The 100 3x04 Thoughts
Feb. 23rd, 2016 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaWatch the Thrones
Half of this episode I loved and half of this episode I found really disappointing. All the Grounder/Polis storyline was great, all the Arkadia/Skaikru stuff was kind of shoddily done, tbh, and I expect better from this show.
Good
• Clarke/Lexa. I continue to love where the show is going with them. I think the thing I love most is that the show is going slow with them. They added in the week time jump to make Clarke cooling down more believable, they're letting Clarke stay cautious while still obviously having feelings for Lexa and are taking the time to rebuild trust. I really liked that their final scene didn't end in a kiss even though the tension was clearly there and Lexa was clearly hoping for one. It'll make it far more believable when they eventually do kiss and make up. In the meantime all the long, lingering exchange of looks they keep sharing are making me happy.
- Lexa introducing Aden to Clarke to reassure her that even if Lexa dies Clarke's people will continue to have an ally and be safe was actually really sweet.
- The build up to the fight must have left Lexa feeling so confused - on the one hand, Clarke was clearly very worried about her and Clarke fighting to try and save her [even going to the extreme of assassination for her] must have felt really satisfying and given Lexa hope that there was still a chance for them. But on the other hand, Clarke clearly didn't believe that Lexa could win which must have been really frustrating.
• "You're driven to fix everything for everyone." - Lexa. That is so true! That is Clarke. I loved that when Lexa tells Clarke that she needs to accept that Lexa might die Clarke's response is "Like hell I do."
• Lexa vs Roan - awesome fight. Lexa's confidence in her own abilities were well founded. I liked the moment where Lexa was forced to grab her blade because Roan is stronger than her. Lexa wielding two swords was great. I liked the back and forth between which of them had the upper hand at any moment. Lexa trowing the spear and killing Nia to end the fight was brilliant.
I have to say my opinion on Lexa as a leader, which went down after the Mount Weather debacle, went back up this ep. I loved how she dealt with Nia's machinations. I love how calm and thoughtful she is as a leader. She uses her anger really well. I liked her choice to fight for herself. I liked seeing her mentoring the Nightbloods. I thought how she chose to resolve the fight was a really smart.
• It's too bad that Queen Nia and her attempts to overthrow Lexa are over already because I was really enjoying both and it feels like a waste of a great enemy. That said her death was excellent. The satisfaction Lexa must have felt in killing her - in finally getting vengeance for Costia, in getting to decisively kill her long time enemy without repercussion - must have been staggering.
• The Clarke/Roan scene was amazing and everything I love. Clarke conspiring, Clarke telling Roan "I want you to become the king.", Clarke as the little devil on Roan's shoulder whispering doubts and urging him on to matricide (yessss). I love how they interact. I love how he ends up being all 'I can't do it but I can help you do it'. I still feel like they could be really good allies.
- Then we have the fact that Clarke actual went through with the attempt to assassinate Queen Nia! That was a little wow. I love it. I also like that she failed.
• I like how much Lexa's people do love her. The silence when she was knocked down, the kids watching horrified, Aden's smile at the end, the cheering for her. That's another similarity between Clarke and Lexa - they inspire loyalty. Lexa with Anya and Justus and Indra and now Titus.
• "I'm done being your punching bag." - Monty. YES! I've been waiting for that for what feels like forever.
• They were only there for a few short moments but it was great to see Miller, Harper and Monroe.
Bad
• There were two points I didn't like this episode [+ Jasper as usual] - Bellamy chosing to sanction the attack on Indra's army and Pike wining Chancellor - which were even more annoying because I think TPTB could have made both believable. Generally I'm pretty happy with how the show moves events along but this is now the third time I haven't bought the emotional framework to a major character direction/decision - I was unsatisfied by the build up to Finn's village massacre and while Lexa betraying Clarke worked for me in itself her betraying Clarke in that way didn't make sense to me.
Bellamy siding with Pike and taking action to attack Indra's army really didn't work for me.
