Source: Westworld (HBO).

10. The Well Tempered Clavier - Westworld

When Westworld initially aired with 'The Original', it laid the foundations for a story of epic proportions, and unexpected profoundness. The decision to present such a narrtive using multiple timelines was a stroke of genius and added a layer of mystery I hadn't anticipated.

'The Well Tempered Clavier' confirmed a multitude of fan theories yet delivered all reveals, predictable or otherwise, with significant weight. Perhaps the best scene of the episode came with Dolores' revelation of killing Arnold, and with the confirmation that Arnold was the inspiration behind Host, Bernard. The way these two scenes played into each other was masterfully written and edited, with superlative acting from Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood.

Source: Arrow (The CW).

9. What We Leave Behind - Arrow

By comparison to its predecessor, Arrow's fifth season may appear to be the best season of television, ever. In reality, its quality lies somewhere between that of seasons one and three. In despite of this, the show has introduced a villain boasting much early promise, and a story arc where the CW's patented histrionics aren't seeping through every plot hole.

"What We Leave Behind" essentially acts as a game of cat and mouse for Oliver and masked villain, Prometheus. The culmination of which ends with Oliver firing three arrows into a Detective Malone in the guise of Prometheus. If this were a scenario that took place last season, the fallout would have been unbearably infantile. Fortunately, the writers managed to illustrate the emotional consequences in a manner that wasn't infuriatingly childlike. The episode ends with Oliver returning to the Arrow Cave to find Laurel Lance seemingly alive and well, which naturally had me freaking out. It remains to be seen whether this cliffhanger was an attempt to cauterise one of the many wounds left by season four, but the show has piqued my interest going forward, for the short term at least.

Source: Arrow (The CW).

8. Invasion! - Arrow

As alluded to earlier, Arrow has gone through a rebuilding process this season. The epitome of these efforts shone through in its 100th episode (and part three of this year's CW crossover event). When Oliver and Co. are captured by the invading Dominators, we're given a glimpse of what their lives might've looked like if Oliver had never boarded the Queen's Gambit.

'Invasion!' gave us the chance to revisit beloved characters such as Laurel, Moira and Robert, once again exploring their importance to Oliver, in both life and death. The inclusion of former villains was a welcome surprise, if only for the fact that it gave us more Deathstroke (but, regrettably, no Manu Bennett). As the episode progressed, moments of genuine emotion weaved their way into every other scene, accumulating in Oliver and Thea giving up an artificial life of happiness for something real. Ultimately, this episode served as a reminder of what the show should have been, tonally and canonically, yet it now stands illuminated amongst series-spanning mischaracterisations and missed opportunities.

Source: The 100 (The CW).

7. Ye Who Enter Here - The 100

Season three of The 100 will most likely go down as the most divisive amongst fans and critics alike. My opinion of the show dropped dramatically over the course of this season, specifically because of the inconsistent pacing, strange character motivations, and, of course, the questionable writing and decision making surrounding Lexa's death.

Having said that, this season did have its moments, most of which stem from episodes three and four. 'Ye Who Enter Here' offered up touching moments between Octavia and Bellamy, and Raven and Sinclair, which contrasted in tone fabulously with the events that followed later. The episode served an intense climax as Mount Weather was left in ruins after a Grounder attack, much to Raven's dismay, as her distress call echoed out across the coinciding Grounder summit. Towards the end of the episodes, Lexa's bow to Clarke, in acknowledgement of her feelings towards her, was done with consummate grace and is a personal highlight of the series.

Source: 11.22.63 (Hulu).

6. The Day In Question - 11.22.63

On the outside, 11.22.63 is a show about time travel and preventing the assassination of JFK, at it's core, however, it is a love story destined to end in heartbreak. Each installment delivered a captivating glimpse at the early 1960's, as well as the ramifications of changing the past for a better future.

The previous seven episodes of the season all built up to 'The Day In Question' where Jake and Sadie were able to stop the assassination, albeit at the cost of both Sadie's life, and the future of the World as we know it. Whilst the show's premise was a compelling one, its biggest strength came in the form of Jake and Sadie's relationship. The final 20 minutes of the episode leaves you (or at least me) questioning the possibility of soul-mates, and if it would be a blessing or curse to be given a second chance with the person you love when there's so much at stake.

Source: Westworld (HBO).

5. The Bicameral Mind - Westworld

"These violent delights have violent ends". Several plot twists and revelations later, and it was time for Westworld to either deliver spectacularly or fail miserably.

'The Bicameral Mind' took everything that came before it and tied it all together seamlessly, wrapping up all plot intricacies, as well offering up a superbly-rounded arc for both Hosts and humans alike. All of which is what made Westworld the best new show of 2016. The conclusion to the season was as satisfying as it could have been, with the Dr Ford introducing his final narrative whilst the Hosts started to become aware of just whose voice it is they've been listening to all this time.

Source: Rectify (Sundance).

4. All I'm Sayin' - Rectify

I always found it hard to pinpoint specific episodes that stood out during Rectify's run. The slow pace combined with its ever-contemplative dialogue presented the show as a huge, emotionally-draining blur, although binging the first three seasons in as many weeks wouldn't have helped matters.

The series finale served as a near-perfect ending, possibly cementing the show's claim of being the "best show you're not watching". The Holden/Talbot family emanated a hope that we had not yet seen in the show, with a curious optimism engulfing the future of nearly all familial relations. Daniel's fantasy of reuniting with Chloe in a hazy, sun-soaked field was the most beautiful and bright ending we could have hoped for, and one I'd like to imagine comes true. "Appreciate you taking me for a ride, D."

Source: The Walking Dead (AMC).

3. The Day Will Come When You Won't Be - The Walking Dead

After the shit show that was the season six finale, it would have taken one of the best episodes of the series to pull me back in, and boy did they deliver. For the first time in a long time, The Walking Dead had me genuinely fearful (which probably wasn't helped by me stumbling across a "spoiler" two days before the airdate, 'confirming' it was Maggie who'd die). Thankfully that spoiler was wrong.

Regardless of whether you anticipated the deaths, the intensity never let up, with periodic flashbacks only adding to, or prolonging, the sense of dread. No other episode of this season came close to being considered for this list, which speaks volumes of how inconsistent The Walking Dead can be. Despite this, as a standalone episode, it was near perfect. It delivered on violence, suspense, and even more so with the emotional aftermath. If only seven out of eight episodes weren't so insipid.

Source: Game of Thrones (HBO).

2. Battle of the Bastards - Game of Thrones

As an audience, we've come to know what to expect from battles in 'Game of Thrones' having witnessed the Battle of the Blackwater, the Battle of Castle Black, and the Massacre at Hardhome. Nothing, though, could have prepared us for when Jon Snow went head-to-head with Ramsay Bolton.

It may sound strange, but 'Battle of the Bastards' might just have been the most cathartic episode of television I've ever seen. It's not often that Game of Thrones just gives you everything you want. The episode was an incredible feat of production, and with Miguel Sapochnik at the helm, it was never going to be anything but a cinematic masterpiece. The battle scenes were incredibly brutal and well constructed, with outstanding scope and extraordinary choreography. Between Tormund's sour goats milk and the Starks reclaiming Winterfell, there was nothing to lament. Understandably there are claims that this might be the best episode of the series however...

Source: Game of Thrones (HBO).

1. The Winds of Winter - Game of Thrones

Throughout its course, season finales on 'Game of Thrones' have always sat in the shadow of episode nine. 'The Winds of Winter' breaks that trend by offering up the shows best episode to date, which says a lot considering the episode that preceded it. 'The Winds of Winter' managed to offer a more expansive, mythological, and if you could believe it, a more explosive, episode than the last.

The season finale was packed with one iconic scene following another, among them Cersei's destruction of Kings Landing, her subsequent coronation, the reveal of Jon Snow's parentage, "the King in the North", Arya's Red Wedding revenge, and Daenerys' armada en route to Westeros. Even the soundtrack climbed to a whole new level, starting with 'Light of the Seven' and ending with 'The Winds of Winter'. There wasn't a single part of the finale that wasn't perfect. If season 7 can recreate even half the quality of the last two episodes, it will be a season to remember.

