In the sixth episode of the second season of The 100, everything continues to get worse. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The 100.Â
Seriously. SERIOUSLY. This show doesn’t stop. IT JUST DOESN’T.
The Fog of War
As relentlessly terror-filled and bleak as this show can be at times, it hosts a whole lot of personal growth. I expected Abby to resist Clarke’s plan to leave camp and try to find a way to take out the tower that was jamming communications. However, she learns – rather quickly – that her daughter and her friends might not be soldiers, but they’re used to making difficult decisions. Her reasoning for the mission is sound, too: they can reach out to other possible survivors and gain more people to guard Camp Jaha.
Of course, because this is the universe of The 100, everything is easier said than done. Despite that the adults and the surviving members of the 100 actually get along, they’re almost immediately separated by acid fog. It’s certainly a heavy-handed metaphor, but it works. This is not exactly a subtle show, you know? Sure, there’s a lot of nuance and depth to the characterization, and this story is deeply complex. But it’s also utterly ridiculous (in the best way!) a lot of the time. I think that the metaphor works, then, because it highlights the way that warfare has affected all of these people. If we imagine this show as a landscape of war, then each of these characters can be viewed through that lens.
Obviously, that applies most directly to Finn. I’m curious to see how this show might present a redemption arc for him, given that it’s done it already for characters like Kane, Jaha, and Bellamy. The problem is that Finn has done something so unbelievably awful, and he doesn’t seem the least bit willing to take responsibility. He maintains it was an accident; he speaks of it dismissively; and he was cleared of his wrongdoing by the Ark folks. Clarke is the only person here who seems interested in holding Finn accountable for killing all of those unarmed Grounders, including Snake. No matter how many excuse he makes for what he’s done, he still killed a ton of people when he really did not have to. I do appreciate that no matter how often Finn tries to make Clarke feel guilty for what he did, the show doesn’t make her give in to him. Yes, she once felt a great deal of love and affection for him, but he’s changed. War has turned him into a different person, one who is willing to do shit like… KILL A BUNCH OF PEOPLE WITHOUT REMORSE?
There are other agents of war within this universe, too. The focus on Mount Weather’s part in this ongoing violence is necessary because until Clarke discovered their medical experiments, no one truly knew how intensely they’d affected the world outside their facility. Now, I think there’s a slim chance at this point, given Lexa’s storyline (!!!!) that the Grounders and the Ark folks could unite to take down the Mountain Men, but there’s so much shit they’ve got to wade through in the process. We’ve got the Reapers, first of all, who are completely controlled by those in Mount Weather. How do you un-do one of those things? From what we’ve seen of Lincoln, the Reapers are created through forced drug addiction, so… withdrawal? Can they ween Lincoln off that drug, and how do they do so without killing or without getting killed?
And what of the experiments within Mount Weather? I admit to being totally surprised that Maya came to Jasper and Monty to reveal the secret of how the Mountain Men have stayed alive. She’s a variable that President Wallace couldn’t have anticipated, which… LORD, Y’ALL. What has President Wallace become? How did this fucking show introduce a set of characters worse than President Wallace? Cage and Dr. Tsing are HORRIFYING! They make Wallace a moderate nightmare! That’s not to say that I now condone of everything he’s done, because NO WAY. I don’t like him at all, and Mount Weather terrifies me. So what’s the endgame of Monty and Jasper? Now that Jasper’s no longer clinging to the false perfection of Mount Weather, he’s the closest thing the 47 have to a leader. At the very least, he can placate President Wallace so that a wide-scale experiment won’t take place, and that’s why he compels a few of his friends to accept Wallace’s offer. He’s buying time. But can they just wait until Clarke returns? What if Cage and Dr. Tsing take matters into their own hands and escalate the experiments???
Look, there’s a lot going on here, and it’s all so very interesting. There was not a single plot that bored me or disinterested me. That’s a tough feat to achieve. And yet, I’m most intrigued by the outcome of Kane and Jaha’s dilemma. I was increasingly worried that this episode would feature the death of one of those two characters, given that both of them have had very complete arcs up to this point. Not only that, but they’ve both also demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. How would they deal with the proposal they were given? If one person had to spill blood to appease the Grounders for Finn’s massacre, then I expected this to come to fruition. I really did! The Grounders don’t make idle threats.
Bravo, then, for the writers coming up with the COOLEST way to introduce the actual Commander, Lexa. She’s a subversion all by herself, and it’s amazing. Who expects her to be the leader of all of them? Even better, her plan allowed her to read the true intentions of Kane and Jaha. However, I’m a little confused. She takes Kane for negotiations, and sends Jaha back to send a message: leave in two days, or die. Leave where, though? Just out of Grounder territory? Where are they supposed to go?
Gods, this show is so exciting.
The video for “Fog of War” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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