About the Author - Dahne
One part teacher librarian - one part avid TV fan, Dahne is a contributing writer for SpoilerTV, where she recaps, reviews, and creates polls for Sleepy Hollow, White Collar, Grimm, Teen Wolf, and others. She's addicted to Twitter, live tweets a multitude of shows each week, and co-hosts the Sleepy Hollow "Headless" and Teen Wolf "Welcome to Beacon Hills" podcasts for Southgate Media Group. Currently she writes a Last Week in TV column for her blog and SpoilerTV. ~ "I speak TV."
Recent Reviews (All Reviews)
definitely the last scene. Clarke stays behind outside the door "it can't be over"
ReplyDeleteI loved the entire episode and there were just so many scenes I could choose, but I think Octavia refusing to leave without her brother was my favorite.
ReplyDeleteOctavia refuses to leave without Bellamy/Indra denounces her
ReplyDeleteLincoln and the flaming bow
Bellamy finds the empty cages
Raven and Wick blow the turbines
There was a lot to love in this episode. Lexa telling Clarke she betrayed them to save her people was the most intense, but for me the best scene was Octavia refusing to leave without her brother. Following it up with her declaring that she didn't have a home was heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteThat was a powerful moment.
ReplyDeleteMy choice too. Octavia has come so far since the first couple of episodes. I'm sorry for the break with Indra though. Those two had some great scenes and I like how she made Octavia an even better warrior.
ReplyDeleteWe are so in sync. 3 of those make my top 5 as well and Octavia is my #1 too. Question - Do you think Lexa knew about the deal somehow before she told Lincoln to stay with Clarke? She was so abrupt about it that I thought maybe she did but I'm not sure how that would work timeline wise.
ReplyDeleteOctavia refusing to leave without her brother. She's become such an awesome character but I hate that just threw away her growing Grounder storyline as Indra's second because I really loved that.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Octavia is hands down my favorite character right now and I have really enjoyed her training under Indra. Not only did we get a better glimpse of groudner life because of it, but it also made Octavia's quick ascent to head warrior make sense. By cutting off the grounder-Ark allegiance, they upped the ante on the season 2 finale but I'm a little disconcerted that we've lost a whole host of good storylines that come from having insight into the grounder society.
ReplyDeleteI do. I think she was scheming before her big speech to the Grounders, before they left camp. I don't know how they could explain it but it she was too eager to go and quick to leave Lincoln. She knew he wouldn't go along with her plans. When he finds out Octavia is in the Mountain, I would hate to be in his way.
ReplyDeleteMy question is one brought up by another poster-
The Grounders are into retribution but they don't care about revenge for the hundreds of their people killed and/or turned into Reapers? They don't want justice? Lexa is bloodthirsty but she has no thoughts of revenge? It doesn't make sense to me that she would only want to free her people and leave. They are a warring clan. Not all of them were peacemakers and farmers like Lincoln's clan.
Unless, it's been her plan all along. Letting that missile take out the camp just killed a lot of her competition to be head of the 12 Clans, IMO.
for all we know if she didn't take the deal the MM could a have threatened to kill all the hostages.
ReplyDeleteSo they have a hundreds of warriors ready to battle and she just gives in? Too easy. She didn't mind killing and letting innocents die just days ago and we're supposed to believe she cared now? I don't. It's simple. She got what she wanted and left the others to die. (I expect a twist in the finale) As of right now, she willingly walked away knowing the others could and would be massacred.
ReplyDeleteIt felt scheming to me too. When I first watched the epiosde, I was wondering why she was so adamant that Lincoln stay and protect Clarke. She had to be thinking deal at that time or else she wouldn't seem almost panicked at the thought of Lincoln joining them.
ReplyDeleteI disagree that making the deal was out of character for Lexa though. She has always been one to think with her brain first. A clear example of this was her making an alliance with the same clan that tortured and killed her girlfriend. She plans long-term over revenge. I think the reason she comes off as bloodthirsty is less because it's her go-to strategy and more that she has to appear bloodthirsty to retain the loyalty of her people. Tradition had as much to do with ordering Finn's execution as anything. Her people expected it. She delivered. Still if she was truly bloodthirtsy, she would have demanded that more than just Finn die. She used the minimum amount of bloodshed her people would allow so that she could still ally with the 100. It was strategy. I see the Mountain Men pact similar to the Ark alliance. Clarke killed a bunch of her people at the end of season 1. If first Anya and then Lexa could not see past that, then they never would have had an alliance with the 100 in the first place.