Honourable Mentions:

Pineapples in Paris - Rectify

B.A.N - Atlanta

Juneteenth - Atlanta

The Door - Game of Thrones

Watch the Thrones - The 100

Nailed - Better Call Saul

No Way Out - The Walking Dead

The Runaway Dinosaur - The Flash

Chapter Eight: The Upside Down - Stranger Things

Penny and Dime - Daredevil

'Nevermore’ picked up exactly where ‘Fallen’ left off with Clarke and Jasper racing away from Arkadia. Clarke is understandably flummoxed at why her people, and mother, were shooting at her. During their trip back to the cave, Jasper tells Clarke he could see the appeal in people wanting to kill her, clearly still unable to come to terms with the reality of the situation she was in back at Mount Weather. Meanwhile, Octavia prepares to travel back to Arkadia to burn Lincoln’s body, as customary in Grounder tradition, however Bellamy manages to delay her long enough for Clarke and Jasper to arrive with Raven. As the group discuss everything ALIE-related, Clarke reveals the Flame, only for Raven to awaken and confirm it’s whereabouts. After rigorous searching, ALIE had finally found her better half, so to speak. Taking heed of Raven’s research in the episode prior, the group sets out to find one of the wristbands the delinquents were sent to earth wearing, with the hope of destroying the chip inside Raven’s system. The team take a trip to Niylah’s trading post where Clarke knew they'd find one of the wristbands due to her and Niylah's earlier encounter at the start of the season. Niylah didn’t want them there and who can blame her. Their people killed her father. She was well within her rights to refuse them. Naturally, Bellamy resorted to pulling his gun on her as is seemingly standard with him these days, always reactionary rather than offering a more liberal or progressive approach.

Last week’s episode, ‘Fallen’, treated us to some of the best acting we’ve seen on the show to date with Lindsey Morgan playing both Raven so hysterically, and ALIE so convincingly. She surpassed that performance in this episode with a more horrific and proactive take on possession. As the group tied her down, Raven managed squirm enough to dislocate her shoulder and reopen the slit wrists ALIE had inflicted on her just a day or so before. Jasper then attempts to appeal to ALIE by asking what exactly it is she’s trying to achieve, which allowed us to again witness Lindsey Morgan’s incredible ALIE voice. She tells them she wants the Flame, however Clarke refuses to give it up. Soon enough, Clarke and Raven had the room and Raven started to try and break Clarke down. It was bad enough that Clarke had spent the majority of the episode thus far on the receiving end of Jasper’s underhand quips, she then had to listen as Raven used the deaths of her father, Wells, Finn and Lexa to get under her skin. Clarke wasn’t to blame for any of these deaths and probably could have brushed off the provocation, however the wound caused by Lexa’s death was not only open but gaping, and Raven exposed it. Clarke’s emotions got the better of her, resulting in her screaming at ALIE that they were going to “fry” her. It was because of this that ALIE was now aware of their plan to put Raven’s wristband theory to the test. Unfortunately for Clarke, and ultimately Monty, this seemingly minor slip up meant ALIE knew of the plan to retrieve the electromagnet from the Dropship.

“Paint me like one of your fucked up, demonic girls” - Raven Reyes, probably.

Monty and Octavia subsequently arrive at the Dropship in order to recover the electromagnet. ALIE had already sent Monty's mother, Hannah, to meet them when they arrived. There was something off about her, or more off than usual I should say. Monty realises this and proceeds to ask her what his Dad’s favourite colour was. He soon notices she doesn’t have any recollection and begins to question whether it’s even safe for their hands to be touching. As Monty backs away, his mother starts attacking him, telling him she’ll only stop when he takes the CoL chip. Just when you think that she couldn’t get more evil, she takes a sip of Jaha’s CoL-aid and becomes even more sinister. Her presence has always been unnerving but the idea that she was now under the influence of an even more evil AI was daunting. Fortunately for Monty, Octavia jumps in wrestling Hannah to the ground. A lot of people will say that Octavia should have easily won that fight, however the absence of pain would offer Hannah a pivotal advantage. Hannah eventually ends up on top of Octavia forcing her machete down towards her throat. Monty begs his mother to stop before unleashing a bullet to her shoulder, before a further bullet to her chest. Ding dong, the witch his dead. Poor Monty though, maybe. If it’s any consolation to him, she wasn’t much better prior to taking the chip. In keeping with Monty shooting the devil incarnate, it would be hard to listen to Octavia complain about not belonging anywhere. If Monty shoots his own mother to save you, you better know that person cares for you. Octavia may not have known her place within a physical society however home is where the heart is, and whilst Lincoln has gone, she still surrounded by people who love her, and who she loves back.

“Son, I don't care about your Dad's favourite colour. I barely even give a shit about you."

Back at the trading post, Raven starts projecting much of what we as fans are thinking on to Jasper and Bellamy. Seeing somebody calling them out on their bullshit may have been cathartic to some viewers, however the character analysis she presented for each of them fell somewhat short with me. Given that Raven’s being controlled by ALIE, she can only offer a simplistic view on their situations as she cannot empathise on a humanistic level. The intention was to goad Bellamy and Jasper about their problems in the hope of inciting a hostile reaction and ultimately gain information on her whereabouts. Starting with Jasper, Raven mocked his loss of Maya and the pity party he's been attending ever since. She called him a coward and a waste of space, even asking why he's still even alive. Jasper, being vulnerable and in a state of constant loathing, reacted to Raven when she pretended to not know Maya's name. Once Jasper had left the room, Raven’s focus switched to Bellamy. She began the grilling with probably the best delivered line of the episode, "Just you and me, huh?". She proceeded to make light of the time she and Bellamy had sex, back in season one, by declaring it as "not much to talk about". It was a nice moment of twisted levity before she really attempted to zero in on his inner demons. After reminding Bellamy of his part in the deaths of both the Mountain Men and those culled on the Ark, Raven decided it was time to take it up a notch and blame him for his mother's death. Whilst Bellamy’s decision to take Octavia to the Ark dance was ill-judged, it only ever came from a good place. His mother made the mistake of having a second child and when he tried to give that child, his sister, a glimpse of happiness, their Mother was snatched away from them. Everything came crashing down because Bellamy wanted to do a good thing. ALIE’s attempts to rile Bellamy with the deaths of the Mountain Men should have remained largely ineffective considering he was saving his people. Having said all that, it was a good moment to see him confronted over the deaths of those who died in the Ark culling. He was absolutely to blame for their deaths, albeit indirectly through negligence and no small amount of selfish ignorance. I’ve spoken previously about Bellamy’s reasons for murdering the Grounder army and why that situation ever played out, but it was again nice to see him made accountable for his actions. Raven wrapped up by declaring Bellamy “a follower”, and “a knight” to his Queen, Clarke. For the most part she is right, and that’s why it would make sense for him to remain by Clarke’s side, platonically or otherwise. Whilst Bellamy only thinks within the confines of her own personal grievances or cowardice, Clarke thinks about her people and the bigger picture. Clarke functions fine without Bellamy, but he seems to need her to keep himself tethered and rational.

Previously on ‘Tea Time with Raven’.

If there’s one positive that came out of ALIE/Raven's attempts to provoke Bellamy and Jasper, it was that they've been both given something to think about in regards to the suffering they're causing themselves and others. Bellamy is still in need of penance but he won’t find it in ‘doing the right thing’ here and there. It’s a process. I found it strange how Clarke didn’t express the slightest bit of anger towards him for how he cuffed her back in Arkadia but with the break neck speed they had to work at in this episode, I’d be OK for that conversation to come later. Regardless, Clarke is in an incredibly vulnerable place and needs people surrounding her who she cares for and who aren’t likely to leave her. If she really was the Commander of Death, Jasper would probably have died ten times in this episode alone. The continual blame he puts on Clarke is wholly unfair and undeserved. He’s suffering and understandably so but his inability after all this time to see the bigger picture signifies an emotional immaturity that I’d hope his current situation fixes over time. The episode touched upon why it’s only Clarke that bears the burden for killing the Mountain Men. The difference, and what sets her head and shoulders above nearly every other character on the show, is her maturity in bearing those burdens and not letting them break her.

After Niylah learning of Bellamy's part in killing her father, she storms the room and attacks him, revealing herself to Raven. This allowed ALIE to finally know where the group were working from. Octavia and Monty arrive back at the trading post and the team then commence with their own futuristic take on an exorcism. After “reversing the polarity” of the electromagnet, they pump its pulse through Raven’s body in an attempt to destroy ALIE. It seemingly worked, only now Raven is unconscious. In a moment that did my heart absolutely no good, Jasper takes the Flame from Clarke and before he can smash it to pieces, she announces to the room that it’s all that remains of Lexa. However crazy it might have sounded weeks ago, they’re not unwilling to believe it now. It immediately dawns on Clarke that replicating the removal of Lexa’s chip, by cutting the back of Raven’s neck with the oldest, dirtiest, most unsanitary scalpel known to mankind, may be the key to helping her be rid of ALIE completely. Low and behold, it worked. Jasper hands the Flame back to Clarke telling her he couldn’t do to her what she did to him when she took Maya’s life. With the episode starting to look somewhat less grim, Monty realises, amongst the chaos of futuristic exorcisms, that he could have in fact saved his mother from ALIE’s clutches. We’re glad you didn’t though, Monty, honestly.

Upon heading out of Niylah’s trading post, Raven reveals to the group that the Flame is the key to defeating ALIE. Octavia rallies the troops with an inspired speech and a new-found sense of home. They all agree to work together to stop ALIE, and thus the hype train departs the fucking station. Next stop: City-wide genocide. Finally, the episode ends with another trip to the aforementioned City of Light. ALIE tells Jaha that with Raven knowing how to stop her, they’re going to have to kill our favourite delinquents.

