Written by Jakob Andreasen
Last time on The 100, Madi revealed her true self to Blodreina – making everything even more complicated for our heroine Clarke; Echo made a deal with Octavia, in exchange for acceptance in Wonkru, to infiltrate Shallow Valley; and the Commander played her way to reveal traitors in her camp. After the previous episode, will everything work out for Wonkru or will ‘Team Diyoza’ prevail?
Prisoners
The so-called ‘freedom’ that the defectors were promised, isn’t what they originally expected. After arriving at Shallow Valley, wearing their new fashionable electric necklaces, the group are shown around Shallow Valley. They are told that everyone pulls their weight and Charmaine will personally evaluate their worth. The defectors are confined to the old Church (as shown in the previous episode) and if they try to escape they’ll be electrocuted.
Abby has become a prisoner of her own mind, not even attempting to recover from her drug addiction and Kane is not being as emotionally supportive as he should—using anger and rage, rather than sympathy and kindness. In the previous episode a defector was wounded by a bullet, and now she is dead. Kane blames Abby. Right now, Kane is having the worst character arc and the same with Abby—they are toxic to each other and need to separate.
Wonkru
Shifting back to Wonkru, Harper finally has some dialogue and screen time—that’s beside the point. Bellamy is worried that Echo isn’t okay, as Raven hasn’t uploaded the back-door file to enable Wonkru access to the ‘eye in the sky’, and Harper is comforting him because, apparently, that’s all Harper is good for. Blodreina barges in, with Indra, asking if any progress has been made on the mission. And, we are gifted with another Blake-off, but this time, they use their words and once again, Bellamy comes through victorious.
Up on the surface, Clarke is getting Madi ready for her first day of training. It’s adorable and very reminiscent of Marlin and Nemo—the parent is worried for the child going into dangerous waters. Clarke warns Madi to not stand out too much and to hold back, which is disheartening to see, as storylines that follow this pattern normally see the child act out against the parent. As Madi leaves for her first day, Clarke look down to a letter for Monty from his old pal, Jasper.
Clarke and Monty meet in the Hydro-farm where Monty is trying to salvage the farm, and they’re both in a sombre mood. As Monty sees the letter in Clarke’s hands, he notices the handwriting is Jasper’s. But as Clarke and Monty start to feel the loss of Jasper, the door to the Hydro-farm opens and Cooper walks in with a dead body. The two investigate and Monty uses a magnet to open the door. What’s revealed is a game-changer. The dead body is left in a room with bio-containers—what’s in these containers? A woman who was infested with the deadly worms from episode 4 and her stomach is overflowing with these worms. Octavia is breeding these worms for war. In the other container, a man lays unconscious but opens his eyes as a worm makes its way out of his mouth.
Raven
After a whole month without our precious Raven Reyes, we are blessed with her presence. Echo and Raven discuss the plan to escape the Church and install the back-door program into the prisoner ship, but it can’t happen until the collars around their necks are deactivated or removed.
Echo explains to Raven the significance of the program and it’s all very 007—the two pretend to have a glass of water while discussing the plan. Echo suggests to Raven that they use Kane to get inside the Bridge, but Raven tell Echo that Kane has changed, which is inherently obvious. Echo tells Raven that they all have changed, and the bunker did something to their brains.
As a back-up Echo suggests using Zeke (the pilot) to make their way into the Bridge, but Zeke has nothing to say to Raven. Zeke is still angry with Raven for making him betray his people. However, he still wants to hear her out and tell Raven, through a note, not to go to the funeral of the dead defector.
Back at Wonkru headquarters, Clarke and Monty tell Bellamy of what they saw and almost defend the actions of Octavia, saying that anything will be done out of desperation. Ultimately the three decide that it’ll bad if the worms are released into Shallow Valley. Why? For one, the worms will kill everyone they love who is in the Valley, and secondly, the Valley won’t be hospitable afterwards. Now, the most logical thing to do is to tell Indra. The thing is, Indra isn’t aware of what Octavia is doing, but Indra does acknowledge that Octavia’s plan is smart and wants to be shown the worms in the bodies.
Raven and Zeke meet in the Church and she pleads with Zeke to allow her to go up to the space ship to retrieve a special chemical as it’ll make her feel ‘useful’, but we know it’s a ploy to get into the mainframe. This is the point that Raven guilt trips Zeke, because he works for someone who killed his crew. But, it isn’t like that. Zeke was the person who deactivated the collars on the prisoners and this is what started the mutiny and liberation of the prisoners, leading to the deaths of all the crew and captain. He did so because the captain knew that the prisoners were getting sick while harvesting this chemical and was going to choose to bring the chemical back down to earth and leave the prisoners up in space to die. A classic case of greed. Zeke thought to do what’s right and let the prisoners free—he’s more morally grey than originally thought.
