TV Recap: The 100, Demons

I’m going to make a potentially controversial statement here and say that season 3 is hands down my favorite season and I’m taking all of the pacing mess, trope fuckery and darkness of 3a into account when I say that.

The themes are so much deeper, the world is so much bigger, the stakes are so much higher, the emotional rollercoaster is so much more intense. This is like The 100 on steroids and I am loving it so hard.

I’ll stick a pin in that and come back to it when Natalie and I do our inevitably 5 hour long season recap podcast (or post if we can’t figure out how to record Skype) (btw, Natalie, want to do a season recap?)

ANYWAY. Recapping time.

Demons! What an episode. The adventure squad assembled for a straight up slasher movie and it was the best. Eyeballs exploded! Love. It. I honestly don’t know how to wrap my head around a world where The 100 delivers all of my favorite things for two episodes back to back.

Friendship is magic.

We open with Harper and Miller and Bryan back at the cave. Harper begs Miller to tell a scary story while some timely atmospheric thunder booms outside. I’m already in love, this is the cutest. Miller has excellent creepy orator skills because he’s the best. Bryan’s not having it because he’s not about the ghost stories, some adorbs teasing ensues but I remain unmoved because Minty for life.

Miller goes outside to pee (which holy shit beyond Orphan Black I can’t think of another show that’s acknowledged nature calls?) (I pay attention to weird things). Something goes bump in the night so Bryan decides to fail Horror Movie 101 and goes outside to investigate. As it generally goes when you’ve stepped into a slasher flick, neither return and Harper starts to freak out. A creepy masked man comes out of the darkness and Harper lets out a scream that would do countless slasher flick heroines proud. Four minutes in and this episode is already the best.

Meanwhile, in Polis, Emori has come to find her beloved. I love Emori and Murphy is adorably pleased to see her. They have a moment and plan a secret rendezvous. Polis is still my least favorite, sorry.

The rest of the delinquents are doing a road trip redux this time with 100% more Clarke and the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, my skin is clear and hair is bouncy. I legit had to watch this scene 5 times to have any idea what they were talking about because Bellamy was driving and Clarke was riding shotgun and my whole brain was screaming MOM AND DAD ARE TAKING THE KIDS ON VACATION.

Raven had been reading Becca’s journal and fangirling appropriately. Raven and Clarke pool their knowledge and put together the connection between Becca and the Nightbloods and Alie. Princess Mechanic problem solving FTW. They reaffirm the Luna is the answer to all of their problems. Man, I hope no one drops the basket they’re putting all of their eggs in.

My aesthetic.

They arrive at Arkadia in full adventure squad mode only to discover a ghost town. Food abandoned mid meal, traumatic blood splatter still staining the ground. Apparently no one had briefed Clarke on what happened to Lincoln (though I’m assuming she figured nothing good when he wasn’t with them).

The team splits up to accomplish their various goals because no one has told them this week is an homage to Scream and it’s ilk. Jasper and Octavia head back to Octavia and Lincoln’s room to retrieve Lincoln’s journal. Octavia has a mini breakdown when she smells Lincoln’s jacket and I had to pause to have a much lengthier breakdown. In a really sweet moment before the shit hits the fan, Jasper tries to give Octavia some of the comfort she tried to give him earlier in the season. Octavia pulls herself together with a fuck that noise, I’m a Blake, we deal with feelings through violence. Then the creepy masked dude from the cave bursts in and attacks them. Who could it be? Surely not the one loose plot thread running around with a massive vendetta against Clarke.

Short cut scene in Polis, Murphy and Emori make out in the flamekeeper’s temple after Emori marvels over the cave paintings that still perplex me because it’s been 97 years since the apocalypse not 970 but whatever.

Back in Arkadia, Bellamy discovers that the zombies left the guns behind so he’s the happiest camper he can be without Clarke and Octavia in close physical proximity. He radios in to team science and tells them to wrap it up, fuck science, they’ve got guns. Oh Bellamy. Clarke’s like okay fuck science because these two crazy kids just do not like being more than 5 feet away from each other this episode and Raven’s like hold on, lightbulb moment.

Raven figured out the Alie 2.0 chip activates via a spoken passphrase. Clarke tries Lexa’s favorite sentence but no luck. Luckily, for all of Becca’s twisted genius, she was was still a person like the rest of us and needed to write her passwords down. Monty finds it, Raven connects the dots, Sinclair reveals he’s a massive nerd and so is the chip, they both speak Latin. Adorable. Super loved the teamwork in this scene.