I don't doubt that Lexa has bigger ambitions. Going to the Capitol pretty much attests to that. By showing that she can free her people from the biggest threat to them, she has even more clout overall. It was a savvy, political and military strategy. It was also a great way to get rid of the character and still be able to bring her back if The Walking Dead spin-off doesn't take.
I don't think Lexa would bow to a Mountain Men threat like that. I mean they were expecting them to retaliate and frankly, Lexa had the upper hand to take down their most feared enemy. I would be shocked if Lexa made her choice from a position of weakness instead from a position of strength.
ReplyDeleteOctavia refuses to leave Bellamy. Despite getting what she wanted, to be a grounder and to finally belong somewhere, I love how she gave it all up for her brother even though everyone else turned back. It was a great episode overall but that scene was my favorite.
ReplyDeleteLexa asking Clarke to come with her to Polis. (Question: Guess that invitation doesn´t stand anymore ,-)?!?)
ReplyDeleteThat also makes Lexa a weak leader, intimidated by someone she was already planning to attack. I don't buy that. This alliance is a major coup for her, turning their biggest enemy into an ally. She got what she needed from the Ark. They couldn't help her anymore in her mission after they blew the power and eliminated the acid fog.
ReplyDeleteThe Final Scenes
ReplyDeleteLexa makes a deal with the Mountain Men to free the grounders but not the remaining 100
Octavia refuses to retreat without Bellamy and Indra denounces her
Bellamy and crew reach the harvest chamber, they see the empty cages, and Maya sees her dead father
Cage sends a team to round up the rest of the Ark to get their bone marrow
I refuse to choose a scene this week, because they were are all incredible. So only for this week, I'm going with all of them
ReplyDeletePeople, the deal was proposed then and there. We know that because we also know that Dante was the mastermind behind it, and he was still inside the cell, incommunicado from everyone, when the Grounder Army started knocking on the door, which forced Cage to go and ask his father for help. Lexa couldn't have known beforehand because there was nothing to know; also, when could she have possibly come into contact with Emerson (or Cage or any other Mountain Man) with no one noticing especially Clarke, who I think is safe to imply has been with her or around her since the end of 2x14? Another thing, Lexa is covered in blood, which means that before Emerson appeared and offered her that oh-so-sweet deal, she had already killed some of the shooters, which I don't think she would have done if she had known about the deal before they had literally camped outside of Mount Weather's door and she had already decided on accepting it.
ReplyDeleteEveryone keeps saying that the Grounder's victory was a sure thing but if you stop and think about it, winning was not as certain as it seemed. At least not without pretty significant losses. /Grounder/ losses. And, yeah, you might not really believe that so, here, I found one of the questions Kim Shumway (one of the writers of The 100) answered after 2x15: http://kimshum.tumblr.com/post/112771691591/kim-i-think-one-of-the-things-a-fair-share-of-fans
I hope it will shed some light on Lexa's decision.
Best episode yet.
ReplyDeleteOctavia is a true sky person.
ReplyDelete"No retreat, no surrender." "Leave no man behind" That's war. She left innocent people to die after betraying them. I don't care when the plan was made.
ReplyDeleteDid you even read the answer in the link? Or do you really think that war is like the movies where everyone is valiant and brave and loyal and right? Also, "No retreat, no surrender. Leave no man behind"? Do you honestly believe that that happens in every battle during war time? God, I wish I had your way of thinking...
ReplyDeleteNo I don't. That's simply my opinion and my philosophy. Why is that an issue? I don't believe that Lexa's decision was altruistic. Do you think it's fair to leave innocent people to die when you have an entire army at your disposal, ready for battle?
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can rule out someone getting a message to Lexa before she told Lincoln to stay with Clarke. The heat of battle makes for a great cover for an assignation. I'm not saying this is what happened, but that it could have and for me it would make it even more interesting. Obviously it could not have happened before Dante and Cage talked but that also doesn't mean that Lexa wasn't running scenarios and possibilities like this in her head either. She's cunning and ruthless. It makes her a good leader for a warring people.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that did not make sense to me in Shumway's answer was that Clarke and Lexa clearly said that the door group was jsut a distraction so the tunnels group could actually get in. Why would that mean they would wily-nily run into the front door en masse? They weren't trying to take the door or barge their way through the mountain, according to what they said in the actual episode. Yes, there would be some casualties but it's not like Lexa or Clarke was planning to send the entire army to the slaughter.
