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The 100: Earth Skills

"What's wrong with a little chaos?"

There are two factions fighting for control of the Ark, and two factions struggling for control of the 100. Unfortunately, there's no subtlety at all about who to root for; it's easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. So far, anyway. I can't help but wish that it was all a bit more ambiguous.

Above

While the kids on Earth appear to be dropping like flies and the life support on the Ark is failing, the evil Kane is downright eager to play survivor roulette and cull some extraneous people. Okay, I'll give him the tiniest bit of a benefit of the doubt: he may actually believe that killing off 209 people today will save the rest, but I'm willing to bet that Kane is thinking about his own survival first and that he certainly won't end up on any list of people to be culled.

Kane called the Chancellor "weak" because the Chancellor wants to consider other options before outright killing a couple of hundred people. Jeez Louise. Again, this is such a huge narrative flaw. Ask for volunteers and I am betting several hundred people would jump at the chance to go down to the planet in a jury-rigged drop ship, even at the risk of dropping dead from radiation.

At least they introduced a character I immediately liked a lot: Raven the badass mechanic and origami enthusiast. It's nice that Abby has an ally and kindred soul with whom she can share the truth, someone who wants to get off the Ark as much as Abby does – and can actually do something about it.

Below

The origami above and below told us outright that Raven's loved one is Finn. That might not be good news for Clarke, who is indulging in waterfall swims and simplistic psychoanalysis with him. Finn thinks that Clarke helps everyone because she couldn't save her dad. Let me think. How about this alternate theory? Clarke was born with the genes of a leader and she genuinely cares about people? Plus Clarke's insistence on rescuing Jasper was spot on. Was Jasper supposed to be bait for the CGI panther everyone ended up eating? If so, why did the "grounders" put a poultice on Jasper's wound?

The rescue party consisted of a Clarke faction and a Bellamy faction, and it wasn't a comfortable alliance. Bellamy and his vicious sidekick Murphy were talking about torture and cutting off Clarke's hand in order to remove the wristbands. It feels like just a matter of time before the 100 are broken up into warring parties. That is, if they don't unite against a common foe that, say, strings up one of the kids as bait. Cue the guy with the scary-looking mask in the final shot of the episode.

I'm starting to feel a bit for Octavia. Locked under the floor for fifteen years just for being born? No wonder she's so happy on Earth gazing at fluorescent blue butterflies and smooching with Atom, Bellamy's douchy friend. I'm not sure Atom deserved getting suspended from a tree for smooching, though.

The 100 have started building a wall. You might want to hurry up with that, guys. You can feel that something is bound to attack soon.

Bits:

— There is now a saga sell. I'm not a fan of saga sells. In these days of on-demand and streaming, does anyone start with later episodes of a show for which they can't find the earlier episodes?

— Were those bones that of a primate? An alien? It couldn't have been a mutated human, could it?

— During the waterfall scene with Clarke and Finn, I kept wondering where the giant snakes were.

— The term 'grounder' is too much like 'grinder' for me. I'm seeing the mysterious natives as hero sandwiches. Or as we call them in Pennsylvania, hoagies.

— Monty has wound up in the stereotypical Asian role of electronics/computer expert, trying to contact the Ark. Let's hope he gets more than that.

— The Chancellor's first name is Thelonious. It hasn't been mentioned yet (or I missed it, but his last name is Jaha. Thelonious Jaha. What a great name.

— This episode's date hint: there was mention of the Mir 3 launched in 2102 and that the Mir 3 escape pod that Abby and Raven are working on is 130 years old. That would make the date 2232, right? That would also make Jasper's 2062 tee really, really old.

— Thanks to Tricksterson for that comment on my review of the pilot episode about the characters having the names of science fiction authors. I'm a sci-fi geek and a reader. I should have picked up on that.

Programming note: Several of the Agents of DOUX have volunteered to cover The 100 on rotation. We're planning to post catch-up reviews of the first two seasons this summer and cover the show this fall.

Two out of four origami sculptures,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

5 comments:

  1. Yay! Another review and you guys are actually covering it. Awesome.

    I didn’t remember Raven was introduced this soon. Raven rocks. In fact, this show is filled with awesome female characters.

    How about this alternate theory? Clarke was born with the genes of a leader and she genuinely cares about people?

    This. Spot on, Billie. I also didn’t care much for Finn’s theory. Clarke is just good at leadership, she’s not trying to compensate for anything. I didn’t like Clarke so much on the beginning, but eventually she won my heart.

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  2. "How about this alternate theory? Clarke was born with the genes of a leader and she genuinely cares about people?" There is no such thing as being born that way.
    Finn is correct (not completely though) that she fully realized (even if she did before) the value of human life through the immense feeling of loss upon the death of her own father. That is how she came to care so much about other people.
    Frankly I don't understand this childish obsession that everyone has with leaders being viewed as heroes. True leaders are simultaneously both constructive and destructive.
    Thanks for the catch up reviews and covering it when it returns.

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  3. I didn't like this show much when it started, but it quickly got better and better. What impressed me though is when I rewatched the earlier episodes, they setup so much of what was to come. Rather surprised me!

    Also, Kane as evil... hehe... snicker... I remember wondering why they were making him evil too. What they did do though, is jettison his girlfriend after the first episode. Never saw her again!

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  4. The line of good and bad gets murkier as we continue forward. One of the good things about this show.

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  5. I really don't remember what I thought about this show last year. I think if the first season had been longer than 13 eps I would have dropped it...

    My intial problem was that I didn't like Isaiah Washington's and Richard Harmon's characters. I don't know if it's the actors or just the writing? I've seen them in similar roles before. Especially Richard Harmon is exactly the same in Continuum...an annoying brat teenager.

    That said, this show managed to not be the typical CW teenage drama, and somewhere in that first season I started to care about these characters.

    So I'm with everyone else that says...Hang in there, it gets better!

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