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The 100: Earth Kills

"I'll try not to die tomorrow too, if that's cool."

This episode was filled to the brim with death and dying. I guess when you put 'kill' in the episode title, you aren't planning on messing around.

On the ground, Jasper is in a lot of pain and struggling to survive. You know, even more than everyone else that's trying to survive, and people are starting to get annoyed by his suffering. If you've ever seen The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, then you know that this kind of plot twist can have a very different ending. That's all I kept thinking about watching this episode, and resident psychotic jackass, John Murphy, wasn't even in that movie as the extremely believable murderer. Jasper is lucky he had so many people looking out for him. If Clarke hadn't been smart enough to question the grounder medical care he received, he probably wouldn't have survived the infection. And if Octavia and Monty weren't personally invested in his survival then Murphy would've killed him before Clarke's seaweed tonic ever even made its way to him. Lesson learned: If you ever find yourself in a survival situation, make friends. Lots of friends. Friends with diverse strengths and varying skills.

The Hunger Games acid fog made its debut in the 100verse. I think we are supposed to assume that it's some kind of traveling left-over radiation cloud. Or something. I don't want to spoil anything for future episodes, so I think that's all I will say about that.

The threesome hiking and subsequent whiskey binge in the abandoned car was kind of fun. Wells was trying so hard to remind Clarke about the good times they used to have and Clarke was trying equally as hard to remind Wells that she blames him for the worst thing that ever happened to her. Which eventually brought us to the big reveal, courtesy of Finn, Wells didn't turn in Clarke's dad. He kept his promise to her, let her hate him so she could keep her relationship with the only parent she had left and continuously took her verbal abuse. I thought it was very touching when she apologized and he revealed that he had already forgiven her. What a stand up guy.

Clarke coming to terms with the fact that the only family she has left is responsible for her father's death has so much potential for character development. It's not like she'll be skyping Abby to hear her side or yell at her for what she did. Can there be any resolution until the two come face-to-face and hash it out? Will it just fester in Clarke until she can confront her?

When Charlotte first walked up to Wells, I thought she was going to get her third pep talk on how to avoid nightmares. I guess Bellamy's chat stuck, though. Right into Wells' throat. Charlotte killed Wells. What the what? My hat's off to anyone that saw that coming. Wells bested Murphy last week and got taken out by a little girl in braids. Unknowingly Bellamy and Clarke are the ones that armed her, literally and figuratively. Bellamy gave her the knife and told her she had to slay her demons in real life if she ever wanted to sleep again. Clarke showed her how to use the knife to kill someone quickly.

All we really saw on the Ark were flashbacks to happier times. Clarke and Wells were BFFs. Chancellor Jaha and Clarke's dad were sports watching pals. And Abby came home to an adoring husband, her daughter and friends watching a 147 year old sports situation. Was it soccer? At one point Clarke literally says 'this isn't going to last.' Well no, no it really isn't.

2.5 out of 4 bottles of boozy, gut-rotting hooch.

Bits and pieces

Seeing Bellamy with Charlotte was cute.

They found an automobile.

We probably should've known Charlotte was jumping off the deep end when she gave Bellamy the knife to kill Atom and blankly told him not to be afraid to commit murder. Lawd.

That whole floating scene was incredibly jarring, and not at all peaceful the way the word floating implies.

The body count was particularly high this week. The two lost kids Trina and Pascal, Atom, Wells, not Jasper. Not to mention the repeated reminder that both of Charlotte's parents were floated and Clarke actually seeing Jake get floated.

I don't know why, but this episode made me think of lots of other movies/TV shows, and that's why I kept referencing them.

Clarke: "You see that bright star up there? That's the Ark orbiting above us. I think that whatever happened up there, you know the pain, maybe we can move past that now. Maybe being on the ground is our second chance."
Charlotte: "Do you really believe that?"
Clarke: "I'm trying to."
I wonder how many of the other hundred would describe the Ark as a 'bright star'?

Atom: "No sign of Trina or Pascal. It could be grounders."
Murphy: "Or they could just be in pound town."
Stay classy, Murphy.

Monty: "Power hungry self-serving jackass. He doesn't care about anyone but himself."

Wells: "You know you should really rethink this whole hating me thing. It's not just the grounders. We're surrounded by criminals. We need each other. We're going to be friends again."
Clarke: "You got my dad killed. Not possible."
Wells: "This is earth, Clarke. Anything's possible."

Bellamy: "Ever killed somebody before?... Who knows? Maybe you're good at it."

Bellamy: "Fears are fears. Slay your demons when you're awake, they won't be able to get you when you're asleep."
Charlotte: "Yeah, but... how?"
Bellamy: "You can't afford to be weak. Down here, fear is death. Weakness is death."

Finn: "How about we all just take it easy?"
Clarke: "I have no idea how to do that."

Octavia: "I guess we're going to have to get used to people dying down here, aren't we?"

Clarke: "I blamed you because my father's dead and it's my mother's fault, isn't it?... Wells, please?"
Wells: "I knew how you would feel. I wanted–"
Clarke: "To protect me."

Charlotte: "The nightmare never ends. The only way to make it stop was to slay my demons. I had to."

4 comments:

  1. Terrific review, Laure. You wrote, "I don't know why, but this episode made me think of lots of other movies/TV shows, and that's why I kept referencing them."

    For me, it was definitely Lost. Jasper screaming in pain and everyone going nuts about it was very much like what happened to the marshal, and the scary cloud of scariness was Smoke Monster-ish. I don't suppose it's sentient? (I don't know -- I haven't seen the rest of the series yet.)

    Bellamy trying to help little Charlotte made me like him a little, too. Maybe he's not a total loss.

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  2. Bellamy is really sweet trying to help Charlotte. This is the first time we see a softer side of him, one that probably he used to display more around Octavia, but now can’t since she has declared her own independence. It’s sad that Charlotte completely twists his advice, though.

    And, yes, that scene is so brutal and shocking. My reaction was something like: “What the hell, oh my god, she’s killing him. No, stop. Oh no, somebody. He can’t die, he’s like a major character or something. Oh no, he’s dead. He really died. Wow, I can’t believe it.”

    It’s not like I was a major fan of Wells or anything, but he was the moral compass of the 100, a decent human being and a loyal friend to Clarke. Besides, he is a character we won’t get to know much more of because he’s gone. It was very clever of the writers to write him as one of the main guys and kill him off early on and out of the blue to surprise us.

    RIP Wells.

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  3. Great review- thanks! One of the reasons I like this show is because the moral compass keeps moving all over the place. I was shocked as well when Charlotte killed Wells but it made so much sense in a very damaged 11 year old way. It also reminded me that these are just kids even if they are strong, talented kids and they don't always think through what they do and say.

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  4. The writers managed to do a very good twist with graet setup with Wells, but they had to do it in order to establish the universe.

    They already brought Jasper back after seeming death so they needed to set the tone with someone else or else people who question the setting.

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