The 100 Review: “Gimme Shelter” or Die

At this point, it’s a little difficult for me to imagine what a nice, quiet, character focused episode of The 100 would be like. As of right now, I have NO idea. The quiet moments on this show don’t usually last too long. Fortunately, the episodes are still character focused while maintaining intensity and moving the story forward.  “Gimme Shelter” was an excellent change up for some of The 100′ s existing characters, and was still an intense, focused episode.

This week on The 100: Bellamy braves the black rain to save one of The 100 and his father, but is met with obstacles along the way. Clarke arrives on the island, and she, Murphy, and Emori must defend their location. Abby discovers another possible way to survive the radiation, but is need of a test subject. Octavia and Ilian get trapped in a cave together during the storm.

One of the best things about The 100 is how the intensity carries over from episode to episode, but the action and plot of the episodes can be radically different. The over-arching story is still the same (the impending radiation), but each episode manages to be exciting while being radically different. The black rain, for instance, was radically different from the race to get the fuel to Raven last week. But these two plots were approached with the same level of life or death intensity, which says something really incredible about the week-to-week structure of the show.

The 100 also manages to strike that delicate balance between emotional stories and intense action. Octavia and Emori both had emotional, cathartic episodes that moved them past emotional trauma and furthered the story all at once. Though Emori’s story turned out to be more of a stealth play and an expert chess move, both she and Octavia showed incredible range and strength of character throughout the episode. I knew them both to be capable, but this episode was highlight-reel worthy for both of them.

For awhile, I was worried that this would be the first predictable episode of The 100 in some time. One of the qualities I value most in a show is being surprised by (or at least unable to predict) what happens next. Did I know Ilian and Octavia were going to hook up? Yes. Did I know that Clarke was going to offer that mysterious grounder guy as a test subject for Abby’s theory? Yes. But, Octavia’s catharsis was much more important than Ilian himself, and I did NOT see Emori’s twist coming at all. So, I guess you could say it was slightly predictable, but perhaps that’s just because I’ve been watching this show with a critical eye for multiple seasons now.

Here are a few other thoughts:

• I’m glad that Octavia’s love life is moving forward, but I will always (not so) secretly ship her with Jasper.
• Clarke and Murphy are a dream team. I really hope to see more of them working together.
• “Who you want to be doesn’t always win”

I was very impressed overall with this episode. It was intense, emotional, and moved everything forward at a strong pace. I’m excited as ever to see what’s next.

What did you guys think? Did you enjoy the episode? Let us know!

The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on the CW.