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The 100: Perverse Instantiation, Part 1

"You got lucky. We could use some more of that."

So much setup for the finale.

In fact, almost nothing happened. They had to call this 'part one' because calling it a whole grown-up episode would be an insult to the show. And to television in general.

Here's a rundown of all the things that didn't happen.

Jasper didn't find a way to work past his Mt. Weather demons and make up with Monty. I was plenty shocked when ALIE showed up in the first place but that surprise was NOTHING compared to finding out that Jasper was the one chipped and that his return from the moping Olympics wasn't genuine. And then an entirely new wave of shock when he stabbed Monty. No no no no no no no. But, by far, the creepiest thing that came out of Jasper's mouth was the listing of his fallen friends and how they died. Most of it was recited in the background while Raven and Monty were working. The way a song might play while you clean the kitchen. Like a soundtrack for their lives on the ground. Just death and carnage and acid fog.

Raven did kick ass and find a backdoor into ALIE's network, but with Jasper holding a gun on unconscious Harper (and no Clarke to pull a crazy Hail Mary out of thin air) is there a lot of hope that the plan will stay on track? I knew Harper didn't have a lot of time left to live the second she got fresh with Monty, and Monty has proved that he can make the hard choices when it comes to weighing out the good of the many. So it's possible that he and Raven won't give in. That Harper will die alone in the hallway and Jasper will add her name to the ever growing list of casualties on the earth.

Clark and co. didn't fool ALIE into giving up Ontari. Or in securing an ally in Roan since they got him shot. Or in getting the kill code. All they really managed to do is get themselves locked in the tower that probably sustained structural damage from the cave in and subsequential bomb set off, which I feel like I've mentioned before didn't seem all that stable to begin with.

Ontari didn't die (yet), but she is brain dead making her a) useless in defeating ALIE and b) the time spent setting her up as a deranged sociopath all for nothing. Huh? Abby and Kane didn't die either, although they both came insanely close. I wonder if near death experiences will give them a little distance from ALIE. That would be wildly convenient.

For next week...

I'm willing to bet that next week will be an action-packed and nail biter to the bitter end. I'm most anxious to see if there are any differences from past season finales. In the past it's always been Clarke that comes up with a way to save her people at the last minute and always with a steep body count. Will we see a lot of bodies drop again? Will it be Clarke that saves the day again? It very well could be, but I'm betting on a curve ball.

Maybe Charlotte will turn up in the City of Light and hit the kill switch redeeming her from that whole murder/suicide fiasco from season 1. And then she and Wells will skip off together clutching his severed fingers. Probably not.

The only people I am adamant about surviving, and I didn't realize this until watching this episode, are Clarke and Bellamy. Which is strange because I love so many other characters. Many I care about more than Bellamy too, but I love watching the two of them work together and trust each other and lead together. I hope next week isn't the end of that.

The only one I'm actively rooting to die, other than ALIE, is Jaha. I've never really liked him but his self-importance is rubbing too thin. Good riddance. And this might be a little petulant, but I really hope that ALIE somehow kills him. Only because I think that might hurt him the most.

2 out of 4 fluffy, filler, setup episodes

Bits and pieces

All the hugging and goodbyes put me a little on edge. Plus Miller and Bryan were talking about their future retiring on a lake. Are we being setup to lose a bunch of our core group?

I must've seen Hostel one too many times because I was 100% sure that Abby was going to Clarke's eye with that scalpel, and couldn't breathe.

I'm still fuzzy about how Raven was able to see the truth about ALIE and actively fight to get ALIE out of her head when no one else has been able to gain even a moment of clarity.

Much of the time Murphy's presence this season has felt forced to me. Not to mention annoying. But he was nothing short of heroic here. Don't tell him, but the ground (and probably just as importantly, Emori) has changed him into a person that not only went back to help Bellamy save Clarke but also walk into a room and save Abby without even thinking twice. Plus he is half decent with the plan-making. He has earned his place in the finale.

It's genuinely painful watching characters do things under ALIE's control that they wouldn't normally do. Like Kane shooting at people he cares about (or anyone innocent for that matter) or Abby carving her daughter up like salami. I spent a lot of time wondering how hard it would be for them to forgive themselves for doing these things should they regain control of themselves. Raven seemed to move on easily enough, but words aren't as sharp as scalpels and bullets.

Jasper: "What are we looking for again?"
Monty: "A motherboard loaded with RAM."
Jasper: "And that looks like...?"
Monty: "A motherboard loaded with RAM."

Raven: "You doing okay?"
Monty: "Yeah, I think so. If it hit anything important I wouldn't be, right?"
Raven: "Yeah. You got lucky. We could use some more of that."

Jasper: "They sent us all down here to see if the ground was survivable. From what I've seen, it's not."

Murphy: "You know, after this, doing the right thing can kiss my ass."
:) I predict using this way too much in my everyday life.

Murphy: "You get that we're screwed, right?"

4 comments:

  1. Yeah, lotsa setup. I should have held on to this one and watched it with the finale. That's the advantage of future rewatches, I guess.

    I totally agree that the creepiest thing about it, other than Abby torturing her own daughter and hanging herself for leverage, was Jasper matter-of-factly reciting that list of their friends and how they died.

    I honestly don't know how they're going to write themselves out of this one. Unless Ontari can still be a host to the commander chip when she's brain dead? Maybe Ontari will end up totally possessed by Lexa and the previous commanders instead of only partially? Talk about creepy. But Ontari herself is no loss.

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  2. Did anyone else think Jasper's list of names was a bit of a Hunger Games riff? The 100 used to have little Hunger Games homages quite often in the first two seasons but it hasn't been nearly as relevant this year.

    What keeps annoying me this season is the lack of consistency with being chipped - why on earth would Abby/ALIE think that cutting her would be something that would break Clarke? They didn't even bother torturing Abby like that, just went for a bigger weakness by using Raven (and using Abby to break Marcus accordingly). All it did do was depersonalise Abby to some extent,so she would have been of less use in using as a theat against Clarke (and predictably,the Commander of Death was quite capable of letting her own mother hang herself without giving up the password).

    I think the only person she's done that for this season has been BelLamy right back at the start when Roan captured them and I'm not sure she'd give up the password even for him at this point, seeing as it would literally mean the end for everyone?

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  3. It may be too early too judge, but I think the 100 has lost me - Lexa was a very good character, and I was okay with her dying if it meant looking at how conflicted she felt about the chip and her self-sacrifice, the morality of Becca's choice of playing god with these non-tech-savvy people and inserting a consciousness that does not fully communicate its intentions to the person in which it resides, and how Clarke feels about her relationship with Lexa after learning about her etc...;
    but this search to insert this magical macguffin into somebody, though peppered with questions how much justifies the means, just does not resonate with me as much.... but who knows, thanks for the review and I will be watching next week! helen

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  4. Jasper made a really effective villian and mouth of ALIE. Creepy as hell and the only thing missing is him finding an axe and hacking his way in into the room. Plus the list of dead 100 members and how they died was pretty funny.

    Murphy is turning into an MVP. That's not something I'd say in season one. I'm also relived to see good Bellamy again who does not want to kill ALIE drones.

    I guess the princess was indeed in the tower. I remember thinking that Clarke's blond hair was too short back at the beggining of the season so use it like Rapunzel. :)

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