I was a little worried this episode would fall flat after last week’s action-crammed episode full of betrayal-but I was pleasantly surprised. I should really know better by now, but years of bad teen TV has me expecting one thing and The 100 keeps doing the other. It’s nice. I think I like this better.
Clarke is still pretty shaken from what happened with Lexa. She’s desperate and inching towards unhinged when she runs into Octavia in the tunnels. Octavia is hard on her, maybe too hard, but Octavia seems to be officially out of shits to give and I’m totally here for it. While I still think Octavia needs to get over blaming Clarke for bombing Ton-DC, it makes sense she not get over it right away. And Octavia is a warrior now, on a warrior’s mission and she just, really, doesn’t have time for Clarke’s leadership meltdowns.
Sorry, Clarke.
Bellamy, Mya, Monty, and Jasper are reunited with Octavia and Clarke. For all of about five seconds and then they split up again. Mya, Jasper, and Octavia make for level 5 so that Mya, who is running out of oxygen in her hazmat suit, won’t die of radiation poisoning. And Bellamy, Monty, and Clarke break in to visit the President of Mount Bloodletting.
The President, who previously aided Bellamy, is unwilling to give any more help to him or the others. Can’t say I blame him too much. Clarke put his back to the wall and things just escalated from there. He can’t really back down now or more of his people will die (and leadership is something he, Clarke, and Lexa all take seriously).
Clarke, Bellamy, and Monty take the President into the control room where they radio level 5 and the President’s Smarmy Son. Clarke threatens to shoot the President if Smarmy Son doesn’t let her people go. There’s a tense stand off-and Clarke shoots and kills the President.
Surprising but not surprising. After what happened with Lexa you kind of got the feeling Clarke was growing desperate and more willing to make calls like this. The moral grey area of The 100 is ever expanding. While the Clarke of Season 1 was perhaps a complete moral good, she’s inched every-so-slowly closer to center throughout this season. It’s a downfall that started, really, with her execution of Finn and hasn’t slowed down or stopped since.
Clarke doesn’t want to expose the people of Mount Weather to radiation, just like she didn’t want to shoot the President or kill Finn, but I find it increasingly hard to argue with what she does-which is likely what the show intends. I did think it was nice that Bellamy pulled the lever with her and attempted to shoulder the burden of killing the Mountain Men with her. It’s a nice call back to Clarke pushing the button in the previous episode with Lexa. I think Clarke could really share affection, romance, and leadership with either Lexa or Bellamy, so having those matching moments was…nice. I’ll leave which option is better for Clarke up to you guys to argue about.
The Mountain Men are defeated rather quickly once the radiation seeps inside. We lose Mya, but I can’t say I’m terribly bothered by that. She was a nice character who gained depth a bit too late for me to be all that attached to her and I can’t say I’m interested at all in seeing how her death changes Jasper. The nerdy guy gone dark and twisty is a story that’s been told, and better. I’d rather see next season Jasper trying to find his way back to being the affable dork, to be honest.
Abby seems to have forgiven Clarke-for bombing Ton-DC and for killing the Mountain Men. Maybe it was all the blood loss and the marrow drilling, but she really did seem to get over her own issues long enough to admit to Clarke that maybe there is no ‘good guy’ or ‘bad guy.’
Either way, Abby has accepted the choices Clarke had to make more than Clarke has. Bellamy, too, when he offers Clarke forgiveness in a bid to make her stay at Camp Jaha.
Is it weird Clarke reminded me of Frodo Baggins? Okay, stay with me here. In particular Clarke’s line about how she carries the weight of the bad things she’s done so the rest of her people don’t have to reminded me a lot of when Frodo said he saved the shire, but not for him. Clarke has saved her people, delivered them peace and brought them home-but the happy return isn’t meant for her. She’s still wrestling with everything she’s done and the leader she fashioned herself into being and needs space to figure things out. If anything, it makes me kind of love Clarke all the more. She’s self aware enough to know she doesn’t belong at Camp Jaha. Not right now, at least.
And honestly, her turning away and leaving Camp Jaha SHOULD make the Clarke/Lexa shippers happy. There have been hints from the show runners about Lexa’s return next season and Clarke potentially traveling to the Grounder Capitol. I think that’s likely where Clarke is headed. And I’m excited about the possibility.
Oh, god, I forgot Jaha.
OK, listen-this plot line is the worst. Well. It wasn’t the worst. It got better in the last five seconds. But it felt a lot like a narrative that should have taken half the time to tell and didn’t for whatever reason. Probably so the season could end on the reveal of the mansion and the hologram woman and the salvaged nuclear bomb. The dread. I’m feeling it.
But that plot was still dull.
