The 100 Review: Do the People Have a “God Complex”?

Though most episodes of The 100 are tense and exciting, “God Complex” approached that differently. Rather than being tense in an action-packed sort of way, this episode ramped up the dramatic intensity. As each character grows more desperate to save their loved ones and all of mankind, compromises and sacrifices are made and tensions boiled over, but overall the show remains compelling as ever, giving new characters a chance to shine. The scope of these particular missions has The 100 operating at its highest level of intensity yet, and boy is it a blast.

This week on The 100: Clarke struggles with her humanity as the first test subject for manufactured night blood fails. Emori is selected as the newest human trial, but there is some debate about the methodology. Jasper tries to help Bellamy let loose, as the end is nigh. Jaha, Kane, and Monty seek Indra’s help to find another bunker that Jaha believes is still hidden.

I’m aware that my raving about The 100 gets old after awhile, but they’re still finding new ways to impress me and keep me interested. Fighting against the ticking radiation clock allows swift movement from one story to the next, and allows the show to operate at a continuously high level of intensity. Short seasons, apocalyptic drama and a no holds barred, no one is safe premise make The 100 consistently one of the best shows on television.

The emotion that overcame me during this episode was excitement and intrigue, as I am genuinely curious how the people are saved. I am willing to bet that two or three methods of saving themselves become prevalent in the 11th hour, and we will see the groups further divided, or divided differently, when the show returns. Of course, I would be tempted to predict that the nature of this show would kill all of the characters off, but we already know that The 100 has been renewed for Season 5. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate misdirect, though? To kill of every character of an already renewed show? I digress.

Rather than action, “God Complex” was jam-packed with emotion. As the people get more desperate to save the world, compromises are made and glass cases of emotion are shattered. In particular, two scenes stood out to me. The first was the scene between Jasper and Bellamy. Even though Jasper is a lost cause and has gone full “yolo”, he sees that Bellamy is carrying heavy burdens and wants to help him. The second was even more heartbreaking, and that was Murphy’s pleading with Clarke not to test the formula on Emori. I constantly find myself impressed with the acting on this show, and I love Richard Harmon, but this may be the best scene he has ever done. Nothing like Emori could ever cut all of the sarcastic jerk out of Murphy in such a way.

Here are a few other thoughts:

• I was glad to see Clarke make the right call as a leader and inject herself with the stuff. It was the responsible thing to do and shows her maturity as a leader.
• Okay, so now that Jaha, Kane, and Monty found this new bunker, I’m going to ask what I was (and hopefully others were) thinking: How many people fit down there? Certainly not all the grounder tribes and Skaikru. Someone’s still gotta go

I found this episode to be a rich dramatic story, with tense, exciting moments at every turn. The 100 is constantly finding new ways to tell compelling stories and stay fresh and unpredictable, and I can’t overstate how incredible that is.

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

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