Our earliest experience of Laurel came in flashbacks detailing her relationship with Oliver. Taken at face value, their relationship was healthy. Laurel was genuinely happy, whilst Oliver’s arrogant frat boy persona masked his emotional immaturity and unwillingness to commit. Unfortunately for Laurel, Oliver’s intellectual infancy pushed him into secretly inviting Sara on to the Queen’s Gambit. We all know how that turned out. Laurel eventually, and inevitably, found out that her boyfriend and sister had died whilst sleeping together behind her back. That’s enough to make anybody crack, right? Even more heartbreaking is that this meant Laurel had to contend with her family crumbling to pieces. Her parents split, with her mother leaving the city, and her father falling into severe alcoholism. You couldn’t blame her for falling apart herself. Except this is Laurel Lance we’re talking about. Despite the fact that four people who she loved dearly had abandoned her, she still went to law school. She still graduated. Out of the wreckage that had suddenly consumed a huge part of her life, she made something of herself. She became a legal aid attorney and was already defending the weak and vulnerable of Starling City, way before the thought of becoming a vigilante had even crossed Oliver’s mind. Imagine how hard it must be to suddenly lose the four people you love the most because of a single incident, not to mention the circumstances surrounding it. Carving a sane and respectful life out of such a scenario demands respect.

Five years later Oliver returned to Starling City, alive, and began reopening old wounds for Laurel. She would look at him and be reminded of his betrayal and for what he did to her family, yet she still gave him forgiveness. Over the course of the next few weeks and months we were given a glimpse into just what kind of attorney Laurel had become. She took on gangs and cold-blooded murderers to the point where they were placing hits on her. Laurel was never obliged to do anything for Oliver or his family, not after the pain he caused her. Despite of this, she not only became Oliver’s lawyer when he was accused of being the ‘Hood’, but also defended Thea in her vertigo case. She also encouraged Tommy to make amends with his father, even if he wasn’t deserving of said forgiveness. She wanted what was best for everyone and strived for it. She found herself being hunted by an assassin after she took in the child he was supposed to kill, once again putting herself in the crosshairs. Time and time again Laurel would prove herself to be one of the few lights in a dark, corrupt city. Eventually, when Laurel realised that Tommy wasn’t still this immature boy capable of breaking her heart, she started getting closer to him. She finally committed to what Tommy had been chasing for a long time. That relationship came to an abrupt end, however, with Tommy becoming jealous that Laurel was too much in love with Oliver, alter-ego or not. And yet again, she was abandoned by somebody she loved. Still, she soldiered on because that’s what Laurel Lance does. During the undertaking, Laurel went to CNRI and stayed there. She again risked her own life to save the files of her defenseless clients. Her innate need to help and make a difference ended in tragedy when she became trapped in a falling debris. Tommy arrived in time to save her but it cost him his own life. This was the start of a grieving process that saw her pin the blame of Tommy’s death on the Hood. Grieving minds do not make clear judgments and Laurel would not be human if she were any different.

After the destruction of CNRI, Laurel became Assistant District Attorney. Unfortunately she lost that job as quickly as it came. After the Hood saved her from dying at the Dollmakers hands, she eventually realised that her blame for Tommy’s death was misplaced. It dawned on her that Tommy was at CNRI because she wouldn’t leave. He died because she wouldn’t forsake the hopes of her clients. This began a path of drug and alcohol abuse that would not only taint her credibility but undermine any clear or otherwise obvious observations she might make. For instance, her suspicions of Sebastian Blood were chalked up to addiction, by her father no less. Not only was she ridiculed or shamed by her father, but Oliver too. Laurel was at her most vulnerable and the people who were supposed to care, and supposed to listen, brushed her to the side. Sure, she was somewhat responsible for Tommy’s death but she was never worthy of the blame. She was never worthy of the mistreatment and general abandonment that had plagued her life. Quentin, a man who climbed into a bottle after Sara’s death, should have only ever given love and support to his last remaining daughter, not vitriolic judgement. Regardless, when Sara returned and rekindled her relationship with Oliver, Laurel reacted badly. Oliver told her that she needs to stop blaming everyone but herself for all the negative things that were happening in her life. He was wrong. Having your sister come back to life and hook up again with your recently resurrected boyfriend would mess with your head, especially when you’re simultaneously being labelled a drunk and an addict. Later, after proving her suspicions of Blood to be true and after breaking the case in Moira’s death, Laurel convinced Oliver to go after Blood and not give himself into Slade. Despite the heartbreak, drugs, and alcohol, Laurel had convinced Oliver to take his fight to Slade, rather than give himself up and commit suicide. Once again, in the midst of grieving, Laurel proved herself pivotal in saving Starling City. Following Slade’s defeat, Sara left Team Arrow and Starling City, passing her black jacket on to Laurel.

Weeks or months later, in the wake of Slade’s defeat, Laurel leads Oliver to a speech by her father where he announced the disbandment of the anti-vigilante task force. Merely a day or so later, Sara returned to Starling City. She and Laurel met on a rooftop where they discussed the recent Vertigo case and how Sara should engage with their father whilst she’s back. With Sara refusing, she and Laurel parted ways. Moments later, Sara’s body fell from the building top and landed at Laurel’s feet, having been impaled with three arrows. Having to go through the pain of losing Sara for a second time, Laurel began working her way through what must have been her third “crucible”. She managed to meander the first two occasions successfully but not without problems. Unlike Sara’s supposed death back on the Queens Gambit, the rooftop fall was one Laurel had to witness with her own eyes. There’s no false hope of reunion here. She had to experience Sara’s death with her own eyes this time. She held her lifeless body close to her own as she sobbed on the cold, dark, unrelenting streets of Starling City. The city she’s been trying to fix in the light of day for most of her adult life. It was at this point Laurel had an all too similar choice in front of her. She could choose blame, she could choose anger and guilt, or she could choose to use that pain to shape herself into something new. And that’s what she did. She grieved and pressed on with what she spent her life pursuing. In a move that honored not only her sister but her own need for justice, Laurel became the physical embodiment of what she believed in. She was going to fight for it, day and night. The justice you can’t run from.

During an AA meeting, Laurel learnt of a woman who’d been suffering at the hands of her husband. Laurel being Laurel wanted to do something to rectify the situation. She knew this woman needed saving and that this man needed to be brought to justice. Only a courtroom would not suffice. Legal proceedings would not achieve the outcome either of these people deserved. So she took matters into her own hands. Laurel, equipped with a mask and bat, confronted the abusive husband, yet she came away with a severe beating. She was out of her depth. Oliver wouldn’t train her because he saw her quest as nothing but an emotional, self-destructive attempt at grieving. Instead, Laurel sought the training and advice of Ted Grant. Rather than readopting past habits like hitting the bottle or funneling pills down her throat, Laurel decided to pick up a set of boxing gloves. She took control of her mind, body and emotions. Soon enough, Oliver went off to fight Ra’s Al Ghul and never came back. The streets fell into disarray and the city’s law enforcement became practically docile. This was Laurel’s chance. Her moment. With the city in desperate need of saving, and with it’s trusted guardian presumed dead, Laurel stepped up to the plate. She gathered all the resources available to what remained of Team Arrow and reclaimed the city. Her bravery, determination and will to overcome injustice was matched by her new found fighting ability. It was in this moment that Laurel affirmed herself as a hero, both by day and night.

Laurel’s journey as a vigilante faced a rocky start. Despite Oliver’s insistence, Laurel joined the fight to once again take down Count Vertigo. Unfortunately she is twice injected by the drug and becomes the victim of her own worst nightmares. Having been told by a vision of Sara that she is unworthy of the position she’d assumed, Laurel fought back and proclaimed she was done trying to be. She didn’t need to be worthy of replacing Sara because she would go on to become something far greater. She would become the Black Canary. She then went on to assist Team Arrow in multiple missions that would not only attempt to save Oliver from the clutches of Ra’s Al Ghul, but to save Starling City itself. With the help of Thea and Diggle, she cleared the streets and stopped a city-wide pandemic. After more months had passed, and with Oliver and Felicity in Ivy Town being pathetic, Team Arrow, firmly inclusive of Laurel, had started taking on a group of 'ghosts’. Damien Darkh had started to infest the streets of Star City. Once again, Laurel was defending the city and its helpless inhabitants whilst Oliver was away being irrelevant. She and Thea eventually hunted Oliver down and requested his help since the city he supposedly loved was falling victim to yet another super villain. After Oliver’s return, Laurel soon finds out that Thea had died from her encounter with Ra’s Al Ghul yet was resurrected using the Lazarus Pit. In an attempt to both cure Thea’s blood lust and bring her sister back from death, Laurel travels to Nanda Parbat. It was her decision to exhume and revive Sara that gained so much criticism, both in and out of the show. When you find out somebody close to you had been brought back to life with only a personality dysfunction to contend with, would you not consider doing the same? When you’ve had to grieve for your sister after she’s been snatched away from you so cruelly, would you not desperately want to be reunited with her? So many people will say no, so many people will get on their high horse and pretend to be sickened by her decision. What these people don’t have that Laurel did is the experience and grief that can warp your judgment and ideologies. Laurel thought what she was doing was best for not only herself, but for her sister and her family. And guess what? Despite the criticism, and with the help of Constantine, Sara went on to become the girl she was prior to her death. Laurel made the right decision. Her sister would now go on to help bring an end to the tyranny of Vandal Savage. After weeks of being benched, Oliver soon remembers just how much he needs Laurel’s help. Diggle, Thea and Felicity are captured by Damien Darkrhkhr and with Laurel’s help, Oliver is able to take out the ghosts and render Darkrkrkh somewhat inert enough to escape safely with all friends in tow. Soon enough, with Darkhrkh in jail, it was finally time for Laurel to once again work her magic in a court room. Having failed numerous attempts to counter his plea for dismissed charges, Laurel bravely allows her father to testify against Darkrkrkrkr. As so many others had found in recent years, Damien’s resources and expertise were simply no match for Laurel Lance.

