The 100 has been gripping, exciting, heart pounding, and all-around fantastic for pretty much the entirety of the show’s run. Little has changed in the penultimate installment of Season 2, as the Grounders and Sky People raced to save their own from Mt. Weather’s clutches.
This week on The 100: Bellamy, Jasper, and Maya continue their work on the inside. Raven and Wick set out to cut off power to Mt. Weather. Clarke, Lexa, Lincoln, and their armies approach the gate, and Octavia and Indra have a team go through the tunnels. In their desperation, Mt. Weather turns to their former leader for a solution that must work for them to survive.
First thing’s first: there were lots of twists and turns in this episode. Lots of twists and turns that left Twitter in a tizzy and ‘shippers screaming at their televisions. Generally, I try to refrain from “shipping,” so that I don’t get so invested that I miss the creative outcomes of a show. I’m sorry “Clexa” fans, but if I were Clarke, there would be zero room for me to trust anyone again, let ALONE Lexa. But hey, I’m a different kind of writer, and I could never rule anything out. Not with this show.
That being said, it helped me appreciate this plot twist so much more. I LOVE that they’ve taken Clarke on such a crazy journey. She killed the person she loved the most to get peace with the grounders. The grounders are with her until…they aren’t. Then, Clarke’s bi-sexuality is revealed just in time for her to be betrayed. Eliza Taylor is a brilliant actress (as is Alycia Debnam-Carey), and she’s given brilliant performance after brilliant performance. I can’t wait to see how her journey continues into the last episode. The writers and production staff have done a brilliant job, and they’ve chosen a brilliant lead character.
When Bellamy allowed Jasper to tag along on mission impossible, it was an affirmation of something that has long been assumed: Jasper is a warrior now. To a certain extent, I think that’s what this show is about: how much does it take for someone to become a warrior? First Clarke, then Bellamy, Finn, Octavia, and now Jasper. I’m loving every single minute of this character’s journey. Devon Bostick has done an incredible job this season, and I proved I’m serious by finally spelling his name correctly. Jasper has been arguably one of the most interesting characters to watch in Season 2.
One of the more fascinating elements of this show has always been Lincoln and Octavia’s relationship. Every couple has their ups and downs, but BOY does this one have a lot of them. Regardless, one of my favorite moments of the episode was Lincoln and Octavia both taking the moral high ground. They both refused to give up, despite their “orders” and whether or not they are Grounders or Sky People. Both characters would rather do the right thing than be accepted into a group, and it’s just a wonderful testament to the strongly written characters on the show.
Once again, I’m left with nothing bad to say. I’m very invested in this show, so every twist throws me for a loop. I always try to predict what’s going to happen in a show. You’d be surprised how often I’m right, but with The 100, I’m always horribly off-target. I love that about this show. Not knowing what is going to happen makes me so excited to tune into each episode. Week in and week out, they produce a well-written episode of television that is gripping, epic, and explores some deeply human issues. I’m not sure what more you could ask for in a show…not that I think they need anything else. (Okay, if I was going to ask for one thing, it would be to make Wick a regular character. Steve Talley has been fantastic, and I’d love to see him every week. *steps off soapbox*) Each week, I am blown away. Well done.
I’m gripped, I’m invested, and I can barely sit in my chair long enough to contain my excitement for the season finale. Of course, that means that Season 2 is over, but hey, I’ve got Season 3 to look forward to, right?
What did you think of this week’s episode of The 100? Were you as gripped, compelled, or surprised as I was? Let us know in the comments!
[Photo via The CW]
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The sad day when The 100 writers chose shock value over logical plot development. I’m terribly disappointed in this finale, especially since I’ve been doing nothing more than raving about this show since the beginning. But this is just plain dumb, contradictory, ”twists!” over good story telling and continuity.