No need to turn the conversation personal. Everyone has the right to their own opinion.
ReplyDeleteWho said anything about altruism? Altruism is a very nice concept that in my opinion can never be truly and fully realised in our world, much less The 100's world (although Clarke does fit the criteria). Everyone wants something; Lexa wanted to win with minimum losses and she did, in expense of the captured remaining 100. Does that earn her a nomination for the Best Person of the Year award? No. Does that make her a bad person? Also no. What it does make her, though, is a good leader. Leaders in times of war make choices that cannot be categorised as neither right or wrong. They see the options and they choose not the most honorable one, but the one with the least casualties.
ReplyDeleteI am not trying to offend you. I am not even trying to make you see the world through my eyes. What I am trying to do, though, is show you that nothing is black or white. And that is something that this show has stressed again and again. I am truly sorry if I have insulted you (which is a very real possibility considering how condescending I sound in my replies. Sorry. I honestly don't intend to come off that way).
Not sure I can go that far. Twilight's Last Gleaming and Spacewalker were pretty powerful. I do think this is a great episode though.
ReplyDeleteI just expressed my disbelief. Did it sound harsh and condescending? Yes, it did. Did I mean it to sound like that? The first part, yeah, the second part, not so much. But that was also my opinion to the person's answer. I'm sorry if it offended.
ReplyDeleteCan I choose the whole episode please? No way to just pick one scene! my fav five are: Lexa's deal with the MM and her telling Clarke; Octavia refuses to leave the mountain without Bellamy; the last scene with Clarke standing alone in front of the entrance of MW ("it can't be over" - and it isn't!); Bellamy an the others finding the abandoned harvest chamber; Raven and Wick turning off the power. (And besides, aren't they cute together? As hard as this scene was, I had to smile when Wick said she shouldn't tell him to go and save himself, and her answer was the complete opposite most of us expected, "please don't leave me".)
ReplyDeleteThey were, though. And besides, isn't no casualties, the return of the captured Grounders and a deal with the Mountain Men to never again capture their people a pretty sweet deal? And the Grounder army would basically be cannon fodder in there. Especially if the Mountain Men had .50-cals as Shumway insinuated.
ReplyDeleteJust tried to find this "Polis". Maybe Annapolis, about 50 km east of Washington DC?
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree that it was a good plan by Lexa. It was ruthless and exactly what served her people best. I just think that she may have been planning for this longer than you do. Being able to see all opportunities and possibilities is also the sign of a good leader. I don't fault Lexa for her choice, but it is the exact same mistake that Cage made with the missile. It's shortsighted and likely to bite you later. Lexa has a habit of understimating the Sky People and I think she's vastly overestimated the Mountain Men's power in this case. They've already defeated 3 of the 4 ways the Mountain Men dominated them. There are no more missiles, the acid fog is gone, and they know how to control the reapers. The only thing the Mountain still has on them is guns, and if the grounders get over their trained fear of them, I give easy odds to the grounders. Still in the heat of the moment, it was a great deal for Lexa and her people.
ReplyDeleteI think you are overestimating the .50 cals as well. While it is true that the grounders would have a narrow entrance, it's also true that the guns would be very limited. There were plenty of places to the sides of the entrance where the army could retreat. Others could have been sent back to the Ark to get more bomb making materials and flaming arrows are a good distraction as well. They had plenty of strategy to outwait the mountain until Indra's team could rescue the hostages. Most importantly though, they never needed to run into the entrance in the first place if all they were was a distraction so the whole statement Shumway gave is moot.
Haha I looked through the list and was like "this one!...actually no this one!...ugh this one?......I can't choose...." It was such an amazing episode but I selected the Lexa making a deal moment in the end as well :)
ReplyDeleteWell, there is also Minneapolis, Minnesota... but Minneapolis is about 1000 miles from Washington. And Indianapolis, Indiana is about 500 miles. That would be a pretty long hike ;-) So, your guess is probably correct. Do you think we will see this ominous Capital next season? I mean we have to, right? Why else should they mention it? Either way... I am very intrigued since Lexa said that Polis would change the way Clarke sees the Grounders...
