The first part of The 100’s season premiere had the task of rebuilding the whole show after the events of the finale and as such many people (including myself) felt its pace was significantly slower as the episode was mostly setup work. Luckily, this week’s part 2 comes to improve the flaws seen on the season premiere while maintaining its focus on the characters, but also allowing the plot moving forward.
So what can I tease about this week’s vastly superior episode? First of all, lots of tension right out of the gate. We’ll learn more about Monty during this week, seeing his character grabbing lots of screen time for some emotional moments.
We’ll also learn more about the whole City of Lights setup. Tension between Jaha and Murphy will continue to build up as they drift farther apart. We also learn why Emori was on that boat, what she is doing and how she interacts with Murphy through the episode: I must say, seeing Murphy and Emori’s together is one of the episode’s highlights as it's filled with lots of energy and the characters draw some of the most interesting traits of each other.
But hey, I said “one of the highlights”. Clarke also gets her due and her captor won’t have an easy time with her. We know that Clarke is a tough cookie and she wasn’t just going to let herself be captured that easily. I won’t say if she escapes or stays captive, but she is certainly giving a fight, and what you’ll see may surprise you, especially near the end where one of the biggest shockers of the episode is delivered.
Back on Arkadia, Abby is faced with the choice of using Mount Weather as a medical facility or not. It’s not as simple as it seems, there are polarized opinions towards that option and we see how particularly hard it is for Jasper. His character development is one of the hardest things to watch this season since he seems mostly annoying to any given person, but there is commitment to show how screwed up he has become post Mount Weather and this episode makes him a bit more sympathetic. You have to give it to The 100 for its commitment to develop a character through pain.
This second episode seems fully formed and for storytelling sake it seems it would have been better to have both episodes back to back. Judgement towards part 1 seems to be harder by watching part 2, these were definitely meant to be seen one after another, showing both the setup and the payoff.
The show still needs to build towards the Ice Nation as the villains of the season: it hasn’t reached the compelling levels of the people of Mount Weather, but the episode seems to indicate that’s to come, while raising tension in midst of the sky crew. There’s a lot going for The 100 right now, but it also has a way to go before season 3 reaches the highs of season 2. However, the show is taking steps toward the right direction.
The world of season 3 becomes clearer and what’s coming ahead is nothing but improvement. Episodes 3 and 4 will gather even more momentum, but it all starts here on Wanheda Part 2. I’m particularly excited for all of you to see how it unfolds and your reactions towards that last minute shocker.
Some other teases:
-We’ll see what happened with the girl Clarke hooked up with. Warning: it’s not pretty.
-Jaha goes even more cuoco bananas while A.L.I.E shows a little bit more of what goes on with the City of Light. We also get a brief callback to Wells.
-I didn’t talk much about Octavia or Lincon mostly because I wanted to avoid spoiling some stuff that are the catalyst for a certain storyline here. The episode also doesn’t focus too much on them this week, though Octavia will have a nice moment with a certain character.
-MVP of the week: Murphy for sure. He has been growing on me since the end of season 2 and he keeps having amazing moments.
-Character we don’t see much this week: Raven, sadly.
Dialogue Teases
1.“If you were to kill me you would have done it already.”
2.“We just got lucky.”
3.“And we’ll be at war.”
4.“That’s how we survive.”
5.“There is no pain on the City of Lights.”
6.“You took the coward’s way out.”
