If you liked the season premiere of The 100 then buckle up, because this episode is way better. There is so much stuff going on and all of it goes with perfect pacing and timing; all the secrets and revelations come when they are supposed to, the characters interactions are all interesting and makes for innovating dynamics on this season and the exploration of our characters psyche is just outstanding. If the premiere setup a whole new world for this season, then this episodes takes advantage of that and delivers an outstanding episode.
Now, for the Octavia and Lincon of it all I won’t give much away; I’ll just say that Octavia has to fend for herself as Lincon goes away and she shows a lot of badassery during the episode. I think you’ll be pleased with the way she handles things. She will have some troubles with the grounders, and they’ll prove once again that they are really mighty opponents.
On the Ark, the whole cliffhanger with the baby gets resolve. I won’t give much away, but we get to see a completely new side of Jaha that we have never seen until now, bringing out truly poignant moments and an awesome delivery by Isaiah Washington, who owned the whole storyline.
The adults have to learn to deal with what The 100 have been dealing through season 1: the grounders. Plenty of troubles come from the grounders and it shows how the lack of info on them gives Kane a pretty hard time; he finds himself on a really tough spot and he has to deal with hard decisions.
Also worth noting, drastic measures are taken in order to save Raven’s life, and as she goes to surgery her life is pending on a thread; Finn is there to help her through the process and it brings out some really emotional stuff. The surgery has a big effect on what Finn and it determines what he will do later in the episode and during episode 3 as well.
Meanwhile, on Mt. Weather, Clarke is still suspicious of everything that is going on there; President Wallace is doing a really good job covering up everything that looks shady, but Clarke doesn’t give up easily: she looks for the cracks and she finds them by the end of the episode, and it is… shocking, to say the least.
So we get to see them in a different place than what we saw during season 1; Jasper and Monty hardly ever had any issue with Clarke, so it’s interesting to see this new dynamic. And considering Clarke already found the crack that shows what lies beneath what looks like paradise, it’s only a matter of time before these two find out, and it’s going to hit them really hard considering how attached they are becoming to this “peaceful place”.
As a whole, this episodes comes together quite nicely exploring the psyche of our characters, it moves the plot forward with exciting developments and twists while also finding perfect pacing. The season is still starting, so there’s still a lot more to develop and the episode is still putting arranging the chessboard for the season, but it does it so perfectly that even if it’s not the most exciting episode the show has done, it is so brilliantly constructed that it deserves a top grade.
Grade: A
Stray Observations:
-Kane indirectly says to Bellamy that he could have saved plenty of his comrades if he tried harder. That’s gotta sting.
-Jasper and Maya keep bonding; I have the feeling this won’t end well.
-Clarke keeps proving that she is a really resourceful heroine; I love how the show went this route with her; she is so badass!
- I didn’t say much about Abbie, mostly to avoid spoilers, but she got a lot to do, from taking care of Raven’s surgery and overseeing how Kane is handling everything.
-There are new grounders that seem to be key characters for what’s coming on this season.
-There’s a surprising return in the last minute of the episode. The cliffhanger left me quite shocked and believe me when I say that I had to watch the following episode right away, even when I was supposed to go somewhere else. I delayed what I had to do to see what happened- it was that good of a cliffhanger.
