The 100 5x10 Review

[iaria]

The Warrior's Will

I really enjoyed it.

Octavia and the Bunker

• I'm so happy that everyone survived. That shocked me more than any death would have. I was on the edge of my seat during that fight - which was amazing. I love how all three of them went in with completely different goals. I loved Bellamy's 'damn it' when his will to live overrode his desire not to fight. The Indra vs Bellamy fight was great. I loved Belamy tackling Gaia when she tried to kill Octavia though I'm not sure if it was the reason she failed or not. Octavia's complete lack of fucks at it and casual turn of her head from the incoming spear was great.

• I've never thought there was a chance Octavia wouldn't survive the season but after this episode I'm no long so sure. I'm also pretty worried about Abby. Both of them had suicidal imagery - Octavia when she held the glass to her arm and then Abby with her daring McCreary to kill her and ending the episode unconscious, potentially from an overdose. Other than Jaha we haven't had any major deaths so we're due some. I don't want it to be either Abby or Octavia but I'm most worried about Murphy, Monty, Madi, Emori and Indra. So if it came down to it, those five are the ones I most want to survive. I'm not worried about Clarke or Bellamy. Or weirdly about Raven. Ugh, this show can be so stressful.

• "Come on, your family’s waiting." ♥ Awww! That made me so stupidly happy. I mean yes, sad for Monty that his dream died but family! I loved Bellamy holding out his hand and helping Monty up. Plus Monty does still have some algae so I'm sure that's going to come back into play.

• I loved Octavia this episode. MA was amazing. It's interesting because she was pretty terrible - in the end choosing her power and Blodreina persona over her loved ones, and her setting the fire to remove everyone else's options - and yet, even as I was enjoying everyone serving her some hard truths, I found her so sympathetic.

• Octavia burning down the hydrofarm and all of Monty's algae plants was... wow. What the fuck, Octavia!? Poor Monty! He did so amazingly well in such a short time and was working so hard to save everyone peacefully and then Octavia set it on fire. ): On the positive side, she didn't burn Monty alive unlike Cadogan/Becca so yay?

• Monty rushing in the save the day like the most awesome deus ex machina was excellent. I love, looking back, that he asked Octavia 'what if' he was working on a rescue plan. I love Monty's fearlessness with her - calling her a dictator, telling her no, calling her out in front of everyone.

• I loved that shot of Bellamy smiling touching Monty's shoulder mirroring Indra doing the same to Gaia in the foreground.

• I loved Indra’s little cheek touch to Gaia and Gaia grasping her mother's arm. Lovely little moment.

• Octavia/Indra scene was so wonderful. I loved everything about it. Some points:

- Indra apparently finding religion is a surprise. "It was. Now it’s not." I’m curious about just how deep this new belief goes.
- "I gave you nothing. The strength was already there." ♥
- Indra separating ‘Octavia’ her Second from the Blodreina, was great.
- Indra calling out Octavia on doing this for herself not her people so good.
- I loved Indra’s teeth barred "why are you here?", the silent helpless look Octavia gives back (she depends on Indra so much!) and how Indra knows immediately what’s happening.
- "Give me another option. Indra, please." ): I love them so much. I love that Octavia went to Indra for advice about what to do. I love how utterly uncompromising Indra is. She is not going to hold Octavia’s hand through this, she is not going to make it easier, she is not going to let Octavia’s sidestep the truth of what she is choosing to do.
- "I won’t be losing a daughter. Gaia will win. I will have her take my life right after I take your brother’s." Octavia’s expression was great. Indra’s too.

• Octavia/Bellamy were also wonderful.

- That moment of her standing in the fighting pit remembering Bellamy, the love and hope and joy he brought to her, intercut with the ways people died and killed in the pit was excellent.
- Octavia trying to reach Bellamy with a story from their past - aww.
- Like Indra, I loved Bellamy calling out Octavia and refusing to make it easy for her. His incredulousness over her still planning to go to war, calling the Red Queen a joke, telling her that he will refuse to fight and if she chooses this path it’s choosing to watch him die.
- This exchange hurt a lot:
"So you came here to help me kill the woman who made you who you are?"
"I love Indra. I do. But she’s not my blood. You are."
Finally getting to hear Octavia say she loves Indra, it being in this context, Octavia’s love and loyalty for Bellamy being this strong! I love it even as I’m going ‘ouch my heart’.
- "I wish that I could have been here to take the burden off you the last six years. But I’m here now." ♥

• Octavia’s breakdown after leaving Bellamy, ouch. There were some great shots of her and the broken mirror – symbolic of Blodreina falling apart or showing that Blodreina has always been an Octavia fractured and broken by what she endured?

• Bellamy/Indra had a couple nice moments. I liked her 'reassuring' him that she would make his death quick, and them complimenting each other on their fight afterwards, and I love that Indra stayed behind for a moment in order to have a short exchange and hand grasp with Bellamy first.

• Octavia naming Gaia ‘sister’... see I like that moment a lot but it also fell flat because the show hasn’t given us the background for it. When Octavia labels her "sister" she is doing it from her own perspective but the two of them have barely interacted this season and nothing we've seen indicates that sort of relationship between them. It's absolutely possible for the show to have believably done so - six years trapped in the bunker is a long time - but they didn't give them the screen time and I'm really sad about that.

• Brell is really interesting. She’s not afraid to show her true loyalties to Octavia’s face, even as she is afraid of Octavia. She doesn't believe in Octavia and yet she helps her to keep power and was pointing her gun right along with Miller when Gaia attacked Octavia.

