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The 100: What You Take With You

"Things are about to get weird."

Aren't things always getting weird?

If you showed up this week like I did thinking we were getting a filler episode, I hope you held on to your hat. We went for a ride.

The episode does remarkably well juggling multiple plot threads and character points of view. Even within each sect the performances are layered and felt on more than one front. That's not easy to do. I mean I was even starting to feel something for Josephine at one point.

Pike: "The path to the future goes through the past, Miss Blake. Psychology 101. We are what we've done and what's been done to us. I'll ask you again. Who are you now, Miss Blake? Your brother's sister or the monster who would have watched him die in this very arena?"

I really hate that she's still widely labeled by other people (brother's sister, monster, girl under the floor, Blodreina...) but the first order of business is Octavia's redemption. Not that she's redeemed herself with anyone, really, but acknowledging that she wants it is at least a start. I've been looking forward to watching her let her walls down for weeks now and secretly hoping that it wasn't a sloppy after school special. I wasn't disappointed. Taking her back to the moment that she decided to kill Pike in cold-blooded revenge and not one of the 97 tragic things that happened to her was genius, if you ask me.

Pike said that we are what we've done and what's been done to us. For Octavia, killing Pike was maybe the only choice she ever made on her own. Being stuck under the floor or forced to fight to the death for your people or watching the love of your life die (just to name a few) were all traumatic events that shaped who she is, but she more or less had no wiggle room in the corners that she was backed into. Killing Pike, though, that was a calculated decision. He saved her life and fought alongside her looking for his own redemption and Octavia made the decision to end his life. Going back to that moment and seeing Blodreina as Pike and Pike as Lincoln, she was able to make peace with the fact that he, Pike, was a person that (maybe) deserved to live just like Lincoln was and her mother was and she is now.

Everyone deserves a second chance and when she made the decision to take his away, that was when Blodreina was really born. When she gave into the violence and anger, that was the moment she had control over and could have made a different choice. I never liked Pike and was glad to see that mustache-twirling villain get the boot, or axe as it were, but something about that being the moment that Octavia needed to redo in her mind resonates with me. If Lincoln had shown up to whisper sweet encouragement in her ear, it wouldn't have played as well. If her mom had shown up to give her a pep talk, it wouldn't have carried the same weight. But Pike pointing out the moment she became the dictator that she never wanted to be and Octavia being able to figuratively prove that she would make a different choice was really beautiful. Love love love. You go girl.

For whatever it's worth, I was mildly thrown off for a while thinking that because Octavia lived under the floor that she wouldn't have taken earth skills with Pike so it was grating my nerves that he was being so teachery with her. Later I remembered a flashback episode where he was brushing up the OG 100 before they got shipped to the ground and felt better about it, but it's not a great sign to be distracted so easily.

The next order of business is Abby and Kane and the case of the missing bottle of ooze consciouses.

Indra: "On the Ark, you floated people for stealing food. On the ground, my people cheered as children fought to the death to lead us. Is this so much worse?"
Marcus: "Yes, lives have been lost in the worshiping of false gods before, more than can be counted. But if we let it stand when we could stop it, then our new world would be no different than the one we left behind."


I love that we didn't listen to Abby and Raven whine about what a stellar moral compass Kane is just for him to show up and embrace this new body-snatcher reality. I love that he, like so many others, recognized that taking people's lives is downright rude and unlike Gabriel and that other mechanic prime dude (Striker?), he didn't ignore his skeevy inclinations and keep his consolation body prize. More than all of that, though, I was so, so happy to see Indra back with us and very happy that these two BFFs got to have one last powwow. And how on point was it that she was barely fazed by yet another ridiculous turn of events. I mean, she and Kane did live through cannibalism and cage-fighting to the death. I can see how this could've easily been written off as just one more atrocity on the list. Not on Kane's watch!

I appreciate that three-way conversation hammering home why they can't stand for this. Why it can't be weighed against other horrible things and why it's important to stand up now and push back. Be the good guys. Do better. Now that he's gone, though, who is going to make sure that the next thing gets addressed and not simply added to the list? I don't love the idea that everyone that puts their money where their mouth is on the moral high ground finds themselves dead. I prefer a little levity in my TV.

RIP, Kane. Again.

Josephine: "My father was a fool for letting you people stay. All that time spent building a sanctuary for the human race, and he destroys it because of the most human thing of all – love."

Was letting them stay really the big mistake here? Because my money would've been on the attempted murder of Clarke Griffin. If Russell hadn't let them stay, they would've taken Sanctum by force, right?

And while I'm harping on unreliable characters, there was the moment that Josie seemed genuinely upset at the thought of seeing Gabriel and taken aback at Bellamy's declaration to Clarke. Why? She had to wonder if Gabriel was still alive somewhere in the weird woods and Bellamy didn't say anything that he hadn't already said. And Josephine is a master manipulator.

My love for the dynamic duo that is Clarke and Bellamy knows no bounds. They were part of this episode together for such a tiny speck of time, but I still lived for it.

Solid 3 out of 4 ghosts of massacres past

Bits and pieces

Do we know what was in Octavia's green box? Any guesses?

There was something particularly heart-wrenching about Octavia being chained to the fighting pit that she created. It made me think of all the time she spent under the floor and confined to that tiny room practically chained to the wall there as well. Marie G. played it very, very well. It was my favorite choice in a very well acted scene.

Octavia had to make a choice between a red box and a green box. Red is the color of blood and violence and anger. Green is the color or nature and renewal and peace. In the pit there was a small green light surrounded by a lot of red smoky light. Blodreina has a lot of red blood on her hands. The woods have a lot of greenery going on. Was the swirly green too? Is any of this relevant? Also, do I have to start calling the swirly the anomaly?

Kane came completely full circle floating himself to save humanity. When we met him, he was mercilessly floating people – also to save the human race.

Exceptionally lovely that Indra gave Kane the SpaceKru and Grounder sendoff. Her whole thing got me in the feelings. Much more than Abby snotting on the glass. Why am I so annoyed with Abby? Even Raven is cutting her slack.

Kane: "Everything is wrong."

Kane: "I am not one of the sheep you raised to follow you into oblivion."
Wow.

We're all meant to blindly accept that Kane needed to be holding the serum to get it to fly into space, right? Okay. Okay, fine.

Josephine: "I’ve been in love with Gabriel for 236 years, the last 70 of which he’s been trying to kill me. You know, relationships."

Bellamy: "When the people we care about are in trouble, then we do what has to be done."

Bellamy: "I won't let you die."

Are TPTB going to do anything with the Children of Gabriel? They're so one-note.

Gabriel: "Things are about to get weird."

2 comments:

  1. I keeps on being amazing to me that the characters past is important to the story. That they even bring back actors to do that. I was also so so happy we had a real goodbye to Kane. What a way to wake up for Indra :( I love her, she's so strong and pragmatic. Abby is so incredibly broken. I wonder how she'll cope with this.

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  2. Lots of very good moments here. The strongest of which was Kane's death. As you said, Laure, he started out cruelly spacing people who had broken the rules, and there he was, spacing himself for much the same reason. It was a fitting death for a strong character, and it made me cry.

    Octavia confronting her "moment" with Pike was a strong scene, too. Also loved the Clarke/Bellamy exchange.

    So nice to see Indra again! and clean! I swear, one of the nicest things about this season is seeing the cast clean for a change.

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