Tuesday 16 September 2014

TV recap: The 100 episode 11, The Calm

Last time on The 100, Murphy came back to camp carrying a virus the Grounders infected him with. As The 100 battled to keep well enough to function, Raven built them a bomb, which they used to blow up a bridge, delaying the arrival of the Grounders, who are determined to slaughter The 100. And then Raven and Finn had a seriously sad break-up.

Earth-bound
The 100 are preparing camp for a siege, while keeping a watch out for the Grounders, who they know they've only stalled by blowing up the bridge.

Clarke's previous gung-ho attitude to violence is starting to waver, even as Bellamy's rhetoric becomes more violent. Clarke's only more reluctant because she thinks everyone on the Ark is dead, and no-one is coming to save them or join their fight.

Octavia is curing meat, and also trying to find off hostile members of The 100, who want to punish her for her relationship with Lincoln. Surprisingly, Murphy comes to her rescue. But, you know, he's a murderer so I wouldn't get too close.

In the midst of all the panic, Finn and Raven are getting on pretty well for a couple who have just broken up. They're joking and laughing, although it's all underlined by awkwardness. A small spat makes Raven determined to pretend that everything is ok. Which it isn't, because a few seconds later the area where The 100's food is stored burns down. And when I say food storage area, I mean ALL of their food. They're left with wild onions and nuts. Plot device to get people out of camp, I'm guessing.

Clarke and Bellamy work together to form hunting parties to go find more food - this is proper teamwork. Not proper teamwork is Clarke reluctant to have Finn join her hunting party (which contains a very teenage looking boy who clearly has a crush on Clarke).

Seeing Finn go off with Clarke, Raven decides to leave camp forever, and is stopped by Bellamy. Granted, Bellamy's previous pep talks haven't always worked out (remember when that girl murdered Wells because she took Bellamy's advice?) but this speech (which starts with "don't be an idiot" - wise words) manages to get the right result. Telling Raven that the group needs her is exactly what she needs to hear after feeling unwanted by Finn, and Raven decides the next step is to build radios for the group so they can communicate.

In the forest Miles, the teenage kid, is busy chattering away. Finn believes they're the ones being hunted, a belief that turns out to be true when Miles is shot through with an arrow and Finn and Clarke are knocked out and captured by Anya and her crew. Dragged to Anya's camp, Finn and Clarke discover that the reason Anya has come after them is because the bridge bomb injured one of Anya's closest friends. That friend, a young girls called Tris, is on death's door. If Clarke doesn't save her, Anya plans to kill Finn. That's some motivation.

Monty and Raven are trying to get some radios working, and finding that someone is jamming a signal that they've come across. This will obviously come back later, especially as Raven isn't as concerned as Monty about it. Raven decides she also needs the radio the group use to communicate with the Ark with, something which hurts Monty, who still has hope his family is alive.

And then... Raven and Bellamy. Whoa. *fans self* I am a firm Bellamy and Clarke shipper, but Raven ands Bellamy together are hot. Thinking Finn and Clarke are hooking up, Raven heads to see Bellamy in his tent, and tells him she wants to sleep with him. We all know Bellamy likes his women, and after making sure that Raven knows he's not going to mollycoddle her, he gives in. Because he's human and Raven is there stripping off in his tent and telling him to get on with it.

A very not hooking up Clarke and Finn are trying to save Tris, but it doesn't sound good. Literally. Tris can't breathe properly, her lungs are full of fluid. Clarke tries to relieve the pressure, but Anya's not happy with her medical methods. She knocks Clarke away, and as Finn tries to save her, he gets pushed away too. The drain works for a bit, but Tris soon starts to get hot, leading Clarke to believe sehe's got blood poisoning. Clark decides a blood transfusion is the way to go.

Raven and Bellamy are done getting hot and heavy, but Raven feels approximately zero per cent better. Revenge sex is clearly not the answer, even if it is with the guy that your ex really dislikes.

Finn, who is unaware his ex has had revenge sex with the guy who is his polar opposite among The 100, volunteers himself as blood donor for Tris, but it's too late. Tris has died, which means Finn is a dead man standing, and I don't imagine Clarke is going to fair much better. Anya clips a lock of Tris's hair, and then orders her right hand thug to take the body away, before ordering her left hand thugs to take Finn away and kill him.