1. One thing has been stressed over and over again: Lexa’s extraordinary and sometimes rutheless leadership because she is strategic and thinks about the larger picture. She accepts sacrifices for the longer-term goals. She will lose a battle and sacrifice some people (like the bombing of Ton DC) for the sake of winning the war. The war is not saving a few prisoner grounders inside Mount Weather, it’s about eliminating the threat for good i.e. eliminating the Mountain Men. Failing to do so, even when saving a few inside, will just result in them continuing with their kidnappings of the grounders/making reapers.
2. Her very speech was about how Mount Weather had cast a shadow over the valley and its people for a century and victory over them was finally at hand. It wasn’t about saving some strander grounders.
3. 250 people were killed in Tond DC, and she let them be killed, so she could rescue…50+ odd grounders inside?!!!
4. She’s stated over and over the strategic importance of the alliance with the sky people (with their skills, weapons, technology) to keep the MM threat at bay, and she would betray and break that alliance over some peeps inside?!
5. They HAD already gotten in, they had subdued those guys with guns on the ridge at the entrance, their grounders were already freeing themselves, Indra’s team was aldready almost in, the lack of power had made the mountain men retreat into level 5 because of the radiation breach, and the total number of guards (given that the total amount of mountain people is like 300 from what Maya once said), means probably not even 100 guards. Their army is in the thousands from what they themselves said. And the sky people have weapons. It was a sure win with few casualties, but the end result would be the END of Mount Weather. Lexa would NEVER make such a ridiculously UN-STRATEGIC move like that! She is the ultimate ‘the means justify the end’ leader type and NOW she decided to save some means and leave the threat untouched, when victory was assured?? I call BS!
6. They just destroyed an entire season of character development of the Lexa and Clarke relationship. Thy had taken such care in building this give-take dynamic, of them learning and changing because of each other, and now they send it down the toilet with a betrayal of such absurdity for an ‘oh my god what a twist moment’?!! Why even bother with that scene of invitation to Polis, if they were gonna make Lexa next to unredeemable? No, no, no.
7. They wanted to be so bold and progressive by having an LGBT relationship and leads, spouting how awesome they were in this world of no labels, but as soon as they have their ‘ratings’ kiss, they character-assassinate one of them, so they don’t actually have to develop and show them further? And here I had been raving how for the first time a show had not indulged in queerbating. OH HOW BITTER I feel to have been wrong.
8. The whole season was leading up the this epic war, only to be none?! They just left. And I really don’t care of next episode some get inside to liberate the 44. I wanted at least some battle? All that buildup for nothing at all?! The most ant-climactic finale/season/idea I’ve ever seen and been disappointed by.
9. Lexa has become one of the most facinating characters on TV for me in a long time, for how smart, strategic, conflicted, strong, female character she was portrayed as. Now this makes no sense on any level. Not that she should have put Clarke over her people, but over logic and strategy, over alliance, over whatever honor their supposed to have. Betrayal is suddenly just fine?
10. Aren’t the grounders driven by their ‘blood must have blood’ philosophy, where vengance/blood justice is law? Where the mission wasn’t only about saving the people inside, but getting rid of the threart AND making them pay with their blood? And nothing? They broke their own law? Wasn’t that the title of the episode?
i’ve usually praised The 100 for how well thoughtout plot and character developments have been, for how good their continuity and attention to consequences and long term thinking was. Tonight I lost my faith in this show when it chose ”shock” over quality and destroyed the very premises of what made this show great. It certainly killed my enthusiasm for it. Don’t think I’ll be even watching part 2 of this ‘no blood, no climax, no sense’ finale. Incredibly bummed out. :(
I think you are wrong in one assumption: Lexa basically won the war for her people with minor loses The deal was not only about getting the captured Grounders back. When Cage “cures” his people with Sky People bone marrow, the Mountain does not have to capture Grounders and create Reapers anymore. So – she removed the MM threat and destroyed Sky People as competitors and potential enemies. And more – we do not yet know the details of the deal Dante offered her. So – this is a ruthless and cold decision, but it is in accordance with Lexa character to choose her people over love. And worst – Clarke deep down understands it…
Agreed! Thanks for reading!
