ in lieu of dying — let’s get back to that later).

I’m also perfectly happy just to stay on the moon forever, because what a beautiful world the production team has built for us to play in. I raved in my preview article about the achievement of the props and set departments, and let’s extend that to the post-production CGI and color grading teams, too. This is still Vancouver, but the traditional green cast of The 100’s outdoor shots is gone, replaced by yellows and reds and instantly making this alien planet feel, well, alien.

It’s tough to change the color scheme of outdoor scenes without completely butchering the look of your actors, so the choice to bathe them all in an orange light that intensifies the closer we get to the eclipse is pretty inspired. It also makes everything that’s blue (the water, specifically) stand out all the more.

Of course, in best The 100 form, nothing that seems good ever really is. The brighter the colors, the bigger the danger, and their moonlit Clarke-bash-fest idyll soon ends (yay?) in favor of running for their lives. Now we’re REALLY back, bitches!

Why can’t they all just get along?

For the audience, it has been almost a year since we learned about the new planet and started preparing ourselves for the Book 2-era of The 100; for the characters, it has been exactly one day since they desperately fled an exploding Earth, and they aren’t about to let nonsense like a brand new planet or a 100-year time jump or a grown-up offspring of their now-dead best friends distract them from how mad they all are at each other.

And you know what’s ironic? With three apocalypses, a 125-year time jump, the discovery of a two-sun planet and Monty’s plea for them to “do better,” all of those interpersonal issues viewers were missing last season suddenly feel like petty grudges. Like, jeez Octavia, the cannibalism thing happened months ago, am I right?

…I’m joking! Sort of. I am hashtag here for the hugs interpersonal issues. It is obviously a very good thing that the show doesn’t abandon its characters’ histories and ongoing storylines in favor of something new; for Octavia in particular, I’m really happy that she continues to elude the linear recovery/self-discovery arc that a lesser show would have handed her at the end of season 4. It’s more interesting and true to who she is.

But I do think the pacing is a little jagged as a result of the two full-sized episodes they try to squeeze into “Sanctum”: one that deals with the emotional fallout of season 5 (all-consuming mentally) and one that dives headfirst into the exciting new world of season 6 (all-consuming physically).

Maybe there simply needed to be more wrap-up in season 5 so all of those open wounds didn’t bleed all over season 6’s brave new, shiny world. But, frankly, if it’s a problem, it’s season 5’s problem. Going into season 6, we’re looking at a fresh, reset version of The 100 — new book, new writing staff, new mission statement (be the good guys) — and it is through this new lens that I view and review “Sanctum.”

The episode does need to straddle old and new, and it does need to squeeze in the recap conversations that remind casual viewers/inform new fans why all the fun orange death chaos matters. If they keep having to stop the action to have soul-baring heart-to-hearts, then so be it. Nothing about the new world would matter if it wasn’t viewed through the lens of character relationships. And, on that note:

Oh my god, we’re aliens!

Oh how I adore The 100 when it truly dives headfirst into its own weirdness, and “Sanctum” delivers a number of moments that absolutely makes me confident that season 6 is going to be weird as all hell. I love it.

When the Alpha team arrives on the new planet, obviously they’re afraid and melancholy, but they’re also, as Abby Griffin once said, excited to be there.

Murphy dives into the water and pulls Emori with him. Jackson marvels over ‘alien life’ (spoiler alert, he’s the alien!), and even Clarke manages to find moments of levity.

Miller is less about the fun moonwalk life, despite his boyfriend being a dork (not that I have any strong feelings about this whatsoever). I really appreciate the premiere devoting a pocket of time to his guilt, and to other characters reflecting on his guilt.

Miller’s own sense of guilt vs. other people’s quickness to absolve him of it vs. how we see people like Clarke and Octavia be treated in comparison is an interesting thread that I hope they pull on a bit more this season. (I never dare to hope for much where Miller is concerned, but I still liked what this episode gave us.)

