The 100 5x12 Thoughts
Aug. 4th, 2018 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaDamocles
Hmmm. I'm feeling pretty lukewarm about this episode, verging on cold. It's weird because I've been loving this season, less so the last couple episodes but still overall positive, and then this episode was so... disappointing.
Negative
+ Clarke shocking Madi - just wtf Clarke! What. The. Fuck! That was straight up child abuse and I am having such a hard time with this. That is not who Clarke is. Everything else I can buy including some other pretty terrible things she did to Madi this episode - from going back on her word and trying to remove the Flame to her using Madi's love to trick her into a hug so she could collar her. But physically hurting her child especially when her entire storyline has been about protecting her? No. It wasn't even necessary! I realise that this is supposed to be Clarke's lowest point (a theme this season) but still no. Some things are not believable, some things are too stupid a writer's choice.
I mean, one of my favourite parts of this season has been the Clarke/Madi bond and everything about their interactions say that they are exceptionally close (understandably) but that Clarke was also a very good mother. Madi is remarkable together and stable and happy, and a lot of that has to be down to Clarke as a mother. But this one action immediately and drastically changes their entire relationship. Except, going by the rest of their scenes, apparently not? During the rest of the episode Madi is sulky and upset but not like her mother just tortured her! She's calm when she's trying to talk Clarke around and when they say goodbye it's all about their love for each other. It's like the shocking never happened and it's kind of bewildering. So for the moment I'm going to do the same thing the show is doing and ignore it ever happened.
Oh, and another part of this that did not work was Clarke's reaction to shocking Madi. It really needed to be "what the hell did I just do?!!?' rather than her resolute 'i did what I needed to, even though it hurts me'. Just all around that choice was so wrong.
+ Clarke finally hitting the point of 'too much' also didn't entirely come together for me and I am not happy about that. I've enjoyed Clarke and Clarke/Madi this season and I trusted in the direction the show was going with her. After six years of isolation Clarke made sense to me. I felt like they leaned too much on "mama bear" and not enough on the damage that isolation caused in Clarke but overall I bought it, I mostly enjoyed it.
With this episode we had all the pieces to make Clarke's change of heart believable for me -- having to turn the gun on Raven, learning that Bellamy survived her betrayal but will die for real without help, learning that Lexa's greatest regret was abandoning Clarke/Skaikru at the mountain, and having her own words "Life should be about more than just surviving." used against her -- and yet it somehow felt... rushed instead?
Here's my main problem, I think - Clarke's issues this season haven't been simply about her overwhelming need to protect Madi at the expense of everyone else but also about her disregarding Madi's own needs and wants. All the above addresses the first part and would have been believable enough. But the second part didn't feel addressed even though Clarke ends the episode letting Madi go save her people (alone at that!) Her shocking Madi was that one step too far over the line for me. That was Clarke physically hurting Madi to keep control of her and the show and Clarke (and Madi!) don't actually address that. Clarke doesn't seem to have any realisation specifically about her treatment of Madi.
I liked the Abby/Clarke exchange but it would have been so much better if instead of "whatever it takes" Abby had talked to Clarke about how hard she found it to let Clarke lead but that she realised that she needed to step back, despite all the parts of her screaming to protect Clarke, and let Clarke do what needed to be done. This could have laid the groundwork for Clarke having the same realisation about Madi.
+ I'm so disappointed with the Clarke/Raven reunion. We didn't even get Raven trying to talk to Clarke, to reason with her. She should have had a bigger role in that scene.
+ I think the episode immediately started on a bad note for me when it quickly became obvious that Diyoza and Kane turned themselves over to McCreary with no further plan. Just -- what??? It's so stupid! It makes no sense! Especially with their shared plotline this season of wanting a better future and Kane changing Diyoza's mind on how to get it. The fact that Diyoza knows McCreary and Kane knows Octavia should have been leading to them working together to take them both out, not just choosing one. And choosing McCreary???