So wrong !! This was not a ruthless call but a weak one !! The MM did not need the Grounder prisonners anymore since they were using ark people bone marrow ; That can’t be Lexa not with that character build up ! Don’t forget that the sky people never been a threat for the Grounders : look at their army for god sake ! They would have been wiped out if Clarke did not come with an offer to go to war against the MM !! Now what is the strategic point of letting their true enemy go to the Ground ?
I think the deal was: you either continue the attack, loose half your people in fighting in the tunnels and risk last moment firing of missiles on several other grounder willages, or you retreat, get your people back and know MM will not need any more Grounders for blood or for turning into Reapers. At the same moment Emerson probably told Lexa they know about Grounder prisoners released by Bellamy and that there is very little chance to win this war at any reasonable price. The decision was clear then.
To understand this you just have to forget your emotions (also as wievers :-) ) and use only your head….
The question is – what next? My feeling is someone kills Cage (Lincoln?) and Dante makes deal with Abby about bone marrow transplants… We just have to wait and see… ;-)
need spotters to guide missiles but yeah the deal was probably that kind of deal. And yes, at the time, she made the right decision but this is a good move just in short term. Even if the deal has been made, allowing the MM to strenghthen by using ark people bone marrow, is it really a smart move ? That will allow them to get access to the ground and obviously to be abble to deploy more spotters to guide missiles….The deal hold only if you’re really abble to trust them. What will prevent them to cut off that deal and to come to Grounders territory with all their army and their technology ? Can you really thrust them, the ones that used your people like that, those who wiped out a village ? If betraying allies is a way to protect her people, it will be smart from Lexa to find a way to eliminate that threat once and for all. Once she got her people back, Lexa should use that window when the MM feel secured to sneak right in. So I hope for something else……
I am not sure, but I am certain spotter was needed in TonDC to signal that all target persons are on spot. The position of Grounder willages is probably known and a despearte strike is very probable…
Anyway – with inside Grounder “army” out of picture any attack would become terrible slaughter. We saw what few gunmen could do at the entrance. I am certain Grounders would loose as much as half their warriors. Is that an acceptable price?
The MM are much lesser threat outside. There is probably no more than 100 sodiers among them and it would be long time before they could start any expansion. With Grounder experience in ground warfare the chances are much better balanced, than in a tunnel, where one machinegun can stop thousand warriors (sorry for spelling, I am Czech and too lazy to use dictionary… :-) ).
Even if they knew about grounder villages position why they did not launch another missiles ? They would lose many warriors but that is to be expected in war afterall ; and ark commanders were also there with their guns. The MM will be a much better threat outside with theirs soldiers being cured, missiles, guns and other tech! The deal was not a win : cause the MM don’t need grounders blood anymore and the reapers threat was out of picture since Abby can cure them ; instead of that the MM got what they wanted (ark people) for free !
The MM probably have only limited number of missels and no way how to produce new ones, so they keep them as a deterrent weapon (Dante said so). There is supposed to be less than 400 people inside Mount Weather, so their production capacities are very limited and their technology is mainly from hoarded supplies from before the war. That is for your first question.
Lexa is probably the first Commander in Grounder history who got ANYTHING from the Mountain (“people dont come back from the Mountain” Indra), so this is still a victory – with minimum losses. I think other Grounders will see it same way.
That may be right ; Lexa indeed just make the right choice to spare her people…still if that “peace” hold. But that implies a potentially win for the MM ….at least Clarke and the others will have to do the hard work to set things right in the last one ! Hope for a good outcome for the ark people ; what about the unexpected help to Clarke and a visitor for Octavia ? And Lincoln ? Love the debate : waiting is so hard !