Anyway, we were talking about the fun stuff! Murphy finds a music player and gives us what is, let’s be real, the closest The 100 is ever going to get to a musical episode — and it’s a lot closer than I thought we were ever gonna get!

Of course this happens as Emori is being consumed by eclipse sickness, but it’s still amazing. Probably one of the show’s best standalone moments to date, and a perfect example of The 100’s ability to blend absurdist comedy and genuine horror. More of this, please.

Petition to disband the We Hate Clarke Club

…Less of this, please.

“Sanctum” screened at WonderCon last month, and so opinions about Clarke’s arc have been flooding my timeline for a while. As much as I am Team Consequences For Their Actions, I understand and, honestly, agree with the general sentiment that everyone is sick of seeing Clarke be the emotional punching bag of her peers every time she makes an impossible choice.

After all, we’ve been playing this tune since season 1, when she was the one getting yelled at after the angry mob strung up Murphy and Bellamy kicked the log under his feet. Over the next four seasons, a consistent and reliable pattern developed of how and why characters divided blame and responsibility between Bellamy and Clarke:

Bellamy — the heart — was more easily perceived as a ‘man of the people,’ not only because he’s more personable but because he openly blamed himself for his mistakes and (particularly in season 4) put himself on the ground to earn the forgiveness he felt he needed. Clarke — the head — repeatedly withdrew herself, physically and emotionally, feeling the weight of the impossible decisions she’d been forced to make just as keenly as Bellamy, but without vocalizing her guilt (to anyone but Bellamy), instead internalizing the responsibility and blame. “I bear it so they don’t have to,” ad nauseam.

Obviously, the forced separation and time jump only exacerbated this, because Clarke has literally not been around to bond with anyone, and it’s gotten even easier to blame her for ‘bad’ decisions she made on the same basis that Bellamy and other members of SpaceKru have done.

We were told in season 5 that SpaceKru had built Clarke up in their minds as something of a martyred saint. In season 6, we’re seeing the repercussions of them (once again) being reminded that she’s only human, and judging her on the grounds not of who she is as a person — because let’s be honest, they don’t know that person — but who they think she should be.

It’s not about what mistakes Clarke has or hasn’t made or how those mistakes compare to others’. It’s that Clarke is and always has been held to a different standard than everyone else, and she holds herself up to that standard, too. I’m starting to wonder if Clarke can ever have a place in a group of people who refuse to acknowledge her (flawed) humanity.

The one person who manages to find empathy for Clarke is Echo. Maybe because she, like Bellamy, judges herself much more harshly than her peers do, and she recognizes how much she has benefited from the understanding and forgiveness SpaceKru offered her on the Ring. (Or maybe she’s a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and took Giles’ “To forgive is an act of compassion. It’s not done because people deserve it, it’s done because they need it” speech to heart.)

“There’s no starting over without forgiveness. Who knows that better than us?” Echo asks Bellamy, and even though we haven’t seen her earn or receive that forgiveness, we know that she did, and we understand now that she wants to extend it to other people whose motivation she identifies with. In this episode that includes Clarke, Octavia and Miller: those who did what they believed was best for their people even when it cost them a piece of their soul. Just as Echo once did for Azgeda and is still willing to do for SpaceKru.

In talking about forgiveness, Echo is also, unwittingly, challenging Bellamy and Clarke’s infamous “if you need forgiveness, I’ll give that to you” exchange. A coincidence? An intentional subversion from the writers’ side to show how much those six years on the Ring have changed things? Or a way to remind Bellamy of that exchange, allowing him to express empathy for Clarke and acknowledging her motivation (same as his used to be — protecting a sibling-child)?

It’s very possible that the writers didn’t mean for the line to be a callback, but it still reads as one. Particularly in light of the too-brief conversation Clarke and Bellamy share about the radio calls.

