Posting this right before episode 5 starts! Man, Legends of Tomorrow has some terrible acting. When it first came on, I thought it was a fake show within a show.

Here are my thoughts for the last episode of The 100:

There were two big storylines in this episode: The attempted coup by Queen Nia and the Bellamy joining Pike storyline. There was also a small storyline with Jasper and Monty’s breakup.

So, Bellamy storyline pretty much went how I was afraid it would go. I expected Gina’s death to be the catalyst to push him towards Pike — and away from Octavia, as we saw in the trailer. (I literally deleted a sentence about this in my last blog post. Wish I had actual evidence that I predicted this, but it’s not really something to be that proud of.) At the memorial, we barely get any more development of Gina. She always saw the light. Blah, bland af, and especially doesn’t fix the fridge girl issue since it’s so generically good. Bellamy says “Gina was real” which felt like the writers trying to convince us that she was a real character. (At least Miller’s boyfriend gets to live.)

The Bellamy stuff also falls flat when he could be providing some nuance to Pike’s view. I don’t mind Pike as a character. He’s frustrating, but after second watch, his viewpoint makes some sense. He has trouble distinguishing between Trikru and Ice Nation. It’s frustrating because hey they look hella different. But so are modern contemporaries who have similar view. Pike says that all they understand is force, which is definitely the show critiquing similar views we heard during the run-up to the Iraq War, and views we still hear now. Pike loses most of his people, and then the second he trusts a grounder, that trust is broken, and he loses almost half of his remaining people. He doesn’t know that he can trust Trikru, and no one really presents a compelling argument to him. I feel like the Kane/Abby coalition was generally bad at explaining things to the people and usually kept things secret. It probably would’ve been better to keep people more informed, especially if an army is coming. Still, the dichotomy feels a little rough because of Bellamy, and because his main motivation is guilt for Gina. I mean, we could’ve hard more arguments about how grounders can’t police grounders because they betrayed us at Mt. Weather. Bellamy specifically warns Clarke to stay vigilant about Lexa, but then this isn’t brought up again. Or we could’ve talked about how precarious the alliance was and how they can’t be sure Lexa will survive to protect them. Well, I guess they didn’t know about that because Nia was in chains at that point, but c’mon, you gotta wonder if Lexa could still hold things together even if you didn’t know about Nia’s plan. Oh and when Pike says we can protect ourselves, why isn’t anybody like, nope, we’ve seen the combined might of the coalition and they outnumber us by a lot.

I like that Pike is still principled and not just a general asshole. Pike is willing to die to protect his people, willing to accept the consequences of being charged for treason, if it means he can wipe out some grounders before they kill him. He’s not evil or dishonorable. He also tells people that we do not fight our own. A step up from the lady who stole the dropship and fucked up the Ark.

Pike and Kane and contrasted through their conversations with Bellamy. Pike blames himself and lets Bellamy blame himself too. He proposes action. Kane thinks the enemy is all grounders. Kane draws a distinction, saying Bellamy should blame Ice Nation. Kane says to Bellamy that given the information he had at the time, he made a reasonable decision. A man after my heart. He gets my vote.

Abby acted like a privileged ass as usual, telling Pike, “Well take it under advisement,” when he criticizes them. Seriously, tell him about how you almost caught fucked when Jaha told you all to leave.

The vote between Kane and Pike was close. That means Bellamy’s support likely was the difference, given that he probably swayed 40 some-odd votes. Well, we know he at least swayed two with what’s-her-name and what’s-her-face.

Usually the bridge between cultures has been love. Octavia and Lincoln first allow the opposing cultures to not instantly antagonize each other. Finn uses them to try to initiate contact. Then, Lexa falls in love with Clarke, and that is what powers their alliance, really. (Along with a lot of luck — good job Abby. That’s a sarcastic good job.) It’s what pushed them into being the 13th clan. Maya and Jasper form a bridge between their respective groups. With Kane and Indra, there’s a friendship. In the episode before this one, you saw that they genuinely trusted each other and enjoyed each other’s company. I think it’s specifically why Kane trusts the forces to protect them. Indra was charged by Lexa to raise the army and she’s the one who radios Kane. It sure seems like she’s in charge. (Which means AH SHIT! for next episode. I hope she doesn’t die!) We got the line about brands and slaughter, but I wonder if they also could’ve attacked Kane’s friendship with Indra. Let’s see how that goes in the next episode.

Aside from the Bellamy stuff, though, I’m still excited to see where this storyline is going. Perhaps once things are in motion, I won’t be so annoyed by Bellamy’s lazy motivations. And besides, it’s still early. A lot of the themes examined in Season 2 that made it so great weren’t really seen until later. It’s still early.

The other storyline was the Nia coup, which was much more exciting and much tighter. Everyone has their own motivations and it’s interesting to see Clarke join the world of political intrigue and negotiate with Roan and try to murder Queen Nia. She does this independently of Lexa, who really only sees one way through this — to fight and win. But even then, she throws the spear through Nia instead of Roan. It’s a savvy move, to make the new king someone who owes his life to you and someone who you’ve proven your physical superiority over. There’s a lot of tension in that fight because anyone can die (and we know at least one person will). It’s the type of show that wouldn’t be afraid to kill Lexa. Thanks Game of Thrones for this. Seriously, the whole thing was exciting. The fight was well-done and the twist was great (even if I predicted it a few seconds early haha).

What the hell is up with nightblood? Why is it so special? Who’s the first commander? Did s/he establish the system of reincarnation? Hm. I feel like this will be more important later.

The last storyline was the Monty-Jasper breakup. Addiction sucks. That conversation was hella real between them. It’s part of why I love the show so much. Between that and the other storyline, it’s more than enough to make up for the Bellamy thing. I like that Maya’s last words still haunt Jasper. They haunt me too because our society has its own corruption that I’m complicit in. (I’m typing this on a computer likely made under shitty labor conditions.) Monty ends up leaving Jasper, meaning Jasper picks to “fall apart alone.” All I have to say is: JAHA TIME! Jasper is at the dropship, which is where Jaha last was before trying to find the City of Light. I wonder if Jaha even cares about his son’s grave anymore. Hm. In the City of Light, Jasper, you will be unburdened. C’mon it’s been two episodes. I need some Jaha.