#throwback the 100

This scene fucking sends me everytime 🤣

For a lot of people, even most fans I’d venture to say, season 2 is one of the best - if not the best - season of The 100. Decent enough pacing, consistent characterization, believable antagonists, mostly believable science, logical relationships, etc.

They’re right. It is in many ways the Peak season for a lot of our protagonists.

But it is also an Idiot Plot. And that’s what prevents me from loving it as much as other people do.

It has never made sense to me why Mount Weather took the remaining members of the 100 and kept them ignorant about the Ark’s survival, and left the other Arkers out there. Why? These are people who are at the start of the season in conflict with the Grounders. Who are being killed by the Grounders. Who share similar values and knowledge of technology with the people in Mount Weather. Who each had things to offer one another for survival, and beyond survival, being able to thrive.

They should have been natural allies. As soon as the Ark landed, Mount Weather should have been rocking up to their gates, possibly with a few delinquents like Clarke in tow, going “hey, we know you’ve got problems with those Grounders. We saved who we could of your kids, they’re safe with us. But we’ve got a problem with not being able to leave the mountain without Hazmat suits. Maybe we can help each other.”

In the meta sense, I understand why they didn’t take that route - they were already mired in a quasi-colonialist situation with the Arkers and the Grounders to begin with, and colonialism isn’t cool so they didn’t want to show to promote that. But in-universe, Mount Weather joining forces with the Arkers is the only thing that makes sense for their mutual survival.

Repurposing last week’s Season 1 for season 2 from @boomheda

Tagging @easilydistractedbyfanfic @blodreina-noumou

Favourite look: Late season Octavia and Clarke. Our Skaikru kids are becoming Grounder babes and I’m totally here for it.

Favourite episode: I guess I would have to say 2x13 Resurrection, because of Octavia’s first leadership experience, in leading the other Seconds in rescuing survivors of the missile blast in TonDC. Though nowadays I wish she hadn’t bothered saving Abby and Kane’s lives. So many more people would be alive if she’d just let them die in this episode. Sigh. Hindsight is 20/20. Also important to note here is a parallel that we often forget - when Octavia tells Indra that the other Seconds won’t listen to her, Indra says “so make them” - this is echoed in 5x02, when Octavia tells Jaha that the Grounders won’t listen to her, and he also tells her to “make them”.

Favourite Season Two Song: “Empire of Our Own” by RAIGN, and of course “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.

Favourite Season Two Scene: Octavia’s unconditional love for Lincoln in 2x09 Remember Me, when he’s haunted by what he did as a Reaper. Runners-up include Memori’s meet-cute in the desert in 2x12 Rubicon, Octavia becoming Indra’s second in 2x10 Survival of the Fittest, and Bellamy and Clarke at the gates of Camp Jaha at the end of 2x16 Blood Must Have Blood (Part 2).

Least Favourite Season Two Scene: We could delete “Spacewalker” and I wouldn’t even care.

Most interesting character on first watch (if you remember!): I did actually find Clarke’s arc compelling in this season. Her immediate suspicions of Mount Weather. Trying to build an alliance with Anya, and then with Lexa. Reminding Team Adults that they don’t know shit about what things are like on the ground. And, in the end after all of it, being reminded that she is just one girl, one girl facing impossible heart-wrenching choices.

Most interesting character on rewatch: This was the season of Peak Bellamy. He’s never gotten back to the height of awesome that he was in the latter half of this season, and it makes me sad. This was the first and only time in the entire show where he’s had a character arc that wasn’t about a woman in his life.

Favourite Dynamic in Season Two: Murphy and Jaha, though this is partially in retrospect, when you compare their City of Light quest to Octavia and Diyoza’s Anomaly quest in S6. This side quest that then becomes a stinger for the next season, along with the gilded-existence-hiding-a-terrible-secret of the Mount Weather/Primes plots, tells me we can expect S7 to have the most in common with S3.

1x07 is my favourite season 1 episode, though more on the “sleeper hit” type of episodes like 4x07 “Gimme Shelter” rather than a big groundbreaking type of favourite episode like 4x10 “Die All, Die Merrily” or 5x10 “The Warriors Will”.

I guess I’d call 1x07 and 4x07 sleeper hits more because they’re bottle episodes (though as always several different bottles), which means they focus more on characterization rather than on plot, and that’s what I’m here for. The characters.

Wikipedia defines a bottle episode as "produced cheaply and restricted in scope to use as few non-regular cast members, effects, and sets as possible... also been used for dramatic effect, with the limited setting and cast allowing for a slower pace and deeper exploration of character traits and motives."

For the purposes of this post, I’m ignoring the Ark narrative entirely, because the focus here is on the Delinquents and how this episode is a pivotal moment for all four of our mains present and conscious here - Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Octavia - in answering the question “How far are you willing to go?”

Clarke disagrees with taking Lincoln prisoner, disagrees with torturing him for information - but when she learns Finn’s life is in danger, she gives Bellamy the go-ahead to torture Lincoln for the antidote.

Bellamy is the instigator, taking Lincoln prisoner from the get-go. He’s changed a lot in the past episodes, and is a far cry from the boy in 1x03 who wasn’t willing to mercy kill Atom - now he’s ready to rain hell on Lincoln for the deaths of the delinquents killed in 1x06 that Lincoln wasn’t even responsible for, just because he’s “the other”.

