Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

The 100: Acceptable Losses

Harper: "Your sister officially scares me."

Girl, she officially scared me fourteen rage-filled threats ago.

Stick a fork in Octavia. She's might be just about done. I mean when even your sibling doesn't object to your murder, what's left for a Blake to do??

Bellamy and his commitment to his sister are one of the only remaining original relationships that we were introduced to all those years ago. He spent practically his entire childhood hiding her and all of his adolescence trying to give her whatever spare scraps of happiness he could find. He even attempted murder and jumped into the dropship headed towards certain(ish) death so that he might have a chance to keep her safe again. But how do you love, or trust for that matter, someone so openly dangerous?

Kane and Abby were already forced to jump ship (poor Kane). The first round of defectors are already half dead and everyone agrees that there are more willing to risk a bullet in the back to get away from the Red Queen. Gaia made it clear that she'll serve her queen until a better option opens up. Indra had been questioning Octavia since before the bunker was cracked open and Kara has more than proven her mutability for the sake of survival after taking over the cafeteria by force and then winning the inaugural bunker cage match.

Let's hit ourselves with a dose of reality, though. Even if they get rid of Octavia and surrender, how much of the valley will they get? Will they ever be safe sharing space with the killers from the sky? As much as I want Octavia to be put in her place, is this just another half-cocked plan?

Seeing Clarke get babbled into a corner is never a lot of fun. Over the years though, she has proven her capability to us. So much so that I knew she would have a plan B hatched before that staring contest was finished.

The underlying common thread of this episode is right there in the title. Every time we turned around someone was trying to define it. To Octavia, and probably the rest of the bunker people, Echo, Raven, Murphy and Emori are acceptable losses if it means they would be able to take the valley. Bellamy, for one, vehemently disagrees. For Abby, her relationship with Kane is an acceptable loss in exchange for indulging her addiction. After reading Jasper's suicide note, Monty laments that maybe the lives of himself and his friends aren't worth the lives they would have to take in a war. Echo made an acceptable sacrifice in order to carry out her mission, but Shaw's trust wasn't an acceptable loss for Raven. To Clarke, Octavia is an acceptable sacrifice to keep Madi safe. How easily will it be for Bellamy to agree? I guess we're about to find out. If his hesitation is any indication, he won't need much of a push.

A solid installment.
3.5 out of 5 surprise pregnancies.

I wrote this whole review and almost published it without mentioning the plan to incubate and dispatch killer worms. So, there it is. There is a plan to dispatch killer worms in Wonkru deserters. Ick.

Bits and pieces

Jasper is still trying to pull Monty down. Even in death he can't let his friend be happy. Sadd.

Color me shocked, but I actually believed Gaia when she said she wasn't a threat to Madi. For her sake, I hope that I'm not wrong.

What do we think Emori and Murphy are doing to McCreary in the woods? Yikes.

The first time Clarke sported the post-apocalyptic dye job was when we were introduced to her as Wanheda. Octavia got the red smokey eye as the Red Queen. Is this on purpose?

I can't tell if it's an acting choice or if something just isn't clicking for me but Octavia's interaction with Bellamy and/or Clarke is almost robotic. Like it's hard to be genuine with them if she isn't delivering veiled threats? Is it just me?

Jasper: "I've come to the conclusion that we're the problem. Human beings. All of us. The cycle can't be broken as long as we're here."

Raven: "You're good, Shaw. I can see it in your eyes."

Bellamy: "Are we really having this conversation? Our friends are there. People we love."
Octavia: "Acceptable losses."

Monty: "Octavia will never surrender."
Clarke: "That is why we are going to take her out."

5 comments:

  1. If Abby fails to find a cure the killer from thesky problem will solve itself so if they surrender they will naturally take more and more of the valley anyways. Of course Abby will find a cure just to make it more complicated.

    Octavia is just not the same girl as before so I guess it is an acting choice. Definately creepy. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know, as batshit crazy as Octavia is coming off at the moment, she does have a point in her row with Clarke. After all, Octavia, Kane, Indra among others were "acceptable losses" to Clarke. Besides, if Clarke hadn't decided to go commando instead of sizing up the situation before acting, Octavia might never have been driven to this. Also, in the previous episode, Octavia was probably right that if she had just let the deserters go without a fight, Charmaine would have been suspicious. Charmaine is no fool.

    Charmaine's actually quite reasonable; it's too bad there are so many monsters among her people. I'd kind of like to see her as part of "our tribe" though I have a feeling she won't survive the season.

    I also have some sympathy for Jasper's point of view (his girlfriend having been another of Clarke's acceptable sacrifices). I feel similarly, whenever I read somebody like Elon Musk saying we need to colonize other planets in case we wreck this one. If we can't get our act together sufficiently to keep this planet liveable, we don't deserve a chance to inflict ourselves on any other.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank someone for finally pointing out Clarke's hypocrisy.
    Clarke who has left Octavia to die on two occasions by the way..
    I recognize Octavia is unhinged right now but as she pointed out are her actions any worse than what Clarke or Bellamy have done...
    The way Octavia is being judged is annoying me especially by Bellamy. Bellamy has spent 6 years in space in peace..Clarke has been a alone and isolated but at peace and with an innocent child..
    Octavia has spent 6 years making the same decisions Clarke had to for one. And people are struggling to figure out why she is so set in her ways right now. Shes actually showing more humanity than i expected her too..Even when she shouted at my girl Indra that was out of desperation. None of them are coming up with any ideas or solutions that are better..
    Octavia's behavior in season 4 was even worse when she was just a stone cold killer(we forget she entered the bunker after a season of murder and winning the conclsave....of more murder.)...
    Here we can see the years of impossible choices have turned her into Blodreina.
    The problem everyone seems to be having with Octavia is she is saying things like 'acceptable losses' in regards to their friends and seeming to give no fucks..This makes Octavia come off cold and uncaring when it just highlights how used to making these types of decisions she is...She reminds me of the colder shut down version of Lexa or Anya that we met before Clarke's influence.
    As far as her war plans against Diyoza what options does Octavia have...Diyoza's charm and brilliance have made people forget she attacked Octavia first over Abby. This conflict would have happened regardless...Maybe Clarke could have been more diplomatic to begin with but we understand she was protecting Madi...But we cant understand that Octavia is protecting her people who will starve very soon.
    However i am pleased that Octavia is getting a dose of her own medicine..She would often be the one in earlier seasons to blame everything on Clarke and Bellamy when things went wrong or difficult choice would have to be made so im glad she is experiencing that position of leadership herself.
    For some reason i think a misdirect is coming with Madi..Everyone believes Octavia sees her as a threat to her power when i genuinely think Octavia wants her to take over, but is also using her relationship to try and keep Clarke in check.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous- I like your idea about the misdirect! Maybe that intention is what's behind the peculiarities I'm feeling from Octavia.

    ReplyDelete
  5. While I don't love Octavia's actions or choices, she is not doing anything that Clarke and Bellamy haven't done before, and I'm glad she called them out on it.

    This episode made me realize that Madi is The 100's Dawn, in a way, though Dawn's relationship with Buffy was more organically developed. I know The 100 is telling me that Clarke cares a lot about Madi, but something in their relationship is missing for me. Maybe it's because all we see is Clarke worry about Madi and nothing else.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.