Clarke and Monty take off to meet up with Bellamy. They stumble across a creepy music box in the middle of a deserted hallway. Clarke’s all let’s check it out and Monty’s all it’s like you’ve never seen a horror movie before (for real though, amateur hour). It’s obviously a trap, Emerson is unmasked (le gasp), Clarke narrowly escapes and runs out of the building straight into Bellamy’s arms.

Meg takes a breather, walks it off, lots of shrieking is heard from the other room.

Back in Polis, Murphy tries to send Emori away and with an uncomfortable expression, explains the lengths he’s gone to to keep Ontari happy. I’d like to take a moment to express my relief that the show is not trying to sell Murphy and Ontari as a relationship. I was into the garbage barge but am very glad they aren’t actually turning into a ship. After the (rape, coercion does not equal consent) scene at the end of 3×10, I’d be incredibly peeved if that became a but now there’s feeeeelings sort of deal.

Emerson continues to pick off the adventure squad one by one. He targets Raven and Sinclair because FUCK YOU EMERSON. He shuts off the lights and attacks. Raven makes it to the rover but Sinclair isn’t so lucky and gets stabbed in the gut. He spends his last moments telling Raven it’s okay and begging her to stay in the rover and she holds him while he dies. I’m so fucked up about this scene, you guys.

Clarke and Bellamy burst into the garage and find the aftermath. They put the pieces together and figure out what Emerson’s up to because when they’re working together they’re at their best (feeeeeliiiiings). Clarke grabs the radio off of Bellamy’s belt (*deep breaths*) and radios in to Emerson all yo we figured out your asshole plan. Emerson’s like don’t care I’ve got your friends, nyah nyah na nyah nyah. Tradesies?

I’m fine don’t look at me don’t touch me nothing to see here.

Clarke has an attack of the martyrs, tries to give Bellamy the chip (which is HUGE you guys, she not only trusts him with her mission but with the remnants of Lexa) and tries to go turn herself in. Bellamy’s like fuck this terrible plan, you don’t have to do anything alone anymore (FEEEEEELIIIIIIIIIIIINGS). Still waiting for them to have their talk (it’s coming, I can feel it), but I’m actually glad it hasn’t happened yet because I’m having a hard enough time dealing with all the teamwork and support and general proximity.

Back in Polis, Jaha shows up, a sure sign that things are about to become The Worst.

But who cares about Polis? Clarke and Bellamy have A Plan. As far as plans go, while marginally better than ‘I’ll just turn myself in’, ‘you distract him, I shoot him’ is still a terrible plan and it immediately fails because Emerson isn’t an idiot. He threatens to slit Octavia’s throat if Bellamy doesn’t come out and because Bellamy is Bellamy, with a final anguished glance at Clarke, he gives himself up. My ongoing Bellarke crisis is compounded by an attack of Blake Siblings Feelings.

With all of Clarke’s friends locked in the airlock, Emerson’s ready to move into his endgame. Emerson holds Clarke at gunpoint, tells her to get on her knees, seals up the airlock and turns on the gas to suffocate her friends. It may seem weird that I have multiple favorite parts of this horrible scene but oh do I. Here’s a brief list of things that caused my total and complete meltdown:

1. As Clarke loses it and starts begging Emerson, the camera cuts from Clarke’s horrified face straight to Bellamy. She’s fighting for all of her friends but the editing wants us to know that she has a number one priority. This isn’t me having a shipper crisis, the show is telling us something. WHAT COULD IT BE?????
2. I mean really the camera continually cutting back and forth between Clarke and Bellamy’s faces in the midst of all of the reaction shots and have I mentioned how much more I’m loving the show since I’ve started keeping an eye on the camera work? SO MUCH. A billion kudos to my friend Danni for cluing me into the entire extra level of story being told there.
3. As they start to pass out, Bellamy looks to Octavia and both of them choke out the other’s names leave me here to die.
4. CLARKE FIGHTING EMERSON
5. Emerson overpowering her and forcing her to look at her unconscious friends and who does the camera go to first? If you guessed Bellamy you get a cookie (look I have a clear set of priorities here and if you don’t like them you should probably read someone else’s recaps).
6. CLARKE ULTIMATELY WINNING THE FIGHT BY USING HER CRAFTY, BEAUTIFUL BRAIN AND USING THE ALIE 2.0 CHIP AS A WEAPON.
7. THE CHIP BURROWING INTO EMERSON’S NECK AND CRAWLING UNDER HIS SKIN TO HIS SPINE WAS SO FUCKING CREEPY I LOVE IT.
8. EMERSON’S EYEBALLS EXPLODED (I really like horror movies okay?) (idk if they really exploded or just bled a lot but whatever I’m going with the gorier option).

RUDE.