And so we come to her final moments. Her last stand. Laurel had sent Damien to prison and had since restricted his chances of receiving power-inducing contraband, yet, unfortunately for her, she couldn’t help how idiotic her own team members were. The foolish decisions of two men left Laurel in a position untenable to even the most plot-armoured of characters. Between Quentin’s nonsensical decision to aid and betray Damien Darhkrhkrhk, and Diggle’s bizarre switch in loyalties, Laurel was left exposed to Darkhrkrh’s wrath. Cue an arrow to the abdomen. Damien’s promise to Quentin that he’d kill Laurel should he not comply came full circle, all with the help of Diggle and his familial blind spot. So, with Darkrkhkrh thrusting one of Oliver’s arrows in to Laurel's stomach, she was carted to hospital. Thankfully she was declared “fine” by one of the nurses, only to then conveniently unexpectedly start convulsing and die. Before passing, Laurel shared a mostly lovely scene with Oliver where she told him he was the love of her life and that she was happy for him despite the feeling not being mutual.

As unlikely as it is, there is a possibility that Laurel’s death was a fake-out. She shared a few secrets words with Oliver before her passing. If this was her true death scene, it was an offensive way for her character to bow out. Laurel is a character that deserves finality and closure, not the illusion that there could be more story to be told. Her final few quotes on the show shouldn’t have contradicted the relationship she and Oliver share, a relationship that was prsent long before Arrow, and one that will remain long after. The show really did take disingenuous liberties with Laurel which is the ultimate disappointment. Still, we have Katie Cassidy to thank for bringing the character to life in such an illustrative way. It’s always been my opinion that Katie Cassidy is the most talented cast member. The scenes where she blames herself for Tommy’s death and reconciles with Sara are particular highlights. She should have been given more to work with than what the writers gave her, especially on the Black Canary side of things. What she did have, she perfected. For many people, Katie’s version of Laurel Lance will be their first experience of this character. She will have left a fond, long-lasting impression.

Laurel’s story had some highs and many lows but one thing that never changed was the passion and love burning inside of her. She took every heartbreak into her stride and allowed it to shape her into a better version of herself. She evolved more than any character over the course of the show. She and the Green Arrow may not have had the relationship they are associated with, but they still shared some great moments. The truth is that in this version of the Green Arrow tale, Laurel Lance didn’t deserve Oliver Queen, she deserved better. For a show that’s about to go into it’s fifth year telling the Green Arrow story, it’s a shame we that we only had the equivalent to one season of the Black Canary. If there’s one character that deserved a happy ending it was Laurel. She had a light inside of her that never dimmed. The legacy she leaves behind isn’t defined only by her masked crusade. She battled day and night for a better tomorrow. Laurel Lance transcended what it means to be a superhero.

Rest in peace, Pretty Bird.

“Dinah Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world.”

The subplot to this week’s episode followed Carol in a quest to free herself from the murderous shackles of positive relationships. Carol’s recent character development has been somewhat disjointed. Her PTSD-like symptoms have appeared out of nowhere, or have at least been rushed. You could say witnessing the Wolf save Denise acted as the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it shouldn’t have been. The new world has turned Carol into somebody unrecognisable, even to herself. We saw that growth progressively throughout season four. With the point we’re at in her story, now doesn’t feel like the right time for her to start crumbling. If there was ever a point where that was the right emotional response, it would have occurred following the situation with Lizzie and Mika. Despite her recent arc being questionable in its necessity, it still gave us a couple of solid moments of character development. Carol found herself at the mercy of an unhappy Savior. I say mercy although she wasn’t exactly welcoming of it. In a predictable reversal of roles, Morgan appeared at the last moment, shooting the Savior dead. Carol, who’s had enough of killing to protect her friends, was finally realising that Morgan’s way of thinking wasn’t too far from being logical, whilst at the same time, Morgan found himself in the very position Carol was so desperately trying to escape. The truth is, you have to make compromises in their world. You can’t live and not adapt. You can’t live and not expect to do the most drastic of things to save the people you care for. It was a good decision to have these two interact more, hopefully they can now learn from each other and evolve into a more complete survivor.

"What the bitch?" - Abraham

The bulk of the episode came with Rick and co. inside the RV trying to get Maggie to the Hilltop settlement. It was certainly a strange decision by Rick in allowing the majority of Alexandria’s combatants to assist when so many were already missing. I can only assume his Savior senses were tingling. Unfortunately, on their way to Hilltop, the group runs into five road-blocks, three of which were a group of Saviors standing eerily still in the road. The other two being a walker chain-gang, and an overdramatic display of deforestation, pyrotechnics and murder. It probably should have become repetitive and tiresome however each stop only added to the sense of impending danger. With each road-block, Rick’s confident demeanor would fade. It was only when they stumbled upon the walker chain-gang that he realised the scope of their situation. They really were “neck deep up shit creek”. Abraham, once again gracing us with quote of the episode. Eventually fuel became an issue and, thanks to Eugene’s timely decision to step up to the plate, they decided to use the cover of darkness to travel the rest of the way by foot. Cue the creepy whistling. As standard with our group these days, they found themselves in the middle of a wooded area being surrounded by the enemy. Only this time there were hundreds of Saviors and no way out. Rick and the gang were ordered to there knees and it was at that point we saw something in our characters that we hadn't seen before. They couldn’t shoot, stab or punch their way out of this one. They were more helpless and hopeless than they’ve ever been.

In the space of ninety minutes, Rick went from being a confident leader to being an absolute wreck. The end of the episode saw him cowering and quivering at Negan’s feet. His skin was pale and his hair was dripping. He already looked dead. It was the first real time we’ve seen him so helpless. No amount of best-friend-stabbing, throat-biting or cannibal-hacking could save him this time. Everybody put their confidence in Rick, in fact he almost always demanded it. It’s what makes the final scene even more heartbreaking. He promised Maggie they’d be OK because when they’re all together, they never fail, and that has always been true. Until now. Rick can’t protect them anymore. He can’t protect Maggie, her unborn child, or even Carl. He’s now at the feet of a man who is going to change their lives forever. They are at his mercy. He could choose to wipe them all off the face of the earth in a single moment. There’s no negotiating, begging or pleading. Rick just has to watch, listen, and accept that his way of doing things is over. The protection and assurances he offers his group have been reduced to ash. They’re all about to take a monumental loss and their leader is unable to do or say anything that can change that. Neck deep up shit creek doesn’t quite cover it this time, even with their mouths open. We should spare a word for Andrew Lincoln’s performance in this episode. He’s done incredible things before but I’ve never seen such a believable and dramatic change in a character, especially not in the space of a single episode. How he can portray such terror, hopelessness and despondency is incredible. Seeing him act out those emotions so well makes it that much easier to become engrossed and captivated.

[the sound of silence.mp3 plays in distance]

Enter Negan. The moment everybody had been waiting for. Many knew what to expect while some were lucky enough to have a nothing but a blank canvas with which to imagine him. He strolled out of the RV with a smile on his face and with his trusted Lucille in tow. He then commenced a ten minute monologue that by rights should have bored viewers half to sleep. It didn’t though. Anxiety reached an all time high and we were so close to finding out just what this infamous menace is capable of. Abraham’s attempt at meeting Negan’s gaze was brushed off with a quip about shaving, while Glenn was literally forced to get in line after the suggestion of putting Maggie “out of her misery”. He had everyone where he wanted them. They were scared and ready to submit to whatever terms he put to them because that’s all there is now. The new world order. Whatever you have, Negan takes. Of course, recruiting our characters to work for him was one reason to gather them up. The other was to teach them a lesson. You cross him, you get punished. There are no two ways about it. After the most intense game of ‘eeny meeny miny moe’ you are ever likely to witness, Negan proceeded to smash the holy hell out of someone using his baseball bat, Lucille. Whilst the cliffhanger itself was just awful, the scene was incredibly nerve-wrecking. One minor complaint for me is that the dialogue felt forced, or cheesy, at times. I guess when you’re taking lines straight from the comics, it’s hard for it to come across any other way. Jeffrey Dean Morgan of course delivered them as well as anybody could. The “pee pee pants city” line didn’t sound as terrible as I expected it to. Whilst the dialogue might not have done justice to how imposing the character should be, Jeffrey Dean Morgan certainly put any doubts to rest solely with his charisma and charm. The devilish grin he greeted Rick and company with, and the dominance he held over them, furthered the feeling that they were particularly screwed. It’s disappointing that we didn’t really get to see Lucille used in all her glory. A couple of hits before a point of view blackout makes the cliffhanger all the more offensive to literally everybody watching. It didn’t weaken Negan’s representation as a character, but it also didn’t illustrate just how sociopathic and dangerous his character can be.