Bellamy and Clarke have always been each other’s person, and I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed. In the season 4 finale, Clarke told Bellamy that she saw the choices he’d made for his sister; now, Bellamy is essentially returning the sentiment, offering her that same understanding for the choice she made for Madi.

It’s a beautiful little moment. These two characters understand each other better than anyone, and it’s nice to see that Clarke is still capable of smiling and laughing at all. Another thing I hope to see much more of this season.

As for everyone else, well, it’s so easy to make someone else a scapegoat. It simplifies the problem. It makes you and those you want to keep loving seem blameless. We see it all the time in real life.

However, significantly, Clarke herself has come to recognize the pattern, and even from the depths of her internal self-flagellation, she has the wherewithal to call Murphy out on his hypocrisy: Murphy did bad things too, things that compromised one group of people to save himself and his own, he always has. SpaceKru isn’t wrong in calling Clarke out for her mistakes, but they’ve all made us versus them decisions. That’s the point of ‘there are no good guys’.

(Murphy is, incidentally, also one of the only people besides Bellamy that Clarke has a tangible relationship with, so I’d love for this tension between them to be explored more in future episodes.)

“Sanctum” thus continues a series-long pattern of emotional isolation for Clarke that I kind of hoped we’d have gotten away from at this point, but it also seems to set up a very long-awaited confrontation with this theme that might finally allow Clarke to break this particular cycle.

At least I hope so. Because, realistic and consistent as it may be, my god am I tired of this group dynamic for Clarke. Every season, Clarke see-saws between being alone and miserable and surrounded by people who hate her and still miserable, and there are organic in-character reasons for it, but if nothing ever changes or progresses as a result, what’s the point?

If there really is no way for Clarke to be around these people without them holding her up on a pedestal and blaming her for failing to say on that pedestal (and her internalizing all of this to the point of perpetual, unrelenting misery), then frankly, I’d rather she become Russell’s BFF in Sanctum and have her own storyline away from everyone else.

F yeah Abby Griffin

To think, in the season 5 finale, it seemed like Octavia and Abby were beginning to see eye to eye again.

Whatever happened in that episode seems to have been slightly undone here, in order to give us what will probably be a much harsher, longer and more lonely journey for Octavia than what might have been if she’d truly been able to admit herself defeated after the fall of Eden. (But would she really be Octavia if she had?)

Instead, we get this: Kane wakes up and shares such a tender, hopeful moment with Abby I was convinced it had to be a dream sequence, because we never get to have anything this nice — and I was half-right, because the next moment Octavia is there, talking Kane to a grotesque, terrifying, disgusting death.

I’m horrified, but I’m also kind of impressed.

If Kane really had died here, it would have been too brutal, and it would have been an incredibly disappointing end to what was once one of the series’ best character arcs. But he didn’t, which I suppose we have the uncertain future of The Passage to thank for. Instead, we get Kane back in his convenient coma, where he’ll presumably stay for a good chunk (if not all) of the season.

With Henry Ian Cusick starring in a semi-high profile FOX drama, the chances of him ever returning to The 100 full time are slim. Maybe he’ll eventually wake up properly, or maybe he’ll wake up to die in a future episode. It’s hard to speculate, since his fate is predicated not on story choices but on actor availability.

However, one character who impossibly appears to benefit from this development is Abby. I say this as a big fan of Kane and Kabby, but I also say this as someone who has really missed seeing Abby Griffin in a position of leadership and big picture decision-making.

What Abby goes through in this episode is terrible, but how she rallies herself against Octavia, against almost losing Kane (again) and against Raven is remarkable. This is the kind of resilience and strength of spirit that has always characterized Abby and sets her apart from a lot of the other characters. Kane’s fight is over? Like hell it is. The worse the odds, the harder Abby fights, and I love her for that.

Other characters recovering from a drug addiction, struggling with immense guilt over hard choices and (as good as) losing the love of their life would crumble. But not Abby. She will not be broken. Instead she rises to the occasion, puts the pills away for good and becomes the leader the Eligius group needs. This is probably my favorite development so far in season 6.

