(Check out The 100 on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com/the100)
It's hard to decide where to kick off this review of the seventh episode of The 100. Plenty of interesting things happened! There were some pretty intense moments between the imprisoned Grounder, Bellamy, and Octavia, along with Finn's perilous shave with death, a hurricane, and who could forget the new dimensions of the characters that we saw on board the Ark!
Let's take the first of the moments I just mentioned and work from there.
So we finally get to see a Grounder close up, without the mask and fancy outfit that we've seen him wearing over the past few weeks. In last night's episode, we see him first after Bellamy arrives back at the camp with a couple of his henchmen carrying the blindfolded, unconscious guy.
First question right then and there. Why did we not see Bellamy and Co. go out into the storm, get the guy, and drag him back? That would have been interesting to see, but instead we are left to assume that right after Bellamy arrived back at the camp with Finn, he immediately went back out into the hurricane with his henchmen, made their way through the forests that were infested with Grounders no more than a few hours earlier, and dragged the guy back, through said forest, while said storm was raging? I know this is a TV series, but The 100 has been very good at making things make sense thus far, so I thought this could have been done better.
Moving right along to the interrogation of the Grounder. This was, on the whole, a pretty darn good set of scenes. We saw the Grounder being tortured multiple times, but he didn't crack. Interestingly, the torture that made him crack and give up the antidote to the group to save Finn, didn't hurt him physically at all. What's there to learn here? I think it's pretty clear that for some strange and as yet unknown reason, Octavia turns this guy upside down. Speculation as to why, you ask? I'm thinking Octavia is a lookalike that this guy knows. Fortunately though, Octavia used that leverage to force him to turn over the antidote, and Finn's 9 lives have dropped to 7 (including the spacewalk).Turning our attention to Finn for a moment. I think a lot of fans were prepared for Finn's run to come to an end, as was I. His death would have been sad, but the creative team were pretty smart and didn't set out to make the fans like him too much. Still, there's still 6 episodes to go, so don't think he's home free just yet. Anyway, it was really good to see Raven and Clarke teaming up to save their friend. Raven nearly lost the plot a couple of times, but Clarke remained calm and got the job done in terms of removing the knife, even though it was Octavia who jointly shares the title of lifesaver with her.
Again, a question here. Television and movie lovers see the whole 'miracle cure' thing done on a (some would say) annoyingly regular basis. A knife to the chest is fine because it makes sense, but the poison tipped knife with a magic potion sized bottle as a cure was a wee bit off the rails, so why did the creative team do it? I thought it was done solely to add to the drama and suspense, but this show does so much of that so well already that I thought it was unnecessary. If I was on the creative team, I would have advocated for something such as a contaminated water supply as a result of the storm which the Grounder would surely have had some sort of cure for. Octavia could be one of the sick, etc etc, you get my drift.
Meanwhile, Clarke continues to demonstrate her honesty and integrity in a powerful way. When Finn woke, Clarke could have stolen a kiss or cuddle, but she chose to wake a sleeping Raven and give her boyfriend to her. Clarke had finally found the time to cry for a few seconds a short time earlier - something we haven't really seen before. But her dark side really came out in this episode, with her openness to torture as a method of extracting information from the Grounder, despite not approving of the way Murphy, Wells, and others had been beaten in earlier episodes. I'm pleased she does have a bit of darkness in her, because as Bellamy said, who they are, and who they need to be to survive, are two different things altogether.
Right, let's move on upstairs to the Ark. For me, this set of scenes was the pick of the bunch for me. All three lead characters on board the Ark grew a lot more. The regret Kane showed for the part he played in the deaths of 320 people looked sincere and hopefully this is the turning point for the character to drop the nasty attitude and get on with saving the population. There was alcohol involved though. Jaha's devastation at learning of his son's death was also moving, and the same can be said for Abby when she heard Clarke's voice for the first time since sending her daughter to the ground.Abby's removal from the Council didn't come as a shock to me at all, but it's now up to the creative team to make that change in the character worthwhile. I want to see her continuing to play an important role in running the Ark, while using her new-found freedom and ordinary citizen status to keep the Council honest as they launch Project Exodus. Taking her place on the Council is Diana Sydney, a former Chancellor. Clearly there's a story to be told here, in regard to why she's no longer the Chancellor, so hopefully we learn about that at some stage. However my gut is telling me that an ex-Chancellor should be older and a bit wiser. Kate Vernon, the actor guest starring as Sydney, is only three years older than Isiah Washington (Jaha). Sydney would have commanded my respect if she was older and looked like she had worked her way up the ladder but continues to influence things, much like a Bill Clinton here on Earth. Being more youthful makes me feel rather uneasy about her motives and intentions with the way she inserted herself into the Council.
More about the Ark for a moment. It was revealed that there are 2,237 people living on board the Ark, but drop ships for just 700. "We are on the Titanic, and there are not enough lifeboats" were the words Jaha used to describe the situation. For stats nerds out there, if you add the 100 adolescents that were sent to the ground, and the 320 people who died in Section 17 in last week's episode, you end up with a total population of 2,657 people. Removing those 420 people reduced the population by 15.8%. That's quite a bit considering the total number of souls on board. Personally I thought the population was a lot higher, say around 10,000, given the separate stations, and classes of people selected to be sacrificed last week. Some more food for thought, I guess.
On next week's episode of The 100, titled 'Day Trip,' Clarke and Bellamy go on a mission to find supplies for approaching winter. Some of the 100 accidentally eat nuts with powerfully hallucinogenic properties and lose their grasp on reality. Meanwhile, Octavia seizes the opportunity to help a friend escape, and a terrifying event brings Clarke and Bellamy closer. On the Ark, Commander Shumway secretly assigns one of the 100 to kill one of his own, and the treacherous actions of Diane Sydney are revealed. It's going to be an action packed episode.
Thanks for reading! Remember you can view full ratings, statistics, and an episode guide for The 100 on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com/the100. Watch a the promo for next week's episode here.
Jimmy