Kill Negan they said, it'll be easy they said.

Now, let’s talk about that ending? And boy, what a terrible ending it was. You will hear countless comparisons between this scene and the ‘Red Wedding’ in Game of Thrones, and rightly so. They are polar opposites on how to handle the most iconic scene from source material. Both shows used their episodes effectively in putting the relevant pieces in place, however only one came through with its promise. Only one treated its fans with respect. It wasn’t The Walking Dead. Now, when you spend ninety minutes generating hype, intensity and evoking feelings of dread within the viewers, you’d better offer an output for it. When the final credits rolled I found myself uttering in disbelief “are you fucking serious?”. After that, all of the emotion and energy that the episode had mustered within me had gone. The realisation that we have to wait six months for the resolution to a scene we'd been baited with all season left me feeling nothing but exasperated. Scott Gimple said that it was right place to end the season as the death is the start of a new story. I call bullshit. It was done for ratings, advertising and marketing purposes. There is no logical way you can define cutting a scene in half by stating that one story ends there and another begins. Going into the hiatus, nobody will care about who gets the Lucille treatment. We will all be reminded again in a few months when we see a character missing from the season seven trailer, or when an actor is missing from set photos, or maybe even when it’s leaked. At that point, the emotional investment will have dissipated completely, everybody will be spoiled, and the whole scene will go down as the single worst bit of storytelling ever. The ultimate irony being it should have been the opposite of that.

So, begrudgingly, we’re left with the question “who meets Lucille first?”. We know it’s not Rick or Carl. They’re not going to beat a pregnant woman to death, so I’d rule Maggie out. Would Abraham, Eugene, Sasha, Aaron or Rosita generate enough emotional fallout to justify being on the receiving end of that death? If we, like Rick’s group, are supposed to be on the receiving end of a message, it needs to be impactful. That leaves us with Glenn, Daryl and Michonne. If the death comes to anybody outside of those three, I’d consider it yet another cop-out.

The first season of Arrow took a lot of liberties and assumed an identity quite dissimilar to its comic counterpart. The show was dark, gritty and had no room for the humour usually associated with the Green Arrow. This was forgivable, though, because at its core it was still the same billionaire playboy who’d use his bow and arrows for justice and for the betterment of Star(ling) City. It wasn’t a like-for-like adaptation, but still a respectable one. Unfortunately four seasons later, including a change in showrunners, the show has all but run itself into the ground. This post will be me attempting to pick the show apart and point out how and why it’s gone so far off track.

Showrunners - I need you to think of Arrow like a mountain. We start at the bottom with the Pilot episode and spend two years ascending to the summit, aka the season two finale, ‘Unthinkable’. After that, there’s nothing left but the descent i.e. seasons three and four. Unfortunately, at the summit we had to say goodbye to showrunners, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti. These guys wrote us two very good seasons where continuity was relatively intact and more importantly, the show was neither repetitive nor uncreative. It always surprised and entertained. Once the second season had finished, Kreisberg and Berlanti moved on to The Flash and crafted a wonderful first season. After their departure from the show, Marc Guggenheim stepped up and took the helm as showrunner. Unfortunately, Uncle Guggie (as he is affectionately and somewhat worryingly know as to a certain set of fans) has an affinity for interacting with fans of the show by social media, specifically through Tumblr and Twitter. This is where the descent becomes rocky. Social media is a two-way street. When used for marketing a TV show, it offers fans the chance to see more of what they love and it sets up the potential for showrunners/writers to gauge what fans respond to. The most vocal collective of any fandom, and often the most volatile, are the ‘shippers’. When you pander to them and have your ego stroked in return, what’s not to like? Scroll through Guggenheim’s Twitter mentions, or his Tumblr asks, and you’ll see no end of interactions with Olicity ‘shippers’. Unfortunately over the last two seasons, we’ve seen these interactions become somewhat blatantly ingrained within the show itself. I believe this is what they call “fanservice”. Marc Guggenheim calls what he does “organic” storytelling, but there’s nothing organic about fans asking for more of a certain character or relationship, and suddenly getting it when there’s a change in showrunner, especially when it’s Uncle Guggie who’s installed in that position. What I’m essentially saying, through all the bitterness, is that the creative integrity of the show disappeared with Kreisberg and Berlanti, and we’ve now been left with no integrity and with fanservice in abundance.

#TheFlash and #Overwatch are back this week!

Olicity - Since the majority of my issues with the showrunners sit with the Olicity story, I’ll air my grievances with that first. Diggle and Thea described it as the elephant in the room for a reason. So, Oliver and Felicity. The stem of so many problems, and bearers of some of the worst writing I’ve been unlucky enough to witness. They break up and get back together. Every episode. Well, almost. I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of writing relationships. I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of writing in general. Anyway, one break up and reconciliation is acceptable, it’s a realistic thing. It happens. The problem is we’ve seen this charade possibly four or five times since the start of season three. I can’t figure out whether the writers genuinely consider it to be captivating storytelling, whether it’s just a measure to keep that certain set of fans engaged, or whether they really are just lost for ideas. The Felicity we saw in seasons one and two was fun, she was independent. She was no doubt liked by nearly everyone. I don’t know how Emily Bett Rickards feels about having to go from playing that character to one whose ability to be happy, or to simply function, depends on what ‘lies’ Oliver is keeping from her this week. It’s almost offensive how everything good about her character has been replaced by whining and dependency. Look, I don’t hate the relationship. I liked it at first. The slow burn relationship developing between them in season two was perfectly delivered. Felicity was the light that took Oliver out of the darkness. Amazing. It was damn near poetic. Now it’s just pathetic. They’re in love? Cool, let’s roll with that. Let’s tell that story. Genuinely, when the two of them returned to Star City at the start of season four, why could that relationship not just hold? Oliver now spends 50% of every episode mulling over his emotions, constantly feeling sorry for himself, and in the same vein, Felicity spends the majority of her time moaning about it. Hell, even Diggle and Thea must be getting bored to death of the episodic, lovey-dovey pep talks they seem to spew. The constant will-they/won’t-they scenarios are dragging the show down to a pitiful level. Let’s pick a path for this relationship and just stick with it.

Arrow takes its bullshit to a meta level (photo credit: In_My_Own_Image - Reddit).

Felicity - Felicity has acknowledged in previous episodes that promises can be kept for the sake of saving a person you love from pain or worry. She had that exact discussion with her mother just a few episodes ago. Yet when the same situation arises with Oliver, she becomes a hypocritical mess and not only leaves him but also develops an irritating attitude towards him and everything he says or does. What faith should we put in a show where the writers contradict themselves like that? It’s honestly woeful storytelling. Catapulting Felicity to the forefront of the story isn’t so much a bad idea, as it is a misguided one. Now that she is taking up twenty minutes per episode (of the show inaptly named Arrow), we tragically have to contend with more of her backstory. I say tragically because this show is supposed to be based on Oliver Queen, yet he plays second fiddle to his on-and-off girlfriend. Now with her backstory comes her mother, “Mama Smoak”. Honestly. We lose characters like Roy, Ray, Slade, Tommy, Moira, and replace them with Donna Smoak. She’s a bubbly character and that’s great, except not in large doses. She doesn’t offer anything to the story other than feeding into Felicity fanservice, whilst the character we have lost offered a lot. We are replacing good with bad and expecting the show to maintain a good quality. I don’t want to sit here and continually shout “FELICITY FANSERVICE!!!” at you, but that’s all there is nowadays. The kids on social media beg and plead for more Felicity and, at the risk of compromising the shows integrity, the writers give it to them. When utilised well, she is a very strong character. Look at her appearances on The Flash, they’re always entertaining. In the hands of good writers, she can be the highlight of an episode. In the hands of conceited, ego-driven showrunners (looking at you Guggenheim and Mericle), she’s just a device used to incite the affections of a ‘shippers’.

