After the missile strike of last episode, we have the
horror and the fire of the aftermath. And it is very very horrific – I give The 100 max points for making the atrocity
as atrocious as it is.
Lexa and Clarke escaped and Lexa leads Clarke into the woods so they’re not seen among the carnage. Others run around the wreckage trying to save whoever they can, including Abbie, Octavia and Lincoln. They find Indra but she’s badly injured – barely able to do anything except snarl angrily at Lincoln (are we surprised she finds the energy to be angry). She also manages to call Octavia to action and leadership before she passes out.
But the carnage isn’t over yet, the Spotter who guided
the missile is still there and sniping at the survivors. Killing more and
pinning the others down in cover. While they hide, Abbie hears Kane struggling
under the rubble and tries to dig down to him.
He’s trapped and bleeding under rubble which she can’t
move – but she refuses to leave him even when she hears other people crying in
the rubble. At any suggestion it could be Clarke, she avoids the question not wanting
to admit that Clarke knew how to get to safety. When Abbie succeeds and moving
the rubble she realises it’s the only thing stopping Kane from bleeding out and
has to pin him again – and again he tells her to find Clarke and Abbie tells
him that Clarke is safe, and why she’s safe. More rubble falls – clearly excess
drama has disturbed the weakened structure.
Now Abbie is buried as well as Kane and she has a big
dramatic confession on how it’s all her fault because of what Clarke did.
Dramatic confession and Abbie being all tearful about how could Clarke do
something so evil. Kane hits back that she did grow up on the Arc where the
government (i.e. him and Abbie) constantly did evil things because they felt
they had no choice. Why wouldn’t Clarke do the same thing? Abbie realises the
same when she considers her own crimes (including killing her husband for the
greater good). Abbie wonders if they even deserve to survive after what they’ve
done
On the surface facing the sniper, Octavia creates a smoke
screen of burning booze to lead her forces to where they can dig down to help
anyone buried.
In the woods Clarke dramatically declares her intention
to kill the sniper while Lexa remains cool and collected. As they walk Lexa
tries to give another lesson – this time about being unemotional, recognising
that both sides are ruthless in their quest to survive and getting all angry
about it isn’t helpful. Also that revenge doesn’t help matters. Good advice but
it makes Lexa seem like an emotionless robot, Spock is more warm and fuzzy than
this woman. They run into Lincoln who is also hunting the sniper.
They find him and, with Clarke’s distraction, Lincoln
attacks and wins, but the sniper has one of those annoying, noisy Reaper
controlling buzzers. He holds Lincoln at knife point to try and make Clarke
drop her gun. Lincoln tells her to shoot him anyway to save her people and she
says “you are my people” and shoots Lincoln in the upper shoulder, killing the
sniper behind him.
With the sniper dead, Octavia’s team can dig more easily-
and are helped further when an aid team from Camp Jaha arrives lead by Sinclair,
they saw the missile and realised help would be needed. They rescue Abbie and
Kane, presumably muttering “all this work for these two?!”
Everyone reunites and Lexa and Clarke make a dramatic speech
about vengeance. Abbie irritatedly interrupts to call everyone to work on the
rescue of everyone still buried.
Indra wakes up, not dead, and praises Octavia. She also
gets over her Reaper aversion of Lincoln. Abbie and Clarke have something close
to a reconciliation and Clarke tells Abbie that since the sniper wasn’t wearing
a hazmat suit, they have to hurry to save the 100 before they’re all killed for
their bone marrow. Abbie also asks Clarke not to forget they’re the good guys –
which Clarke dodges.
In Mount Weather, the captured 100 barricade the floor
they’ve taken over. They destroy cameras and security measures while Monty
works some technological shenanigans with the rest. As they prepare for the
attack of the Mountain Men they realise some of them aren’t wearing Hazmat
suits – the bone marrow treatment from their friend’s bodies has worked and
made them immune to radiation.