I realy love to speculate too… ;-)
So, what are the options? Mount Weather is severely weakened. They lost the acid fog machinery, their power supply, had to evacuate all of their base short of level 5. There is only one emergency power generator working. They have captive Sky People to get bone marrow from, but it is uncertain, if there is enough for everyone. The treatement takes 48 hours to kick in, there are probably only about 10-15 of them with functionning bone marrow transplant.
I feel Clarke has only one option – find the remaining power generator and sabotage it (may be with the help from Monty?) This leads to a hostage situation – you have my people, but I can kill almost all of yours. Under such ultimatum Cage would have to stop bone marrow harvesting – his own soldiers would rebel, if he would let their wifes and kids die.
Why is Sky People bone marrow so much better than Grounder one? Abby said that they were genetically modified. That makes sence, Ark had to have great scientific capacity at the beginning, only best scientists and technicians get to space stations. So – may be she can provide this genetic modification for MM, so they do not need to kill Arkers? This could explain what she and Kane were doing trying to get to the battle field…
This (curing MM) or complete killing of all MM are only safe options for Sky People. And allience between Ark and Mountain could be a power to be rakoned with…
By the way – where are the remaining Ark stations? We know the fate of five – two collided midair and were destroyed, one (Factory) hit the cliff with only one survivor (Mel), two landed OK (Alpha and Mecha)…
You really did your study on that I admit. Their one advantage is that they need them alive for their bone marrow, so the MM soldiers won’t shoot them at sight. But she won’t have time ni means to go for the remaining generator ; The question is will Clarke be able to do ruthless things to save her friends. Will she change her mind about sparing the innocents (including Maya, Jasper would not appreciate). So Clarke should indeed take hostages, probably Dante, whereas Octavia and Jasper will go after Cage. Cage has captured Abby too that would be tricky. I don’t think Cage will accept any Abby proposal to help for
cure. Rather than waiting for a potentially functionning cure, they will stay on their own, already tested. Why would they switched position now. They are willing to kill them to get to the ground. But Dante position may be interesting, since he respects Clarke. I think Abby was on the way just knowing that daughter was there in the battlefield.
Concerning the others ark stations, it will be interesting to show that in season 3, and Polis I guess.
There are very few positive outcomes. One tragic scenario: Cage kills Maya, sending Bellemy and Jasper into desperation. Then Clarke has no option but let radiation in, killing all MM, including children. If she saves only 10-15 of her people – this is absolute tragedy for her. Saving her friends was justification for all her terrible decisions… The survivors may turn away from her…
I still secretly hope Abby will be able to avoid this by providing other hope for MM civillians. She is for sure the best doctor right now active on the Earth… :-)
The unexpected help may be Indra comming back with Lincoln and some of her warriors. Indra needs Ark help to cure the Reaper, who was someone extremly important for her (her son?), so she has motivation to help.
My hope: Cage will try to escape through the tunnels and will be caught and eaten by Reapers… :-)
But I am sure my guess will be far off the mark and the writers will surprise us!
The others will probably blame her for her idea to make that alliance but I hope they won’t forget that it prevent Grounders to wiped them out in the 2.08. Her difficult decisions made afterwards and that guilt after Lexa decision, will make her ready to do what it takes to save them. Still that burden is hard to bear. I don’t think Clarke will be able to harm the children but she would find Dante. How will she react knowing that Abby has been captured too ? Head over heart ? I don’t know if Indra and Lincoln could be qualified as the” unexpected” help but as Octavia visitor maybe. I hope Cage will get what he deserved.
What Lexa “got” was being played. Did she even attempt to negotiate the release of the Ark people as well? That would have made more sense. And what makes you think the the supply of Arkers is enough to cure all of Mount Weather’s population? They’ll probably still need Grounder blood.
The way I see it, Lexa saved all of her people at the cost of Clarke’s. Makes sense to both her character and the show. Sure, I was shocked, but I didn’t feel like it was shock for the sake of shock. Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting!
Totally agree. Lexa got almost a 100% victory.
