The 100 Review: How The Mighty Have “Fallen”

The 100 continues on its streak of strong, wild, and unpredictable stories as it enters into the tenth episode of its third season. “Fallen” served as another electrifying, tense hour that caused shifted alliances and delivered consequences for many of its characters.

This week on The 100: Bellamy must prove exactly where his loyalties lie, but that still might not be enough for Octavia’s forgiveness. Jasper fights against Alie’s growing reign of terror through Arkadia, but loses his key allies. Pike uses Monty as bait to get to the other escapees. Murphy helps Ontari bluff her way into the Commander’s role, without any of the necessary formalities.

As you can see, a lot happened on this week’s episode. After a major death, it’s always really interesting to see the fallout and how that affects certain characters. I expected Octavia to be heartbroken and out for blood, but that entire opening scene with Bellamy was absolutely heartbreaking. But perhaps the best (or at least, the most poignant) part of it was Bellamy understanding her grief and letting her beat him up. I recognized the look on his face, and it was the look of grief on an older sibling. Bob Morley and Marie Avgeropoulos killed that whole scene and dynamic, and were easily the best part of the episode.

That’s not to say the rest of it wasn’t good, but I don’t particularly care for the Alie story at this point in time, and it seemed to dominate the episode. Though the end result, with everyone turning onto Alie’s side, and Jasper being forced to extradite Raven, was a pretty cool sequence of events. Aside from the end of it, I didn’t much care for it. Of course, I’ve said this about stories on this show before, and then fallen in love with them once they’ve reached a certain stage. I have not yet been given a reason to be mistrustful of the show, but I will keep my objectivity for the time being. But until I know what kind of danger Alie presents, or what her endgame is, I’m mostly confused and annoyed by her part of the story.

What I’m really excited for is Raven’s extradition reuniting some of the major players from early on in the show. It will bring together Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, Monty, and Jasper in an effort to save Raven. As a fan of this show from early on, I’m really looking forward to it. Lots of shake-ups and changes have kept this core of characters moving in all directions for some time, but I’m very excited to see where they go in next week’s episode.

I just want to add, briefly, that I like the Ontari/Murphy story WAY more than I thought I would. Rhiannon Fish is a wonderful addition to the show, and Richard Harmon’s Murphy hasn’t skipped a beat. They’re a compelling pair, and I won’t be mad to see more of them.

Just wanted to add this little bit in: I’m not upset with The 100 at all. I know a lot of fans are, but I’m not. Though I don’t always agree 100% with everything the show does, I think that the deaths of both Lexa and Lincoln were justified in the way that the story is told. What I love most about this show is the way that it tackles these things head on. The characters all react appropriately, and then the story proceeds, crippled or not, without the characters they lost. I would much rather watch a show that fearlessly tackles character deaths, than apologetically brings them back from the dead time and time again. I love this show, and I care about the characters, but objectively, The 100 is still a rich, compelling story with lots of gas left in the tank. I’m thrilled that I get to review it each week, and that people read my thoughts.

I’m sure this will open a can of worms, but… What did you guys think? Did you enjoy the episode? Let us know in the comments!

The 100 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW