This week on The 100, everyone learns, again, how difficult leadership is, how much the grounders hate Skaikru, and how uncertain their long term survival is.
We start nine days previously, when ALIE still had control of everyone in the City of Light. She’s instructed a young man named Ilian to kill his family members one by one until his mother takes the chip. When Clarke shuts down ALIE, Ilian’s mother is dying, and tells him to avenge her death. He’s the only one in his family left alive.
Back to the present day, Abby and Kane are enjoying the pleasant accommodations in Polis and finally sharing a bed. 😌 Abby feels a little guilty about Clarke’s father, but Kane tells her that Jake’s part of who she is. He sends her off to help King Roan.
Ilian has arrived in Polis and is meeting with Raphael, the new ambassador of his clan, Trishanakru. Raphael plans to challenge Roan’s rule through single combat while Roan is too weak from his injuries to win. When Trishanakru is in charge they will destroy Skaikru. Ilian questions whether Roan needs to be brought down along with Skaikru, but Raphael says that Roan is Skaikru’s puppet. Octavia is sitting nearby, in disguise, spying on the entire conversation.
Echo shows Roan to his new throne room, and describes the new security measures she’s taken in the tower. She once again questions why Roan doesn’t act more like his mother. Kane and Octavia arrive, and Roan makes Echo leave. They tell him about the challenge Raphael intends to bring. Kane wants to try to find a diplomatic solution before Roan is forced to fight.
Monty, Bellamy, Clarke and Raven argue about whether to tell everyone the truth about the nuclear reactors. Raven wants to tell everyone so that they can all help think of solutions. Clarke and Bellamy want to avoid panic, so they want to wait until they have an idea for a viable solution. Monty thinks that the Ark itself is a viable solution. They can seal it up again, lay in supplies, and live there while they ride out the radiation. They just need a hydrogenerator to make clean water. The only one available is in what’s left of Farm Station in Ice Nation territory.
When Bellamy tells Miller and Bryan about the plan to go to Farm Station, they argue about whether or not Bryan should go on the mission. Bryan is the only one who knows where Farm Station is, but he’s still recovering from his injuries. They argue a little about Pike and their opposing views of him, but end up holding each other. I’d be very worried about their survival, Bryan’s especially, if this show wasn’t still struggling to recover from the fan reaction to Lexa’s death. Instead, Harper probably has a target on her back this season. Bryan, Miller, and Maggie Sawyer are probably the safest supporting characters on the entire network.
As the team (Bellamy, Monty, Harper, Miller, and Bryan) prepares to leave for Ice Nation, Raven tells Monty to be careful of the hydrazene in the hydrogenerator. They need it to create water, but it’s highly explosive. Actually, it’s rocket fuel. Clarke gives Bellamy Roan’s seal in case they run into any trouble. Have they ever so much as touched the border of Ice Nation and not been attacked immediately by someone?
True to form, they drive as close as they can get to Farm Station, and discover that it’s been taken over by grounders. They’re ambushed by some of the grounders, and taken to the station after Bellamy shows Roan’s seal. Bellamy explains that the king sent them to get a machine from the station. The grounders reluctantly agree to let them take it.
Raven is beginning the work of repairing the Ark. She and Clarke commiserate over feeling like they aren’t ready to be in charge of the entire community. Jaha offers to help, but Raven can’t forgive him for bringing ALIE to them, and the things he did while chipped.
While getting the hydrogenerator, the delinquents discover that the grounders are keeping Farm Station people as slaves. They decide to rescue the slaves after they get the machine, but then the slaves pass them a note telling the team that the slaves will be moved the next day. The team votes on whether to save the hydrogenerator or the slaves. The vote is split, with Bellamy left as the deciding vote. He chooses to save the innocent lives in front of him this time.
Echo and Roan spar, and she tries to convince Roan to let her fight for him. He refuses, but he’s also clearly not ready for a battle. There’s nothing Abby can do to help him, he just needs time to heal. Echo keeps pushing Roan to explain why he trusts Skaikru so much. He finally tells her about the reactors and Clarke’s promise to help them all survive. Echo accuses Clarke of lying and wants to go spy on Skaikru. Bet none of you predicted that. Roan tells her she can go spy after she helps him win his fight.