On the Diyoza side she is way too smart for that! She knows McCreary, she knows that he can't be trusted. Now maybe she does have some plan in play that will show up in the finale - if she was using McCreary to take out Octavia and decrease her follower count before taking out McCreary, sure, fine. But if she doesn't I call bullshit. The last shot we had of her in the previous episode was that little smirk. She's strategic and smart and if there isn't a plan I'm going to be really disgruntled. I'm putting a pin in this for now.
On Kane's side, I'm having a hard time with him leading Wonkru into a slaughter. He cares too much for that! He cares about them. They are his people. Even to take out Octavia I can't see him deciding that Wonkru were acceptable losses. Even with the further information we got - that he blames Octavia entirely for forcing him/them to eat the dead, and for Abby's descent into drug addiction and that he is carrying a lot more baggage from that than I realised. I mean even if he thought some of Wonkru would survive to surrender he was still willing to let hundreds die to take out Octavia and her power structure? I don't understand. That's not Kane. Nor is him just accepting everyone dying with no fight. I guess Kane is this season's Finn S2 or Bellamy S3 where they make a decision that I really can't understand and the show does a terrible job showing the lead up to it.
Honestly this whole situation would have been so much better if we'd had Diyoza/Kane come together with Abby/Clarke where they kill McCreary and then hold the cure over his followers' heads in order to use Diyoza's plan to force Octavia into surrender. Or work with Bellamy via radio to take out Octavia. Clarke, Diyoza and Kane all helping McCreary and coming down on his side makes no sense.
+ Octavia's character arc, and Blodreina's fall, also didn't entirely work for me. The last couple of episodes have been showing more and more cracks in Octavia's Blodreina armour and yet it still felt like we needed a little something more to completely shove her over the edge, but I don't know what. It might just be because of my general grumpiness over the episode.
+ "Yes." - Bellamy. Ummm - no. Sorry I don't buy it. Maybe if this battle had killed Monty/Harper as collateral, or others in Spacekru, I could see Bellamy in his grief and anger telling Octavia 'yes, I wish you dead'. And hey, in that moment I'd even buy a part of him would mean it. But, sorry, I don't buy this Bellamy at this moment saying it. Not that regardless of his anger at her.
+ Ethan being the first to die was very - meh. If they'd used him more this season and actually given him a relationship with Octavia, it could have been a shocking opening death. It should have had some meaning and emotion considering his origins in season 4 and relationship with Jaha. It could have tied in perfectly with Octavia's journey in this episode where she promised Jaha in 5x02 to take care of Ethan, did so for six years, only for him to die immediately in her offensive on the valley. Instead, he's basically a red shirt.
Positive
+ Clarke/Madi, and their love for each other, continues to be one of my favourite parts of this season. I adore them. Ignoring that thing that didn't happen this episode they were wonderful.
I loved Madi's concern for Clarke when Echo was choking her. She was really upset watching it and while she's mad at Clarke in that moment she was angrier at watching Clarke hurt and being unable to stop it.
This was great:
"Because you are brave and reckless. And because I was in trouble."
"That’s right. I did it because I love you."
I loved this:
"Clarke. Please I need you."
"You will always have me. I will always protect you. This is how I do that. You're so special Madi. I knew it the day I met you. All this time you thought I was keeping you alive but it was you who saved me. ...I loved her so much but it’s nothing to how much I love you."
+ I like that the last push Clarke needed to change direction was Madi repeating her "Life should be about more than just surviving." That felt appropriate.
+ "I always cared." Clarke's reaction to learning that Bellamy was alive was excellent. She was so affected by learning that her betrayal of Bellamy didn't lead to his death. I also loved her telling Echo "Go save him.
+ I got a lot of Clarke/Bellamy shipper feels from the parallel made between Lexa abandoning Clarke at Mount Weather to die to protect her people and Clarke abandoning Bellamy to die in Polis to protect Madi, and how that was Lexa's deepest regret (because she loved Clarke) and how that then implies that leaving Bellamy was Clarke's.
+ I really like that Clarke tried to save Echo because Bellamy loved her. I like to think that it was also just because Clarke didn't want anyone to die and wanted to minimize the fallout of her actions. But it being mainly for Bellamy is great.
