In the fourteenth episode of the third season of The 100, multiple parties race to stop ALIE with mixed results. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The 100.
Trigger Warning: For discussion of torture (specifically waterboarding), consent.
Well, The 100 isn’t wasting time at all at the end of this season. The whole show has escalated ridiculously, and it’s nice that I don’t feel like there’s any filler here at all. I’ve got three separate plots to discuss, so I’m just gonna jump right into it.
Arkadia
As frustrating as some of this plot might be, I actually found myself entertained and satisfied by the writers giving stories to Raven, Monty, and Harper. (Where were Bryan and Miller??? Hopefully having lots of sex.) I expect that the finale will hinge on Clarke, but for a moment, I could imagine that Raven would be the one to take down Alie. Yes, the finale is still left, but it was a nice thought! Still, Raven’s discovery here is very important: ALIE is hiding a killswitch within her programming, and that most likely means that ALIE 2.0 allows someone access to the Citadel.
And it’s Raven who discovers that. The narrative forces her to a point where everything is left to Clarke, which is a bit disappointing, but I still enjoyed that she got her time in the spotlight. I’m not even irritated by how Monty affects this storyline either. First of all, he’s FINALLY allowed to be with someone after tons of episodes where he’s largely ignored. HE IS SUPER CUTE WITH HARPER. A nice thing actually happened on this show and it wasn’t immediately followed up with one of the two people involved dying. But Monty’s delay here makes absolute sense. After killing his mother a few episodes ago, the temptation to “save†her, since her consciousness is still there, is very real. His hesitation is heartbreaking because he’s deciding whether or not to kill the hope that he’d ever see her again.
So I get his anger when Raven isn’t able to shut ALIE down. In his mind, he ended his mother’s life for no reason. Of course, it wasn’t for no reason; they now have information they didn’t before. At the same time, it’s not enough for Monty, and I don’t think that’s an irrational response. After losing so much, Monty just wanted something more.
Polis
Which is why I wanna call foul in regards to the writers using the exact same trope for John Murphy. Watching Indra take down the two guards? YES. Everyone escaping? YES. The unbearable tension of Indra, Pike, and Murphy trying to find Jaha’s backpack so that they can destroy Alie’s power source? Oh, it’s just fantastic. Expertly plotted, all three actors are convincing and emotional, and I felt like the stakes had been truly raised. And I know that’s partially because Alie was being attacked on three fronts in this episode! Would any of them succeed? Who would fail? There was also a surreal nature to the sequence in the Flamekeeper room because WHO WOULD HAVE EVER PREDICTED THAT INDRA, PIKE, AND MURPHY WOULD BE IN THE SAME ROOM?
What doesn’t make sense to me is Murphy, who has developed zero connections to anyone aside from the superficial, who is still alive specifically because he is such a self-serving and callous person, who lectured Indra about thinking of the future and what’s best for everyone, suddenly being NONE OF THESE THINGS just so that the tension can be drawn out. He is attracted to Emori, but how the hell is he suddenly emotionally distracted by her or what she says? Nothing Alie has ever said has ever worked on him. Why this? Is there a change in him that we’re just now getting to?
It felt artificial. It felt like the writers realized they had to create a delay so that Alie could successfully make it to the Ark, so they just stuffed it in there.
The Water Clan
GOD I LOVE LUNA AND PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING ABOUT HER. (Except her getting waterboarded. Jesus christ, is this show going to throw every horrible, trigger-y image at us for shock value?) Y’all, she created a haven for people who are done fighting. Blood must not have blood on that oil rig, and she sticks with it. This whole society is so loving and affectionate and genuine, and that’s important. The writers and crew spend a lot of time building this world for us in a very small amount of time, and it’s so that we’ll understand Luna’s eventual choice.
But I should have known once Clarke failed to implant the Flame on Luna that she’d made her decision then. Clarke seriously miscalculated the situation and Luna in that moment, so I don’t feel all that bad about her failure. Yes, it’s important to take down Alie, but the whole point of Luna’s story is to make the point that it might not be worth it to be willing to do anything to get what one wants. When Luna rejects Clarke’s offer, look at what had already happened. Shay was murdered with an arrow through the chest. Derrick takes a chip to stop her being waterboarded, only to be killed by Luna in self-defense. Luna’s whole life was torn apart, and yet she still chose peace. She still chose a life without violence.
I respect that, even if there is a larger issue at hand. Clarke, seriously, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING TRYING TO IGNORE HER CONSENT???
The video for “Red Sky at Morning†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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