• I love that shot at the end where you have Gaia and Indra, with the two most visible people behind them women, and then Brell joins them and for a shot it’s just all women on screen. I love Indra's "I'll be right behind you" and Brell coming in to add "So will we" as Gaia leads her group to find their Commander. I love the team-up of these three women and Gaia leading her fraction to support Madi. Octavia may have all 'her' people marching behind her but it's two separate armies and she is only putting off the inevitable civil war.

• Poor Harper, back being Monty's supporting shadow. I mean it's great that she always has his back but I wish she had more than that? I did like that little Harper/Bellamy hug in the background.

Clarke and Madi

• I loved the opening Clarke/Madi fight. That was such a mom vs teenage daughter fight. I didn’t even mind Clarke pulling Madi down the sand dune because it really emphasised how out of control Clarke is feeling and acting, and because she was a upset herself about it and worried about Madi. I also loved their last fight especially this exchange: "Okay" / "good" / "fine" LOL!

• "You are my child. And I will protect you with my life." ♥ I'm really delighted that Clarke finally referred to Madi as he r child, not just her family. That's how I've seen their relationship and yet we hadn't had it stated straight out. I really want Clarke to introduce Madi to Abby as "mom, this is my daughter, Madi."

• I’m glad that Clarke had an actual plan, that she was still working on stopping the war, instead of just running away with Madi.

• "I can’t destroy it." ... uh, why not? Is the implication here supposed to be because the Flame is the last piece of Lexa? Because if so, I am super annoyed. That is not a viable reason. It made sense in seasons 3 and 4 but not after six years when Clarke has had time to heal and when Madi has become the centre of her life. Clarke betrayed Bellamy, living alive Bellamy who she talked to everyday for six years, to his death to prevent Madi from taking the Flame! But she won’t destroy the memory of Lexa stored in a chip even if it will prevent Madi from ever having to be the Commander? No, sorry, that doesn’t make any sense.

Now clearly the show needs to keep the Flame in play for the finale but there had to have been a better reason for Clarke not to destroy it. Like, her deciding to respect Madi's agency or even just deciding that she isn't willing to destroy the Flame if the cost is losing Madi.

There's an overarching theme connecting the three storylines with Octavia, Abby and Clarke (to a degree) with all of them failing in some way or another as the extremes they’re willing to go to leave them reaching their lowest points. (Sort of.) Octavia got her wish but at the expense of sending her loved ones to fight to the death and then destroying the hydrofarm. Clarke betrayed Bellamy/Indra/Gaia to their deaths and got physical with Madi. Abby let someone die that she could have saved so she could have her pills and didn't care about the fate of everyone else (including Kane and Raven!) I like the parallels a lot but the Clarke side was already weak enough that they should have just given her a better reason for not destroying the Flame.

• I did like the mention of Lexa and the way Clarke looked when she asked about her. We know that the Commander’s speak to the current one so I wonder if this means Lexa 'speaks' to Madi and what exactly she says.

• This episode showed some of why Clarke has been so frantic and unyielding about Madi being Commander and I think it was really needed. The pain to Madi from the memories and the voices of the other Commanders, the Commanders influence on Madi [her so coldly slitting the prisoner's throat!] and how that could/will change her, and of course the fact that all the Commanders have died horribly.

• That Becca dream was a full on memory that Madi lived as if it was Becca. I really didn’t think it would be that real/detailed. Is it just Becca? Cause that could get awkward if later Commander’s were included, lol! Clarke knew immediately that it was a memory was that because Lexa told her that truth about Becca or just because she’s seen Lexa go through a similar

• Cadogan burned Becca alive?! Wow. I hope the last episodes give us some more backstory here. How does the Grounder reverence for Becca Praimheda come into play if she was burned at the stake? Did someone find the Flame (!) from the ashes and Cadogan decided to use it to cement his power over his people by creating a mythology around it? I’m curious about how that would work considering he killed her. Becca wanted to use the Flame to save everyone – by making everyone nightbloods? Madi tells Clarke that the other Commanders wanted her to see and feel it because that’s how it works but why? What purpose does it have? I wonder if Madi, raised by Clarke in isolation and without the culture that had been built up around the Flame, will see something crucial in it that the other Commanders missed?

• I loved Clarke calling Madi ‘honey’.

• "It’s how Bellamy saved you. I mean by now he’s probably dead." I loved Madi’s jabs and Clarke’s expression.

• I also had an issue with Clarke taking Madi with her into what she knows is hostile territory. She knows McCreary isn't a good guy - she just watched him murder a bunch of defenceless people and he's the one who tortured her. So why would she bring Madi with her into the middle of 'his' area? Her whole thing is keeping Madi safe so why not leave her in the cave to hide? A short exchange where Madi refused to stay behind is all I needed.

• I hope Clarke throwing the jars of worms out into the desert isn't going to come back around to haunt her.

Abby

• I loved Abby's defiant snarkiness with McCreary and her being completely unwilling to budge on helping him.

• Abby choosing her pills/addiction over saving someone's life, was sad. Hopefully this is finally rock bottom and with Clarke back at her side in the next episode Abby will finally begin to claw her way back up.

• Abby calling Vinson in by shocking him, lol.

• Soooo Vinson is scary and a killer and yet I'm still really enjoying Vinson/Abby. The first thing he says to her is to reassure her that her people were okay which is sweet! He doesn't get at all angry about her shocking him, he seems to genuinely like her and want to help her. Fingers crossed again that this doesn't end in Abby getting eaten.

• Vinson sniffing Abby made me think Hannibal, also he threw a pun in there and then he ended the episode by killing Abby's guards via ripping their throats out with his teeth so, okay than! Hannibal it is.