Flashbacks - I tried to be the guy who wouldn’t complain about them. They were so very good in seasons one and two, but, honestly, they could have covered all five years in one season. There have been so many filler scenes that we probably should have avoided. The entirety of the flashbacks in seasons three and four has felt like one giant filler. No progression is being made, certainly this season. We’re at a standstill and Oliver is no closer to the man we see rescued in season one. It’s not a riveting story. Retconning magic into the show via the flashbacks is a sign that the writers are making things up as they go along while simultaneously trying to keep them interesting. It’s failing spectacularly. The main problem that arises when you’re making things up as you go along is that continuity errors start to seep in, left, right and centre. Rewatching season one, there are numerous times when Oliver recounts the five years he spent missing, and it doesn’t add up with what were seeing on the show in season four. It’s so sloppy and tarnishes the show in the long run.

“If you don’t stop, legendary DC villain, Cupid, I will not fire this arrow but will engage you in hand-to-hand combat in which I will somehow be incapable of winning despite all my years of fighting experience!” - Oliver Queen, probably.

Green Arrow? - Now, would you believe me if I told you Oliver fired more arrows in one episode of Legends of Tomorrow than he has in the last two seasons of Arrow? Well, you shouldn’t because I don’t know the exact numbers, but I would be inclined to say he fired a similar amount, which some might find embarrassing considering the show we’re talking about here. In fact, Oliver now beats people with his bow more than he fires arrows from it. Even Hawkeye, who is always irrelevant, would be laughing at that ratio. The Oliver Queen we are seeing on the show, specifically in season four, is not a superhero. There has been absolutely nothing super about him. In fact, he’s barely even been much of a hero. His abilities have been nuked somewhat, which I will speak more of in the next paragraph. I mentioned earlier about the way the show had adopted its own spin on the Green Arrow, and how that’s perfectly fine. I also pointed out that when the show began, it still carried the core principles of the comics and what the Green Arrow represents as a hero. I genuinely cannot say that remains the case. At the beginning of season four, after three years of waiting, we were promised we’d finally get to see the “real” Green Arrow. Oliver had literally driven off into the sunset and declared himself “happy”. What better set up is there than that for him to come back free of his “darkness” and with an all new witty, and humoured personality? Well, he came back showcasing a badass new suit and even cracked a smile. It was a nice change but it wasn’t the permanent one it needed to be. Suddenly, we regressed back to the dark times of season three where there’s more hand-to-hand combat, absolutely no humour, and MORE UNNECESSARY RELATIONSHIP DRAMA.

Inconsistencies - Excluding flashbacks, the amount of inconsistencies within the show are increasing with every passing week. This season has seen Oliver defeated in hand-to-hand combat with the most futile opponents. These are opponents who Thea and Laurel have gone on to take out with relative ease. I could never believe that the same man who defeated Deathstroke, could lose in a fight against Anarky. I mean, can we please just have some sort of continuity here? It’s not like it has to be scripted, or at least I don’t imagine the script reads “TITULAR CHARACTER/HERO (no, not you Felicity) GETS ASS KICKED BY GHOST #37”. I don’t know who the blame lies with on that front but it needs to be rectified. The idea that Oliver is “holding back” holds absolutely no weight when the rest of the team manage to subdue villains without having their ass handed to them. Speaking of fights, the choreography has seemingly dropped in quality recently too. Like with nearly everything I’ve spoken about in this post, it was so much better in the first two seasons. I can’t blame the showrunners for that either. It’s unfortunate for Arrow that a show like Daredevil exists where the choreography is constantly at an incredibly high level. It really does put focus on how weak Arrow actually is in this department.

Good villains, boring endgame - This might be a minor complaint but it’s worth discussing briefly. Arrow, despite its flaws, always manages to produce badass, formidable villains. We’ve had Merlyn, Slade, Ra’s and now Darhk. They’ve each brought something different to the show in terms of conflict and motivations, however, it always seems to accumulate in the same way: The Annual Destruction of Star City™. It was incredibly exciting in the first season, and still in the second. It has since become a predictable and boring drag. The interest and suspense the villains are supposed to invoke in the audience has become stale. The show really should do something to rectify this is season five.

Stephen Amell upon finding out that Arrow was renewed for a fifth season.

What’s in the box? - Just to cement the fact that this season has been utterly atrocious, we have the incredibly frustrating storytelling device of “GUESS WHO’S IN THE GRAVE?!?!”. Ugh. It’s not exciting. It’s not a bold move. It’s a cheap attempt at keeping people watching. If I remember correctly, the writers didn’t know who was going to end up in the grave at the start of the season. I mean, who commits to killing a notable character without an end point in sight, or an idea of who it’d even be? It’s desperate, uncreative, and it epitomises everything that’s wrong with the show at the moment. There’s no thought, consideration or foresight for where the story, or characters, are heading. There’s just drama for drama’s sake.

We established early on this season that ALIE’s core command is to “make life better”. Her method of achieving that was by reducing the human population. She did a pretty good job the first time around by nuking the world, so why continue when the problem's fixed? Where does the removal of pain and the City of Light fit into her grand plan? Without painful memories and emotions, we lose ourselves. We lose the moments and feelings that have shaped us throughout our lives. Raven has been through so much already, even before she landed on Earth. Her life has been hard. Her parents were non-existent, the boy she loved was killed, her leg and spine are in pieces, and to top it off, Wick literally vanished. Yet she still gets on with her life because she has a resolve that cannot be broken. ALIE has recruited many people to the City of Light but none of them have had the strength of character that Raven has, and this is where ALIE’s plan will start to crumble. Removing the pain of Finn’s death would be removing Finn's from memory completely, and all the good memories associated with him would go too. That doesn’t sound like a solution to giving humanity a better life. Jasper’s desperation to not feel pain and his subsequent interrogation of Raven sent her into a spiral of confusion and horror as it dawned on her that her memory of Finn was deteriorating repidly. Watching her face as she struggled to remember anything about him, happy or sad, was heartbreaking. She clutches her necklace and barely recognises the sentimental value it should hold within her. Sure, the pain disappeared but so did everything else with it. Thankfully, the scene allowed Raven to question ALIE’s motives and we’ll hopefully see her pulling the City of Light apart before she becomes as mindless as Jaha. Raven is the smartest and most headstrong character on the show. If something is broke, she will fix it. I think we can deduce that the pain-free promise of the City of Light is all just a charade, a recruitment tactic. ALIE has bigger goals than just making life “better”. If anyone could take down the ALIE and her City of Light, it would no doubt be Raven.

Don't worry, Raven. We've all wiped Wick from our memory.

I guess we’d better talk about Pike. It’s understandable why he’s seeing everything through shit-tinted glasses. A lot of people forget what he’s been through, or at least what he says he’s been through. His sense of survival is, however, becoming more warped with every passing episode. He made a snide and unappreciated remark to Kane about the time they gave Finn up to the Grounders. We obviously know the what really happened, but when you’re trying to force your agenda on a society, you have to twist and stretch the truth until it resembles some form of useable propaganda. Pike, though, believes a lot of the bullshit he spews and it’s disconcerting. He doesn’t care about who Finn was or what he stood for. To him, Finn is an example, or mental warfare even, that he can use to strengthen his anti-Grounder regime. Despite his faults, Finn campaigned hard for peace. Yeah, sure, he committed a massacre but it didn’t change the fact that he ultimately gave his life to achieve that peace. Pike was presented with this opportunity at the beginning of the episode but the cowardice is strong in this one and he retreated back within his walls. Much of what I liked about Kane’s plan in this episode is how he would plot in the shadows and then practically rub it in the face of Pike and Bellamy at every chance he had. After overhearing Pike’s plan to attack the Grounder blockade, Kane sends Sinclair to tamper with their vehicle, knowing that somebody would be there ready to arrest him for being a traitor. So, as Kane sat pretending to read what I like to imagine was Catch-22 or Our Mutual Friend, he was actually luring Bellamy into a false sense of victory with the arrest on Sinclair. It was at this point that Pike and Bellamy believed they were making headway in their attempts to enforce a full-blown dictatorship, but really they were falling blindly into Kane’s trap. Sinclair was taken to lock up where, together with Lincoln, they delivered a long overdue beatdown on the guards as a way of causing distraction. With the final pieces in place, and in a blaze of furry glory, Kane took Harper’s advice and shock lashed Pike’s fascist ass. He had carried out an impressive ruse, and he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids! Incredibly, merely seconds after finding out about Kane’s plan, Bellamy had raced to the gates in time to stop Kane from delivering Pike to the Grounders. Thanks, Bellamy!

Simply majestic.

