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The 100: Nakara

"Have I mentioned that I don't like it here?"

Clarke and Raven face off with the Stomach of Doom.

Nakara

This episode was a triple threat, with our heroes facing danger on three planets. I'll start with ice planet Nakara, which was definitely not a vacation destination. In fact, it appears to be where the Disciples of Bardo drop off their dead. Seriously? Why would they go to this sort of trouble, wormholing over to drop off bodies? Is it indeed a sacrifice to whatever creature that was? If so, why?

Honestly, the creep factor did work for me, as Clarke, Raven, and assorted secondary characters crawled underground to search for the "Stone Room." My claustrophobia kept kicking in, especially when the spider bat thingies started to attack. It got even creepier when the rising heat and the acid on the moving walls clued them in that they had inadvertently become lunch. Okay, a definite rip off of the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, but still icky.

The best part of the Nakara segments was Clarke and Raven sharing their emotions as they waited for a horrible demise. Raven told Clarke that guilt had cracked open her soul; she felt that her approaching death by digestion was a karmic reward for sending those workers to die. Raven also believed that Clarke never felt like that, but we all know that Clarke is just more successful at hiding and controlling her feelings. It was a nice bonding moment for them.

After outwitting their large and hungry foe, the Nakara Five reached the Stone Room and made another choice on the wheel. Next planet, please. How very Stargate of them.

Bardo

The Bardo story was actually a lot of fun. Diyoza showed what a badass she was, using pain to resist torture, killing a Disciple by biting his carotid and then removing and casually discarding the guy's eyeball to escape. I loved the reunion of our three Hesperides, and Diyoza's first look at her grown daughter.



The bit with Levitt, now a janitor, warning Octavia that the Stone Room was a trap, was just lovely and even quite shippy. Is there some way we could have Octavia and Levitt together on a beach planet at the end of the series?

The only thing wrong with the Bardo scenes was the ending, when Gabriel forced them all to surrender to the Disciples instead of escaping through the oxygen farm to the surface. I wonder if the surface of Bardo is survivable when the Disciples have been told it is not? I bet this will have something to do with the inevitable downfall of Anders.

Sanctum

While the mother and child (and auntie) reunion on Bardo was lovely, the best moment in this episode was on Sanctum.

Russell/Sheidheda started making takeover moves from his jail cell; he even stared at a chess piece, a king, for a long moment in this week's Most Obvious Symbolism. Realizing that she was in danger of losing control of Sanctum, Indra decided that the answer was the reinstatement of a Commander. Unfortunately, it was obvious that these days, traumatized little Madi was only capable of playing soccer with her new friends, and who could blame her?

Fortunately, Murphy was there in the clinch to give Indra an absolutely terrific pep talk and a new direction, because of course Indra should be Commander. So she walked into the Wonkru meeting and just did it, literally wiping the floor with the only dissenter who dared to object. Who cares about a stupid flame when you're the ultimate bad ass?

The other interesting development on Sanctum was the frightening Nikki declaring war on Raven. I swear I only just now realized that Nikki was played by Alaina Huffman, a veteran of Stargate Universe and Supernatural. They succeeded so well in making her look different. I was actually thinking, gee, that actress looks a bit like Alaina Huffman before I went over to IMDb and checked. Don't you love actors who are so good at playing different characters that you're not sure it's the same person?

Bits:

— Nelson, the leader of the Children of Gabriel, now has orders from Sheidheda/Russell to ally with the prisoner workers and take out Clarke.

— Madi acquired a love interest: Dylan Kingwell, who played Sam Winchester once on Supernatural. Honestly, Madi has been one of The 100's less successful characters. Possibly the least successful. She's the Dawn.

— JR Bourne is doing a terrific job as Sheidheda/Russell. He practically exudes deceptive evil from his pores. Is there a portmanteau shortcut name for his character? Russell is easier to type, but not at all terrifying.

— While in the cave at Nakara, our guys stumbled over a "Second Dawn" sign from the bunker in Polis. That's interesting.

— "Ossuarium" is my word of the week. So Skyring is their prison and Nakara their graveyard. Any other planets out there with just one specific use?

— Loved how Raven's supersuit responded to voice commands. "I wish this thing had a light. (Light turns on.) Cool."

— I kept thinking of sci-fi classics during this episode: Aliens, The Empire Strikes Back, and of course, all of the different flavors of Stargate.

Quotes:

Indra: "Excuse me, but I need to borrow your god."
I am loving Indra and Murphy together so, so much. More, please.



Nikki: "Tell Raven I said 'bang bang'."
Murphy: (to Indra) "And you thought Diyoza was a handful."

Sheidheda/Russell: "You can't get justice without power."

Miller: "How about you find us a planet with a beach?"
Jordan: "Yeah. Preferably one that doesn't eat people."

Murphy: "Come on, Indra. We weren't actually in that bunker, but I don't think it takes a genius to figure out who was really running things down there while Octavia was painting her face with blood. Besides, who's bossier than you?"

Murphy: "Can we at least watch?"
Indra: "No."
Murphy: (to Emori) "I'm gonna watch."

I think I'm finally starting to get into this final season. Three out of four references to science fiction classics,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

3 comments:

  1. Nice review, I liked this one too. Maybe the season has hit it's stride, which if I think back is pretty common in seasons of The 100. They usually take time building the situation and then when it hits the play button it is non-stop chaos until the finale.

    Also, while reading your review I had a moment of revelation... now I'm going to include spoiler space because this could be a major spoiler.

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    I just realized Bardo could be Earth, since it is already established that it is underground. This is purely conjecture, based on the clues we've had. The people of Bardo somehow got to Bardo without traveling on a ship, it is underground on a planet where the surface is not survivable. Our main characters were about to go to the surface but were stopped right before they went up. I guess I could be wrong, but wouldn't that be perfect?

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  2. Nice review, as always. Thank you.

    I also really enjoyed the Bardo scenes, until the end. It was fun seeing the characters reunite and have Diyoza brought into present day. I didn't understand Gabriel's decision and so thought it was stupid, but we'll see what happens.

    Samantha M. Quinn - I really liked your theory. That'd be fun. I had a similar idea, but a little different.

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    This is also purely speculation and just a theory on my part. I assumed the symbols of the Second Dawn came to be on Nakara because there's an anomaly stone on Earth, which is how the people on Bardo arrived on Bardo, originally. I always assumed that the offline planet was Earth.

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  3. Please review this series.
    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5753856/

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