They actually did lay pretty good groundwork. Bellamy has always been very much an 'Us vs Them' type of person. He's impulsive and can be really reckless. That's most of the hard work right there. He was just betrayed by a Grounder he trusted and he feels responsible for the deaths of not just the Farm people but also his girlfriend. He's at a very vulnerable place right now, he's very alone (for some reason) and he has Pike whispering all the right (wrong) things in his ear. That's all good. That all works.
Where the show loses me is Pike convincing Bellamy that killing Indra's army is the right thing to do. What? How? Why? What?
Pike sees all Grounders as the same. They are basically a faceless, scary mass that wants to kill him and his people, which fair enough. It's annoying but that's basically where the 100 were at the beginning of season 1. The thing is Bellamy is no longer in season 1. He knows that the Grounders aren't all the same. He knows Lincoln, Indra and Nyko and that they are good people. He knows some of their language, he knows about the different clans and some of the strife between them. Plus his experience in Mount Weather forced him to face the fact that his enemies are never just a faceless mass of "enemies/bad people", they also include children and good people. So it makes no sense for Bellamy to see all Grounders as one group.
Added to that Bellamy was at the summit meeting when the Ice Nation took responsibility for the bombing, he saw that it was clearly aimed at Lexa, saw that Lexa knew nothing about it and saw her have the Ice Nation representatives taken away. Literally everything points to the Ice Nation alone being responsible for the bombing. So Bellamy knows that not all Grounders are the same and he knows that it was the Ice Nation who was responsible. ... So Pike convincing him that Indra's army is a danger to them makes absolutely no sense.
Added to both those points we also have:
- Bellamy knows exactly how Grounder's work, he has seen for himself how they react to attacks against them. Bellamy was there when Finn was killed. Whatever Pike thinks will happen Bellamy knows it will instigate an immediate attack and that only blood will suffice to stop them.
- Clarke is still in Polis as the Ambassador for the Skaikru. Bellamy may be feeling a bit betrayed and abandoned by Clarke right now (maybe) but certainly not enough to change his loyalty and care for her and this will put her in danger. If there is one thing I see as the core of Bellamy it's his loyalty to the people he cares about and topping that list are Clarke and Octavia. He wouldn't knowingly put them in danger. Which speaking of...
- By siding with Pike he has put Octavia in a shitload of danger. He knows that she considers herself more of a Grounder than Skaikru and he has to know that a lot of the people in Arkadia see her more as a Grounder than one of them. She may be from the Ark but she doesn't have the bonds everyone else does from living there. She told him in the last episode she wanted to leave. So what does he think is going to happen if Pike starts a war? He has to know that Octavia won't stay with Skaikru which would put her on the opposite side from him. Plus there's Lincoln who has already been attacked.
It just doesn't work. But it could have worked if the show had Pike convince Bellamy that that army was Ice Nation or that they were going to attack the Ice Nation. Bellamy knows that the Ice Nation is their enemy, he knows they're on the outs with Lexa, he knows they are a threat, and I can see him being convinced that preemptively attacking them is the right move. It's such a small change but it makes such a huge difference for the characterisation of Bellamy and I'm a little mad with the show for going in this really false seeming direction with him.
• I feel like the show made another misstep in not showing us more of how things are in Arkadia because Pike being voted in as Chancellor, and it being "not even close", is kind of surprising and it really needed more build up. Pike's people only number around 20 or so and thus the vast majority of people who voted him in are the original Arkadians. They chose him over Kane or even Abby, why? They've apparently been at peace for the past three months. The glimpses we've gotten of the new town show them settling in and building a new home. We are given no hints of dissatisfaction with Abby or Kane's leadership, or with the idea of peace with the Grounders.
I can certainly buy some of that being there but the important thing here is that we haven't been shown it. If we'd gotten some throw away scenes over the last four episodes of people being unhappy with Abby's decisions, or their fear, or tension with the Grounders, or Pike and his people quietly encouraging all of the above it would have worked better. I mean I can fill that all in - rumours spreading about the Grounder army waiting to attack for instance, that was there. But voting Pike in just felt really irrational and random on the part of Arkadia's citizens
What the hell where Kane and Abby even doing during all this and how did they lose their people's support? We saw some of Abby's failings as a leader in the last episode but it also highlighted all the ways Kane is actually really well suited for that role. Lexa's coup d'etat made sense based on actions we've seen. Kane and Abby's just left me scratching my head.