They lay a perfect ambush and, in contrast to their
previous ineptitude, brutally massacre the Mountain Men guards who die or are
forced to retreat. But even as they run, they manage to drag one of the 100,
Fox, with them. Enraged and grieving, Jasper kills one of the helpless, injured
guards left behind.
She’s taken to wear the bodies of the other 100 the
Mountain Men have killed are still lying – and Bellamy appears for a quick
rescue, killing the guards holding her. Maya leads them somewhere safe – her home.
Her father is home, unexpectedly and isn’t thrilled to be harbouring fugitives.
Maya sticks to her principles and we learn that her mother died because she
refused to take the treatment derived from Grounder blood, choosing to die
rather than kill others to live. She was part of a movement – a movement her
dad was also part of. He agrees to help.
Cage’s next tactic is to try and force the 100 to
surrender by sending down Maya in a haz mat suit – with only 20 minutes of
oxygen. They surrender or she suffocates or breathes the radiated air and dies.
The threats are overheard by Bellamy on the radio who has already made a plan
with Maya to get guns down to the 100.
At least sending her down lets her pass on the plan to Jasper
and Monty so Monty can fix the trash chute they intend to use. Maya’s also
clear - she doesn’t want them to surrender for her.
They open the chute with Bellamy’s help and get Maya down
before she suffocates – at the bottom is her dad and a whole group of fellow
Mountain Men who don’t approve of Cage’s killing and torturing of children. The
100 are split up among the people to help hide them all. Bellamy is staying as
an undercover agent.
When Cage and his men break through the barricade, ready
to kill the 100, they find the room empty. Everyone has escaped via the trash
chute.
I’m really glad that Abbie and Kane are starting to claim
responsibility for their own terrible government. Seeing Abbie sit in judgement
of Clarke after being part of a government as brutal and uncompromising as the
Arc’s was annoying. When faced with dire circumstances, too often difficult
decisions are made and Clarke facing a desperate war and trying to win
acceptance from the Grounders so they actually have a place to live is a leader
faced with desperate choices as much or more than (and, sadly, this is not an
unknown military tactic – few things enthuse a people for war like being the
victim of atrocity).
We can argue that Clarke is, perhaps, putting more stock in the people held captive in Mount Weather than the other Sky People or Grounders… but why wouldn’t she? Ultimately, what does Clarke owe the Sky People who sent her to Earth like a miner sending a canary down a mine to see if it lives or dies? What does she owe the Grounders who repeatedly attacked her camp while they were still struggling to survive? Why shouldn’t her first priority be the remnants of The 100? Yes, even with Clarke’s dramatic “you are my people” line (and is that the Grounders or just Lincoln who is now an honoury 100 given the amount he’s fought for them?), it’s still clear she has priorities (beyond the fact Mount Weather is an ongoing threat) and why shouldn’t she?
I am glad to see the revolution or at least protectors within Mount Weather – I like the complexity it brings. It is easy to tell a story of good guys and bad guys, but The 100 has always avoided that. The Grounders were humanised, when Jaha’s government were making terrible decisions we always saw the appalling pressures that pushed them to it. Cage may be pretty damn close to evil, we can clearly see his motivations and he doesn’t represent a monolithic people; even if it means they can’t safely live on the ground, there people Mountain Men who refuse to tolerate the evil it would take. We have a lot of people – people making terrible decisions even wrong decisions, but ultimately people – no demons and monsters here. This is something that Abbie doesn’t understand (deciding their side are the good guys) and Lexa understands all too well (seeing the enemy as people trying to survive, the conflict is not personal) and Clarke is coming to learn from a different angle (she will protect her people – good and evil be damned).
Indra, oh Indra, most of the episode unconscious except
when snarling at Lincoln or inspiring Octavia. I may start calling her Tropey –
if she’s going to be the walking embodiment of tropes, we may as well label her
as such. Though I am a little surprised she lived.
