The 100
Season 2, Episode 16
(season finale, returns this fall)
8|9c on the CW
This is going to be the most difficult recap I've ever written. The season 2 finale was intense, and not your average, every-day popcorn-flick intense (not that The 100 ever is). It was the kind of intense that reaches inside your chest, grips your heart in iron fingers and squeezes the breath out of your lungs, and you let it. Most of you already know that The 100 is my favorite show, and that I am more emotionally in love with and invested in Bellamy Blake (+ Clarke Griffin) than any other fictional characters, ever, period. So bear with me, because I'm probably going to wax poetic and lengthy here.
My favorite thing about this show (aside from/including Bellamy) is that none of the characters are static. They're actual people. They grow. They change, not always for the better. They adapt and evolve and they're so beautifully real, and the show really highlights their character development/devolvement.
At the end of the last episode, we left Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia facing Mount Weather, each separate, each alone. Lexa had made a deal with Cage to release the Grounders, and she walks away, leaving Clarke. Octavia disobeys Indra's orders and stays when they retreat, realizing that Bellamy is her home. Bellamy knows he has to protect everyone, somehow, but he's not sure how to do it.
In this episode, Cage has gathered the remaining kids as well as the newly-captured Kane, Abby and Monroe, and has them all chained to walls while, one by one, their bone marrow is mortally extracted. Cage has moved everyone (except Dante, who refuses to budge from his cell) into level 5, and seems fairly confident that nobody can get at them after the deal he made with Lexa.
However, Bellamy opens the door to the reaper tunnels and he, Monty, Jasper and Maya are re-united with Clarke and Octavia. It's a happy few seconds but after that, things quickly take a turn downhill. They get Dante and bring him to the control room, where they watch their loved ones being tortured on camera. Clarke attempts to bargain with Cage, saying she'll spare Dante's life if he lets her people go, but Cage refuses. Clarke shoots Dante and tells Monty to reverse the turbines that keep the mountain radiation-free, which would enable them to flood Level 5 with radiation, killing everyone inside. Monty gets it ready while Jasper and Octavia attempt to find more oxygen tanks for Maya's suit.
In the woods, Lincoln is tied up at the Grounder camp, and this conversation happens.
Indra: You have to choose; Octavia or us.
Lincoln: I will literally always choose Octavia you should know this by now.
Indra: I was just messin' with ya, give O my love *leaves a knife so he can escape*
Back at Mount Weather, there's nothing for it, and Clarke knows that if she wants to save her people she has to destroy everyone inside the mountain - even the innocents she and Bellamy have tried so hard to protect. Before she pulls the lever, she hesitates, but they're running out of time. Gently, Bellamy says, "Together," places his hand on top of hers, and they flip the switch, pulling irradiated air into Mount Weather and killing the inhabitants, including Maya, who, before dying in Jasper's arms, whispers, "None of us are innocent."
“When Bellamy put his hand on hers on the switch, that was the ultimate moment of self-sacrifice for him. He knew she was going to have to shoulder this decision and he decides to share it with her.”
—
|
Jason Rothenberg
|
When Clarke and the others run down to free their people, Clarke fights back tears and tells Abby, "I tried to be the good guy. I really tried."
Meanwhile, Murphy and Jaha have reached 'the city of light,' which turns out to be a lighthouse on a small island. Jaha proved that he's officially crazypants when they're attacked by a shrieking eel and he shoves a man out of the boat to give them time to reach the shore. Murphy, shocked and horrified, leaves Jaha once they reach the island and discovers a hatch (Dharma Initiative, amirite? We even have Desmond!) and goes inside to find a bachelor pad and a cryptic suicide/video message by a man who apologizes for the bombs, says it was 'all her fault,' and shoots himself.
Jaha follows a drone to a spotless mansion and is greeted by an attractive hologram named A.L.I.E., who thanks him for the missile she found from the Ark's wreckage and tells him she has big plans.
