If you’re new to The 100 this is likely going to be pretty confusing-though Dana does a great job of summarizing “the show so far” over here.
Most of you I’m guessing know the show pretty well though, so lets dive right in…to the newest Fifty Shades of Grey themed club!
No, just kidding. Bellamy’s not dipping a toe in the world of BDSM (as far as I know). He’s being processed by the Mountain Men. It’s a weird scene but not one I can argue with. There were a lot of artistic shots of naked bodies getting yanked this way and that and then a phallic medical instrument being inserted into Bellamy’s mouth and-yeah. The scene served to set us up for Bellamy joining the captive Grounders inside Mount Weather. I think it also, consciously or not, served as a good argument as to why The 100 may be one of the more subtle and interesting shows on TV playing with gender and sexual identity.
Anyway, enough of Bellamy-he’s in a cage.
Maya and Jasper are in Mount Weather’s Hogwarts-esque dining having a hushed argument about Monty. He’s vanished, joining the aforementioned “red shirt but not,” Harper. Jasper’s pretty upset and about to do something dumb. Maya would prefer he slap on a pretty face and pretend everything’s OK. Sure, Maya. Dare to dream.
Outside of Mount Blood Letting, Clarke narrowly survives an assassination attempt. Octavia launches at the would be assassins and dispatches them pretty neatly, though Clarke and Abby stop her from killing the one remaining Mountain Man so he can be questioned. Because that always works.
Octavia also discovers a handy plot device-a photo that makes it clear Clarke and Lexa are being targeted by the Mountain Men. I can’t really be mad at how obvious this was, though, because anything that brings Clarke and Lexa together is okay with me. Excuse me while I board this ship…
Abby wrestles pretty hard with maintaining any kind authority in this episode and the trouble starts right away when they get back to camp. She wants the interrogation to go a certain way, the Grounders to behave a certain way, Clarke to react a certain way-and none of it is going Abby’s way.
Not sure what Abby expected, here. Clarke was never going to be the girl she was before she was locked up on the Arc. She certainly wasn’t ever going to be the same after being dropped unceremoniously on a hostile Earth and told, “Oh hey, TRY AND LIVE.” You sympathize with Abby for wanting to bond with her daughter and wanting Clarke to stay, as Abby repeated multiple times, “a child.” But Clarke isn’t a child, not anymore. Clarke is growing into more of a leader with every episode and it’s becoming more evident that she doesn’t quite fit in with the “sky people.” You see a lot of this with Octavia, too. But more on that later.
For now we’re back to Mount Weather. Maya and Jasper attack the whole “bleeding” problem in very different ways. Jasper takes a run at the President (whoops). But as luck would have it, the President turns out to be on Jasper’s side. He takes Jasper to rescue Monty and, temporarily, things look to be turning around.
Maya meanwhile has found Bellamy, who’s busy hanging upside down having his blood drained. It’s not his finest moment. Maya frees him but then fails to act at all when a security guard stumbles upon them.
Bellamy, with the help of a caged Grounder girl, manages to dispatch of the guard. Bellamy swears to come back for the Grounder girl and puts on the uniform of the guard so he can sneak through the Mountain with Maya and get to Jasper and the 47.
Back at Camp Jaha, Abby’s discovered what Mount Weather must be doing with the blood of their captives and Clarke is not a happy camper.
For some reason Clarke ends up going to Raven to complain about everything. I like Clarke and Raven together-not in the same way I like Clarke and Lexa together-but this didn’t make sense beyond Clarke needing to be in the same room as the radio when Bellamy calls. Either way: Clarke complains, Raven tells her to stop bitching, and Bellamy gets in touch to say he’s alive and in the mountain with Maya, but separated from Jasper and the 47.
That’s because that thing that seemed to good to be true, the President of Mount Weather being on the side of the 47, was too good to be true. His smarmy son whose name I haven’t learned on purpose because I hate him has executed a total coup, promising his father’s men the ground in return for their support. The President is shown to a room/cell and the 47 are locked in their bunks. Not promising.
Encouraged by Raven and Bellamy, Clarke gets her act together and stands up to her mother. Abby tries to appeal to Clarke as the leader of Camp Jaha and her mom, but Clarke isn’t having it. She takes the captive Mountain Man and sends him packing back to Mount Weather armed with a warning to free the 47 or else and only 6 hours of air supply. With her army of Grounders behind her while executing some merciless orders, Clarke cuts a striking figure.
I have to tip my non-existent hat to the wardrobe department, here. They did a great job at showing how Octavia and Clarke are adopting the ways of the Grounders over those of Camp Jaha. Octavia used to keep her hair loose and wavy. Since early this season she’s been slowly sectioning parts of it and braiding it, keeping it styled the way the Grounders do. Think of Lexa and her hair, pleated tight to her scalp, lifted and kept away-a warrior’s style. Octavia’s hair is about halfway there now. And Clarke, even though her hair looked to be a mimic of her mother’s, the front pulled back away from her face-it differs in that the strands are braided while Abby’s are just knotted back.
I think the braiding of the hair says something, silently, about Octavia and Clarke and their shifting personalities and priorities. Last season Bellamy declared that the 100 were Grounders. Now it seems to be coming true.
The 100 airs Wednesday nights on The CW.