Kane approaches Raphael and asks him to reconsider his challenge. Ilian tells his story. Kane says that the chip affected everyone, including Skaikru, and Skaikru were the ones who solved the problem. Raphael refuses to reconsider and throws out some threats and insults. Octavia stands close to Ilian during the exchange and I sense heavy duty sexual tension in his tiny glance at her and the way he shoves her as he leaves. She stares at him as he walks away. 😘
The team explodes the hydrazene as a bomb while they fight to free the slaves. Bryan stops the fighting at one point so that Monty can be the one to kill the man who killed his father. Monty breaks the slaves’ chains instead. Monty earns his peacemaker reputation once again. They need to keep the bigger picture in mind, and not get bogged down with smaller personal issues, or the human race won’t survive.
Jaha has figured out that something more is going on than they’ve been told. He and Clarke talk about the impossible burdens and decisions of leadership in times of crisis. He passes on the advice he’s given all of his protegés: “We make the best decisions that we can, with the information that we have, then hope that there is a forgiving God.” I feel like I’m watching President Snow and Katniss.
Abby tells Kane that Roan won’t be ready to fight in time. Since there’s nothing that she can do for him, she’s going back to Arkadia to be with Clarke. He notices that she’s removed her husband’s necklace as a symbol of moving on with Kane.
Octavia finds Raphael alone at dinner. She asks him to back down, or to fight her instead of Roan, since he says his problem is really with Skaikru. He refuses, and insults her fighting skill as he does. She draws closer to him and slides a thin blade into his ear and through his skull, killing him. She wipes the blood off of his ear and the blade, disguising the way he died. Then she quietly slips back into the night without being seen.
The next morning everyone gathers in the throne room. Raphael is late. Echo brings Roan the news of Raphael’s death. They are told that his heart stopped. Octavia tells Ilian that she’s sorry for the loss of his family. He asks her if she’s going to kill him, too. She says that she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and makes a dramatic exit, while Echo watches them. Hmm, maybe Echo is her new love interest, or they are being set up for a love triangle. It’ll be tough for Echo to choose between the Blake siblings.
Miller and Bryan argue about their different opinions on saving the slaves. Bryan can’t forgive Miller for being willing to leave the slaves in captivity.
The team get back to Arkadia. Clarke and Raven are angry at Bellamy for sacrificing the hydrogenerator to save a few people now when it could cost so many lives later. Clarke decides it’s time to tell the rest of the Arkadians a version of the truth. She sugar coats their chances of preparing the Ark to sustain 500 people for 5 years. She also fails to mention that she made a deal with King Roan. All that the Arkadians are thinking and talking about is saving themselves. That should go over well when Echo shows up to spy. They also have a false sense of security, so they won’t be working as hard as they should be to find better solutions.
Was Jasper in the episode? I might boycott writing about him for as long as he insists on acting like a spoiled two year old who contributes nothing to the plot or the community. If you hate everyone and everything, no one is making you stay and use up valuable supplies, hon. Go find a better place, or make your own, but STFU with the constant complaining just to complain.You don’t have it any worse than anyone else.
Also, now I have I Don’t Like Mondays stuck in my head.
I’m so glad that Octavia has settled down and figured herself out, now that she’s killed Pike and avenged Lincoln. That seems to have led her to her true calling, court assassin and spy. She always was impatient with people who didn’t take their killing seriously. Now she can be the artist she was meant to be. She and Echo will either become besties or mortal enemies.
Jaha: No leader starts out wanting to lie or imprison or execute their people. The decisions you face just whittle you down piece by piece.
Clarke’s leadership crisis continues. Now she’s trying the Lexa method of only telling people what she wants them to know, and straight out lying about the rest to manipulate the people around her. It’s a dangerous game and will probably come back to bite her.
I’m very disappointed in Clarke right now. And, honestly, in all of the delinquents, for focusing so much on the Ark, and forgetting about the grounders. They need to be collaborating with Indra to send out teams of scouts to network for information about nuclear fall out shelters, at least in addition to working on the Ark.
Miller and Bryan’s very different points of view are starting to tear them apart. Miller is all about the big picture, a progressive visionary liberal who’s willing to make personal sacrifices for the future and the greater good. Bryan is more concerned with maintaining order in the here and now, a conservative who puts the immediate safety of his loved ones and upholding established law above everything thing else. In this episode, either choice was a gamble. One of the slaves could be the person who comes up with the idea that saves humanity. Or the hydrogenerator could have been the one thing that could save them, though now that they’ve destroyed it, that would bring a quick and depressing end to the show.
ETA: Maybe Riley, the former Ice Nation slave that the delinquents greeted affectionately, will turn out to be the key to salvation. As far as I can tell, the character and the actor have never appeared on this show before. The actor, Ben Sullivan, was the Prince of Daxam who put Mon El in the pod bound for Earth on Supergirl. He was also in an episode of iZombie last season.
Metawitches 
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