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The 100: Shifting Sands

"You can't just do whatever the hell you want here."

In the beginning 'whatever the hell we want' was at the heart of what the original 100 wanted. The dream was to make choices and mistakes and live freely without the insane consequence of death for all infractions. Over the years the stakes have gotten higher and the enemies smarter and stronger and the dream has come back to simply surviving.

In the bunker, Jaha explained to Octavia that in order to survive on the Ark, death became the enemy. Anyone that threatened the survival of the group had to be eliminated. As he explained it, this mindset is how that made peace with the grim realities of killing parents that stole medicine or food for their child. It was how they justified locking up sweet children for stealing blankets or whatever. Octavia took this thinking and made her own justifications for the fighting pit. The enemy became anyone who would try to divide her people. It'll be interesting to see how that mindset will influence the problems she is facing now.

Conflict 1: Who gets the valley?

It's the last inhabitable spot on earth and without it all these factions would be practically hopeless, but any tree-hugger will tell you the earth is not unkillable. Clarke, Bellamy and Charmaine are the only ones that seem to realize that destroying this valley in a war would be as terrible as losing the war. Charmaine and her band of merry murderers have it now and as I understand it, possession is 9/10ths of the law. (I'm not going to let the fact that there is no law here confuse me for even one moment.) They also have the fire power, the world's most strung out doctor, a pilot, missiles, Raven Reyes and are happy to kill. They are kind of stacked to hold onto whatever they want. Too bad for them that things don't stay stagnant for long around here.

Conflict 2: Blake vs. Blake

Like McCreary, Octavia can't see the idiocy of destroying the valley with a war. I hope she can start taking the advice she's given more seriously in the future.

Bellamy still hasn't realized that his sister is a leader. The leader. Charmaine can shoot rounds into the air all she wants (don't ever do this, by the way, so so dangerous) and Clarke and Bellamy can lament about their heart and head balances until the cows come home. Octavia is the only one leading actual people that are actually following and actually willing to give their lives at her request. Even when he tried to complement her at the end, it felt more like he was placating her which is approval that she doesn't need anymore. If I didn't find her so erratic and dangerous, that ending threat would have me cheering.

Clarke and Bellamy have almost no power here. It will be interesting to see how things play out if this continues to be true. Charmaine has the weapons. Octavia has warriors that are blindly loyal to her. Leaving Polis, the two of them literally got in line with everyone that was heading out. That bit was almost a little jarring to watch but I'm not convinced that they'd be able to carry anything out that they didn't believe in. Without backup though, will they even have a choice. Probably because they are them, but I like seeing them in very different places than I am used to.

I dare anyone to not love Indra. I can see how the changes in her have been building. For decades she followed the commander without hesitation, without question. Poor Indra, first her daughter didn't become the warrior that she hoped for and then her surrogate daughter started inspiring folks to slaughter each other. Life is hard when you're trying to rear the next generation. It's not the most pleasant pill to swallow.

Indra and Shaw are the swing votes here. Both are struggling to align what they need to do to survive with what they believe to be right. We still don't know what Shaw did to get into Charmaine's good graces. Unless it is just that he is the last one that can fly the plane, but I doubt it.

Part of what is so impressive on The 100 is that the stakes keep getting higher without sacrificing any of the magic and the audience only gets that much more invested. The quest to survive has always been at the center of everything and the more complicated survival gets, the more interesting it is to watch.

4 out of 5 killer worms

Bits and pieces

How large is the valley they're fighting over?

Bellamy was right, Murphy likes being a hero. And Emori likes him being a hero. Maybe those crazy kids just couldn't make it work in outer space.

Shaw is impressed with Raven. Good taste.
Then he set her up to get tortured. Bad taste.

Charmaine already expressed her disdain for Kane switching sides. I don't see her taking this well.

Who thinks Shaw is gonna make it to season six? Should we take bets?

I really didn't appreciate seeing the worms writhing around under peoples' skin. Ick.

Kane is once again playing ambassador between warring factions.

I hope Madi isn't terribly disappointed when she meets her idol, SkyRipper turned Red Queen.

Octavia really did not seem like she is open to forgiving Echo.

Miller: "You can't just do whatever the hell you want here."

Clarke: "All of me for all of us. It's kind of beautiful."
Bellamy: "How so?"
Clarke: "They lost 400 people."

McCreary: "You're making a mistake."
Shaw: "Yeah? Wouldn't be the first time."

Charmaine: "Wishes are for the weak."

3 comments:

  1. While I appreciate female badassery and completely get where she's coming from under the circumstances, I don't like this new Octavia. And I don't like the way she's treating her brother. The circumstances just changed and Octavia needs to change with it.

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  2. So where is Nilyah and Indra's daughter in the present? Are we just supposed to assume they were among the 400 casualties? Flashbacks please.

    I wonder how many missiles do they have.

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  3. So, what was Raven's plan here? At first I had the impression that Shaw's betrayal was part of the plan, but then the missiles were launched anyway.

    Octavia was *perfect* back in episode two, but I don't like what she has become after all those years in the bunker. The problem is not that she is cold and detached, but that she is blindly stupid. Accusing Bellamy of starting the war? Honey, he is the only reason you are out of the bunker. Just chill.

    So far, Charmaine has been a very interesting character to watch.

    ReplyDelete

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