You’re wrong in thinking that the number of grounders that were captured and being bled only amounted to about 50. Yes, we as the audience mostly only saw that one section of the room of cages, but at the end of the episode when the camera pans away from Bellamy staring at all the empty cages, you very clearly see that there is something like a massive column of cages that go even outside the camera’s view. That is the second time we see just how many grounders are being held captive – the first being when Jasper and Monty are shown it by Maya. I would say the number of captured grounders easily doubled the amount of lives lost from the bomb at TonDC. The win in getting all those people out alive was worth the loss at TonDC.
The potential numbers goes to the point of the horrific nature of what the MM had been doing to Grounders over time. So why give in so easily?
I don’t see it as giving in, so much as taking a nearly 100% victory on a silver platter.
Keep this in mind: Lexa not only saved the hundreds of captive grounders on the inside, without a single life lost, but she also saved her own army at the main entrance from a slaughtering. That’s because what that army was facing is something the military calls a ‘fatal funnel’. That’s a fancy term for an entry way, and the reason it’s called that – the reason why it will likely kill you – is because it forces you to funnel through a narrow space with no cover. All your enemy has to do is sit on the other side an open fire and you’re dead. While I do believe that eventually it was likely that the sheer number of grounders would have overtaken any potential shooters, I can imagine the loss of life in doing so would have been huge.
Cue the MM who hands Lexa a solution which avoids all that, and promises that no grounders will be captured in the future. Why wouldn’t she take it?
The fact that the MM didn’t offer to free the Arkers as well shows they were happy to break the alliance and to continue with their plans to immunize themselves and take the ground. When you take into consideration all the pain, suffering and death they caused the Grounders, why would such a shallow, short term victory even be considered. The fact (inferred here from what we heard) that Lexa didn’t push for the release of the Arkers is the real story. She was in a position of strength- they came to her. Why wouldn’t she push for a solution that would keep the alliance together and further cripple the MM’s intentions?
The MM didn’t offer to free the Arkers, because *not* freeing the Arkers (in exchange for Lexa’s peace) was their entire plan. They were betting on the fact that Lexa would accept this plan, which is why they made it in the first place.
Lexa wasn’t really in a position of strength. It was going to probably be heavy loses on both sides if they had fought.
The plan wasn’t really about blood having blood, to be honest. The only reason, in my opinion, that Lexa said all that was because her people at the main entrance needed some inspiration and motivation in the face of what was going to be a slaughtering.
I feel like we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this whole debate. Neither one of us seems willing to budge on their positions.
Yes, you’re right. it was part of the MM’s plan. And it was so transparent that Lexa couldn’t have missed the implications. If Cage had approached Clarke with the idea of saving just the Ark people, Clarke would have flat out refused. Lexa is now left with no alliance, no hope of having any sort of relationship with Clarke, the potential lack of faith in her leadership (it is a warrior culture, after all), suspicion from the other clans that her word can’t be trusted, and a pretty much intact enemy on the Mountain.
I think we will continue to disagree. Looking around, there are lots of people who feel the way you; lots that feel the way I do. I guess we’ll find out on Wednesday how it turns out.
Yes, it certainly will be very interesting to see how this all plays out not just for Wednesday but going into season three.
Thank you for the excellent discussion. :)
I totally agree with you ! This deal was not worthy of the Grounder leader ! She wanted a war, a “Blood must have blood” spirit ! She mentionned : “dead will be avenged”, “Mm cast a shadow over these woods for too long” and she just accept to negociate with them : so it’s ok for un entire village to get wiped out for the purpose a winning a WAR ! How is it a win ? Un entire army retreat back off from a threat they have now a chance to eliminate for good just to spare a small group ? So we forget also about the reapers supposed to get cured by Abby ? How is strenghthen the MM by letting them be cured and get the means to go to the ground a smart move at all ???