+ Clarke/Abby were lovely. "We're together now. All of us." I really really loved that moment where Clarke embraces her mother from behind and they hold each other's hands. So lovely. I also kind of loved Abby's advice to Clarke - "whatever it takes" - because that is literally Abby's approach to anything Clarke related. I mean it's not necessarily the best advice and Abby skipped the part where Abby had to learn to respect Clarke's agency and the fact that Clarke was going to do things that scared Abby but I guess that's something you have to learn yourself.
+ The conclusion to the little Vinson side-plot worked well, and I thought it was excellent. I knew his attachment to Abby was going to lead to bloodshed but I like even better that it was Kane, instead of Abby as I was expecting, and Vinson's reasoning behind his attack. He liked Abby as he knew her, as the addict, and Kane was in the way of that. Makes sense to me. I loved that Abby killed him with the collar to save Kane and the call back to Vinson telling her that 'it was different to let someone die than to kill them'. Now, because of Vinson, she's done both. And she did it to save Kane. I love it.
+ Bellamy being so completely done with Octavia and being unwilling to accept any blame and any excuses or even her regret was very cathartic. I like that he and Indra had those moments with Octavia where they got to express their anger.
+ Bellamy/Octavia on the whole worked well. I really love that they've now reached a stage where Bellamy isn't going to automatically put Octavia's life over his own. He keeps protecting her, physically, throughout the episode but at the same time he refuses to put that protection above his own well-being. This is a huge step of personal growth for Bellamy but also a step that I think is super important for their relationship going forward. That last moment between them when Bellamy can't help but reach out for her she leaves but then can't say anything was great.
+ I love how the season long parallel between Clarke/Madi and early Bellamy/Octavia came together this episode. Both of them letting go of their need to protect the child they raised at all costs in the same episode was great. Bellamy more so in letting Octavia chose to sacrifice herself, and then with Clarke her finally stepping back and letting Madi be Heda and involving herself in the fight.
+ I'm hoping that we get at least one good Clarke/Diyoza scene and the two of them working together in the finale.
Hmmm. I'm feeling pretty lukewarm about this episode, verging on cold. It's weird because I've been loving this season, less so the last couple episodes but still overall positive, and then this episode was so... disappointing.
Negative
+ Clarke shocking Madi - just wtf Clarke! What. The. Fuck! That was straight up child abuse and I am having such a hard time with this. That is not who Clarke is. Everything else I can buy including some other pretty terrible things she did to Madi this episode - from going back on her word and trying to remove the Flame to her using Madi's love to trick her into a hug so she could collar her. But physically hurting her child especially when her entire storyline has been about protecting her? No. It wasn't even necessary! I realise that this is supposed to be Clarke's lowest point (a theme this season) but still no. Some things are not believable, some things are too stupid a writer's choice.
I mean, one of my favourite parts of this season has been the Clarke/Madi bond and everything about their interactions say that they are exceptionally close (understandably) but that Clarke was also a very good mother. Madi is remarkable together and stable and happy, and a lot of that has to be down to Clarke as a mother. But this one action immediately and drastically changes their entire relationship. Except, going by the rest of their scenes, apparently not? During the rest of the episode Madi is sulky and upset but not like her mother just tortured her! She's calm when she's trying to talk Clarke around and when they say goodbye it's all about their love for each other. It's like the shocking never happened and it's kind of bewildering. So for the moment I'm going to do the same thing the show is doing and ignore it ever happened.
Oh, and another part of this that did not work was Clarke's reaction to shocking Madi. It really needed to be "what the hell did I just do?!!?' rather than her resolute 'i did what I needed to, even though it hurts me'. Just all around that choice was so wrong.
+ Clarke finally hitting the point of 'too much' also didn't entirely come together for me and I am not happy about that. I've enjoyed Clarke and Clarke/Madi this season and I trusted in the direction the show was going with her. After six years of isolation Clarke made sense to me. I felt like they leaned too much on "mama bear" and not enough on the damage that isolation caused in Clarke but overall I bought it, I mostly enjoyed it.
