Jaha and his happy pilgrimage towards a mythical city end
up in the middle of a mine field. This is not the paradise they were looking for.
Tragically, only extras are killed.
They decide to wait in the mine field all night until daylight shows them their footprints and a way out – but when dawn comes the sand has blown and moved, erasing their prints. But the sun does have a nice light display – they’ve found the city of light. This prompts Jaha to go all messianic on them – calling the mines a “test of faith”.
Uh-huh
Messiah Jaha leads them out of the wasteland. Next week
he parts oceans and gets really pissy over cow statues.
But when they reach the top of the rise, they see light
reflecting off the ground – no shiny city. But the light is reflecting on solar
panels. Murphy has a fit of pique and breaks one and they’re surprised by a
drone flying up from the panel array. Lead by Jaha, they follow it, watched by
the drone’s camera
The drone flies over a lake, with a convenient boat left
for them. Rather than shoddily convenient writing, Jaha calls this destiny.
Over to Mount Weather with evil president Cage looking
the remnants of the 100 (or the 44 as they are now). Realising that they’re
managing to hide because of sympathises, they decide to spread the knowledge
that the 44 irradiated a level of the mountain and killed 10 soldiers. Cage isn’t
worried about the army outside Mount Weather, confident the base’s defences
will keep them safe behind the death fog
With that army, Clarke is fretting about their battle
plans, waiting is letting her doubt a lot. Lexa advises against all the second
guessing as it just wastes energy and she is an efficient robot. Clarke is especially
worried about Bellamy while Lexa tells her hard truths about what it means to
be a leader during a way, especially an inspiring one.
Clarke goes wandering and ends up talking to Octavia who
knows there was something fishy about Clarke and Lexa surviving the missile
hit. Clarke doesn’t deny anything and Octavia realises Clarke let all those
people die – and was willing to let her die. Octavia isn’t impressed with
Clarke deciding who is disposable and says “you would have fit right in on the
council” which is both painful and accurate – and nicely runs on from Kane and Abbie’s
realisations last episode. But Octavia will keep it secret
Of course, Lexa isn’t happy with an assurance of secrecy
and orders her minion to kill Octavia. Clarke realises something is wrong when
she sees that Indra and Octavia have been given separate orders and puts a gun
to the head of the man about to shoot Octavia with a bow (to be fair, Octavia
is on guard duty, therefore doing a shoddy job of it).
Lexa confronts Lexa
“You can’t kill everyone you don’t trust.”
“Yes I can.”
Actually while I want to agree with Lexa because it’s
such a wonderful rejoinder, I would say her general lack of trust makes this a
bad idea. Clarke has change her mind about killing people and adds that she
does trust Octavia, she trusts her feelings enough to bet her life on it. Lexa,
of course, isn’t impressed by feelings – so Clarke goes full on attack; she
calls Lexa weak for running from her feelings, for still being haunted by her
past lover and pretending to be above it all. She confronts Lexa with the 250
people she let burn and Lexa says “not everyone, not you.” Clarke seizes on
this – if Lexa cares about her, trust her and spare Octavia. Lexa refuses so it’s
down to threats – Clarke won’t sacrifice more people and if Octavia dies Clarke
will tell everyone about the missile.
Lots of emotional reaction to that one
Things are not going smoothly for Bellamy – his identity
is rumbled and his key card stops working; though the guard trying to capture
him helpfully provides another when knocked unconscious. Time is also running
out for the 44 as the mountain is searched even with the help of the anti-Cage
faction who happen to know another nifty way of getting around.
Meanwhile Raven and Wick do their geeky/flirty/snarky
thing and try to guide Bellamy through whatever process is needed to disable
the death fog. They advise him not to just blow it up and get a face full of
death fog and alert the Mount Weather people their defences are down. They
guide him to neutralise the acid and Wick and Raven’s celebration almost turns
into a kiss.
Back to the camp and Lexa calls Clarke back and assures
her she won’t kill Octavia and says she trusts Clarke (or fears her threat
anyway). Lexa also points out their harsh ways are how they survive but Clarke
wants life to be about more than mere survival.
Lexa kisses Clarke. And Clarke kisses her back. As Lexa goes in for a second kiss Clarke pulls back and says she’s not ready to be with anyone (after Finn’s death, we presume). Not yet
Which is when the flare goes up announcing the death fog
is no longer deadly – Bellamy succeeded. Hey sound the attack
And back at Camp Jaha, Raven returns to Wick and really does kiss him this time – and have sex on the table. She has a brief pause when he touches the brace that supports her leg but seeing her insecurity, he makes a joke about how the brace he made could have been removed easier, they make a joke and go back to sex.
The grounder army moves out – and Bellamy in Mount
Weather finds a new PH gauge – and this shows the acid as still acidic. He tries
to call Raven – but Cage has cut off his radio. Troops are sent with guns to
catch Bellamy who runs and hides in the room full of big, explosive, acidic
tanks. He flees through one of the ducts when he runs out of ammo
There’s a dramatic 10 second count down until the release of the acid fog. They activate the fog – and we see the acetylene torch Bellamy has left burning into a highly flammable oxygen tank. There’s an explosion and a firestorm that fries the guards and blasts Bellamy to safety (wouldn’t there also be super heated acid fog?)
Cage and his minion discover their main defence is now
offline. And the Reapers which are their secondary defence are too few in
number to take out such a huge army. All they have left are the doors.
Back to Raven and Wick and Raven is looking very regretful.
Wick makes it clear he’s happy to have a relationship, but not to play games.
On the march, Clarke tries to make nice with Octavia who
won’t have it – she’s done with Clarke. But when she talks to Indra, Indra is
very much in agreement; Lexa is ruthless, that is how they’ll win.
Clarke and Lexa – there were hints and definite tension
but I never ran with them because there are a lot of shows that tease a
possible same-sex relationship and don’t follow through. Yes, Clarke pulled
away and said no to a relationship – but she also clearly kissed Lexa back and
said she’s not ready to be with anyone – not that she’s not interested in being
with a woman.
Which means I’m definitely calling a show with a bisexual
protagonist! And not even part of an ensemble cast – sure there are other major
characters but I don’t think we can argue anyone is a co-protagonist with
Clarke! LGBT protagonists of any kind are damn rare in this genre – and doubly
so without them being part of a wider (straighter) co-protagonist group. This
is amazingly rare (of all the 85 shows we’ve covered, this will be the third
with an LGBT protagonist without a straight ensemble. 3 out of 85 – yes I’m
gleeful to see this)
Of course my cynical brain just started carving Lexa’s
grave stone and predicting her imminent demise. Be silent cynical brain, let me
enjoy this!
I am glad to see Raven being involved a little more – and
the love interest promises for some storylines, even if largely romance
orientated. I also liked that her disability was remembered – disabled, sexual
people are very very rare in the media and in our general societal
consciousness.
Jaha the messiah – this kind of feels like a whole
different show entirely.
