Season 2 Episode 14 – “Bodyguard of Lies”

Two more to go for The 100 season 2 and things are really getting interesting now. As I suspected all of the posturing is done and it’s a straight run to the finish.

None of this comes at the expense of the character moments that make up the core of the show. How the characters feel and their relation to the tricky situations they find themselves in are always at the core of everything that happens in this show which is absolutely the right way to approach things.

A lot of this episode is spent on Bellamy doing his John McClane impression and sneaking around Mount Weather. His mission is to disable the acid fog so that the attack on Mount Weather from the alliance of Sky People and Grounders can have a chance of succeeding. It’s a cool plot that gives Bellamy a lot of chances to show how resourceful he can be. He approaches everything calmly and professionally as well as being given some really badass moments as he improvises his way out of problems.

The scene where Raven and Wick talked him through sabotaging the acid fog was another strong moment for all of the characters involved. I liked the urgency of the scene from Bellamy’s point of view and I thought Raven and Wick nerding out over the technobabble and the anticipation of success or failure was excellent. The explosion that Bellamy narrowly avoided was really silly though, it didn’t seem believable at all.

Raven chose to seek comfort in Wick with the strong possibility of death on the horizon for them. It’s not necessarily establishing a meaningful relationship between them but it made sense as a “we’re all going to die” sort of thing. The aftermath was somewhat suspect given how clingy Wick seemed in contrast to how evasive Raven was. I would think the truth would be somewhere in-between. I don’t think either character was well written when it came to this.

On the other end of the relationship spectrum we had Clarke and Lexa’s growing connection that culminated in a really genuine seeming kiss. The episode didn’t treat it as a big deal in the sense of it being two women kissing and left it as a significant yet normal character moment. It’s 2015 so it shouldn’t be a big deal yet it still is in the eyes of many so it’s worth mentioning.

What the kiss represents is the friendship that has grown between these two as well as their kindred spirit through the burden of leadership. They both challenge each other and there’s a great deal of respect there so it makes sense that Lexa would develop those sorts of feelings. The fact that Clarke seems to share them a little is interesting as well. Clarke tells her that she doesn’t want to be with anyone yet which does suggest that once things settle down -if they ever do- then that position might be reconsidered but for now the focus is on leading the people.

Octavia finding out that Clarke and Lexa knew about the missile strike is an interesting development as is Octavia’s full identification as a Grounder who takes orders from Indra. Octavia has come a long way and it makes sense that she has found her place in the world after living her life for so long without once. Indra’s reaction to the knowledge of the missile strike was great as well. I like that she saw it as a sign of strength in Lexa and puts the decision in perspective. Indra understands the hard decisions that leaders have to make and the conversation with Octavia gives her further lessons in Grounder life.

I thought Jaha’s group and their journey to the City of Light was handled really well this week with some surprising moments. The sequence where they were trying to cross the minefield was very tense and perfectly executed. It was quite a shock to see the body parts rain down on them as well. These scenes evoked a nice sense of camaraderie as the group just talked to keep their spirits up. The jokes were really terrible but in a funny sort of way.

The discovery of the City of Light as a bunch of solar panels was a great moment too. It was interesting to see the group all but lose hope and get angry at having wasted their time on a futile search. Hope is slightly restored when a drone appears and is definitely being driven by someone rather than being automated. It really piqued my interest as to where this story might lead. It’ll probably be the antagonist for next season but I can’t wait to see what that will look like.