Recap: THE 100 – Defeat Snapped from the Jaws of Victory (and Tropes!)
Episode 314 “Red Sky at Morning”
Written by Lauren Muir & Kira Snyder
Directed by P.J. Pesce
Okay, I’m going to skip the apologies and go straight to the disclaimer that this episode’s trope-heavy presence is going to lead to some serious saltiness on my part. Which we should all be used to by now, but there’s some exceptional saltiness that should be accounted for before venturing further.
In the apocalyptic hellscape that is currently Polis, the prisoners of New Good People Jail are plotting their next move. Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Pike’s (Michael Beach) suggestion is to escape the city entirely before regrouping and forming a stronger attack. Indra’s (Adina Porter) plan is a little simpler: dropkick Jaha (Isaiah Washington) into the f**king sun. I like Indra’s plan better to be honest, but that’s just me (and Murphy). It’s pointless, however, as Jaha is not their true leader; ALIE (Erica Cerra) is.
Before they can get any further, they’re interrupted by some zombie grounders. They’ve come to see if anyone’s thirsty for Kool-Aid. Pike sets them straight instantly, “None of us are ever going to take a key.” I’m not starting to like Pike. I am NOT starting to like Pike.
ALIE doesn’t fail to notice Pike’s fresh wounds, and because of the network, she knows it wasn’t any of her crew that inflicted them. Unfortunately, this leads her to deduce that someone is free and lurking. The guards are too slow to overcome the fierce and flawless Hurricane Indra, however, so they’re freshly burnt toast. While all the good people start their escape, Indra grills Murphy for what he knows about Jaha and ALIE. With some goading, Murphy explains all the plot points he was Conveniently There For, including the backpack that contains ALIE. Indra then pulls a Murphy, and reveals a plot point she was also Conveniently There For: that she saw said backpack being taken into Polis. Now knowing the location of their enemy, Pike, Indra, and Murphy (I think I’m gonna go with Ragtag Bunch of Heroes) all unite against their common foe.
In the City of Light that is definitely not downtown Vancouver, ALIE and Jaha are palling around with all their zombie cohorts. Including Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira). Emori!! I have to say, zombification has been good to her. So stylish, look at that crown braid. Perfection. She seems to think so, too, for when Jaha points out that she can de-clawify herself in the City of Light, ridding herself of her mutation, she refuses. Because she’s perfect the way she is. Man, I hope Emori doesn’t die. Not any time soon, anyway, since Jaha and ALIE need her to stop Murphy from getting to the AI. Ooh, perfidy!
We join Our Heroes in the literal middle of nowhere. They’re listening to a sermon by one of Luna’s compatriots, though not cheerily. Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Clarke (Eliza Taylor) are still determined to convince Luna (Nadia Hilker) to accept the Flame and dethrone Turnipface McChildMurder, but she’s still not about it. She’s about talking with Octavia kom Skaikru (Marie Avgeropoulos). She returns Lincoln’s sketchbook, though it is not met with smiles. Octavia is disillusioned af, as she was convinced the late, great Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) trusted Luna to save them. Luna protests, saying she doesn’t want saving: she wants to fight. Which she does. Octavia’s all about fighting, while Luna is not. It seems these two righteously ballin’ ladies have fundamentally different world views.
Back in the desolate wasteland of Arkadia, the home base part of the Best Friend Squad is hard at work. Monty (Christopher Larkin) and Raven (Lindsay Morgan), two of the most precious and delightful humans on the planet, are rooting through ALIE’s leftover code to find a way to stop her. Raven is shocked and dismayed by how many people have joined the ALIE network since she dipped. She floats the idea of using their password to enter the CoL and shut it down from the inside, but since they don’t have the kill switch contained in the Flame, Monty shoots that idea down with his heroic new Main Character status. I have never felt more blessed. It’s then they are joined by the untainted purity that is Harper McIntyre (Chelsea Reist), whose last name I only use because I finally know it. That will be the last time. She gives a status report and invites Monty to help her finish securing the perimeter. Monty agrees, because staring at board with that many numbers and letters together for an extended amount of time cannot be good for one’s brain.
On the way there, Monty expresses concern for Raven’s manic work ethic, because he is an angel. Harper McIntyre (okay, last time I swear) points out that Monty has been working just as hard. I’m delighted by the interaction, as I thrive on team dynamics and friendship, but it appears Harper has a tad more than teamwork on her mind. She goes in and lays one on Mr. Green, making her one of the smartest characters on this show as well as my personal icon. After Monty confirms that this is not a clever zombie ruse, Harper leads him away for some further canoodling. I ain’t mad, just a little mystified as I’m pretty sure they’ve talked like three times. But hey, zombie apocalypses do things to people, and off-screen interaction is a thing. Nearby, Raven continues her streak of being better than everyone.