That is a difference between propaganda slogans and real political decisions. Look at the situation. Lexa saw, that her commanders were less than thrilled by Clarks complex plan, so she had to “pump them up” for battle…
Cause they are basically more willing to go to war in old fashion way; they’re not used to plans like that; but with that kind of decision, how will the other commanders react ? Grounders army retreating without a fight ??
I thought the commanders were less enthused by Clarke’s plan specifically because it would not result in total defeat for the MM. To leave without inflicting any real damage must stick in their collective craw.
I agree with you on that. I feel like the grounders would have preferred the slaughtering of the MM, but Lexa said no so they had to listen to that and respect that. I get the sense that the chain of command is extremely strong. And I’m sure they also understand why Lexa did what she did. Heck, maybe some of them were happy about losing the alliance with the Arkers.
Well said. I agree 100 percent. This was a “Pyrrhic victory” at best.
You have got to be kidding.
The entire writing staff of The 100 ought to be fired. The plotholes have become craters. Ridiculous science and screwed-up timelines and completely un-researched geography aside, they have sacrificed character for plot again and again and again this season, and never more so than last night with Lexa. (Though, Finn’s self-destruction and Thelonious’s pouty I’m-not-the-leader-so-I’m-gonna-take-your-much-needed-guns-and-go…screw-those-kids-in-the-mountain come close.)
Let’s see, the episode is titled Blood Must Have Blood. They have a big chanting “blood must have blood scene.” Her people are ruthless, bloodythirsty, violent, unstoppable. Lexa sacrificed 250 of her own people in a missile attack for the sake of destroying the mountain men (for Clarke it was about saving her people. It was never about that for Lexa.) She knows she needs the sky people to help “cure” the Reapers and bring them back. She’s supposedly in love with Clarke. She supposedly
respects Kane. She has this “alliance.”
So she’s winning the battle so far. They are at the gates, the enemy is on its knees, the mountain is flooding with radiation, the door is opening, they have a small army of fighters inside–both sky people and her people. She has 1800 warriors against maybe 300 mountain men, half of whom are fighters, and probably half again of whom are sick or dying of radiation sickness, and who she knows are weak and ineffectual without their technology, especially against her amazing warriors. The mountain men are on backup power. She knows she has people coming up from the bottom from the tunnels as the ground army floods down from the top and the mountain men will be utterly surrounded, unable to escape.
Further–she knows they can’t be trusted. Knows even if they don’t need the grounders blood, they must certainly continue to use their technology to try to dominate the world. Knows they have slaughtered thousands of her people for the past 97 years. Knows if she does this she will sabotage any chance of continuing to ally with the sky people, whom she might need. She wanted to destroy them enough that she let 250 of her people die a couple of days ago just so she would be able to get in and end them.
And she makes a deal and leaves. For the sake of a few dozen of her people in the mountain.
Why? Cuz reasons, say the writers. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
And I am not talking about whether she made the right decision
or the wrong one. I don’t care if they would have won or lost. It was just
utterly unmotivated based upon the characterization of Lexa from the minute we
met her. It’s the fact that she made it that makes no sense given that she had
no qualms about letting 250 of her people die just so she’d have a chance to
attack the mountain. But she would just completely give up on the
attack–whether it was going well or poorly–to save a few dozen lives? The
juxtaposition of those two decisions is just unrealistic. It wouldn’t matter to
the Lexa the writers established before last night if the odds were for her or
against her. Sending people to fight and die for her is what she does, remember?
My opinion as to why–because the writers want Clarke to be the hero. The writers wrote themselves into a corner that would have meant the warriors won the day, and Clarke had a minor role in it. Can’t have that. So they manipulated, twisted, and made Lexa’s character incredibly stupid, made her act against everything we’ve seen and known about her since the moment she was introduced, all for the sake of where they wanted the plot to go. Who cares that it was completely against Lexa’s character and show canon and all common sense and military reason. The writers wanted it to go one way, so they made it happen, as they have again and again this season.