Raven stays out of the whole affair at the start, staying by an injured Finn’s side - until she discovers the blade that hurt him was poisoned, and then is ready to rain hell on Lincoln herself - and she does, even more aggressively than Bellamy, until Octavia puts an end to it all.

Octavia is the most vocal opponent to what the other Delinquents are doing to Lincoln, but outnumbered as she is, there’s nothing she can do - until she puts her own life at risk to save Finn’s, and by extension, Lincoln’s as well. I’ve discussed this scene in depth as it relates to Octavia and Lincoln and atoning for their people’s sins here.

The end of this episode also marks one of the first uses of the phrase “Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two very different things” - I’m not sure if it is the absolute first use or if it was said before, but it is an important use of it, as Bellamy says it to Clarke as he takes back the weapon he’d stabbed through Lincoln’s hand.

(Yeah, yeah, it’s Friday, but I live in the future, so when y’all start getting this stuff going late, I’m also going to be a bit late.)

Stolen from @johnmurphysreddit @blodreina-noumou @boomheda

Tagging @easilydistractedbyfanfic @mjdraperblake

Favourite look: Anya’s. Skaikru style doesn’t really do it for me.

Favourite episode: As described in yesterday’s post, 1x07 Contents Under Pressure. It is a pivotal episode for our Delinquents and their moral compasses, just like 1x05 was for Team Adults.

Favourite Season One Song: “Radioactive” is a classic, but I also have a soft spot for the song that played during the Culling in 1x05, which the 100 wiki tells me was “For My Help” by Hayden Calnin. I also like the instrumentals playing during the scene in 1x07 where Octavia risks her life to save Finn, and Octavia and Lincoln’s lovemaking scene in 1x09.

Favourite Season One Scene: As should be clear by this point, the scene in 1x07 where Octavia cuts her arm open with the poisoned knife to save Finn and stop them from torturing Lincoln. Runner-up is the flashback scene in 1x06 where Octavia leaves the Blakes’ quarters for the first time.

Least Favourite Season One Scene: Something to do with somebody I never cared for, like Finn or something. I tend to ignore most of S1 at this point, honestly. It was there and gone for me in the space of a few days, since I only started watching the show between S4 and S5.

Most interesting character on first watch (if you remember!): Nah, I don’t. I went into it having seen bits of S4 already, so my eye was on Octavia from the start. I do remember not hating Clarke yet though, which was generally an accomplishment for me when it comes a lead protagonist, who I typically hate right out of the gate.

Most interesting character on rewatch: It’s still always Octavia. I’m mostly rewatching her scenes if I’m rewatching the season, and while she’s grown leaps and bounds in terms of skills and experiences since then, her core morality has still stayed the same the entire run of the show.

Favourite Dynamic in Season One: There were two. First was Octavia, Jasper and Monty. Those three were just so sweet and innocent, especially in the early episodes. Second was Bellamy and Clarke. I loved their antagonistic-but-still-united approach to leading that they had to learn to develop, and their scene in 1x08 about forgiveness is the third contender on my list of favourite scenes of the season.

Clarke: they didn’t blindfold us so they don’t care what we saw.  They’re probably going to kill us. 

Alternate theory: they think you’re too incompetent to escape and it’s not like the cops are going to put out an APB

Kane and Wick bickering.  Good stuff.  Lots of the characters have backstories but Wick had personality. 

Sinclair and Jaha are trapped and about to die while Kane gathers the survivors.  Hey Sinclair.  Look forward to seeing more of you later. 

The extras lingering in the background after being ordered by the chancellor to go to the mess hall is awkward.  I know it’s so we can have a soaring teamwork moment, as they force open the door but they’re just kind of shuffling at the edge of the set and it looks weird. 

Anya doesn’t speak in the stilted grounder way.  Her English flows. 

Raven went to Bellamy’s tent after Finn and Clarke didn’t come back at night.  She thinks they’re boning in the woods and says it’s been “a day and a half.”  Not sure since what but there’s a definite too soon vibe.  

Bellamy looks SO uncomfortable as she’s stripping off her clothes and when she says she’s never been with anyone but Finn he just avoids flinching.  This is hard to watch.  That poor girl can’t take any more rejection.  Bellamy gives her a chance to back out and then she grabs him and kisses him.  He respects that this is what she needs right now.  It gets real hot real quick and I’m not sure if that’s just CW sexy or if we’re supposed to think they caught fire, but it feels like they’re both putting on a show of “this is what hot sex is.”  Yeah, pretty clear why this wasn’t the starting point of anything and they’d have had to make an effort to have a romantic relationship after it.  

Kane just called Jaha “Sir”.  They dropped that real quick. 

I don’t much care about this “medical” plot with Finn, Clarke, and Tris, and I’m not sure what the point is. 

Oh.  How long were we supposed to think the Bellamy Raven sex took?  They’re both breathing hard but they didn’t get sweaty.  Wind sprint and then she sprints.  Cue the debate about if Bellamy is a good lay or just the best hunter and the older guy in camp.