Octavia sans Blodreina

Octavia wakes up as she fell asleep: crying about her brother.

Even though the last few episodes of season 5 saw her begin to shed her Blodreina skin in order to save her people, everything that made her Blodreina is still there. All the pain, all the guilt, all the rage at everyone who stood by and let her drown in her own violence.

Is she justified in her anger at Kane and Abby? I think it’s up to the viewer to judge, but I say absolutely. Octavia, as she says herself, may be a “monster,” but she also saved her people. She may have ruled with death and violence, but Wonkru is still here, and maybe more of them would be if not for Kane’s betrayal.

Imagine the way she’s being torn apart from the inside out, alone, consumed with rage. Imagine seeing the adults that let her be consumed by her own demons stand peacefully and share a moment of hope and happiness. Imagine being written off as a black-and-whte villain by those seeking to absolve those they love of similar sins.

If Octavia’s trauma-induced downward trajectory is like an addiction (which I believe it is), then she can’t claw her way out of it alone. It’s not an excuse for anything she’s done to others, but it’s still a real thing that informs her emotional distress and prevents her from just ‘snapping out of it.’

She wants to be hated because she hates herself. She wants to be beaten up because she can’t beat herself up. (Not yet anyway — she literally fights herself in the promo.) She wants others to feel the pain she feels. What is incredible in this episode is that she does it all with words; her only ‘crime’ is the truth from her perspective and her refusal to actively help Abby save Kane’s life.

All I want for Octavia now is to rediscover and reclaim her own humanity. Like with Clarke, I’m not sure she has much chance with the people that already know and judge her. But like with Clarke, I also have a sense that she’ll meet new people on this planet and perhaps seize this chance to become a new version of herself.

Let’s talk about Shaw

Alright, let’s get to the part of “Sanctum” that really brings this episode down: the death of Shaw.

Last season, The 100 devoted a sizeable amount of screen time to introducing Shaw, exploring his emotional life, backstory and moral dilemmas, and establishing relationships not just with Raven but with Echo, Clarke, Diyoza and several others. Clearly, they were setting him up to be a permanent fixture in the ensemble.

Now he’s dead, and all of that potential has now been shot out the window, making all the work they did last season to introduce him and set up future storylines feel more wasteful than it should have.

So why did they kill him? Well, apparently for the same reason they’ve had to get rid of a lot of characters suddenly and without satisfying conclusions: the actor got another job.

It is no secret that The 100 has a persistent problem holding onto its recurring cast members. I don’t know why this particular show struggles with this more than most, and I’m not going to make any half-cocked accusations or assumptions about an aspect of the industry I know nothing about. But that’s where we are: Jordan Bolger was a guest star, he got a better job, and he took it. That’s how the business works, and I don’t think anyone can blame the actor or the show for that.

But as a storytelling choice, killing him off in such a callous way, just as his story seemed like it was beginning, still landed on a sour note for me, especially after having him take a hard turn on Clarke in what I have to assume was a last-ditch effort to make him less likeable and make the audience less upset when he died.

I also want to specifically point out what a lot of other people have already said better than I could: that The 100 needs to take better care of how it treats its minority characters, particularly its black men. No work of media exists in a vacuum, especially not right now, and it matters what characters you choose to let wander off into the sunset and what characters you don’t.

Having said that, if we assume that bringing Jordan Bolger back at a later date was not an option (unlike with Henry Ian Cusick), I don’t think there was a narratively satisfying alternative. Keeping Shaw in cryo indefinitely would make him an unfired Chekov’s Gun. Ignoring his existence like Wick and Bryan would have made him a joke (like those two characters became). Sending him wandering off to live in the mountains, [redacted BSG character] style, might have been a possibility if not for Raven; she and the audience would always be waiting for him to come back. Killing him off ends his arc definitively, sets the tone of the new season, and launches a new story for Raven.

