The 100 (3×14): One Full Circle Point

May 8, 2016

“What do we do now?” asks Bellamy (Bob Morley) looking to Clarke (Eliza Taylor) for a new game plan following the events in “Red Sky at Morning” (3×14).  The episode is circular in nature through three revolving plotlines and even where ALIE (Erica Cerra) ultimately ends up; after the migration is complete.  Everyone is so close, yet so far away from their main objective that it feels like they’re running in circles.  The pattern is not found to be tiresome due to a surprising hookup, an amusing Polis team up, and our introduction to Luna’s water world crew.  Special shout out to Tree Adams’ music throughout the episode, it supported every scene.  “Red Sky at Morning” serves up a hefty does of disappointment for our central characters, but it’s a delight for viewers.

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“Look at you, fighting is all you know, death is all you know, Lincoln would not have brought this here,” explains Luna (Nadia Hilker) to Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos).  This new grounder commander is really Lexa’s antithesis considering that she declared “blood must not have blood” after leaving her own conclave.  Over the past three seasons we have seen many foils to Clarke as a leader, but this truly becomes a role reversal with our heroine acting more like ALIE than anyone else.  After Luna’s initial decline to take the ship, Clarke attempts to take matters in her own hands; literally.  “ALIE gives them a choice,” argues Octavia, but she’s being outnumber after Bellamy takes Clarke’s side.  The fight scene between Luna and Clarke is short and sweet.  Before parting ways during the ending scene Clarke makes one more final plea for Luna to take ALIE 2 and in return she receives another slap in the face, “You think to stop an enemy who will stop at nothing, you must stop at nothing.”  She has a point, Skaikru has been in survival mode ever since they landed on the ground, but it’s mainly been playing the games of their enemies.  Clarke and her friends will not be able to overthrow ALIE if they don’t retain their value for human life; it’s what separates them from the machine. VABfTGuntp0

The writers depict this descent into darkness through the Arkadia storyline with Raven (Lindsey Morgan) becoming obsessed with unlocking ALIE’s code.  “I’m trying to keep up…Raven sees the city of light, it’s not just code, to her it’s real,” explains Monty (Christopher Larkin) to Harper (Chelsey Reist), before a very, unexpected hookup in the bunker.  With Monty distracted, Raven is able to go through the back door through her administrative access code; courtesy of Becca.  Originally Jaha (Isiah Washington) believes that it’s Monty behind the keystrokes, so they use his mother to thwart Raven’s advancements towards the citadel.  This device forces Monty to again sacrifice his own mother in an effort to help Raven discover what ALIE is hiding.  “It’s a kill switch, what…ALIE must have pulled herself from the mainframe,” says Raven; they almost had he!  Monty lashes out at Raven for being impatient and even encourages her to take the chip.  This whole hacking sequence’s tension stems from Jeff Granzow’s editing between Luna’s torture scenes and Murphy (Richard Harmon) attempting to destroy Jaha’s backpack in Polis.  All three plotlines are perfectly in synced with one other to illustrate how some are willing to sacrifice others for peace and others are not.

the-100-3x14den-yeni-fragman-red-sky-at-morning_131064162921118277“The bad guys are following them, figure I take my chances with you two,” remarks Murphy after breaking from the Polis prison alongside Indra (Adina Porter) and Pike (Michael Beach).  While, the other prisoners distract ALIE’s guards, goes after another one of ALIE’s lifelines.  Murphy finds himself back in Titus’ torture chamber from “Thirteen” (3×7) and working against a chipped Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira).  Again, right before Murphy destroys the backpack, his affection for Emori prevents him from following through in the action, “The minds of everyone who entered the City of Light are on that server.”  Ultimately, Pike steps up, but it’s too late, the migration is complete.  Despite their defeat against ALIE, our Polis escape trio use a secret passage way to leave the chamber before they’re forced to join the City of Light.  Now anyone else from the original hundred would have probably sacrificed Emori in an attempt to save their people, but Murphy’s an exception considering he’s adopted an alternative approach to survival.  Remember, he’s mainly been on his own since being kick out of the original Skaikru camp.  Murphy runs away from his enemies, not towards war.  Check out my The 100 (3×13) discussion with Everett Harn for more thoughts on Murphy’s heroism turn this season. the-100-3x14-Murphy

“People died today, needlessly, at my hand, I can’t let that happen again,” explains Luna as she mourns the death of her fallen people following ALIE’s surprise attack.  While, Monty sacrfices the remaining link to his mother, Murphy refuses to kill Emori, and Luna is forced to kill her own right-hand man, Derrick (George Tchortov).  I would also like to add that Nadia Hilker nailed the fight choreography, while going up against her own guards.  After finding herself doing the one thing she swore to never do again, Luna returns Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, and Jasper (Devon Bostick) to the mainland.  They will need to defeat ALIE on their own, too bad that she’s now on the Ark!  Talk about coming full circle, brilliant shot choice too with ALIE mirroring Becca’s god-like perspective shot from “Thirteen.”  Two more installments remain in The 100 season three, now we just need a new plan that doesn’t involve killing others.

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