Raven might not feel better, but she has relaxed a tiny bit and decides to apologise to Monty for her earlier behaviour over the radio. Monty then tells her that Clarke and Finn haven't returned, and neither has Miles. Realising Clarke and Finn didn't go out on their own, Raven's jealousy and anger turns to worry, and she heads out with a rescue party to find them.

One of Anya's men tells Clarke she will be welcomed into their group if she makes herself useful. He's kind of nice, relatively speaking, up until the point he tells her that The 100's camp will be destroyed come morning. Clarke knows how to use her innocence to her advantage, drawing the guy into conversation about the number of people he's killed (romantic) and then stabbing him to death. She might not like death, but she's no coward, she stares into his eyes until he dies (Ned Stark would approve).

Raven tries to confide in Octavia about her guilt over what's happened to Finn and Clarke, but Octavia's pretty no nonsense about it. Monty, in another part of the forest, can hear strange noises on the the radio, like the ones he heard before. The others are more focused on finding Clakre and Finn, but Monty sees something that makes him stop, and then he just disappears. Meanwhile, the group discover Miles, who's badly injured but alive, and decide they need to give up on Finn and Clarke.

They shouldn't, because Clarke is still alive, running through the forest. Well, she's running until she steps into a trap and gets hoisted up in the air.

And this, as we're told by the episode's title, is the calm.

On the Ark
We didn't see the Ark last week, but it would be foolish to think no one survived the explosion of the exodus ship.

As we head back to the ship, tHe first person we see is Kane, alone on the floor as some power comes back to the Ark. He pulls himself up, but is seemingly alone - there is no on else anywhere near him, even though I'm sure a whole group of people were together when Dodgy Diana left on the exodus ship. After some wandering he finds a cocky but cute engineer guy, whose arm is trapped between some doors on the ship. Ouch.

Getting the guy free, the pair head further into the Ark to discover a heap of people lying on the floor, clearly struggling for oxygen. The air supply is rubbish, but Kane is determined to find more survivors, and there definitely are some, because the manual controls for the ship are being used.

Kane leads the group through the ship, only to discover the way blocked by a ton of debris. Engineer guy manages to get the radio working to communicate with central command, and discovers Chancellor Kane is alive. He and Sinclair are struggling to breathe, but are determined to fix as much of the ship as possible before their oxygen runs out. Jaha has a serious death wish, this is at least the second time he's decided to sacrifice himself for the good of the Ark.

Kane sends the rest of his group off to the mess hall, and stays behind to remove all the debris and find a way through to Jaha. He wants the group to get to safety, but Kane's a pretty good guy, and the others decide to stay with him and help. It's touching to see the guy who was so mean at the start of the series becoming a figure who inspires loyalty.

The teamwork works, and Kane and co make their way through to Jaha and his gang, saving their lives. That's only the first step, now the pair need to figure out what to do, especially as Kane estimates that at least 1,500 people are dead.

Engineer guy discovers more people might be alive in the service bay, but the only way to get to them is through tunnels that will be really hot because the cooling system isn't working. And so Kane comes to the rescue again, crawling through heated tunnels to get to what I hope are survivors. Kane gets through, and gets the doors to the bay open to find there are people (just about) alive, among the Abby (Kane and Abby 4eva). 

Solid ground?
If this is the calm before the storm, I can only imagine what is coming as we approach the season finale. We're set up for an epic battle between the Grounders and The 100, but there's also a new element at play /- whoever took Monty and has been sending out that weird radio signal. Could it be the Mountain Men Lincoln referred to previously?

We got to see the beginnings of some great relationships this week. I love Raven and Bellamy together, even though I'm a Clarke/Bellamy shipper. I have to admit, Raven and Bellmay work well together. They both know the world is pretty harsh, they both know another person can comfort you without filling the whole in your heart, and neither has time for romance when the world is falling apart around them. The scene between Bellamy and Raven in the tent could have felt cold, but I liked that neither of them were under any illusions about what they were doing, and neither was going to shame the other for what they needed in that moment.

In addition to Raven and Bellamy, I also liked the tentative friendship which we momentarily saw between Raven and Monty. It makes me sad that that friendship might not get the chance to blossom now that Monty has disappeared.

On the Ark, I am really enjoying the evolution of Kane. He's become a real hero for me, partially because we've seen him really develop and change over the course of this season. I think this episode showed that The 100 is really good at characters, without them it wouldn't be anywhere near as entertaining.

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