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The 100: Fallen

"Oh, the things I do to survive."

What a heavy episode. So much emotional hoopla and a lot of content.

It feels like we've slowly returned to the beginning. With the adults in Arkadia brainwashed and the grounders being led by a bloodthirsty psychopath, it's kind of like starting back in season one again. The kids, who aren't exactly kids anymore, they're alone again.

Watching Bellamy look on as one-by-one his (former?) friends filed in was a special kind of painful and heavy of the guilt. As was the realization that Lincoln wouldn't be coming through the door. Octavia taking her rage out on him was very, very sad and mildly therapeutic. Like she was a surrogate for the audience punishing him for being so dumb.

Everything that happened in medical was more than sufficiently creepy and heart-wrenching. Watching Raven writhe remembering the most horrific experiences of her life cut me like a rusty saw. Abby yelling at Jackson for help with easing Raven's pain and getting nowhere was bad too. And frustrating. I get it, she had her hands full, but it was similar to what happens when watching a horror movie and screaming at the TV that the killer is right behind! I kept wanting her to realize that she should stop turning her back on him.

The worst, though, was when Abby was restrained and strong-armed into taking the key. In that moment, she had to choose between saving someone she cares about from dying and memories of her daughter (not to mention ex-husband, Kane, friends, etc). And why was Jackson continually smirking like he was getting off on his boss's agony? Does the City of Light make you an asshole, too? The wrist slicing was gruesome enough to make me shudder. Ick. I was very worried that Raven was going to bleed out for a second. Thankfully, no, but will she ever be herself again? Surely there's a straggler bracelet somewhere, right? At the dropship, maybe, from when Monty was experimenting with them?

GOOD CHRISTMAS ON A CRACKER! CLARKE'S GROUPIE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON HAD A BRACELET. This thought literally came to me while I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep. I need a life.

Ontari is seriously off her rocker, isn't she? Wow. We got a little backstory on what molded her into the maladjusted loony toon that she is today. Being taken from your family and raised with cruelty and entitlement would break even the gentlest of spirits. It's a little annoying that in one episode she wants to avenge the death of her fallen queen and in the next she is lamenting about how mean she was, but who doesn't have mixed feeling about their mothers, am I right? We are still figuring Ontari out. One note villains never really work, a la Kane season one. Hopefully she'll get to be a fully formed character soon.

Also, according to extensive bingeing of Law and Order: SVU, Murphy was raped. Ontari is in a position of power, which makes it impossible for him to consent, plus he said no and only gave in after she made thinly veiled threats. And he is chained to the wall and spent the day realizing that she thinks it's a legit option to just kill everyone and watching Ontari blind a man to make a point. As of now, I'm not sure how the writers are going to treat this so I'm going to hold off on judgement, but I am seriously hoping that it wasn't supposed to be sexy. Because it wasn't. Rape never is.

I could not be more excited that Jasper was back this week. And I don't just mean that he showed up and had lines, but also that he was sober enough to see his friend in need and tried over and over again to help her. I've missed that guy. He did call Clarke the angel of death to her face, but hey, he didn't run her over with the jeep. Progress. I'm proud of you, J.

3 out of 4 awkward encounters with a past one night stand.

Bits and pieces

Welp, Clarke now knows that Lincoln is dead. I wonder how she'll find Luna now. I'm sure she will figure it out. You know what they say, where there's a Clarke, there's a way.

I'd like to go on record and say that I don't hate Murphy nearly as much as I've apparently let on. And I am constantly impressed with his survival skills. The kid can adapt to literally any situation, even chained to the wall as a sex slave/life coach combo.

Ugh. Monty's mom (even Pike calls her this and not by her name) and Bellamy should start an I was a shitty family member while under Pike's spell support group.

The death of a major character has the power to change an entire series. With both Lexa and Lincoln gone, the politics of this show is almost unrecognizable and still completely unsettled.

Lindsay Morgan did a fantastic job as ALIE. Gold stars. I wonder if it hurt her back to stand so straight up like that, though?

Kane mentioned Finn when he reminded us that for the grounders to feel vindicated, Pike's death would need to be excruciating and tortured.

Quick question: who do you think is worse, Pike or Ontari?

Murphy: "We talked about restraint."
Ontari: "You told me not to kill him."
Murphy: "Next time I’ll be more specific."

ALIE (talking about Raven): "She’s so much stronger than the rest of you."
Duh.

Abby: "Now that Arkadia has fallen, we'll move on to stage two."
What the hell is stage 2? This can't be good.

4 comments:

  1. Pike and Ontari are both shitty characters, imho. Ontari is just so god damn annoying like calm down bitch, go take your meds. She's whiny and reckless and kills just because someone stole her teddy bear. If she's a sociopath, show, let us know, otherwise I'm going to call you out on your surplus of one-note villains this season. As for Pike, also one-note, probably at least partly a sociopath, not remotely convincing or charming, so why again did Bellamy and Monty's mom drink his nasty koolaid? Oh, that's right, because Jason Rothenberg is an asshole.

    Ugh, now I miss Lexa and I didn't even really like Lexa after they ruined her character in favor of 'clexa'. Sigh.

    The 100 is swimming in some murky waters, they technically had Murphy raped, I hope they address that because if they don't and they're going to go all GOT on us, I'm going to be pissed. In fact, the 100 has been reminding me of a B-rated version of GOT a lot lately with the creative torture, character deaths, other characters always in pain, rapes without consequences and gore. Every season I swear, i feel like the 100 is desperately trying to attempt to copy a different show.