Outside, Echo is being ‘interviewed’ by both Kane and Charmaine, and they want to know if she is truly a defector. She explains that her banishment still stands, and she has never been Wonkru. Echo has come to Shallow Valley to be a part of something and her value, is that she is a spy. Echo is dismissed.
Kane and Charmaine discuss Abby. Kane is angry with the leader and claims that Diyoza was the reason that Abby couldn’t save the wounded defector—the pills are what killed her. Kane wants the pills taken away from Abby but Diyoza would rather have a satisfied junkie than a junkie craving their next fix.
Flame
Madi is training with other young members of Wonkru and it’s clear that she is holding back, which a boy is taking advantage of. Knocking her down, the boy pretends to help her up. Gaia intervenes before anything escalates and class is dismissed. All but Madi. Gaia wishes to know why she is holding back, quickly deducing that Clarke told her to hold back, but it was a good thing that she listened to Clarke. Gaia tells Madi that she is being too obvious and needs to be smart when showing Octavia her skills. Gaia wants to show Madi something—The Flame. She explains that she thought the time of The Commander was over, but with Madi that time will be able to continue—Madi has the blood of the first Commander, Becca, running through her veins.
For another, blood is no longer running through their veins. Indra has killed the male grounder infected with the worms in order to relieve him of his pain, giving him a quick death. As Indra, along with Clarke and Bellamy, leaves the room Octavia and Cooper walk in. Bellamy tries to reason with Octavia, not wanting to kill the people they love in Shallow Valley, but she sees them as Acceptable Losses. And, here Octavia makes a very valid point. She is doing what both Clarke and Bellamy have previously done themselves—saving their own people. Clarke and Bellamy just get to pretend that they haven’t done anything bad and Octavia doesn’t like that.
Cooper comes back, after checking on the bodies, and announces to Indra that “You killed him,” but that isn’t true, he was dead as soon as the worms were put in his body. Cooper reveals to Octavia that the worms produce three times as fast in a live body, compared to a dead one, and Blodreina seems pleased at this.
Once Wonkru controls the ‘eye in the sky’ they are going to send the bodies that are infested with the worms to Shallow Valley.
A quick interlude as Raven and Echo debate on whether or not to use Zeke to get into the mainframe of the space ship.
Back to Wonkru. Bellamy, Clarke, Monty, and Harper are discussing what they should do about Octavia’s plan. Monty interrupts with news that the note left to him was actually Jasper’s suicide note.
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Echo reveals to Charmaine that Zeke is a traitor. Telling Diyoza that he was the one who shut down the missile system and not Raven, which clearly makes Diyoza angry.
Another person who is angry is Indra. She is angry with Octavia for not telling her of the plan, but Octavia doesn’t agree with her anger, calling Indra out for letting Kane go.
Raven is dragged to Diyoza, who is with Echo, and is told to prove to her that Zeke really did deactivate the missiles. As Raven explains to Diyoza how she can prove this, Echo is putting the program into a USB port and must wait until the stick goes green, once this is done Raven shows Diyoza the proof she needs to prove Zeke is a traitor.
Back at Wonkru, Clarke sees the change in the system showing Bellamy the change. But, Clarke says that as soon as Octavia finds out about this she’ll send the worm-infested defectors so she turns off the screen. Bellamy moves to tell the others. First Monty, who is still dealing with Jasper’s letter, and he doesn’t want to be a part of a war that kills more people as enough have already died. They have a broment over algae and dead plants.
Abby and Kane have a little talk. Kane is apologising for his actions and wants to help Abby through a detox—not wanting to see her kill herself though addiction. Charmaine walks in, disrupting this ‘moment’ and Abby is about to examine her. And, it’s revealed that Charmaine is pregnant! TWIST! Did not expect that.
And now, Raven doesn’t like Echo because of what she was made to do. Zeke is thrown in with the defectors with his face is beaten and bruised.
Clarke walks in on the younger member of Wonkru showing their skills to Octavia and Madi is called to perform. Between Clarke, Gaia, and Octavia the moment is tense as they each have a reason for Madi. She holds back for the first round, but soon reveals her skill and the boy is rattled. Knocking him down to his feet, then Madi helps him up. Octavia wishes to have Madi as her second and she agrees. Octavia wants to borrow Madi for a strategy session and asks Clarke for permission, she says its fine.
This is the moment that Clarke changes the game. She radios Charmaine asking what would it take for her to share the Valley—unconditional surrender or nothing. Knowing that Octavia would never do that, Clarke wants to take Octavia out.
That’s all for this week. It was a very action-packed episode and for me, it was the best episode, so far, this season. The 100 is finding itself again and I’m interested to see how things play out next week in Episode 8 How We Get to Peace.
Episode 8 Synopsis: Clarke’s determination to protect Madi puts Bellamy in an impossible position.
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