We’ve spoken about Kane and Pike, now let’s focus more Bellamy. It was a relief to see him withholding the names of Kane’s accomplices in the end. It wasn’t so much a redemptive action, but a decision based less on grief and more on rationale… finally. He’s had a hard time of it this season, contending with loss and loneliness. This is in no way an excuse for the shit he’s pulled but it is a reason for why it happened. I can’t complain about Bellamy’s actions under the influence of grief when I’ve spent the last week sinking into emotional instability over Lexa. The moment that changed things for Bellamy was when Pike settled on the idea that execution was a justifiable way of setting an example and keeping people in line. I’m not sure how killing one person as a deterrent is more unacceptable than killing an army of innocent Grounders but I guess that’s what a distorted sense of grief and blame does to you. Regardless, Bellamy has seen a glimpse of the light now and he should keep his eyes fixed on it. He’ll look for redemption and forgiveness eventually, but he’s going to have to find it within himself because it’s not a forgiveness that Clarke can offer him, not this time. I should probably point out that Bob Morley really brought his ‘A’ game this episode. The realisation that he’d been fighting for a side that would kill their own people was very effective. The welling up of Bellamy’s eyes really hit home how much this war is affecting him. If people had reservations about his storyline this season, they should take comfort in the fact that it’s Bob who’s portraying it. I’m not sure anyone else could bring such internal conflict to life as convincingly as he has.

"I've made a huge mistake" - Bellamy, probably.

The next episode sets up an interesting scenario with Kane, Lincoln and Sinclair all sitting on death row. With Ricky Whittle being made the lead on America Gods, it’s fair to say we won’t be seeing much more of Lincoln. It’s a shame since he’s been incredibly underutilised this season. Also, the season three trailer showed Octavia laying the smackiest of smackdowns on Bellamy, and that has yet to come to fruition. I can’t imagine it’s about anything but Lincoln. Sinclair’s fate is very much up in the air although he does make a solid point about being the best engineer available to Arkadia. I can’t imagine we’ll lose Kane anytime soon. Arkadia will need him when Pike’s ironic lack of earth skills gets him killed.

Sidenote #1: You know, Pike doesn’t enjoy what’s happening inside and outside Arkadia. You can tell. He’s acting out of misguided necessity. Monty’s mother, Satan, really seems to be thriving though. It’s almost as if she was created in Jason Rothenberg’s own image. Look at the facts, she enjoys hurting large groups of people and probably won’t ever apologise for it.

Sidenote #2: Having mentioned the trailer; it has footage from episodes deep within the season. There are still multiple shots that have yet to play out and it’s beginning to make future plot points increasingly predictable. Someone should look at that when they’re planning for season four.

Disclaimer: I should point out that Lexa is my favourite character and this may become slightly bias, although I’ll try to avoid that.

Commander Lexa was not killed by Titus, she was killed by the writers. You can’t sit and watch the events unfold how they did and not feel like it was the most forced 10 minutes of the show. It wasn’t natural and it wasn’t called for. We watched Lexa get hit by a stray bullet. A stray fucking bullet. She died because of an accident. How does that happen? I mean, creatively, what conversation was had in the writers’ room where they imagined being accidently shot was a good and justifiable way to kill off one of the most popular and complex characters on the show? She didn’t die with honor. She didn’t die with dignity. It was embarrassing. She was the first Commander to realise that love and compassion were the key to living, not just surviving. She accepted that blood must not have blood. She absolutely was a visionary. Why couldn’t she have a death that reflected her as a person, and how important she will always be in Grounder history? How did it come to her dying like your average red-shirt, no better than the Grounder army killed by Pike and Bellamy? Dying off-screen in that field alongside her fellow warriors would have been more dignified. The blatant lack of respect towards her sickens me. Did the writers suddenly forget who they were writing for because they were so desperate to advance their sci-fi plot lines? I know you’re probably thinking, how else could they have killed her? I don’t know, she did arrange for the blockade around Arkadia. Could she not have gone with them and died in confrontation? Could she not have died in a Grounder uprising? I absolutely wish she didn’t die, but surely these options are better than an accident. Why did she even have to get out of bed and follow Clarke to her room? Could it be that there was no reason, the writers just wanted to gun her down? I guess we’ll never know.

“Maybe someday, you and I will owe nothing more to our people" - Clarke. I hate everything.

Now that I’ve spoken about the disrespect towards Lexa as a character, how about her relationship with Clarke? How about the ‘Clexa’ fans? Was really necessary to have the love scene happen five minutes prior to the aforementioned clusterfuck of an accident? Why lure fans into a false sense of security when they’ve waited so long for these characters to be together? I am a big advocate for slow burn relationships. The build-up is important and you have to know where each character stands and how they feel. The show was doing this so well, especially considering how complicated Clarke and Lexa’s relationship actually was. Now it all feels like a trail of crumbs was left out to keep us interested, only for the trap to fall at the end of the line. Jason Rothenberg must have been rubbing his hands together. He had us hooked. The last three episodes saw Clarke and Lexa in a good place with their relationship. Could they not have used any of these moments for them to embrace? Is it poor timing, bad writing, or just insensitive writing? The biggest issue is that it leaves many of us unable to enjoy the moments they shared together because of what follows straight after. The characters were happy, they smiled and enjoyed each others company. The fans should be able to enjoy that happiness with them, at least for a week.

You’re probably thinking “how can this guy still have more grievances?” Well, guess what, I really do. When Lexa had passed and Titus started cutting her neck, I started to worry. When he pulled out the AI chip my initial thought was “what the fuck?”. I guess that’s what the writers were going for. After that, hundreds of questions started darting around my mind debating just how much of Lexa was actually Lexa, how much was AI, how much was Becca? How much did Lexa really love Clarke, or did she really make her own decisions? How much was she swayed or changed by this thing? For a moment it weakened everything I’d ever felt about Lexa because it took away part of her humanity, everything that made her the character so many people love. It was a horrible feeling, one I couldn’t ever forgive the writers for without being told explicitly that Lexa was always her own person. I decided to believe the AI never effected who she was at her core and that we always saw her as her own unique self and not a solider, or chess piece, to a bigger game. The look on Clarke’s face when she saw the AI come out was another stomach-drop moment. There was a daunting flash of confusion across her face. I imagine all the same questions I was asking myself went through her head too, only 100x more intense. It felt like their relationship was suddenly cheapened, not just for the fans but for Clarke too. I hated that and I really hope the show explains just what effect the AI chip has on its bearer.

The episode ended here, right guys… guys?

I’m not sitting here lamenting the fact that she died. Alycia Debnam-Carey was cast in Fear The Walking Dead, so her time to shoot is obviously limited. I’d hate to have to fly back and forth between Mexico and Canada to shoot two different shows. Hell, she may have even requested that Lexa be killed off, but then she may not have. We don’t know. Having said all that, I do think that killing a character off who’s so influential is a misstep. They could have found a way for Lexa to have gone into hiding, or have her visit another clan, or just have her stay in Polis or elsewhere. Regardless, the writers have a plot and story they want to tell, and if Lexa dying advances that, well, that’s good for them. I felt the eagerness to shock and surprise viewers with the AI twist took the focus away from Lexa’s death and criminally restricted how much attention, thought and empathy was put into it. Edit: Her final moments were beautifully written and portrayed. The restricted attention, thought and empathy I mention are in regards to how she was killed.

The 100 has really set the bar these days for LGBT representation in television. Sexuality isn’t really a thing in their world. There’s no discrimination or hate like there is in the world we live in. The show, the character, and the ‘Clexa’ relationship in general, are very much a places of reassurance. You are who you are and you are just and powerful and important as anyone else. It’s a gift that you can watch these two LGBT characters lead the show each week. I say it’s a gift because it’s still not happening often enough in everyday media. This allowed the show to send out a strong and commendable message, however the latest episode seemed to flip that message on its head. There was suddenly a massive contradiction that may hurt or betray a lot of people. Fans look up to Lexa as a role model and they had to watch as she’s told to keep her love to herself, as she’s told it’s weakness and how, when she embraces that love, it gets her killed. What kind of message is that to send out? People could pride themselves on what they learned from Lexa. They don’t want to see her get killed for embracing who she is, which is ultimately what happened. It’s almost as if the show had used the LGBT community as vehicle for hype, reception and acclaim. It was insensitive, alienating and a massive misuse of trust.

No matter how strong, tough or skilled you are, the writers of life will always find a way to shoot you down, even when you’re not even supposed to be in the fucking room.

*SEASON FINALE SPOILERS* Back in January, Jason sent out a tweet asking fans to come to downtown Vancouver to see some of the cast and crew in action, including Alycia. It was pretty common knowledge amongst fans who pay attention to this stuff that they were filming the finale. It was probably just a nice thing to do for the fans, cast and crew, but now it sort of feels like a ploy to keep people interested. They had to know that Lexa’s death would not go down well, so maybe they thought they’d add another crumb to the trail by showcasing Alycia filming, and maybe the fans would have a false hope that her story isn’t yet done. This might not be the case at all but still. I can’t imagine it will be anything but a fleeting vision of Lexa in the City of Light before it’s destroyed and Clarke, and the viewers, have to experience losing her all over again. I assume this is the case since all the sentimental tweets from last night seem to indicate we really are at the end of the road for Lexa.*END OF SPOILERS*

I would be remiss if I didn’t spare a few words for Alycia’s performance, not only in last nights episode but throughout her run as Lexa. She has been incredible. I could never imagine another actor bringing the role to life as well as she did. I’ve never seen an actor portray so many emotions with so few words. She can say a thousand words just with her eyes. What she did in 'Thirteen’ evoked emotions I didn’t even know I had in me. I look forward to seeing more of her in the upcoming season of Fear The Walking Dead.