    PARTING THOUGHTS:

    Can we stop creatively torturing Raven? My baby girl can never catch a break.
    Where's Murphy's girlfriend anyway? She just vanished into thin air?
    I feel really bad for Octavia, and I'm on her team this time, sorry, Bel, I love you and how you manage to look kissable even covered in blood bruises, but you effed up big time.
    I need more Monty.
    I also am beginning to ship Miller and Bryan. They're cute. The 100 needs to be more homo. Lol.
    I'm also low-key shipping Raven and Jasper.
    Speaking of Jasper, Good going, J! You're finally making yourself useful. Welcome back to sanity,
    the 100 went from yayyy we're on earth, look at the pretty butterflies! to die, die, die real quick, no?
    No matter how much I complain about this stupid show, you know I'm tuning in next week.
    Lovely review as always.

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  2. So... Pike’s storyline just fizzled. What was the point of killing Lincoln, then? Sure, you damage Octavia and make Bellamy look bad (er, worse), but all the momentum is lost. It all adds up to the story that Jason Rothenberg just wanted Ricky Whittle out of the series.

    As of now, it seems Pike’s arc had two purposes only: (1) be a placeholder until ALIE’s arc kicked in full gear, and (2) serve as a big complicator on the Grounders/Arkadians political relationship. I didn’t love Pike but it’s a shame to see that storyline coming to an end so abruptly. It seems the writers never put enough effort in it. Here is the evidence: Pike’s quick and off-screen ascension; the off-screen slaughter of the grounders, who by the needs of the story were not warned by Kane that Pike and his nine minions were coming; the ruination of Bellamy; the constant stupidity of Pike and his followers on decision-making. Hum, listing all that made me realize I should be glad it’s over, but the abruptness of the end bothers.

    I’ll give the writers this: Hannah and Pike’s plan to use Monty as bait was so clever and evil. Man, Monty’s mom is E-V-I-L. I was SO shocked when I realized her role on the plan. I didn’t see it coming when she said her goodbyes to Monty, her feelings there seemed genuine, even if something was off with the scene. At least she guaranteed Monty would be safe, but still...

    This Week on Pike is Not the Brightest Leader From the Sky: He didn’t notice there was a freaking cult of brainwashing arkadians rising. His and Hannah’s plan was good, but why would he leave Arkadia at all? He knows he is the grounders’ most wanted arkadian. And why oh why would he actually follow Bellamy if he was not sure he could trust him?

    Quick question: who do you think is worse, Pike or Ontari?

    I like what the writers are doing to Ontari. She’s definitely not good, but her behavior is coherent. Death and intimidation are the things she understands, and in the end of the day she’s a frightened young person. I was wondering how the grounders made sure the new Heda actually had the flame, and saying the name of all past Hedas is actually clever. But shouldn’t the flamekeeping be a council instead of just a guy? Like, one guy knows the name of the five first hedas, another one knows the name of number six to number ten, and so on...

    On the Murphy/Ontari controversial scene, I blame it on the writer, director, editor and on the composer for playing that scene as if it were fun. Richard Harmon even delivered the line “the things I do to survive” with some irony in it. I wouldn’t put my money on the show addressing the rapeness of the moment.

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  3. Now, wow for ALIE. That thing is clever. I loved how they went for the horror of possessed Raven. Lindsey Morgan nailed it. The scene in which Raven cut her arms was so nerve-wrecking, it had me on the edge of my seat. For a second there I thought they were going to kill Raven. But Abby finally gave in.

    Poor Abby, she resisted as long as she could. She gave up her mind just so Raven wouldn’t die. I hope Raven will give her thanks later once they are both free from ALIE’s control. It saddens me Abby has fallen too, since the character was so good this season. Surely ALIE will use Abby to manipulate Clarke, just as she used Raven in this episode.

    Raven’s flashback torture highlighted how much physical and psychological pain she’s been put under. Girl has been more tortured than any character of 24 and that’s saying a lot. May the writers please give her some rest on season four?

    Hurrah for Octavia. Bellamy sure had it coming. I’m not having any of the attempts to redeem Bellamy, though. I loved Kane confronting him about his motivations for betraying Pike.

    Hurrah for Jasper. Finally dude got out of his head and was helpful. I was not expecting to see Clarke in the end at all, and that scene was riveting. Jasper having no patience but still saving Clarke, Clarke kicking some ALIE puppet’s ass. I also loved Clarke checking Raven’s vitals. Such a little on point character moment. Of course she would do that.

    Even with Pike’s quick defeat, this episode was the show firing on all cylinders. Especially the final moments. I’m so psyched for a The 100 reunion next episode.

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  4. I guess an episode in which Raven is not tortured in some way is a wasted episode. Seriously it's been so much of this that the flashbacks she's been having courtesy of ALIE haven't showed all of it. (they missed the almost death by 1000 cuts after supposed poisoning attempt of Lexa) Gold acting from Lindsay though.

    Pike was only captured so it might not be the end of him. Ontari might be too busy being murderous and scared of losing power to notice or care. Or he will just escape, Octavia needs to kill him not some Grounder lynch mob.

    Bellamy took his first step to full redemption. Please let him stay on the right side forever.

    ReplyDelete

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