Back in the oil rig of pacifism, Jasper (Devon Bostick) shares a seat with the storyteller girl from earlier. I think they’re trying to have a moment, but I’ve got to be honest with you guys, I genuinely can’t bring myself to care. Nearby, Clarke and the Blakes bemoan the failure of their mission. Clarke isn’t ready to say die just yet, though. She throws out the idea of Flaming Luna anyway to the currently estranged siblings. Neither of them are great fans of the idea (as Octavia says, “Even ALIE gives people a choice,”), but when asked for a better alternative, neither of them could provide. So it’s off to hijack Luna’s brain we go. Our heroes venture forth into morally grey territory; luckily they have a map by now.
Back in Arkadia, Monty and Harper are taking a breather from their escapades. Looks like everyone had a good time. Monty Green, diligent and hardworking angel, decides it’s time to get back down to the business (the business of dismantling evil AIs, not the business of boinking). Harper tries to talk him out of it. They share a cute and fluffy moment that is interrupted by Raven, thus marking the first thing that Raven has ever done wrong. Regarding the hookup, all she has to say is “Finally,” which I again find confusing, but whatever. Honestly, this is probably the most unproblematic thing happening this season. I’m just gonna ride this wave and see where it takes us.
Raven draws Monty out to look at the shiny new code she discovered in the ALIE-babble. There’s a highly-guarded section of code separate from the rest of the CoL, and Raven is pretty sure it’s keeping a sneaky spy secret. They can access it with the password from Becca’s journal, but not without alerting ALIE to their perfidy. Monty is on board with the original plan. (Can I just quickly say that I love how Monty is always ride or die Team Clarke? He’s quite possibly the one true homie to rule them all). However, Raven is worried that the longer they wait, the more zombies they’ll have to fight later. This is a legitimate concern. Monty does convince her to stick with the plan, man, but Ms. Reyes is not happy about it. They continue their work, and I thrive on their interaction.
Back on the oil rig, Luna is teaching some tiny smols how to fish. It’s adorable. I love her. Clarke arrives to put into motion the Best Friend Squad’s plan of kind of being dicks. Luna is impressed by Clarke’s persistence, and the two gorgeous bosses rehash the same old jam.
Clarke still wants Luna to take the flame, and finish Lexa’s mission of Blood Must Not Have Blood; she even makes some sad heart eyes at the mention of her beloved potato chip. But Luna is steadfast in her refusal and dedication to pacifism. I really like her. It’s literally a breath of fresh air to see another side of grounder culture that contradicts almost everything we thought we knew. And her hair is life-affirming. I am pleased. But Clarke isn’t, because she’s forced to go with plan B: The Dick Plan.
She activates the Flame and tries to hijack Luna’s noggin, but fails in a rather epic fashion. Luna, as it turns out, is on a separate ballin’ tier than we originally thought, and she owns our Khaleesi like a gym leader owns your Lvl 1 starter. “I didn’t flee my conclave because I thought I would lose,” she explains to the humbled Flamekeeper, “I fled because I knew I would win.” And with a few more taunts and the Flame, Luna exits, leaving Clarke beautiful and distressed.
Emori is chilling with ALIE inside of the Flamekeeper Room, aka Murphy’s Crib aka the Inevitable Fire Hazard. They’re lying in wait for The Ragtag Bunch of Heroes, who are on their way to destroy the backpack. They are of course correct, but again, too slow for the unlikely team that I am shocked to be rooting for. Pike lays out every zombie except Emori, because Bellamy’s not the only one who can heart-eye emoji, damn it. Emori lives!! Hooray!!
Unfortunately, it means ALIE knows they’re there. Therefore the RBH gets crackin’ immediately, with Murphy dismantling Polaris in order to stick it to ALIE … literally. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. According to Emori (who ought to know, but is ripe with perfidy), the backpack is a nuclear fuel cell, and busting it will irradiate all of Polis. So the RBH is on the hunt for a plan B.
We return to the oil rig to witness the tail end of the trip of disaster. Jasper is off with his new disposable love interest, while the core of the BFS is herded back into their tin crate to be shipped home. Clarke hangs back to get her potato chip girlfriend back from Luna, but gasp! ALIE is there! How did that happen?? Doesn’t matter. One of Luna’s homies is chipped and therefore ALIE knows where the Flame is. It is then that all Heck breaks loose and the BFS is foiled and detained. Bellamy determines that ALIE is aboard, and things appear bleak.
Bleak turns to bleaker as the zombies descend upon Jasper and his guest star. He entreats her to run and warn the others before they’re chipped, but alas, it seems Shae’s fate is as tragic as it is predictable. ALIE orders her killed before she can get the warning out. Just how many women will have to die for Jasper Jordan’s character development? Hint: any answer other than zero is unacceptable. Anyway, he’s captured by zombies.