After everyone’s free, they stage a funeral and what the FUCK show feelings overload. Bellamy walks up princess carrying Lincoln and I’m kind of glad I overloaded and short circuited during the last scene because everything that happens next is too much. Octavia says goodbye and Marie Avgeropoulos does raw grief heart breakingly well. The delinquents build a funeral pyre for Lincoln and Sinclair and send them off with a group “Ye gonplei ste odon” and bless the show for taking the time to show this. These are the kind of emotional beats 3a so desperately needed and didn’t have time for and I’m so glad I was right about 3b getting back on track once scheduling wasn’t so much of an issue.

Post funeral scene, the delinquents decide to split up. Team science + Briller are going to stay in Arkadia and try to pry Alie remnants out of the Ark mainframe. Can I just take a moment to appreciate how Raven is totally cool saying part of why she’s staying behind is because she can’t walk? Beginning of the season Raven refused to admit weakness but she’s coming around to accept that her body has limits and that in no way makes her an any less valuable member of the team and I’m a total wreck over it. Everyone hugs it out (I AM EMOTION) and team Bellarke + Octavia and Jasper head out to find Luna. While I’m sad they’re splitting, I’m happy they’re doing so on their own terms and I’m not going to pretend I’m not freaking the fuck out that Bellarke is staying together. Seriously, guys, we’re looking at Clarke and Bellamy together for the rest of the season. That’s five consecutive episodes of them sharing face space. That hasn’t happened since season one. I’m so fucking happy. 3b is the gift that doesn’t stop giving.

Back in Polis, things are definitely The Worst.

Well, fuck.

Assorted Notes:

• If I didn’t make it clear last week, I officially revoke every terrible thing I’ve said about Jasper. While I never had a problem with his grief-stricken arc, I haven’t been giving it appropriate credit due to distaste for Jasper reasons. I really loved him telling Octavia it’s okay to fall apart a little. Not only was it a really sweet moment amped up by the poignant piano score, it ties into one of the key themes of the season, that you have to experience your grief before you can start to heal and I think that’s a really excellent message to pass along.
• Sinclair shading Raven’s coding skills was A+++
• “Following the creepy music is a bad idea. Or we can follow the creepy music.” Monty sass gives me life.
• “These fools think it’s reincarnation.” Murphy sass also gives me life.
• I am deeply upset about Sinclair but also not all that surprised. I’m fairly sure the show is going to clear the playing field of the adults to move into a The Youth Shall Inherit the Earth endgame. Not totally sure if/when/how this will affect Abby and Kane (I hear Paige and HIC have some pretty bulletproof contracts), but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it does. I’m sorry team Kabby, I hope I’m wrong.
• Episode MVP award goes to Alessandro Juliani, his final scene was heartbreaking.
• “Are you through?” I AM SO COOL WITH THEM BRINGING THIS LINE BACK FOR THE REST OF FOREVER.
• “You got a better [plan].” “You distract him, I shoot him.” CLASSIC BELLARKE. I’M SO HAPPY. Judging from Clarke’s little smile, I’m not the only one having a season one nostalgia moment.
• Did Bob Morley actually carry Ricky Whittle or was that a body double for the carrying? If he was actually lugging around Ricky’s muscle mass, holy FUCK. I’ll bet he’s an arm wrestling world champion.
• Bellamy’s hesitant aborted hand twitch like he wants to comfort Octavia but knows now more than ever she won’t accept it BREAKS. MY. HEART.
• BELLAMY’S LAGGED TRIGADASLENG. THAT LAG SO HE SAID IT ALONE WAS POINTED. CHARACTER GROWTH. I will fucking fight anyone who talks shit about this. He’s thoroughly rejected the grounders but he loves Lincoln and this is him starting to come around (I also think his confrontation with Niylah had an effect). The lag made sure we all knew he said goodbye and he said it in Trigadasleng. A+ show over tell.
• I see you pointed shot of Octavia clocking Bellamy’s grief. Please god let them work it out soon. We’re taking baby steps to that.
• Jasper tries to hug Monty goodbye and Monty’s not having it. Stg show if Jasper goes into the CoL and ends up dying without them having patched things up and Monty has that on his conscious along with his mom I will riot.
• Oh god that’s totally going to happen.
• Oh god.
• I still think Emori’s going to end up being Luna and the fact that she’s chipped just makes it extra awesome. Just think, the hundred will save the new commander which would set them up nicely for being able to attempt to start building an actual stable(ish) community, as opposed to what is basically a refugee camp, in season 4. SEASON ONE REDUX NOW WITH MORE TRAUMA TO DEAL WITH. BRING IT ON. PLEASE. I WANT IS SO BAD. 
• Natalie has thoughts and as always they are good. Here’s a link for further reading.

Sooooooooo what’d you guys think? Is 3b the best or what?