The latest episode of The 100, “The Stranger,” has some great imagery, although the plot starts to fall a bit if you think about it too much.
With Bellamy now supposedly on the wrong side, Clarke, Octavia, and Echo must confront him, while Shedheda tightens his grip on Sanctum.
With the palace in his full control, Shedheda begins his reign by eliminating any threats to his power, as well as anybody who doesn’t bend the knee to him. The Eliguis prisoners bow to him but not the Children of Gabriel. He shows no remorse when he orders them all dead and makes an actual throne of bones from their corpses.
It sounds intense and terrifying, but a lot of this happens off screen. The throne also includes bones that look decades old, so I guess he had to use some spares to finish the thing. Either way, it sends a message.
John and Emori have hidden some people who refuse to swear to Shedheda in the reactor room. While Shedheda hunts for them, Maddie talks with some of the other kids and teens about their situation. Before, Maddie always ran fro her past, but there calms the younger crowd with incredible stories of Old Earth and the grounders.
Anyway, when Shedheda discovers he cannot get to the traitors before Emori blows up the reactor and kills them all, he takes John hostage and decides to wait it out, as resources are diminishing quickly.
On Bardo, Bellamy tries to reconnect with his friends, but his conversations feel more like interrogations. He has fully committed to the Shepard’s way and tries to get the others to see it as well. He goes room to room talking with his friends until he orders them to do a neural link so they can get the information from him directly. That goes on until Clarke agrees to take the Shepard to the Flame if her friends are released. He agrees and everyone besides Clarke, Bellamy and Raven are sent to an unknown planet where they are supposedly safe, while the rest appear on Sanctum. It’s pretty funny for Clarke to finally return home only to find Shedheda on a throne of bones with John at his feet. Her confusion is very real.
There’s a problem with a lot of this: the Shepard and the people of Bardo want the Flame to help fight their war. Clarke and her friends only want to save themselves and their people and get back to Sanctum. The Shepard, Bill, has been honest and straightforward about his intentions and is quick to agree to any deal with Clarke and her friends. It’s only because many Disciples have died at the hands of the people from Sanctum that they are kept prisoner.
This is where holes start to show. The Flame serves no purpose now that the Commander is no more, and the Last War is going to be fought on Bardo between an unknown enemy and the Disciples of the Shepard; it has nothing to do with anyone on Sanctum. The entire conflict between the people of Bardo and Sanctum is based on the melodramatic decisions of a few people. Both sides can get what they want without losing any more people. It seems to me that the idea was to paint Clarke and her friends as potentially the bad guys as they face a more advanced civilization, but instead it’s become an empty conflict that doesn’t move forward unless someone acts very irrationally. It’s a good idea executed poorly.
Grade: C
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