With this episode we had all the pieces to make Clarke's change of heart believable for me -- having to turn the gun on Raven, learning that Bellamy survived her betrayal but will die for real without help, learning that Lexa's greatest regret was abandoning Clarke/Skaikru at the mountain, and having her own words "Life should be about more than just surviving." used against her -- and yet it somehow felt... rushed instead?
Here's my main problem, I think - Clarke's issues this season haven't been simply about her overwhelming need to protect Madi at the expense of everyone else but also about her disregarding Madi's own needs and wants. All the above addresses the first part and would have been believable enough. But the second part didn't feel addressed even though Clarke ends the episode letting Madi go save her people (alone at that!) Her shocking Madi was that one step too far over the line for me. That was Clarke physically hurting Madi to keep control of her and the show and Clarke (and Madi!) don't actually address that. Clarke doesn't seem to have any realisation specifically about her treatment of Madi.
I liked the Abby/Clarke exchange but it would have been so much better if instead of "whatever it takes" Abby had talked to Clarke about how hard she found it to let Clarke lead but that she realised that she needed to step back, despite all the parts of her screaming to protect Clarke, and let Clarke do what needed to be done. This could have laid the groundwork for Clarke having the same realisation about Madi.
+ I'm so disappointed with the Clarke/Raven reunion. We didn't even get Raven trying to talk to Clarke, to reason with her. She should have had a bigger role in that scene.
+ I think the episode immediately started on a bad note for me when it quickly became obvious that Diyoza and Kane turned themselves over to McCreary with no further plan. Just -- what??? It's so stupid! It makes no sense! Especially with their shared plotline this season of wanting a better future and Kane changing Diyoza's mind on how to get it. The fact that Diyoza knows McCreary and Kane knows Octavia should have been leading to them working together to take them both out, not just choosing one. And choosing McCreary???
On the Diyoza side she is way too smart for that! She knows McCreary, she knows that he can't be trusted. Now maybe she does have some plan in play that will show up in the finale - if she was using McCreary to take out Octavia and decrease her follower count before taking out McCreary, sure, fine. But if she doesn't I call bullshit. The last shot we had of her in the previous episode was that little smirk. She's strategic and smart and if there isn't a plan I'm going to be really disgruntled. I'm putting a pin in this for now.
On Kane's side, I'm having a hard time with him leading Wonkru into a slaughter. He cares too much for that! He cares about them. They are his people. Even to take out Octavia I can't see him deciding that Wonkru were acceptable losses. Even with the further information we got - that he blames Octavia entirely for forcing him/them to eat the dead, and for Abby's descent into drug addiction and that he is carrying a lot more baggage from that than I realised. I mean even if he thought some of Wonkru would survive to surrender he was still willing to let hundreds die to take out Octavia and her power structure? I don't understand. That's not Kane. Nor is him just accepting everyone dying with no fight. I guess Kane is this season's Finn S2 or Bellamy S3 where they make a decision that I really can't understand and the show does a terrible job showing the lead up to it.
Honestly this whole situation would have been so much better if we'd had Diyoza/Kane come together with Abby/Clarke where they kill McCreary and then hold the cure over his followers' heads in order to use Diyoza's plan to force Octavia into surrender. Or work with Bellamy via radio to take out Octavia. Clarke, Diyoza and Kane all helping McCreary and coming down on his side makes no sense.
+ Octavia's character arc, and Blodreina's fall, also didn't entirely work for me. The last couple of episodes have been showing more and more cracks in Octavia's Blodreina armour and yet it still felt like we needed a little something more to completely shove her over the edge, but I don't know what. It might just be because of my general grumpiness over the episode.
+ "Yes." - Bellamy. Ummm - no. Sorry I don't buy it. Maybe if this battle had killed Monty/Harper as collateral, or others in Spacekru, I could see Bellamy in his grief and anger telling Octavia 'yes, I wish you dead'. And hey, in that moment I'd even buy a part of him would mean it. But, sorry, I don't buy this Bellamy at this moment saying it. Not that regardless of his anger at her.
