Wow, just wow! There is only so much I can think of after watching last night's The 100. I am still trying to make up my mind about what I just saw and to come up with the right adjectives to describe this episode. A few I can come up with right now are: outstanding, mind-blowing, awesome, unbelievable, spectacular, incredible, fantastic and insane. And I mean insane in a good way. What this show does to its characters is just so insane that it's so good. Needless to say, this show deserves so much more than the ratings it's getting and I would even go so far as to say it deserves an Emmy. There, I said it. I have a lot of critical acclaim for The 100 and last night's episode in specific.
Coming back to Earth (heh) after my feelings for "Human Trials", here is a recap of what happened in the various locations that our characters are at.
After Clarke is brought into the camp, Abby soon realizes that she is not a Grounder but her own daughter. Clarke reveals that the other 47 are at Mount Weather instead of at a Grounders' camp. The morning after, Clarke is reunited with Raven while four more people reach Camp Jaha: Bellamy, Octavia, Monroe and Mel. Clarke immediately runs towards Bellamy and hugs him, and later also reunites with Octavia. Abby soon takes action when she sends out a search team for Kane, but Clarke and Bellamy are stunned when they learn there is no one going after Finn and Murphy. Completely ignoring Abby's orders, Clarke and the Blakes leave camp and, with Raven's help, get some guns and are off to the rescue. Abby later confronts Raven and even hits her, but Raven finally tells her the truth: Clarke is not a kid anymore. She stopped being one the day she was sent to Earth do die.
Mount Weather
President Wallace offers Jasper a chance to leave Mount Weather to get Clarke back. As Jasper discusses this with Monty, Maya is suddenly poisoned by radiation. Dr. Tsing says it's not looking good, but says there is an unorthodox method to make her better. That involves using Jasper's blood, and Jasper is all in. It actually works and Maya will soon be better.
Elsewhere in the mountain, Lincoln's non-voluntary participation in the Cerberus Program involves getting a lot of injections from a Dr. Cage and learning to fear the same high sound that the Reapers are afraid of. We later see him killing another participant in the program in order to get another injection with the highly addictive drug.
Later, Dr. Tsing, Dr. Cage and President Wallace discuss both issues. Dr. Tsing advises Wallace to move ahead with the 47 because the first human trial was a success. Dr. Cage, also head of security and Wallace's son, agrees and tells him he will look into the security breach that caused Maya's radiation poisoning.
After planting a tree for his deceased mother (awww!), Kane moves forward with his peace negotiations plan with the prisoner and two guards. When they stumble upon Grounder territory, Kane leaves all his weapons behind and orders the guards to leave. Upon untying his prisoner, he is attacked and taken to a Grounders' prison. There, he finds another prisoner, who is revealed to be... Jaha!
In the woods (Finn and Murphy)
As Finn and Murphy reach the Grounder camp, they discuss their next course of action. Surprisingly, Murphy is the voice of reason here as he believes that Clarke et al. are not here. However, Finn doesn't want to hear this and says they will attack in the night. When the Grounders are asleep, Finn sets their food supply on fire as a distraction. Sadly, they don't go unnoticed and Finn takes a Grounder hostage and demands to see the man in charge. Niko comes forward and says their leader is absent and that Finn can talk to him. Finn asks him where his friends are but Niko claims they are not here. Finn looks around at the camp to see if he's telling the truth.
The following day, Murphy holds all the Grounders at gunpoint while Finn searches the camp. When it becomes evident that they are not there, he spirals out of control and threatens to kill a Grounder. He decides not to, and Murphy urges him to leave. Just when they're about to, a Grounder woman makes an escape attempt. Finn opens fire and kills her. Other Grounders try to run but Finn is now completely out of control and kills everyone who tries to escape. He just kept shooting one innocent person after the other. As Bellamy, Clare and Octavia arrive at the camp, they watch in horror at all the bodies. While Finn is happy he finally found Clarke, the look she gives him suggest that happiness is far from mutual.
Really, what is happening to Finn? Some suggest he might have been experimented on by the Mountain Men, and this seems like a plausible theory to me. Of course, it might just be "natural" character development but then Finn would have to have changed from peacemaker to murderer in just over a week. The 100 is certainly a fast-paced show, both story-wise and character-wise, but Finn's change of character seems a bit too fast to me. Maybe there is more to it, maybe not. We shall wait and see.
Of course, there were plenty of other things to enjoy. The hug between Bellamy and Clarke certainly comes to mind, and it also shows how much things have changed since the pilot. Lincoln's storyline is very interesting and seems to confirm that the Reapers are experiments from the Mountain Men, though whether the Reapers are the goal of the experiment or the participants that failed remains to be seen. I am also curious what plans Wallace has in store for the 47.
I didn't expect Jaha to be reunited with another Arker so soon. As I wrote before, this show is moving at light speed with their storylines and I'm really loving that. If you look at the promo for next week, you can see that the two man are pinned against each other as a Grounder tells them one of them will die by the other's hand. I have no doubt that Washington and Cusick will kill these scenes next week (pun intended).
There were two minor issues I had with this episode. First of all, Jaha seems to grow a beard very fast as he has only been on Earth for like two/three days. I'm not sure Jaha will grow a beard that fast. Secondly, Abby's behaviour was a bit naive and mirrored Kane's style of leadership that she hated so much. Hitting Raven went too far, as basically all Raven did was the same Abby did a few episodes ago. I understand Abby wants to protect her daughter but I hope she finally realizes that Clarke is not a kid anymore.
All in all, a great episode and the best of the season so far, possibly even of the entire series.
Grade: 9.5/10
What did you think of this episode? Were you blown away by that ending as well? Do you think Finn has gone way too dark? How is that storyline going forward? And what are your thoughts on Lincoln, is he a Reaper now?
A promo for episode 6, "Fog of War", can be found here. The episode airs in two weeks, on December 2.