But I can accept that this was a no-win situation while also acknowledging that a) his death was in poor taste, and b) the show needs to start seriously considering how to avoid these no-win situations in the future. Because it’s getting to the point where there are so many ‘unforeseen’ actor availability conflicts that it’s actively hampering the audience’s ability to get emotionally invested in the show’s sizeable ensemble.

The 100 will occasionally kill characters off, and it would be disingenuous to complain every time that happens (which is why I don’t). But we’ve reached a point where I’m not sure the show can keep favoring a multi-POV storytelling format that gives near-equal screen time to main, recurring and guest stars if there is a very real possibility that the most interesting arcs are going to get suddenly and inexplicably cut off halfway through a pre-planned storyline. Well, it can, but it’s going to radically diminish the show’s rewatch/binge value.

Jordan Bolger’s departure is emblematic of a bigger issue, and I hope it’s something they’ll seriously consider when planning out future arcs, narrowing in on characters and relationships between characters that can be contract-bound in a more sustainable way for more cohesive, long-running storylines.

Which leads me to:

Let’s talk about Raven

“Tell Raven she deserves happiness,” Shaw says as he’s dying. But I’d wager that’s going to be really damn hard for her to ever believe, especially considering how Shaw appeared to be the only source of happiness she had left. Even before knowing about his death, Raven is so hurt, so angry, so wrapped up in a general grief that hasn’t stopped piling up since her mother’s death and is starting to feel insurmountable.

Now, what I love about Raven is that she is incredibly consistent in her anger. She has always been judgmental, she has always held grudges, and she has always felt emotionally (and intellectually) isolated from almost everyone around her.

Much like Octavia, Raven’s traumatic upbringing has shaped every decision she has made and informed every step of her development, and I always come back to this subtle and mostly unspoken consistency as one of the main reasons The 100 is genius longform storytelling.

So no, I don’t believe Raven being angry at Clarke, feeling betrayed by Abby, trying to drown her emotions about Monty and Harper, or generally lashing out in incredibly insensitive ways is out of character, or even taking her too far. Raven says what she feels, even when those feelings are ugly. The audience isn’t meant to feel what Raven feels, and the character doesn’t have an obligation to censor her words for us.

I just hope that Raven won’t be be reduced to these base emotions — anger and grief — and that the story still has space for her to grow and find joy in something before the end.

Because right now, what does Raven have? Her friendship with Bellamy doesn’t seem to be a story priority, and her time on the Ring clearly didn’t bring her any real happiness or peace. She didn’t get that until she met Shaw, and now that’s gone, along with Harper and Monty, the latter of whom was the closest she had to an intellectual peer.

What appear to be her closest friends, Echo and Emori, are both off on a separate adventure, and while there’s potential in the dynamic between Raven and Jordan, the premiere seemed to cut that off pretty definitively. There are places to go with Raven that aren’t self-enclosed grief and rage, but after Shaw’s death, I’m not totally sure how she’d get there.

(They do seem to be setting us up for a resolution with Abby, but so far, that storyline is more about Abby, with Raven’s understanding/forgiveness being about and for Abby rather than herself.)

I’m not bringing this up to write Raven off as a lost cause, but to point out that at the top of season 6, The 100’s three main female characters — Clarke, Octavia and Raven — are all in the exact same position: emotionally isolated, at a loss of purpose, romantically unattached and in dire need of new friends. Is it so crazy to hope that the season might recognize these shared circumstances and draw the three women together in a storyline? Probably. But a girl can dream.

For your consideration

And that’s it! How are we all feeling?

Next week’s episode is called “Red Sun Rising,” and let me tell you: if you thought “Sanctum” was a lot, the second episode is when we really get into the potential of season 6. If you thought the premiere was fast-paced, just wait. It is completely bonkers, and I love it.

What did you think about ‘The 100’ season 6 premiere?