Now, I said at the start of this post that I would try to remain unbiased and, honestly, I’ve probably done a terrible job in doing that, but I’m too angry and upset to really care. It feels like the show has tried too hard to replicate the shock value that comes with other shows like Game of Thrones. The writers were practically bouncing at those comparisons when they were made earlier in the season. Perhaps they don’t realise they have a show which has developed its characters better than Game of Thrones has ever done? They’ve sold out here, trying too hard to make the show something it doesn’t need to be. I get it though, you can only play the cards you were dealt. Alycia can’t do both shows and AMC probably wouldn’t allow it without severe restrictions. Time is a massive constraint with media production and you can only make the most of what you have. The 100 does so many things so well, I can’t get a grasp how they managed to fail so badly here. Many fans entrusted the staff on this show with their emotions, we had hoped they wouldn’t be so recklessly exploited. There were multiple ways this whole scenario could have gone down, whether that’s with Lexa dying or not, and there were certainly more respectful ways to handle it, both for the character and the fans. It is a dark day. One thing we can all agree on is that Lexa/Alycia’s presence will be missed greatly.

Reshop, Heda. Yu gonplei ste odon.

Many characters have been put into positions where they’ve had to make impossibly hard choices at great cost. I would say ‘haven’t we all’, but probably not to the point where we’ve wiped entire civilisations off the map. Regardless of the scale of these decisions, the consequences always feel very real. Finn Collins massacred a village, Clarke Griffin has been responsible for thousands of deaths, Bellamy Blake took part in two mass cullings. The retribution and sorrow that follows really hammers home just how cruel the world can be, and what it can turn you into if you let it. Admittedly, Finn didn’t particularly make a 'hard choice’ massacring that village, it was more out of trauma-fuelled instinct, but the point remains the same. These aren’t just random acts of violence to further specific plot points, but consequences of greater personal and moral struggles.

“There is only one god, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: 'You’re my bitch now’.” - Clarke, probably.

The fan-reaction to Bellamy Blake’s storyline this season has been mixed, and I can understand why. Nobody likes to see one of their favourite characters fall so far from grace, especially not when they’d assumed the role of a stoic leader just the season prior. Whilst I say it’s understandable for people to be pissed by his storyline, I’m left wondering how people can’t see that the show has always done this. They’ve always pushed the boundaries for what you can be put through before you crack and fall apart. Jason Rothenberg has received no end of hate-spewing tweets recently and has respectfully batted them off, essentially pleading “just wait and see what happens”. And that is exactly what we need to do. Just look at Murphy. Who knew he’d ever become likable after season 1? I mean the guy shot Raven and we all love him. Redemption is a wonderful thing and I can’t wait to see how the writers deal with it when it’s Bellamy’s time to face his demons.

This is where emotions gets you.

Below are somehopefully brief summations of what I interpret to be the mental state of a couple of our favourite, troubled characters. The aim here is to highlight good storytelling and emotive writing, and maybe force you into believing there is light at the end of this grim tunnel we call 'being emotionally obsessed with The 100’.

Day after the day, I get angry and I will… slay hundreds of innocent Grounders.

We’ll start with Bellamy as he’s been the main point of the post thus far. Our earliest look at Bellamy, chronologically speaking, was when he was a young child accompanying his mother whilst she birthed his baby sister. The awfully shit thing about being born on the Ark is that you don’t get to have the gift of siblings. Bellamy was lucky though, despite the fact he could only ever interact with Octavia when she wasn’t hidden under floorboards. Anyway, eventually she is taken away by the over-zealous Ark guards and is tossed in prison. His mother, well she’s floated. And suddenly Bellamy has no one. I promise I’m not recounting his whole story here and there is a point to what I’m saying. Everyone in his life is taken away from him in one way or another. Flashforward to Season 3. Life is seemingly good. He has his sister, and his girlfriend, Gina. The faux-happiness doesn’t last long though because this is The 100 and we can’t have nice things. Octavia tells Bellamy she can’t stay, Gina gets Azgeda’d, and a whole bunch of his people get blown to pieces, in the same place where he saved his people just months before. The place where he assisted Clarke in taking the lives of over 300 people, including children. You have to say, this sort of thing could turn even the Dalai Lama into a rampaging sociopath. We haven’t even touched on that fact that he blames himself for the Ice Nations attack. Having mentioned Clarke, where is she in all of this? She entered Bellamy’s life, became a big part of it, and then she disappears. Bellamy is no way her problem, I’m just stating how she was a big key to Bellamy’s recovery and an even bigger part of what keeps him grounded. She dealt with her demons in her own way, yet he couldn’t face his without her because she’s the only person who was in the same position as him, emotionally at least. Their relationship has always been complex, but Clarke’s always been there to offer rationale when he’s lacked it most.

Make Arkadia Great Again!

A pivotal moment in Bellamy’s emotional descent is when he decided whether or not he’d listen to the angel on his shoulder, Kane, or the devil, Pike. The devil offered Bellamy a way to grieve that Kane could not. Grief is a process that ascends on you fast. By the time Kane got to Bellamy, the possibility of reasoning with a sane mind had already flown out of the metaphorical airlock. Bellamy’s mental state is understandable. It is also understandable how Pike was able to manipulate his fragility. Anger is the most harrowing stage of grief and it can take many forms. Pike took Bellamy’s guilt and allowed him to channel the blame away from himself and on to the people who had caused him so much misery since landing. It’s easy for us as viewers to lament Bellamy’s stance on the Grounders when we’ve seen so many aspects of their existence, politics and beliefs. Bellamy has only ever seen them bring death, pain and broken alliances. These are not excuses for what he’s done in recent episodes, but more reasons for why they did happen. It’s understandable and fascinating to see play out. I have no doubt before the season finishes we will see Bellamy suffer more, although this time his grief will be down to his own actions and, eventually, we may see some form of acceptance. None of what has happened is “out of character” for Bellamy. He has always lost more than he’s managed to maintain, and he has always fought his hardest to change that. What’s happening now with Bellamy, Pike and the Grounders is a cataclysmic accumulation of his suppression, desperation and emotional avoidance. It is yet again another occurrence of losing the people and influence that keeps him tethered.

Jasper not having a fun time.

Much like Bellamy, Jasper has been dealing with his own problems this season. Unlike Bellamy, he has been more self-destructive and not so outwardly devastating. When you think about it, he has probably gone through more shit than any other character on the show. Forgive me for rehashing a lot of Jasper’s storyline, but it’s important to put these things into perspective when a character does become so self-destructive. His first day on the ground was met with a spear through the chest. Spectacular first impression of Earth, right? A short time after recovering, physically at least, he is forced to engage in a battle with a group of savages who want to kill him and his friends. They don’t really equip you for that in Earth Skills. Anyway, after witnessing countless deaths, including some of his friends, he finds a safe haven in Mount Weather. Well, isn’t that swell? Nope. Nein. Abso-fucking-lutely not. Everything was just fantastic up until the Mountain Men decided to harvest his and his friends’ bone marrow. Damn it, Mountain Men, he vouched for you! You gave him pie!

Jasper having a fun time.

When you learn to trust someone and they end up having ulterior motives, it leaves you in a bad place. Every betrayal you experience makes trust harder to give out. One thing that Jasper did have going for him was his infatuation with Maya. Unfortunately, she’s dead too. His friends saw to that. I’m not criticising that decision because it was made out of necessity, however, to Jasper, it was not. He had a plan. A short-sighted and flawed one, but it was a plan all the same. Thrusting an innocent teenager into this sort of world is not going to leave him unscathed by any stretch of the imagination. When you’re finally safe, what can you occupy your mind with? When time catches up with you and you’re left to reflect on everything that has happened, how do you process it all without losing a grip on who you are as a person? How much damage do you think the human psyche can take before it’s broken? What we are seeing this season is the build-up of all of these questions that have subconsciously plagued Jasper for three months. The obvious choice for Jasper would be to take a trip to the City of Light, and experience for himself the wonders of painless oblivion. This will only serve to paper over the ever deepening cracks. He may lose himself in the process, but would that even be an issue to him in his current mindset? Jasper doesn’t need anyone to come along and offer him forgiveness. If that’s what he’s looking for, he won’t find it. The forgiveness he seeks needs to come from himself. He kept his friends safe but he couldn’t save Maya or the people in Mount Weather who helped him. It’s not about confronting Clarke for pulling the lever. He needs to look at himself and realise there was nothing he could do and that it wasn’t his fault that everything played out how it did. It’s up in the air whether he can do this, or whether he will completely unravel like Finn, but we can hope it’s the former.