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with lexa taking the deal for her pov. for what could MAYBE be best for the grounders. I obviously disagree with lexa taking the deal because she willingly signed a death sentence to Clarke& all the sky people captured. I'm having a hard time with people "defending" lexa's actions. Its one thing to understand & another to defend. Obviously we as viewers know that Clarke&co aren't going to die. But in the world of the 100 Lexa doesn't know that. In fact she knows she probably just sealed their fate. This is my problem with the writers/ fans defending her actions. It's not the same thing as Clarke closing the dropship door on her people or one of the many sacrifices any of the the sky people have made. The culling etc.. there really was no 'choice' (as far as they knew) But Lexa had a choice. Lexa chose to willingly allow the Mt.men to potentially wipe out the sky people. How is that not sooooooo screwed up. Yeah Lexa did what's best for her people( but also questionable in the long run) but defending her choice without acknowledges the sky people is just troublesome. Also little side note.. I love this show so much & the writers are incredible. They create controversy & discussions that matter & pretty much leave it up to the fans to interpret things.. however both Finn's massacre & Lexa's betrayal has been given big pushs as in what they think we should see versus how it is and that bothers me. Either way I'm okay with Lexa's betrayal in terms of the story because it was a great twist & leaves the finale up to the kids!!
ReplyDeleteI chose Lexa's betrayal but all the other scenes are great as well! Especially Octavia staying behind. Clarke looking at her mountain of problems was beautiful as well.
ReplyDeleteThought about that, too. :) We already have a broken sign which reads "ton DC". Might be the same with "Polis", but maybe not. "Metropolis" for a new city implies that the Grounders back in the day were that much educated to give their city the Greek term for metropole or big city. Maybe that education matches with Lexa saying their capital would change Clake's attitude. There are several clans of Grounders. Some are warriors, some farmers, why not a sophisticated clan as their leaders.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I think we will see the capital in S3 - as well as we'll see the City of Light (whatever it is), as the producer said, in the last scene of next weeks' episode (and according to him it will be an even more jaw dropping moment than the white room at the end of S1). I think both of them will play a more or less big role in S3.
You didn't insult me in any way. We simply will not agree on Lexa. She had choices and she made the wrong one by betraying an alliance. I live in a gray world and her decision will still never be right in my eyes. I don't care how many ways the writers, fans or critics try to justify it.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree then. I liked the conversation, though. Let's do it again in the next episode. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's great to watch a show that leads to such great discussion. Can't wait until next week.
ReplyDeleteAll Raven and Wick scenes :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks. When you have differences of opinion on matters like this, that's how we know we are watching great television. Enjoy the finale.
ReplyDeleteEducated Grounders... I can't even picture it! ;-) But why not? I mean it is just logical.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that a lot of the World Building on The 100 doesn't really make sense because 97 years are way to short for changes THAT big. Like the Grounder language... A almost new language, that everybody speaks and understands does not envolve in such a short time!
And I know, that a Atom bomb hit, but why does this equal the lost of almost all rudimentary knowledge? Like building real houses, or making clothes ect. ... That would only make sense if only uneducated, unskilled...people survived the bombs with no knowledge whats so ever to teach the next generation.
Or back on the Ark: How the hell could the Ark, even with 2015-ish levels of technology, not know the conditions of the Earth?? How could they not see the Grounders moving around? We have satellites today that can see peoples faces from obit. The Ark should have been able to monitor the fauna and flora with relative ease. It's like everything on Earth is a total surprise to the Sky People.
The City of Light... gosh... I really have no idea what to expect... But it must be "something" modern, right? Because of the solar panals and the Amazon-drone?? There must be people... or maybe mutants... Jaha said: "A city where everyone is wellcome!" That sounds to good to be true... I mean it´s The 100, where people die for the for the stupidest reasons and everybody has their own evil agenda.
I agree with 100%!
ReplyDeletewe don't really know how the grounders survived the bombs. maybe that's what the city of light is about. I mean Jaha and Murphy found solar panels intact when everything else is broken. which means either they were installed recently by some advanced society, or the war never reached that area for some reason. plus its a little strange to find a mine field in the middle of north america, like its protecting something.
ReplyDelete