I’m a writer. This drives me absolutely nuts. But last night I honestly started to laugh at how utterly stupid it was and was cracking up through the last several minutes of the show.
I could do an essay called 100 Ways the Writers have Screwed Up The 100. It really is a shame because I want to love the show. I do love the premise, and the
characters (at least as established in season 1) and see so much potential.
Maybe if it were on a real network instead of the CW they’d care as much about
really good writing as they do about pretty characters. I don’t know. I only
know I’ve watched every episode but, after last night, won’t be watching anymore. Not because I’m bitter, but because it’s gotten so laughably stupid I truly don’t care if the mountain collapses on all of them.
Your argument is based on the idea that there are only a few dozen Grounders that are being held and bled by the Mountain Men. That is wrong. And because I’m lazy, I’m just going to cut and paste what I finished saying to someone else who thought the same thing you did in the comment above:
Yes, we as the audience mostly only saw that one section of the room of
cages, but at the end of the episode when the camera pans away from
Bellamy staring at all the empty cages, you very clearly see that there
is something like a massive column of cages that go even outside the
camera’s view. That is the second time we see just how many grounders
are being held captive – the first being when Jasper and Monty are shown
it by Maya. I would say the number of captured grounders easily doubled
the amount of lives lost from the bomb at TonDC. The win in getting all
those people out alive was worth the loss at TonDC.
Also, I’ll add that those captured grounders were weak and not in fighting condition. The Mountain Men knew they were being set free. All they had to do was open fire on them and mow them all down. Lexa saved many, many people by cutting that deal.
Not sure I agree about the potential ineffectiveness of the Grounders. Look at the disruption Bellamy caused on his own. The Grounders could have presented the MM with a two or three front battle and been disruptive behind the lines. Breaching the back up generator would have ended everything right there.
Maybe, but according to Clarke’s plan, the captured Grounders weren’t supposed to be fighting at all. They were supposed to be led out by Octavia’s group while Lexa’s group did the fighting. Also, even if they did fight, they had no weapons and were up against people with guns. How large would the body count had been, had then fought? In addition, I think the reason Bellamy was so effective was because he not only had a gun but because he was on his own. That gave him the advantage of only having to look after himself, move quickly, change plans/direction on a dime, things you couldn’t do in a large group.
Breaching the back up generator wasn’t the plan. The main focus was on getting out the captured grounders and Arkers. The bonus was going to be killing off as many MM soldiers as possible as part of the distraction to divert resources.
We’re talking about taking on the MM in guerrilla fashion, the type of combat the Grounders excel at. They could pick off MM one by one or in small groups, building weapons from scraps of metal and capturing weapons from the fallen. As for plans, they are usually the first casualties of battle.
Maybe, but you’re still up against guns – weapons that can take you out at a far distance. And the grounders, as we know, won’t touch those. Also, when would they have time to build these weapons? They’d have to take apart their cages, and I doubt they have the time or ability for that.
Well, it would have been a victory for Clarke’s philosophy had they done it her way. It always seemed to me that the commanders weren’t too crazy about leaving MM survivors which really makes their casual retreat so implausible.
Thank god, someone with some sense. I like this show for the most part. Plot holes happen, especially in Sci-Fi. Plot holes are things like glazing over stuff that probably shouldn’t or couldn’t be able to happen. But what happened this episode wasn’t even a plot hole, it was a complete 180 with no logical following to support the decision. The entire MO of the Grounders and Lexa has been the destruction of the enemy – starting from essentially the beginning of this season. Massive sacrifices were made even to get to the wall. The thing that kills me is that the Mountain Men are sitting DEAD RED. The battle was going extremely well, it was going to be a fricken slaughter this show was setting it up. Not even close. There was no reason to even go seek out a treaty. And even for whatever reason there is, you have ultimate bargaining power! “Do everything we say and we will let you live, and you’re lucky we give you that much because we hate you’re guts and have for almost a HUNDRED YEARS.” But instead you take a bare bones deal. This was just so disappointing from a story perspective. I just don’t understand how these decisions get made. Someone on that staff must have said this was not a good idea, right?
