The 100: The Gospel of Josephine

"This is what happens when you try making an omelet without breaking any eggs."

This was a serious home run for me.

Can I start with the philosophical conundrum first? If they had come down guns blazing could they have taken Sanctum? Bellamy and Clarke, I mean. Is this what they get for trying to make omelets without cracking eggs? Because Josie made a point of saying if they had treated people like breeding stock instead of (at least) pretending they have free will, the primes wouldn't be looking at extinction. Is the point to just stop making omelets? Because omelets are delicious and that's just not going to work for me as a life lesson.

In the quicksand, Octavia could not stop fighting even though she knew it was killing her and in the end she saved herself (maybe not her hand though?) by going under. Later, Bellamy looked absolutely overcome with terror when he was paralyzed with no hope of fighting back and Clarke reacted similarly when she got tranqued. These people are survivors because they never stop fighting. They never give up. They do what needs to be done and worry about the haunting fallout later. Not being able to fight is their actual worst fear made real; it was powerfully played. I felt the terror rolling off Bellamy. Wow, that's serious writing and acting. Wow wow wow.

More powerful acting prowess came in the form of Josephine herself. She behaves so differently from Clarke, but was believably not caught for a while. Even the way Eliza Taylor speaks as Josie feels differentiated. I didn't notice any hair twirling which I can certainly live with, but it's odd that they went so out of their way to set it up just to drop it here. Josephine seems seriously unhinged. Was she always? Or is this an adverse effect of all the body jumping? She's fun, though. I'd really like her if she weren't trying to kill all my people.

During the previously on, Madi said that no one was going to find out that she's a middle and I couldn't stop laughing. How did I miss that seriously ominous statement. Of course they're going to find out. I was strongly hoping against it though, which is a sign of really being on the edge of your seat. Like when you know the killer is in the closet but you still scream when the babysitter gets sliced and diced. But Madi isn't twenty-one. The 100 usually likes to keeps their major plot arcs to a single season but this could easily end with no resolution, Clarke still being Josie and everyone else heading into the woods to team up with Gabriel and his children.

Murphy's survivalist gene is kicking into overdrive, but here's the rub. I don't think he got this far from desperation. At least not desperation alone. He also knows how to make the smart choice. Well, he did survive Grounder torture and captivity by giving up info about his friends. That was pretty desperate. And was compliant as Lexa's slave. Okay, never mind, maybe him wanting to stay in Sanctum is classic Murphy. Maybe his brush with hell is making him regress. That makes sense. He's regressing into selfish survivalist Murphy before he had people that he cared about and that care about him. I'm glad we are here together so I could talk this out. I wonder what he will do when he has to make a choice to save Bellamy. Or Emori, for that matter. I'm torn. I don't want Murphy to get himself dead, but I don't want him to turn his back on his people out of cowardice, either.

I assume we were supposed to be drawing parallels between the primes' desire for immortality and Abby's inability to let Kane die and Murphy outright admitting the appeal of never dying before Josie made her proposal to John. How weird was that, by the way? I guess there is an argument to be made that Bellarke and crew should have met their makers many moons ago. It's through brutality and sheer will to live that they have made it this far, and the primes too. Bellamy and Clarke sacrificed everyone in the mountain (among others) and the primes used the people they made from embryos (probably just scratching the surface) like lab rats killing them to save themselves. If everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to survive and everyone is equally (un)innocent, then are we still smack in the middle of the fighting pits? To the death, may the best man win? Hell, maybe all of this is just a cannibalism-induced dream that Kane is having. Just look at the flowers, Josie.

I can't come up with anything I didn't like. From Jordan going Monty 2.0 to Eliza Taylor's and Bob Morley's exemplary performances to the random team assembled in the reliquary (which is apparently the technical term for hall of bones).

4 out of 4 calla lilies, not daisies.

Bits and pieces

I try not to make every episode picture of Clarke alone. It just doesn't seem fair,, but she's getting all the good storylines. How could I not make it of her last week when she may have died? How could it not be here this week when the name of the episode references the person that body-snatched her? Life is hard for me, you guys. Very hard indeed.

Do the secret handshake this instant!! Or I want my friendship bracelet back.

Bellamy knew it wasn't Clarke before anyone else. Abby was almost there but with no sleep and a dialysis-replacing bug on the table, can we really blame her?

Last week Emori, Murphy and Abby were on the sidelines. This week it was Emori, Raven and Echo. Should we take bets on who we won't see next week?

This was the second time that Jordan's newness at secrecy and espionage and survival showed. If you aren't going to kill everyone in the mountain, you have to play it cool, bro. Someone stitch that on a pillow, please?

OMG, was Jasper's last name Jordan? I'm the worst.

Priya said that Delilah is happy and wanted Jordan to know that. I think this is supposed to give us hope that there is a possible future for Delilah and more importantly, Clarke. But doesn't it just sound like a lie? If the host is alive and essentially paralyzed behind the glass, how could she possibly be happy? That seems, at best, insanely infuriating.

I did not like seeing Brooke tortured. I'd like to not have to see it again. Thank you so much.

Josie: "Did this Ferrari I'm wearing consent to giving up her body?"

Jordan: "I'm serious. Something happened in that reliquary. It's like she doesn't even know me."
Bellamy: "Just play it cool. She'll come around."
Murphy: "Yeah, that and maybe, like, don't get flowers for a one night stand."
This whole interaction made me smile.

Jordan: "I know you think you need to protect us all because you couldn't save Octavia, but I can take care of myself."
Silly Jordan. Didn't your parents teach you that it's dumb to go against Bellamy and Clarke?

Xavier: "The harder you fight, the faster you die."

Josephine: "I'm telling you, this ends badly. Either they figure it out, kill me and burn Sanctum to the ground. Or we kill them so they can't burn Sanctum to the ground."
I can't say that any of this is groundbreaking stuff. We've been on this merry-go-round many, many times with this series. I'm just enjoying it so much.

Josephine: "Penny for your thoughts?"
Murphy: "What's a penny?"

Josephine: "Fill in the blanks, John."
Murphy: "That's the second time you've called me... You're not Clarke."
Josephine: "I'm gonna be honest with you, Clarke is dead."

I really hope Clarke isn't dead forever. I don't like that.

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