• Another mistake I think the show made was not in showing us some of the horrors Farm Station has lived through. I now think they should have opened the season with Farm Station landing, the killing of the kids, and a sped through a "training montage" of the Ice Nation terrorising and killing off most of Farm Station as the survivors grow harder. Then take us to Murphy to show the three month jump. It would have given the show an explosive start to the season and it would have given us both insight and sympathy towards Pike and Farm Station.
Other:
• No Raven at all during all these tensions? Not even at the memorial? I wish they'd thrown in a line about her being seriously injured in the blast and Abby confining her to a bed or something similar. Her absence stuck out. Certainly she would have tried to talk some sense into Bellamy.
• So it appears that the Nightbloods are made up of four boys and three girls which is better. But Aden being Lexa's chosen successor as Heda bothers me. I've loved since the first season that Grounder culture seemed to be Matrilineal with the leaders being female. Now we see that's not always true and tbh I'm meh about it. The Ambassador's are made up of more men than women, the Ice Nation now has a king, and Lexa's successor is male and I don't like it all put together.
• Still completely done with Jasper. I really wish that Monty had yelled at him that they've all lost people. Does Jasper even know about Monty's dad?
Other
+ I don't really like Pike at this point but I find him very believable. I buy there being someone like him, reacting like him, because there are always people like that (I know some of them, so frustrating). But I still don't understand how he cannot see that this is going to end terribly for them. He is so freaking short-sighted and illogical. At the beginning it was just who does he even want to attack - Polis, the Ice Nation, every Grounder they come across? Then at the end he gets the power and he still isn't making sense. Arkadia may have superior fire power (but limited in quantity) but they are much smaller in number. What does he expect to happen if he destroys Indra's army? That Lexa will take it as a decisive victory from him and decide to stay away? Clearly the only thing that's going to happen is war. Why the hell does he think they can win it? Against all Grounders? Arkadia is completely outnumbered and it's beyond stupid. For god's sake this is so poorly considered, get some god damn common sense. Ugh, he makes me so mad.
+ I'm skeptical that Pike could take out Indra's force so easily. Sure, guns are a serious advantage and if he does attack he'll presumably now have more than 10 fighters but Indra has hundreds of warriors out there. People who have trained all their lives to fight. Getting caught completely unaware is another advantage to Pike (though seriously why wouldn't Octavia/Lincoln/Kane send warning?) but I still really doubt it would be the unqualified success he's expecting.
+ Of interest: the pillars of the Commander are wisdom, compassion, strength. That's really interesting for a couple reasons: the fact that compassion is one of them, the fact that strength is the last of them putting both wisdom and compassion above it. I really like this look into how Grounders/Lexa see governing. I feel like this also describes Clarke pretty well.
+ Oh, Lincoln, still trying to do the right thing even when it makes things harder for himself. He is such a good person and I am so very worried about him. Even without the Ricky Whittle being cast as lead in American Gods I'd be super worried right now. I have been keeping hope alive that this might be another Lexa/Alycia situation where he can do two shows at once but all the signs this episode were pointing to Lincoln getting killed by Skaikru.
+ Actually I'm so worried about everyone dying ugh stop show. I just know that it isn't going to be Jasper or Jaha who'll die, no it's going to be a character I like. Lincoln feels like he has a target over him. Lexa seriously talks about her death way too much. I'm also super worried about Indra right now. As soon as the vote came in for Pike as Chancellor Octavia and Lincoln took off to warn Indra to clear her people out right? Right?
+ I feel like Lexa should keep a close eye no Ontari. Maybe keep her prisoner at Polis for now. She seems like she was super loyal to Nia and was raised to think she would be the next Commander. That combination is just asking for her to launch an attack against Lexa at some point.
+ I'd love if there was a schism amongst those at Arkadia and Kane lead a bunch of people similar minded people away to create their own group. That would also get around the inevitable death smack down Pike and his people have coming if he actually does start a way.
