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“The 100” recap (3.08): On Raven’s Wings

Hi there, how are you holding up? It’s been a long week, I know. I hope you’re taking care of yourself, drinking enough water, eating enough food.

I want to thank those of you who left thoughtful responses on my last recap, whether you agreed or disagreed with some or all of what I wrote. You taught me a lot, taught each other a lot, and linked to a lot of great articles. I couldn’t read all of the comments because they’re up to 1800 at the time I’m writing this and still climbing, and I couldn’t respond to really any of them once I realized how rapidly that number was growing. But I do want to address a few things before I dive into this recap.

First is that I’m just one of many writers here at AfterEllen. I do not speak for the website as a whole, and I don’t think it’s fair to assume all the writers on this site think the same thoughts. I speak for myself and my own feelings alone; sometimes other writers will agree with me, sometimes they won’t. When I wrote my recap for 307, I was processing out loud, in real time, and I took you on that journey with me. It’s how I approach every recap I write for every show I write about.

Related, a lot of people mentioned that they thought I was trying to butter up the writers for future interviews or screeners. And I want to stamp that out right now, because I was writing that for me and for you, not for them. I had no ulterior motive when writing the recap, I promise.

One thing I have come to rethink in reading all your comments is when I said Lexa’s death made sense for the story. I still understand how the writers think that, but I’ve since had friends come up with a million brilliant ways for them to have gotten to the same end. My favorite being almost the same, but Clarke fixes Lexa’s wound, then Lexa gets dethroned because she’s weak/injured and gets the “spirit of the commander” removed and is banished, asking Clarke to stay behind to try to finish the quest for peace they started. Lexa didn’t have to die. Lexa shouldn’t have died, not in this social climate where too many fictional queer women die every season.

But I’m a relentless optimist. The show fucked up. Big time. They shouldn’t have killed Lexa, and I’m still sad and angry about it. But Clarke is still one of the fiercest bisexual female characters we have ever seen, and Lexa and Clarke’s relationship is still one of the most nuanced and complex relationships between two women I have ever seen on a show like this, especially on the CW, and I’m not willing to throw that all away. I’m not saying they can never lose me as a viewer—they’re definitely in a two-strike situation right now—but all I’m saying is that I’m not ready to totally give up hope yet. I’m not ready to give up on Clarke. I want to see this thing through for a little while and see if they can start to earn my forgiveness. As the Dixie Chicks once said, “Forgive? Sounds good. Forget? I’m not sure I could.”

I said it last week and I’ll say it again, if you can’t watch anymore, I support that. I understand. That’s your prerogative. But for now I’m going to keep watching, albeit with a few more walls up than I had before. (Plus my tweets may be a little saltier.) And I will add this: no matter how done you are with this show, with Jason, with me, with anything regarding Lexa’s death, sending anyone threats is not the answer. The vast majority of what I’ve seen—both on Twitter and on articles here on AfterEllen—have been thoughtful comments or tweets expressing your anger and feelings and arguments, and I think that’s great, and I encourage you to keep expressing those. But for the few lashing out, I think it’s worth saying: name-calling and threatening won’t get anyone anywhere.

On that note, last night “LGBT FANS DESERVE BETTER” was trending, starting at the East Coast airing of the episode, and it was still going strong when I went to bed at 1am EST. Over $30,000 has been raised for The Trevor Project in honor of our fallen Commander. These are the kinds of things that will get seen and heard, this is you all making a difference. It was a proud moment for our community, and it was a beautiful thing to watch it come together.

Whether or not you keep watching, we will get through this. We will continue to demand better stories, we will write them ourselves. The creators and writers of this show are listening. We have to give them time to hear us, to realize what they’ve done, keeping in mind that the rest of this season is already written and filmed and there’s nothing they can do to change how the next six episodes play out. But we can keep our eye on them next season if there is one, in projects they do going forward, and I have a feeling we’ll see a change. I even want to hope that we won’t see these particular people make this mistake in the future. But again, only if we continue to be thoughtful in our responses, to be careful with our words. We have to make them understand how to tell our stories better, we can’t make them afraid to try.

I know stories like this can hit too close to home. I know what it’s like to invest so much in a story and have it tear out your heart. But lean on each other, know you’re not alone in mourning our beloved Commander. And reach out if you need help. If you or someone you know is considering self-harm, please visit The Trevor Project or call them at 866-488-7386.

If you’re still with me, let’s dive in, because even after the darkest night, the world keeps spinning, and the sun comes up again.  

Though it’s still pretty damn dark out, since this episode was called “Terms & Conditions” and I think a dramatic reading of the iTunes Terms & Conditions would have been more exciting.  They pulled a Game of Thrones (the book series) and just like last week was all in Polis, this week was all in Arkadia.

But Raven saved this episode from being a total disaster, so let’s recap anyway.

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