The 100 Season Three Finale Review: The City Of Light Paints A Bleak Future

I’ve been a fan of this show for a long time now. Let’s just say that the season three finale of The 100 is exactly what I expected from this show. Each year the mythology deepens and thickens, and the characters become deeper, more mature beings than the previous season. Rather than falling into any sort of trope, The 100 constantly makes decisions that keep the audience guessing, and keep the stakes of the show at a constantly high level. This episode was no exception to that, and was everything I hoped it’d be.

This week on the season finale of The 100: Clarke takes both AI systems into her body, so that she can infiltrate the City of Light and shut down Alie. Jasper, acting as part of Alie, threatens Harper to stop Monty and Raven’s assault. Abby is freed from Alie’s clutches. Octavia, Bellamy, Abby, Pike, and Murphy must work together to give Clarke the time she needs, which proves to be especially frustrating to Octavia. Clarke is “reunited” with Lexa.

This episode really was everything I hoped it’d be. The use of Lexa within the AI to get Clarke where she needed to go was a wonderful device for several reasons. First, it was a powerful emotional device for Clarke. Lexa’s death was something she hadn’t really dealt with yet, but you could see her reconciling it within the episode. Eliza Taylor’s facial expressions and actions can say so much without any dialogue that it really drives home the emotional beats and makes everything clear. Second, the use of Lexa was a clever way to both give Alycia Debnam-Carey an encore after an unceremonious exit, and pull the “spirit of the former commanders” mythology full circle. It made perfect sense in the story, and also proved cathartic for Clarke.

Still, my favorite thing about this show is how everything goes unexpectedly. Though Alie was defeated, there was another immediate threat introduced, and one that could easily unite all 13 tribes. I didn’t expect the new threat so soon, frankly. I was also impressed/terrified by Octavia’s handling of the aftermath of war. She turned to Pike, who acknowledged her, and then she KILLED him. I mean, sure, I didn’t think Pike would last much longer on the show, but however welcome, that whole scene was still shocking. One of The 100’s best traits is that it lives within the rules it creates. It doesn’t make new ones or change things to protect characters. The stakes are always at an all time high, and that makes The 100 one of the most exciting, gripping shows on television today.

It’s hard to reconcile this show as a “CW Soapy Show”, if you will. As an example, running through my mind during the Jasper/Monty reconciliation at the end of the episode was just how realistic and gripping the conversation was. Christopher Larkin and Devon Bostick weren’t exploring manufactured relationship drama. They were expressing real, human sentiments around life or death situations. It could not have been much more adult. The 100 makes a strong case that The CW is changing its image, and that it deserves to be considered more than sci-fi teen drama, and rather among better the gritty genre shows of our time.

Overall, the finale really worked for me. It cooked, kept me on my toes, and reminded me exactly why I love The 100. Though there won’t be more of this show until 2017, I’m satisfied with the third season as a whole, and will be patiently waiting for more.

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

The 100 returns to the CW schedule in Spring 2017