Poor Pure Cinnamon Bun Luna is being waterboarded, because this is just that kind of storyline. Jasper and Derrick, Luna’s lover/bestie/undetermined(?), are forced to watch, much to Derrick’s dismay. Jasper just seems sort of generally resigned to the fact that this is his life now. The ALIE zombies try to chip up Luna and Jasper, but neither of them are cooperating. This leads to punching and more waterboarding, because ALIE is apparently way done f**king around.
The crumbling remains of the Best Friend Squad is desperately searching for a way out of their crate before Luna is chipped. Being that she is the very last nightblood in existence (save for Scarface), ALIE getting its weird but stylish claws into her would mean game over. Clarke is pissed, Octavia is sad, and Bellamy seems to be the only one keeping it together. What a delightful shake up. But their hopes are in the process of being dashed as Derrick agrees to take the chip to end Luna’s torture. This is obviously not going to work, but it’s keeping my stress levels even. Derrick, now a zombie with an unfortunate head tattoo, removes her waterboarding mask and lulls poor Luna (who has done literally nothing to deserve this) into a false sense of security before continuing her torture. If the writers were going for “basically as unsettling as possible” for an overall theme this season, boy howdy, did they nail it. ALIE and her crazy eyes observing the torture is a creepily cool way to transition back to our new protagonists!
Indra, Murphy, Pike, and the captured Emori (+ ALIE) are under siege in the Flamekeeper cave, with little time left to execute their plan. Indra gets ready to hold it down while Pike and Murphy do their Ragtag Hero thing, which I think involves frying the backpack. Emori pleads with John not to do this and walk into his doom. But hold up, why does ALIE care if Murphy lives or dies or does the hula? Well, according to Bug Eyes herself, Murphy was the only surviving person (other than the beautiful, MIA Clarke) who was present at Luna’s death, and knows how the AI works. So they need to keep him alive. Do I smell the potential for perfidy? You know I do.
Back in the desolate Arkadia, Raven A-Thousand-Times-Smarter-Than-Me Reyes is doing some generic hacker thing I’ll just assume I’m too dumb to understand. Precious Monty is taking a nap for his little cinnamon brain. Understandable. Between the nonstop coding and his session with Harper, Mr. Green has been continuously on his grind for at least two solid days. What a champion. Raven, however, seems to take this opportunity to do something downright sneaky. Despite promising not to, Raven uses her password hack to crack open the City of Light. ALIE, of course, knows immediately. She also knows the source of the hack is Arkadia, which is bad news for the Best Friend Squad: Cyber Unit. They deduce the few people capable of such awesomeness (ALIE disqualifies Sinclair, which is unsettling), and for once it looks like the crazy zombie brigade is playing off their back foot. ALIE can’t disconnect from Arkadia, because the only other source of her code is the backpack, which is currently in limbo.
Monty chooses this Incredibly Convenient time to wake up from his slumber and promptly flip out that Raven went behind his back. But what’s done is done, and Raven’s in the citadel now, so seek forgiveness not permission blah blah whatever. This prompts Jaha to unveil his master dick move of a plan to foil our heroes: releasing the NPC of Monty’s Mom into the Arkadia speakers, making Monty Green listen to the voice of his freshly matricided mom. Have I mention how much I hate Jaha? Because I do so much.
Raven knows ALIE is only using Hannah as a distraction to #WasteTheirTime21k49, but it’s working. Monty is pretty caught up in listening to his dead mom hype up the City of Light. They have to delete her code in order to move forward, but that means even Momma Green’s mind would be gone forever, and that thought leads to some feels-shattering work from Christopher Larkin, who takes home the MVP for the episode. Raven inputs the kill code, but leaves the trigger-pulling to Monty (which, for those of you keeping count at home, makes three times Monty has had to kill his mom. He has to have leveled up to some kind of super-main character by now).
With one last “I love you, too” (crying emoji), Monty enters the code. Raven takes the wheel to input the last bit of code, and does end up finding the sought-after Kill Switch. But of course, even with all the brains and timing in the world, no one can derail a Plot Train. The power completely shuts down. This, rightfully, triggers another freakout from Monty. Honestly, I would crack too. Poor put-upon Monty goes awf on Raven for jumping the gun, even going so far as to wave a chip in her face. Kind of a Jasper-esque move, but the guy’s under a lot of stress. However, so is Raven. Her big tearful eyes make me want to dive headfirst into my TV and give her a fourty-seven minute non-stop hug, but alas, none of us get what we deserve.
