Jason Rothenberg is a nutcase.
By the way, that's a good thing.
No, actually, a great thing.
Why?
Because Jason Rothenberg now joins en exclusive club of mine that has only nutcase showrunners from the shows I watch in it. Currently, Jonathan Nolan, Jon Bokenkamp, and Shonda Rhimes belong to this club for their respective series, Person of Interest, The Blacklist, and Scandal. Now, after last night's episode, I can add Rothenberg and The 100 to the list.
So what do these showrunners have in common, you might ask. The answer is pretty simple. These showrunners know their shows like no one else. They are daring. They are fearless. They push the boundaries. They produce phenomenal storylines. They leverage a quality cast and multi-dimensional characters to create an hour of television that keeps your eyes locked to the screen for the entire episode, and they leave you in no doubt that the hour of your busy life that you gave them was an hour very well spent. And, naturally, they make you think about their show for days, sometimes weeks after the previous episode, which makes the gaps between them feel a lot longer than they actually are. Showrunners that can pull this off are few and far between, and others would probably call them nutcases for the things they do to their shows, their characters, and their fans. Being of the INTJ personality type, I'm an especially tough sell when it comes to this kind of thing.
"We Are Grounders: Part 2" wasted no time resuming where last week's enthralling episode left off. Raven's gunshot wound thanks to Murphy progressed in the wrong direction, and was beautifully exploited to produce some great scenes and one-liners throughout the hour. I've always had a lot of respect for Finn, who has been overlooked by many as to his importance to the 100's success on the ground. He rightfully stood his ground against Bellamy, Clarke and Raven, but when vetoed he continued pulling his weight in other areas. Despite his newly single status, he went above and beyond to ensure everyone - not just Raven and Clarke - was OK. His lifesaving actions in favor of Bellamy in the closing moments of the battle against the Grounders proved this beyond doubt.
Clarke is always on the ball, but in last night's episode she had to up her game. Though she didn't see combat, her work on and with Raven definitely paid off. She continued to keep her head and remain calm but the cracks became understandably visible upon seeing the two most important young men in her life left outside the drop ship before the rockets were ignited. Bellamy tended to let his anger make some vital decisions for him at times - a trait he's had throughout the season, so Clarke became increasingly important as the battle-o'clock neared zero. The people on board the Ark must have been thinking they were in a dream. Just a month ago, life was relatively good. Yes, their leadership was, admittedly, hiding information about their worsening situation, and though 100 of their own were sent to the ground and a further 300 later sacrificed, they had some time on their side until their home was badly damaged thanks to a rogue Councillor taking a drop ship for a joyride with a few mates. Now they find themselves with nowhere to go except to the ground in the Ark itself. Though not as emotionally moving as the sacrifice earlier in the season, the realization that this is it for their civilization was powerful to say the least. Jaha's leadership was inspirational to say the least, and reminiscent of a captain going down with his ship - even though he didn't really go down. He picked the right moment to be the hero. With little more than a few pillows and some strapping, the remaining survivors set their sights on Earth. The scene made me wonder whether sitting in the back of the Ark would increase the chances of survival when you consider that today's jumbo jets don't often reverse into mountains.
Abby and Kane were among the lucky ones, having made it to the ground firstly, and picking a good landing spot. It's hard to imagine what it would be like setting foot on Earth for the first time in your life, but I'd consider Abby's reaction to be as close to the money as you can get. Given the danger their fellow countrymen(?) are in, they'd better not become transfixed because there's plenty of work to be done.
One of the best sibling relationships on television had a defining moment in last night's episode. Octavia and Bellamy had to part ways after the former took an arrow to the leg. Their last words would have tugged the heartstrings of many a viewer. For the first time, Bellamy witnessed the bond that his sister and Lincoln have, and you could see it in his eyes as he came to the realization that she is in the safest hands she could be in, and that maybe his preconceptions about his sister's choice to grow close to Lincoln were a little skewed.
Everyone's good mate Jasper continued his recent run of form, though this time it wasn't as a marksman, but rather as a rocket scientist. He narrowly avoided what was, let's be honest, a pretty epic axe to the cranium. That alone was the best bit of special effects work of the season. That aside, he was a good substitute for Raven, though his main man Monty wasn't anywhere to be seen.
As with any season finale, the last 10 minutes is what gives you the stuff to ponder through the hiatus, and The 100 is no different in this regard. The battle took up the bulk of that time, but for me it was more than the blood and smash-bash-crash that was depicted. What the battle confirmed is that there are at least 3 opposing forces in close proximity to where the 100 first set foot on the ground, and their interactions don't appear to be friendly at all - in fact the Grounders and the Reapers dislike each other to the extent that they'd fight each other ahead of the 100. There are also many of them, and if there were dozens of men fighting, there must be an equal ratio of women and children close by. Don't forget that they'd all need food and water as well. The original conflict could be fueled by the need for access to both the aforementioned resources - something I'm keen for Jason Rothenberg to explore next season.
All three groups will have suffered considerable losses in the battle, but obviously we are more concerned with the 100's wellbeing than the others. For a small population to begin with, any death counts, and as Bellamy said and Clarke reinforced, 82 people is all they could bring to battle. Many perished, and a few of them were wounded when they made their way to the drop ship, so their fate at this point is uncertain, as is the fate of the two most important men on the ground - Finn and Bellamy. The survival of the remaining group members thus far can be attributed heavily to the work Finn and Bellamy have done, so it goes without saying that should they not survive, their loss would send shockwaves through the group.
The battle against the Grounders/Reapers/Orcs from Lord of the Rings was almost a formality when compared to the wonderfully filmed final scene. The Mountain Men are the more mysterious, and undoubtedly more deadly force of the three I mentioned earlier, but we will have to wait till the fall before we learn about them. However it is safe to say they are organized, smart, stealthy, and they pack sophisticated weapons. Not only that, but from what we saw of Clarke's cubicle, they have electricity, and the furnishings in the room and Clarke's fresh clothing certainly don't look 100 years old. The intrigue here is tough to resist. In the surveillance camera shot, we saw that there was a name assigned to the camera - 'C. Griffin'. This implies that despite knocking the group out with the gas, they could still identify exactly who they had captured. More ominously again, there was timer opposite the name that was counting down, not up. As Clarke looks toward Monty through the window in the door, a sign to the right says "Mount Weather Quarantine Ward", with many viles of blood sitting on a table below. The picture of Van Gogh's Starry Night painting added a spooky feel to the moment.
The framework is well and truly set for a fascinating season 2 premiere in the fall. The creative team have a lot of angles they can work, and despite turning the entire premise of the series on its head after just one season, I already feel a sense of confidence that The 100 is in very safe hands, and that viewers can expect much of the same when it comes to the dynamics of the characters being tested and the rapid development of storylines. Simply put, I'm in it for the long haul, and I have another reason to look forward to the fall.
On behalf of the SpoilerTV panel who have assisted in covering The 100 this year, we'd love to say a big thank you to all of you, the readers, who keep us going every week. The 100 is one of the most popular series covered by SpoilerTV when it comes to comments and discussion, and we love getting you all talking and hearing your feedback. We plan to put together a roundtable discussion of the season in the next week or so so stay tuned for that.
We would also like to thank The CW, who generously granted us access to screeners for the first 6 episodes. We do really appreciate it, and it goes without saying that we'd love a sneak peek at some of the episodes in the fall!
Thanks for reading! Feel free to share your thoughts on The 100's season finale, the season as a whole, and don't forget to share your list of nutcase showrunners! Check out The 100 on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com/the100.
Jimmy