+ Ethan being the first to die was very - meh. If they'd used him more this season and actually given him a relationship with Octavia, it could have been a shocking opening death. It should have had some meaning and emotion considering his origins in season 4 and relationship with Jaha. It could have tied in perfectly with Octavia's journey in this episode where she promised Jaha in 5x02 to take care of Ethan, did so for six years, only for him to die immediately in her offensive on the valley. Instead, he's basically a red shirt.
Positive
+ Clarke/Madi, and their love for each other, continues to be one of my favourite parts of this season. I adore them. Ignoring that thing that didn't happen this episode they were wonderful.
I loved Madi's concern for Clarke when Echo was choking her. She was really upset watching it and while she's mad at Clarke in that moment she was angrier at watching Clarke hurt and being unable to stop it.
This was great:
"Because you are brave and reckless. And because I was in trouble."
"That’s right. I did it because I love you."
I loved this:
"Clarke. Please I need you."
"You will always have me. I will always protect you. This is how I do that. You're so special Madi. I knew it the day I met you. All this time you thought I was keeping you alive but it was you who saved me. ...I loved her so much but it’s nothing to how much I love you."
+ I like that the last push Clarke needed to change direction was Madi repeating her "Life should be about more than just surviving." That felt appropriate.
+ "I always cared." Clarke's reaction to learning that Bellamy was alive was excellent. She was so affected by learning that her betrayal of Bellamy didn't lead to his death. I also loved her telling Echo "Go save him.
+ I got a lot of Clarke/Bellamy shipper feels from the parallel made between Lexa abandoning Clarke at Mount Weather to die to protect her people and Clarke abandoning Bellamy to die in Polis to protect Madi, and how that was Lexa's deepest regret (because she loved Clarke) and how that then implies that leaving Bellamy was Clarke's.
+ I really like that Clarke tried to save Echo because Bellamy loved her. I like to think that it was also just because Clarke didn't want anyone to die and wanted to minimize the fallout of her actions. But it being mainly for Bellamy is great.
+ Clarke/Abby were lovely. "We're together now. All of us." I really really loved that moment where Clarke embraces her mother from behind and they hold each other's hands. So lovely. I also kind of loved Abby's advice to Clarke - "whatever it takes" - because that is literally Abby's approach to anything Clarke related. I mean it's not necessarily the best advice and Abby skipped the part where Abby had to learn to respect Clarke's agency and the fact that Clarke was going to do things that scared Abby but I guess that's something you have to learn yourself.
+ The conclusion to the little Vinson side-plot worked well, and I thought it was excellent. I knew his attachment to Abby was going to lead to bloodshed but I like even better that it was Kane, instead of Abby as I was expecting, and Vinson's reasoning behind his attack. He liked Abby as he knew her, as the addict, and Kane was in the way of that. Makes sense to me. I loved that Abby killed him with the collar to save Kane and the call back to Vinson telling her that 'it was different to let someone die than to kill them'. Now, because of Vinson, she's done both. And she did it to save Kane. I love it.
+ Bellamy being so completely done with Octavia and being unwilling to accept any blame and any excuses or even her regret was very cathartic. I like that he and Indra had those moments with Octavia where they got to express their anger.
+ Bellamy/Octavia on the whole worked well. I really love that they've now reached a stage where Bellamy isn't going to automatically put Octavia's life over his own. He keeps protecting her, physically, throughout the episode but at the same time he refuses to put that protection above his own well-being. This is a huge step of personal growth for Bellamy but also a step that I think is super important for their relationship going forward. That last moment between them when Bellamy can't help but reach out for her she leaves but then can't say anything was great.
+ I love how the season long parallel between Clarke/Madi and early Bellamy/Octavia came together this episode. Both of them letting go of their need to protect the child they raised at all costs in the same episode was great. Bellamy more so in letting Octavia chose to sacrifice herself, and then with Clarke her finally stepping back and letting Madi be Heda and involving herself in the fight.
+ I'm hoping that we get at least one good Clarke/Diyoza scene and the two of them working together in the finale.