I think one thing that I’ve seen a lot of people assuming is that by leaving the MM alone, the grounders are now in danger from them. I don’t believe that’s the case.
Consider this – assuming the bone marrow treatment is able to be given to all the MM, that means now *everyone* can go outside – not just the soldiers. That means children and the elderly are able to be outside.
Personally, if I were a mountain mother, I would be doing *everything* in my power to keep peace with the grounders. The last thing I want to be worrying about is my child being brutally murdered in any sort of retaliation while she was just trying to enjoy life on the outside. The MM are able to go outside now, sure, but the vast majority of them are incredibly vulnerable out in the open. Why pick a fight with the grounders, go after them, try to kill them off, when the risk to yourselves is so great?
It’s not the grounders who are at a disadvantage from the MM. It’s the MM who better pray that Lexa doesn’t change her mind.
I did feel that Lexa’s decision to cut a deal is in line with her character and the development of her character. Also, I am keeping in mind that this is a two hour finale, that we are viewing in two parts. So, the outcome or impact of lexa’s decision I expect to see in the 2nd hour. Very smart of lexa to cut that deal which based on what IVe seen from this character is line with her big picture goals. As one MM said to Cage, “this commander is different”. She plays the long game. That’s her MO. Now with the release of the prisoner grounders, her army will be bigger and stronger than ever. Her alliance with the other clans will likely be stronger than ever. Sure some of them may snicker at the retreat, but she is highly respected and holds tremendous persuasion over the other leaders. Ultimately, they will follow her. Once they get their people back to their respective villages and regroup, they will see that the retreat and deal was the smartest solution. Lexa is a highly confident leader with a lot of conifedence in her own abilities. Afterall, she did unite the clans, something that none of her predecessors were able to achieve. I was a litigation attny for 20 years. had really huge cases that went for years wherein me and my team lost some battles and won others and ultimately won the case (won the war). There are cases where I won more battles than the other side but lost the most pivotal battle and ultimately lost the case (lost the war). And there were all sorts of interesting reasons for that (dwindling resources, e.g, litigation fatigue by my clients, appellate judges who some agreed with our arguments while others disagreed with our arguments etc). I am not saying that being a lawyer is exactly like being a war general. My point is one has to be willing to adjust and have the fortitude to do so in war. All sorts of twists and turns will occur that you will force you tohave to adjust your strategy accordingly. A lot of times you have to adjust your strategy as you learn more about your enemy while in battle. That’s the nature of war, but you have to be open and strategic especially where your enemy has potentially outrésourced you. Now Lexa knows more about their defenses and the layout of Mount Weather than any commander ever has. She knows what kind of weapons they have etc, how many people they potentially still have alive, who is in charge and that there are folks in mt. weather who have always sympathized with the grounders. And her alliance with the Arkwrs is not totally lost. Her love relationship with Clarke might be, but if they united against a common enemy once, they can do it again. So, the alliance is not lost. Remember, Lexa is very confident in her own leadership abilities and power to persuade as all leaders like her are. And Clarke is very similar to Lexa when it comes to fighting a common enemy and pulling resources to do it. Lexa already knows this about Clarke and the Arkwrs (keep in mind that Lexa is well aware that the Arkwrs are at a disadvantage on the ground and she knows that the Arkwrs will need the grounders again should they survive mt weather). She knows more about the ground and other dangers/ enemies out there than clark and the other Arkwrs. So, again I don’t think the writers went off the edge at all. Lexa’s M.O. so far from what I have seen is that she always plays the long game. That’s what makes her smart, ruthless and fascinating as a character. She’s thoughtful, patient and calculating. If the 100 writers allow Lexa character to live beyond Season 2, then get ready for a really exciting and interesting ride! We have not heard the last of Lexa.