Half of this episode I loved and half of this episode I found really disappointing. All the Grounder/Polis storyline was great, all the Arkadia/Skaikru stuff was kind of shoddily done, tbh, and I expect better from this show.
Good
• Clarke/Lexa. I continue to love where the show is going with them. I think the thing I love most is that the show is going slow with them. They added in the week time jump to make Clarke cooling down more believable, they're letting Clarke stay cautious while still obviously having feelings for Lexa and are taking the time to rebuild trust. I really liked that their final scene didn't end in a kiss even though the tension was clearly there and Lexa was clearly hoping for one. It'll make it far more believable when they eventually do kiss and make up. In the meantime all the long, lingering exchange of looks they keep sharing are making me happy.
- Lexa introducing Aden to Clarke to reassure her that even if Lexa dies Clarke's people will continue to have an ally and be safe was actually really sweet.
- The build up to the fight must have left Lexa feeling so confused - on the one hand, Clarke was clearly very worried about her and Clarke fighting to try and save her [even going to the extreme of assassination for her] must have felt really satisfying and given Lexa hope that there was still a chance for them. But on the other hand, Clarke clearly didn't believe that Lexa could win which must have been really frustrating.
• "You're driven to fix everything for everyone." - Lexa. That is so true! That is Clarke. I loved that when Lexa tells Clarke that she needs to accept that Lexa might die Clarke's response is "Like hell I do."
• Lexa vs Roan - awesome fight. Lexa's confidence in her own abilities were well founded. I liked the moment where Lexa was forced to grab her blade because Roan is stronger than her. Lexa wielding two swords was great. I liked the back and forth between which of them had the upper hand at any moment. Lexa trowing the spear and killing Nia to end the fight was brilliant.
I have to say my opinion on Lexa as a leader, which went down after the Mount Weather debacle, went back up this ep. I loved how she dealt with Nia's machinations. I love how calm and thoughtful she is as a leader. She uses her anger really well. I liked her choice to fight for herself. I liked seeing her mentoring the Nightbloods. I thought how she chose to resolve the fight was a really smart.
• It's too bad that Queen Nia and her attempts to overthrow Lexa are over already because I was really enjoying both and it feels like a waste of a great enemy. That said her death was excellent. The satisfaction Lexa must have felt in killing her - in finally getting vengeance for Costia, in getting to decisively kill her long time enemy without repercussion - must have been staggering.
• The Clarke/Roan scene was amazing and everything I love. Clarke conspiring, Clarke telling Roan "I want you to become the king.", Clarke as the little devil on Roan's shoulder whispering doubts and urging him on to matricide (yessss). I love how they interact. I love how he ends up being all 'I can't do it but I can help you do it'. I still feel like they could be really good allies.
- Then we have the fact that Clarke actual went through with the attempt to assassinate Queen Nia! That was a little wow. I love it. I also like that she failed.
• I like how much Lexa's people do love her. The silence when she was knocked down, the kids watching horrified, Aden's smile at the end, the cheering for her. That's another similarity between Clarke and Lexa - they inspire loyalty. Lexa with Anya and Justus and Indra and now Titus.
• "I'm done being your punching bag." - Monty. YES! I've been waiting for that for what feels like forever.
• They were only there for a few short moments but it was great to see Miller, Harper and Monroe.
Bad
• There were two points I didn't like this episode [+ Jasper as usual] - Bellamy chosing to sanction the attack on Indra's army and Pike wining Chancellor - which were even more annoying because I think TPTB could have made both believable. Generally I'm pretty happy with how the show moves events along but this is now the third time I haven't bought the emotional framework to a major character direction/decision - I was unsatisfied by the build up to Finn's village massacre and while Lexa betraying Clarke worked for me in itself her betraying Clarke in that way didn't make sense to me.
Bellamy siding with Pike and taking action to attack Indra's army really didn't work for me.
