After its final fortnight break in its sixth season, The 100 returned with a much stronger episode than I expected. Octavia's path has finally been altered, and Abby bid a tumultuous farewell to Kane. "What You Take With You" was directed by Marshall Virtue and written by Nikki Goldwaser - both first-timers on this series.
This episode was very well structured. The 100's episodes are at their strongest when they focus on fewer storylines, and again this was proven to be the case. All the events occurred outside of Sanctum which was surprisingly refreshing, with Gabriel's home, Eligius IV and the caves inhabited by the Children of Gabriel being the three areas in the spotlight.
In the last episode, we saw Gabriel, Diyoza and Octavia locate the anomaly, with the latter two entering it, and only Octavia returning to the outside world. Diyoza's whereabouts are still unknown, and her name wasn't mentioned once during the entire time Gabriel and Octavia explored what had happened inside it. Perhaps that's a rookie mistake by the the writer, or some dialog was cut for time.
Early on, Gabriel explained some of the science behind the phenomenon known as the Red Sun, which the characters experienced in the second episode of the season. He had somehow captured and refined the toxin emitted by the trees, and in an attempt to elicit an explanation from Octavia's otherwise blank memory of what happened inside the anomaly, injected it into Octavia. Some fascinating fun and games could then begin.
I wanna know where you went and why you returned.What occurred was similar in concept to what happened to Clarke when we explored her mind as she battled Josephine for control of her body. We saw some vivid and confronting flashbacks to what could be summarized as more recent events (Clarke's mind exploration reached back further into her past whilst Octavia's didn't delve much deeper than Season 3). Particular emphasis was placed on the infamous fighting pit, where Wonkru members were holed up for several years after Praimfaya, and many of its members fought to the death under Octavia's dictatorship. Bringing back Charles Pike to force Octavia to open up was a superb decision by the showrunners, and Michael Beach did an outstanding job with his guest appearance, and Marie Avgeropoulos stepped her game up big time.
How does it feel to know that everyone hates you?I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but despite the concept being similar to what Clarke went through, Octavia's stint here felt different - which was important because their circumstances were different - but it was how that was achieved that was mystifying. Perhaps it was because there was less of a story to tell, and Pike cut right to the chase, but whatever it is, I'm not complaining.
Importantly, however, Octavia finally saw the light. Pike was finally able to hit home the scale of the completely avoidable catastrophes she caused. She wants redemption and forgiveness, and though she's been telling herself she doesn't deserve either of those things, Pike convinced her that that doesn't matter. I've been hoping things would change for Octavia because they've been dragging on for a long time now, but you don't insert as good a piece of storytelling and character development as this without making the most of it further down the track, so it looks like my wishes - and the wishes of many fans - may finally come true.
In the forest, Josephine and Bellamy had an interesting time. Clarke's mind had around 36 hours until it would expire, but a resolution to what's going on between Josephine and Clarke is looking much more imminent. Bellamy and Josephine were captured by the Children of Gabriel, but despite claiming that those in Sanctum can create Nightbloods at will, Gabriel wasn't summoned to hear them out. It seemed a little strange that despite Gabriel supposedly leading this clan, that didn't happen at all in this episode when one had reason to expect it would. Sure, Gabriel was preoccupied with Octavia, but at least a small indication that he was keeping tabs on his children wouldn't have gone amiss here.
While waiting for the Children of Gabriel to decide what to do with them, Josephine didn't pass up the opportunity to land a few jabs on Bellamy concerning his relationship with Clarke. It was interesting to watch how Bellamy handled this barrage. He knew everything Josephine said was correct, but he didn't want to feed the troll either. Clarke will have been aware of what Josephine was saying as well, so maybe once Clarke has her mind back for good they may discuss what was said.
There were still some hurdles to survive first, however, with one being that the Children of Gabriel discovered Josephine was a Nightblood and a Prime, and were just about to execute her when Josephine wisely ceded control of the body to Clarke, who possessed the combat skills to fight the Children of Gabriel off, and also took the opportunity to free Bellamy. Josephine argued with Clarke on who would take control in order to ride the motorbike belonging to one of the Sanctum rescue party she knocked unconscious, but Clarke wasn't having any of it, so she's now on the way to see Gabriel. That will be a fascinating conversation for sure, especially considering what Josephine said to Bellamy early on:
I've been in love with Gabriel for 236 years, the last 70 of which he's been trying to kill me.So far we've had two very good storylines, but I think the third one this episode featured takes the cake. That was, of course, Kane vehemently disagreeing with Abby's decision to switch his mind to a new host.
I really enjoyed what happened because most importantly it stayed true to Kane's character. Though Abby undeniably loved Kane, it was clear that her motivations for giving Kane a new host was entirely selfish, and Kane was right to be less than impressed. It was also very good to see the contrasting behavior between Josephine and Kane - the former would stop at nothing to get a new host and fully supported her family's intentions, whereas Kane was guilt-ridden at the prospect of effectively murdering another man just so he could live. That was reinforced when he met Sarah, his host's widow. Eventually Kane and Raven decided to put a stop to Abby's plan to gift the members of Sanctum the ability to create Nightbloods, and they woke up Indra to help do the job. Indra and a few colleagues stormed the drop ship and prevented Simone and the others from putting up a fight. Only Abby was allowed out to say goodbye to Kane, who was about to float himself with the remaining Nightblood serum.
Kane's last words to Abby were beautiful, and were very true to his character. By floating himself he ends his chapter in Abby's story, and now she is forced to move on and to do better. Her entire purpose this season has been to revive Kane, and though she succeeded, she now hopefully understands that what she did to revive him is not what he would have wanted, and that his beliefs are not aligned with the Primes on Sanctum. Kane has always had a deep and nuanced understanding of life and death, and if one was to select the area in which the character has grown and developed the most during the course of the series, they'd be remiss to not choose his understanding of life and death. As a Councilman on board the Ark, he was at times polarizing, but throughout the series he softened and always advocated for what was best for everyone. I'm sad to see him go.
May we meet again.In all, this was a really good hour of television. The narrowed focus on just three storylines allowed them all to be developed with depth and quality. All three also came to a turning point of some sort, with Clarke finally reclaiming her body in some capacity, Octavia deciding she wants to earn forgiveness and redemption, and Abby bidding farewell to Kane. Pike's special appearance was fantastic, and rookie director Marshall Virtue and writer Nikki Goldwaser both did a really good job. With just four episodes remaining in this sixth season, The 100 is in a very good position to end the season strongly.
Thanks as always for reading, and do make sure to share your thoughts and theories on the episode in the comments below. See you right back here next week.