It looks like it’s Climax time, y’all! Ew, sorry, never saying that ever again. ALIE has 60 seconds of vulnerability before she uploads offsite, so it’s now or never for the Ragtag Bunch of Heroes to get the job done. ALIE uses Emori as a mouth piece to get Murphy’s proverbial goat; telling him destroying the backpack means destroying every resident of the City of Light, including Emori herself. I never thought I’d get this emotional over Murphy, ever. He can’t bring himself to be the one to destroy Emori, or even look when Pike delivers the killing blow himself. There goes my kokoro. When the deed is done Murphy’s first act is to check his lady love on the “off” chance she was bluffing, but after a brief glimmer of hope, Emori sucker-punches my gut with a creepy “You were too late.” Seems ALIE was able to upload off-site after all. So this entire episode was just a waste of time all around, then. Good to know. John resignedly covers his ex’s face so ALIE can’t see them leave, and the RBH take off just in time for the zombies to storm the castle. Jaha marvels at how close they were to getting clocked today, but ALIE isn’t bothered. “The migration was a success. They can’t get to us here.” Oh, and where’s “Here”, you ask? Oh, only the remnants of the Ark still floating in space, that’s where. Lovely.
Since we’re already in a crappy mood, let’s rejoin the hostage Best Friend Squad just in time for Octavia to lament how the Oil Rig People were perfectly happy and safe before they arrived. The defeatist mood is shattered, however, when someone arrives at the door. Why it’s Jasper’s disposable friend Shae, who is not as dead as previously thought! Well, now she is. But she lived just long enough to propel the plot forward, and that seems to be all any of these characters can ask anymore.
Luna is still being tortured by her zombie boyfriend/bro/???, Derrick, but results aren’t coming fast enough, so the henchmen zombies drag in one of Luna’s smols from earlier. With Derrick’s knowledge of Luna, ALIE now knows that threatening the children’s lives will make her take the chip. Because Luna is an angel. What Derrick apparently did not know about Luna was how much of a baller she was.
With the life of her tiny smol in danger, Luna immediately disarms Derrick and uses his knife to take down the zombie holding a knife to the kid’s throat. And holy s**t, is Luna cool. She proceeds to take down all the zombies with monster game, thus backing up her trash talk to Clarke earlier about being able to kick Lexa’s dearly departed butt. The last man standing is Derrick, who Luna obviously doesn’t want to kill, but ALIE doesn’t seem to be giving her the option. Luna plunges a knife into his heart, and my own. I’m not attached to Derrick at all, but Luna’s sobs are wrecking me. The icing on the cake is when Clarke & Co. crash in just in time to witness the fallout of the mess they created. Clarke is surely recalling the time she had to stab her own boyfriend in the heart (RIP Finn), and Octavia and Jasper share a moment of mutual resigned despair. How millennial of them. Clarke’s horror at watching Luna’s unabashed tears is twofold in its meanness to me; one because Clarke can’t fathom having the luxury of grieving and showing emotion like that, because she’s never gotten to, and two, because this is clearly a parallel and parallels make me cry.
Luna performs some kind of death-purification-whatever ritual while the Best Friend Squad wonder if anyone else on the rig is chipped. Luna and her crew offer a celebratory round of shots to the BFS to start off the ceremony of putting a teeny robot in Luna’s spine. Clarke laments to Luna the need for her to take the chip. “People I loved died today. Needlessly, at my hand. I can’t let that happen again,” Luna says quietly at the chip. Creepily vague, but okay. The whole rig takes part in a toast with some Greyjoy-like tones to it, but the victory is, again (and honestly this is getting old as balls) short-lived. One by one the Best Friend Squad hits the floor, their shots being laced with the same stuff that K.O’d them back at the beach. For one heartbreaking moment we linger on Clarke’s face, wrecked with the realization of failure. Oh man, this is brutal. I honestly am emotionally exhausted by this entire season/storyline/episode. They better Game of Thrones the heck out of s4 and gratuitously fan-service everything they did wrong.
Clarke Griffin, emotionally unstable party animal, wakes up on the Beach of Hugs. Her very first thought of course is to check that she still has her potato chip girlfriend, which she does. Hooray! Bellamy, already awake, exchanges grim looks with his partner in crime before taking a moment of manly reflection over the sea. The squad assembles beside him, to some pretty epic music. I’d almost call it Pirates-of-the-Carribean-esque. We close out on Bellamy asking “Now what,” as the entire gang turns to Clarke (the unquestionable!! Heroine!! Of my heart!!), and an intense piano solo as we smash out.
Now, all I can say about this episode is that you can only do the “certain victory only to be suddenly thwarted” thing so many times before it becomes tiresome, and your audience begins to expect the same thing over and over. I understand the need for building suspense, but I feel like coming off the heels of the previous killer of an episode, this just felt like one prolonged bummer. But it sets us up for the ass-demolishing two-part finale, so there’s that!
