“Fallen”

The 100 deals with the fallout of the major character deaths over the past few episodes and moves forward with the surrounding stories.

Lincoln’s death hangs over this episode in really significant ways focused through Bellamy and Octavia’s fractured relationship. The opening scene is really effective at showing just how damaged this is when Bellamy sees everyone return and immediately asks where Lincoln is which causes Octavia to completely lose it and brutally beat Bellamy within an inch of his life. She releases all of the pent up grief and emotion against Bellamy who she blames for much of this happening. He pledged allegiance to Pike so therefore he’s part of the problem. He has been trying to claw his way towards redemption but it’s not enough for Octavia at this point.

I’ve been very critical of Bellamy’s flimsy motivation to buy into Pike’s way of thinking but I’m at the point where I can’t labour the point every week and I have to accept the show for what it is at this point. As far as I’m concerned Bellamy can’t be redeemed but I’ll still talk about how well the steps towards redemption are working within the context of the narrative.

Bellamy’s acceptance of the beating from Octavia was a really interesting choice. He actively prevented others from stopping her as he identified that she needs to do this. The way she practically spat out the promise that he was dead to her was beautifully performed and it was certainly a really powerful way to start the episode.

This episode sees Pike brought down and Bellamy was a big part of that as he went along with the plan to be their hostage before using Pike’s trust for him to be the one to bring him down. Pike is passed onto the Grounders and Kane goes with them while reaffirming his commitment to having his people be the 13th tribe. It’s a positive move but it will probably be a good long while before the Skaicrew are trusted again. Pike did a lot of damage that can’t be undone overnight but this was an important step towards repairing that.

His brief words to Bellamy following the coup are really thought provoking. Kane asks if he was helping them for his sister or if his loyalty had really shifted. The question isn’t answered so the whole thing is up in the air and adds complexity to Bellamy’s quest for redemption. My thinking is that he doesn’t care what Kane or anyone else thinks of him but wants to regain Octavia’s trust. Whether that is possible or not remains to be seen but there should be plenty of opportunities for him to work at it. His aim seems to be confirmed when he assures Monty that families work things out. If we can just forget the flimsy Bellamy motivations and move on along these lines then we should get something compelling out of it.

Since this episode was so busy the Octavia/Bellamy dynamic wasn’t explored as well as it could have been. I’d have liked there to be more time spent exploring the fractured sibling relationship before the plan was hatched. More emphasis could have been placed on Bellamy’s willingness to do whatever it takes to help them trust him again. What we got was good but I really wanted the narrative to slow down and explore the potential.

On the flip side of that I found that too much time was spent with Ontari and Murphy with not enough story to carry the scenes. I did like that some depth was added to Ontari by showing that she was insecure about her ability to lead. She is full of doubt that she isn’t up to the job and spends a lot of time rehearsing ways to make her sound more commanding. That element of sadism is still there as shown by her gouging a man’s eyes out so there are layers starting to appear. It seems that she resorts to violence to cover up the fact that her confidence is starting to fade.

As good as this was there was too much of it. I feel that the information could have been conveyed so much more quickly and I felt that the implied kinky chain scene with Murphy was a little too much. By all means work up to that but I was fine with her starting to become her conscience as well as help her build confidence. The rest could come later and devote more time to the more pressing stories.

The strongest part of the episode was anything involving the City of Light. Raven starts off doing everything she can to shut A.L.I.E. out by way of sensory overload. Lindsey Morgan absolutely nails the portrayal of Raven really strung out and assaulting her senses. I was exhausted just watching her so it was clear how much pain this was causing her. A.L.I.E. seemed really concerned as she tried to convince Raven that shutting her out was impossible before changing her story to the level of sensory overload being unsustainable for any length of time. Basically A.L.I.E. is all powerful and can’t be stopped once the key has been taken though she almost feels as if she has met her match in Raven and admits that she is stronger than everyone else.

Raven has an idea to do some technobabble that can sever the connection  to A.L.I.E. involving the wristbands used to track the vitals of the 100 when they were sent to Earth which concerns A.L.I.E. who immediately orders them destroyed. The response to Raven’s rebellion is absolutely brutal with A.L.I.E. brutally assaulting her with all of her painful memories at once which causes her to eventually break -though not without one hell of a fight- and allow A.L.I.E. to possess her. Lindsey Morgan really brings her A-Game in this episode as she puts across the brutality of the pain she is feeling by reliving all of those terrible memories to become so eerily sedate when A.L.I.E. takes over. She perfectly copies Erica Cerra’s mannerisms while still seeming like there is a piece of Raven in there.

The attempt to bring Abbie into the fold by causing Raven to slit her wrists and quickly bleed out. Abbie’s dilemma is simple; she can keep her free will and watch Raven die or she can surrender and save Raven. Ultimately she chooses to help Raven and surrender to the growing cult. From that point on I was sure that Abbie had found some way to fake it but the end of the episode suggests that this isn’t the case. It’s possible that she still is but we will have to see. There was a lot about the final moments of this episode that reminded me of the influence Jasmine had in the 4th season of Angel.

Just when the situation seems hopeless we have Jasper to the rescue who knocks out Raven and escapes Arkadia with her in tow. Clarke showing up at this point felt a little too convenient but it was good to see her interact with Jasper again after them being apart for so long. I loved when Jasper called her the “angel of death”; it’s so cruel yet so true even if he meant it as a joke. Next week should be exciting!

Verdict

A great episode that moves various plots forward in really engaging ways. As long as Bellamy’s previous murky motivations are essentially ignored then the episode does really good work on his relationship with Octavia. Ontari is gaining layers as a character but too much time is spent rehashing the same content that had been established fine in earlier scenes. The City of Light story as well as the brutality surrounding Raven’s treatment by A.L.I.E. is incredibly well handled and is shaping up for plenty of excitement.