They actually did lay pretty good groundwork. Bellamy has always been very much an 'Us vs Them' type of person. He's impulsive and can be really reckless. That's most of the hard work right there. He was just betrayed by a Grounder he trusted and he feels responsible for the deaths of not just the Farm people but also his girlfriend. He's at a very vulnerable place right now, he's very alone (for some reason) and he has Pike whispering all the right (wrong) things in his ear. That's all good. That all works.
Where the show loses me is Pike convincing Bellamy that killing Indra's army is the right thing to do. What? How? Why? What?
Pike sees all Grounders as the same. They are basically a faceless, scary mass that wants to kill him and his people, which fair enough. It's annoying but that's basically where the 100 were at the beginning of season 1. The thing is Bellamy is no longer in season 1. He knows that the Grounders aren't all the same. He knows Lincoln, Indra and Nyko and that they are good people. He knows some of their language, he knows about the different clans and some of the strife between them. Plus his experience in Mount Weather forced him to face the fact that his enemies are never just a faceless mass of "enemies/bad people", they also include children and good people. So it makes no sense for Bellamy to see all Grounders as one group.
Added to that Bellamy was at the summit meeting when the Ice Nation took responsibility for the bombing, he saw that it was clearly aimed at Lexa, saw that Lexa knew nothing about it and saw her have the Ice Nation representatives taken away. Literally everything points to the Ice Nation alone being responsible for the bombing. So Bellamy knows that not all Grounders are the same and he knows that it was the Ice Nation who was responsible. ... So Pike convincing him that Indra's army is a danger to them makes absolutely no sense.
Added to both those points we also have:
- Bellamy knows exactly how Grounder's work, he has seen for himself how they react to attacks against them. Bellamy was there when Finn was killed. Whatever Pike thinks will happen Bellamy knows it will instigate an immediate attack and that only blood will suffice to stop them.
- Clarke is still in Polis as the Ambassador for the Skaikru. Bellamy may be feeling a bit betrayed and abandoned by Clarke right now (maybe) but certainly not enough to change his loyalty and care for her and this will put her in danger. If there is one thing I see as the core of Bellamy it's his loyalty to the people he cares about and topping that list are Clarke and Octavia. He wouldn't knowingly put them in danger. Which speaking of...
- By siding with Pike he has put Octavia in a shitload of danger. He knows that she considers herself more of a Grounder than Skaikru and he has to know that a lot of the people in Arkadia see her more as a Grounder than one of them. She may be from the Ark but she doesn't have the bonds everyone else does from living there. She told him in the last episode she wanted to leave. So what does he think is going to happen if Pike starts a war? He has to know that Octavia won't stay with Skaikru which would put her on the opposite side from him. Plus there's Lincoln who has already been attacked.
It just doesn't work. But it could have worked if the show had Pike convince Bellamy that that army was Ice Nation or that they were going to attack the Ice Nation. Bellamy knows that the Ice Nation is their enemy, he knows they're on the outs with Lexa, he knows they are a threat, and I can see him being convinced that preemptively attacking them is the right move. It's such a small change but it makes such a huge difference for the characterisation of Bellamy and I'm a little mad with the show for going in this really false seeming direction with him.
• I feel like the show made another misstep in not showing us more of how things are in Arkadia because Pike being voted in as Chancellor, and it being "not even close", is kind of surprising and it really needed more build up. Pike's people only number around 20 or so and thus the vast majority of people who voted him in are the original Arkadians. They chose him over Kane or even Abby, why? They've apparently been at peace for the past three months. The glimpses we've gotten of the new town show them settling in and building a new home. We are given no hints of dissatisfaction with Abby or Kane's leadership, or with the idea of peace with the Grounders.
I can certainly buy some of that being there but the important thing here is that we haven't been shown it. If we'd gotten some throw away scenes over the last four episodes of people being unhappy with Abby's decisions, or their fear, or tension with the Grounders, or Pike and his people quietly encouraging all of the above it would have worked better. I mean I can fill that all in - rumours spreading about the Grounder army waiting to attack for instance, that was there. But voting Pike in just felt really irrational and random on the part of Arkadia's citizens
What the hell where Kane and Abby even doing during all this and how did they lose their people's support? We saw some of Abby's failings as a leader in the last episode but it also highlighted all the ways Kane is actually really well suited for that role. Lexa's coup d'etat made sense based on actions we've seen. Kane and Abby's just left me scratching my head.
