The 100: An Episode of Dead Ends

By Lindsey Ferreira
 
As a fan of The 100, it’s becoming harder and harder for me to find something to write about each week. So far this season, the plot has been so broad but there hasn’t been a lot of action; each episode seems to have less than the previous one. To me, the latest episode entitled “The Four Horsemen” was the slowest of the season. It was an episode full of dead-end plots, each lacking the usual depth that the previous seasons of The 100 had. Though the episode ended on a hopeful note, most of the decisions made in the episode were insignificant. I would say the two biggest plots of the episode, the radiation poisoning and Jaha’s search for the bunker, halted character and plot progression. Much of the episode was dedicated to Abby and Raven arguing about whether or not to give Luna and her people medicine to combat the radiation poisoning, and even after they finally gave it to a young girl, she died nevertheless. The other biggest plot point of the episode focused on Jaha, Clarke, and Bellamy searching for a bunker that could save all of their people, but they found that it was compromised and wouldn’t be able to save anyone: another wasted storyline.
 
“The Four Horsemen” also highlighted Clarke’s next major decision: making a list of people that will be saved from the imminent end of the world, choosing to prioritize only 100 lives out of 400-500 Sky People. Not only does she have to pick and choose who to save and who to sacrifice, but she will also have to do so in 2 months. In the latest episode, Raven revealed that instead of having 6 months to find a solution, something Bellamy was depending on last week when he destroyed something that will save them, they will only have 2 months of survivability. I thought that upon learning that they had lost 4 months that the episode would pick up the pace, but this episode lacked action.
 
I’ve touched on this a few times over the past two weeks, but it seems like the show has been reducing Clarke from the main protagonist to a side character. For 2 episodes in a row, Clarke has had a passive, background role which is completely opposite to the first and second seasons of the show. Clarke’s saving actions were always in the forefront of The 100 and she was always the main focus, with the audience seeing everything through her eyes. Now she has been removed for most of the action of season 4, letting other characters carry out more important roles. Like earlier seasons, Clarke is still given the hardest decisions to make and has the future of humanity on her shoulders, but instead of being in a majority of the scenes each episode, she has been in the side-plots.
 
While Clarke is sidelined, Luna has surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) been given an incredibly important role: the much-needed savior in a hopeless situation. I will say that I’m a bit upset that she has been given this elevated role after being in just 2 full episodes. Last season, her introduction was promoted so much but her reveal was kind of a letdown. The revelation at the end of “The Four Horsemen” was not that much of a surprise. Since the beginning of season 3, we have known that nightblood was special, especially when we learned that the Flame could only accept a person with nightblood and would kill anyone without it, causing Clarke to get a blood transfusion in the finale. So finding out that Luna’s nightblood could be the answer to surviving the inevitable end of the world was not that surprising. Since she refused to take the Flame last season, it will be interesting whether or not she will help Clarke’s people now. Since we are only 3 episodes into the season, I think there’s a possibility that Luna will refuse to help them again.
 

Here are some of other thoughts I had about the episode:

-As the plot progresses, I will be interested to see who was on Clarke’s list. Are there Grounders on it? Can we expect any of the major characters to be left off the list? It looks like she will be confronted by Jasper about it next week, but it will be interesting to see who Clarke chose to save and who she decided to sacrifice.
 
-I really like that Octavia has been separated from the Sky People for most of the season so far. She seems to be appreciated more by the Grounders than the Sky People and I love her relationship with Indra. She’s really become an integral character this season. I really miss Lincoln though.
 
-Considering we know so little about Indra (where was she for most of the second half of season 3?) finding out she has a daughter was a surprise. Before Indra’s daughter was revealed to be the Flame thief, it was comical to see her hooded-figure hold up the Flame, the most important, sacred, and sought after object in the show right now, in the middle of a busy street crawling with possible threats. It will be interesting to see how Indra’s relationships with her daughter and Octavia progress this season. I hope we learn more about Indra and her daughter soon.
 
-I love the character parallels in The 100, especially the parallel between Murphy and his father. We don’t usually hear about life on the Ark, so when Murphy stole the medicine for Abby to give to Luna’s people, it was a nice callback to Murphy’s father who was executed for stealing medicine to save him back on the Ark. I hope sometime this season we get to see flashbacks of life on the Ark and maybe flashbacks of Indra and her daughter too.

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