Back across the water, everyone makes it back to Camp Jaha (which should really be re-named Camp Maya since Jaha's alive and insane and Maya's dead and martyred). Kane and Abby are holding hands, Wick is carrying Raven, Monty looks sad in an adorable cardigan, and Jasper is in a state of emotional trauma after the loss of Maya, and blaming Monty, Clarke, and Bellamy for what happened.
Bellamy walks over to Clarke and says, "We could use a drink." After a moment, Clark says, "Have one for me." She then tells Bellamy that she can't stay; she can't stand to see everyone's faces and be reminded of what she did to protect them. "What we did," says Bellamy, with the most tragic, heartfelt, pleading expression on his face. Hailing back to 1x08, he says, "Look - if you need forgiveness, I'll give that to you. You're forgiven. Please come inside."
And then came the moment when everyone's heart broke. Mine broke loudly and into a million irreparable pieces. Clarke presses a kiss against Bellamy's cheek, wraps her arms around him, and tells him to take care of their people. "May we meet again," she says, and walks away. He takes a deep breath, a tear rolling down his face, steels himself, and nods. "May we meet again," he repeats, and they walk separate ways - him into Camp Jaha, and her away, into the unknown.
|TAKES A DEEP BREATH AND REBOOTS|
[ I'll be 21 in a little over a month and then I can drink wine while I write these. Yes indeedie.)
THE PARALLELS IN THIS SHOW. The /RELATIONSHIPS/ and the /EVENTS/ and the /DIALOGUE THAT HEARKENS BACK TO TWENTY EPISODES AGO THAT YOU REMEMBER CLEARLY BECAUSE IT WAS JUST THAT GOOD/.
Jason Rothenburg told us we would be getting a Bellarke scene, and he was right. They said we'd love and hate them for it, and they were right. We started from the ground up - Bellamy and Clarke couldn't stand one another. They fought, they butted heads. Now, two seasons later, we've reached the point where, as Jason Rothenburg said, they need one another, and they trust one another. It might be more, but they haven't processed that yet. They're not screaming and blaming the other person - they're hugging one another, they're understanding, they're loving and they're letting go.
Did Clarke and Bellamy do the right thing? That's an interesting question that this episode addresses, but ultimately leaves us to decide. Would Bellamy have pulled the lever if Octavia would have died? Would Clarke have pulled it if it meant the death of someone she loved? I don't know. When Abby and Clarke are reunited, Abby hugs Clark tightly and says, "Maybe there are no good guys." While I don't believe this to be a true concept - good and evil are most definitely real - situations do arise in which gut-wrenchingly difficult decisions have to be made. If Clarke and Bellamy hadn't pulled the lever, their people would have died torturous deaths - however, they sacrificed 300 'innocent' people in order to save their own.
Jason Rothenburg released some hints about season three. Bellamy is going to be in charge of Camp Jaha (!!!!). A.L.IE. is going to be a huge problem. Richard Harmon (Murphy) is going to be a regular rather than a guest-star (WOOOOOHOOOO). But there are more questions that we don't have answers to, such as...
WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO THIS CHARACTER AND WHY HAS NOTHING BEEN DONE ABOUT IT AND I MEAN IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN/ ADDRESSED/ WHY ON EARTH NOT???
Is Clarke going to Polis? Please say no.
Is Echo going to be Bellamy's season 3 love interest? Please say no.
Is Jaha actually going to become a villain? Because I can totally see that happening.
Are we ever going to see Emori again?
How is A.L.I.E.'s mansion so clean? Holograms can't clean things.
Also, I would like to announce that I spent six freaking hours creating a Bellarke fanvid to /their/ song (aka Superheroes by The Script) and it turned out beautifully. And it won't save. So you can't see it. I apologize.
What did you guys think of the finale? Any season 3 predictions? Any emotional support? If you need me I'll be over here re-watching season one and sobbing over character development.
0 comments:
Post a Comment