• Another mistake I think the show made was not in showing us some of the horrors Farm Station has lived through. I now think they should have opened the season with Farm Station landing, the killing of the kids, and a sped through a "training montage" of the Ice Nation terrorising and killing off most of Farm Station as the survivors grow harder. Then take us to Murphy to show the three month jump. It would have given the show an explosive start to the season and it would have given us both insight and sympathy towards Pike and Farm Station.
Other:
• No Raven at all during all these tensions? Not even at the memorial? I wish they'd thrown in a line about her being seriously injured in the blast and Abby confining her to a bed or something similar. Her absence stuck out. Certainly she would have tried to talk some sense into Bellamy.
• So it appears that the Nightbloods are made up of four boys and three girls which is better. But Aden being Lexa's chosen successor as Heda bothers me. I've loved since the first season that Grounder culture seemed to be Matrilineal with the leaders being female. Now we see that's not always true and tbh I'm meh about it. The Ambassador's are made up of more men than women, the Ice Nation now has a king, and Lexa's successor is male and I don't like it all put together.
• Still completely done with Jasper. I really wish that Monty had yelled at him that they've all lost people. Does Jasper even know about Monty's dad?
Other
+ I don't really like Pike at this point but I find him very believable. I buy there being someone like him, reacting like him, because there are always people like that (I know some of them, so frustrating). But I still don't understand how he cannot see that this is going to end terribly for them. He is so freaking short-sighted and illogical. At the beginning it was just who does he even want to attack - Polis, the Ice Nation, every Grounder they come across? Then at the end he gets the power and he still isn't making sense. Arkadia may have superior fire power (but limited in quantity) but they are much smaller in number. What does he expect to happen if he destroys Indra's army? That Lexa will take it as a decisive victory from him and decide to stay away? Clearly the only thing that's going to happen is war. Why the hell does he think they can win it? Against all Grounders? Arkadia is completely outnumbered and it's beyond stupid. For god's sake this is so poorly considered, get some god damn common sense. Ugh, he makes me so mad.
+ I'm skeptical that Pike could take out Indra's force so easily. Sure, guns are a serious advantage and if he does attack he'll presumably now have more than 10 fighters but Indra has hundreds of warriors out there. People who have trained all their lives to fight. Getting caught completely unaware is another advantage to Pike (though seriously why wouldn't Octavia/Lincoln/Kane send warning?) but I still really doubt it would be the unqualified success he's expecting.
+ Of interest: the pillars of the Commander are wisdom, compassion, strength. That's really interesting for a couple reasons: the fact that compassion is one of them, the fact that strength is the last of them putting both wisdom and compassion above it. I really like this look into how Grounders/Lexa see governing. I feel like this also describes Clarke pretty well.
+ Oh, Lincoln, still trying to do the right thing even when it makes things harder for himself. He is such a good person and I am so very worried about him. Even without the Ricky Whittle being cast as lead in American Gods I'd be super worried right now. I have been keeping hope alive that this might be another Lexa/Alycia situation where he can do two shows at once but all the signs this episode were pointing to Lincoln getting killed by Skaikru.
+ Actually I'm so worried about everyone dying ugh stop show. I just know that it isn't going to be Jasper or Jaha who'll die, no it's going to be a character I like. Lincoln feels like he has a target over him. Lexa seriously talks about her death way too much. I'm also super worried about Indra right now. As soon as the vote came in for Pike as Chancellor Octavia and Lincoln took off to warn Indra to clear her people out right? Right?
+ I feel like Lexa should keep a close eye no Ontari. Maybe keep her prisoner at Polis for now. She seems like she was super loyal to Nia and was raised to think she would be the next Commander. That combination is just asking for her to launch an attack against Lexa at some point.
+ I'd love if there was a schism amongst those at Arkadia and Kane lead a bunch of people similar minded people away to create their own group. That would also get around the inevitable death smack down Pike and his people have coming if he actually does start a way.
