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The 100: Sic Semper Tyrannis

"He made his choice."

For this week's installment it feels like what we've done is put all the pieces that make up our new 100 in a jar, shook the bejeezus out of them and tossed them back onto the table to see where it all landed.

The culmination of the pretty epic Clarke Bellamy conflict that we've been gearing up for all season is upon us. Their clashing priorities have taken us to a new place in their relationship.  Clarke can only think with the heart of Madi's mother. Bellamy is now considering all of his options logically and making the most calculated decisions that he can for spacekru. He's the least Volatile subjects knew he could be. If Clarke is the new Bellamy, does that make Madi the new Octavia? Oh wait, Clarke was colored to be the new Abby and Madi the new Clarke. Never mind. You get it.

And just in case we needed more proof that they've switched places, Clarke chained and pleading for Bellamy not to sacrifice Madi as commander was a seriously stark callback to Bellamy in chains begging Clarke not to leave Octavia outside the bunker for praimfaya. I mean, that might've even been the exact same room. It definitely tugged at my same heartstrings. Good acting all around.

The Bellarke ship has never really done anything for me for one distinct reason. Their powerful co-leadership dynamic has forever been my favorite part of this show and I don't want to lose that camaraderie to some worthless will they won't they teenage trope. Putting their relationship through this litmus test of what betrayal means and who is willing to extend themselves far enough to win and who makes the cut has me so far on the edge of my seat that I often get annoyed when it's time to check in on the valley or when Octavia and Indra get the chance to further their relationship or anyone that I'm forced to wait to find out how their friendship will be repaired. And yes, I'm using how instead of if. Let me live.

I'm waiting for Madi to start bringing out Lexa memories. Pull a Bran Stark and freak Clarke out with the info she has access to at the drop of a hat. Even after all this time, I'm still not sure what kind of influence the chip had over its host. From this episode we can expect that Madi can call on past experiences but what else? Is Clarke going to have yet another power struggle on her hands? Will the chip give Madi an expectation of authority? If Clarke tells her to hide again would she listen? We haven't gotten to really know Madi at all so I'm not sure being chipped will matter so much in how we see her but I'm hopeful that it'll be used for fun and not evil. ALIE gave us enough evil chip usage, right.

In terms of actual changes in power, those happened in the valley. When Clarke and Madi lived there it looked like a festival goers dream. Now it's darker. Dirtier. Bleak. Has it been slowly changing and I haven't noticed? Or were the changes made this week to directly reflect the changes that happened in this episode? Diyoza lost McCreary's followers which turned out to be a lot of what she was working with. She lost her doctor. Funnily if she hadn't been so hard to trust people, she might not have had to work against Echo, Murphy, etc and this uprising might not have even happened. If she hadn't collared the defectors, she might have earned their respect and maybe they'd be happy to fall in line. But in times of war especially, why would she trust anyone? Now we have to sift through even more deceit and lies and distrust to figure out how to co-exist... or how to kill off the other side. It's part of the never ending cycle we live with on The 100. I'd like to see it answered at some point but I can't imagine that they can come up with an answer that could make everyone happy.

Strong 3 out of 4 not-so-surprise ascensions

Bits and pieces

Sic Semper Tyrannis is Latin. It translates to "thus always to tyrants" meaning tyrannical leaders will inevitably be overthrown. There was a lot of that going around here.

I really appreciate that neither Bellamy or Gai were willing to force Madi into taking the flame.

Oh and McCreary is definitely the father. Wow.

The pilot flirting with Raven is still cute.

Indra: "Real warriors hate war."

Madi: "Bellamy, if I do this, she’ll never forgive you."

Clarke: "You said that you would protect her! You said that you would keep her safe! No! Bellamy!"

Charmaine: "You could have been a miner, Doc."
Abby: "Miners don’t care about destroying the ground they’re digging in. If I did that my patient would die so don’t ask me to do it intentionally because I won’t."

4 comments:

  1. " We haven't gotten to really know Madi at all..." Dead on, and for me, this is a problem. I'm having trouble with Clarke's characterization this season because while we see Clarke cares about her, as a viewer, I don't have much reason to care about Madi. Certainly not enough to empathize with Clarke's willingness to sacrifice everything for her. And the argument could be made that Madi would be safer as Commander than as potential Commander, given what the AI brings to the table. Though I guess you have to wonder, to what exent will she still be Madi?

    One thing I did like was that the show recognized that simply taking Octavia out of the equation doesn't automatically stop the war. Not sure why they were so sure it would. It seemed to me to be an obvious flaw in the plan. Also, am I forgetting something about Nathan that accounts for his loyalty to Octavia, or are we just supposed to assume it's something that happened over the years we didn't see?

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  2. We have viewed some of this world through Madi's lens..So we may not know her as much as others but they have done enough to show who she is.
    For example when Clarke has killed, Madi is the first reaction we get. Despite being raised by Clarke and having kills of her own she is still an innocent who ''there are no good guys'' does not resonate with.
    She believes in Clakres fairytale stories about her friends so she instantly trusted Bellamy at the start and in this episode.. She is a fangirl of Octavia..We saw her honor when she helped Ethan to his feet even though he was an asshole to her earlier that day..The chip only enhances whats already there...Look how long we knew Lexa and never suspected she had a chip in her head.
    People seem to be having a problem with this season because they haven't show us every single minute of why every single person is different ( I can understand the sentiment) and not acting how we want them to act. Case in point Miller. The entirety of seasons 1-4 was only about a year and had they all shared some truly disastrous experiences..
    Now after spending SIX years with other people suddenly its a problem to understand why there are new and stronger allegiances. The 100 is its own worst enemy as there are plenty of interesting characters whose stories we wont to see even most of the side characters are interesting..But there is simply no time..We have not even seen Octavia's 'Dark Year' episode yet.

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  3. Clarke can only think with the heart of Madi's mother.

    Yes, and that sucks. Because (1) we haven't SEEN their connection play onscreen enough to make this bond believable and (2) Clarke was more sympathetic when her actions were driven by wanting to save an entire group of people instead of one single person she loves. I mean, she had no excuses for killing that guard.

    Anyway, I loved everything to do with bringing Heda back. The commander's line is my favorite part of The 100's mythology and I was so psyched for the possibility of having a commander again. They really had me on the edge of my seat this episode. I wonder how Flame!Lexa will react to Clarke's actions.

    I was really worried that Diyoza wasn't going to make it. I'm glad she did and I hope her child is okay.

    It's funny that Abby's current best friend this season is a dangerous serial killer.

    The pilot flirting with Raven is still cute.

    I kind of ship them.

    What a great episode for Murphy.

    Yes! Too bad he wasn't aware of the bigger picture, but he is such a hoot. I loved that he stayed with Kane to do what is right.

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