'The 100' recap: 'Gimme Shelter'
How far would you go to save the world? Would you be willing to become the people you’ve fought so hard against?
It’s a precarious situation Abby finds herself in in 407. It’s a situation without a right answer, really, but time for debating ethics is a luxury they don’t have. So they make a decision to do what they need to do - kill one to save many. Rebecca’s lab is now Mount Weather 2.0 essentially. Man, does this show love a full circle (which is why I predict everyone is going to end up back in space at some point before the series ends, but that is a discussion for another time).
Put on your rain slickers because we’re about to run out into “Gimme Shelter”
Immediately following the events of episode 6, we see Octavia riding on her horse, Helios. (Of course he was just waiting outside Arkadia for her.) She realizes that Ilian followed her out of the gates, and she’s not too happy about it. Even though he wants to help her since she’s out on her own, when lightning and thunder roll in and black rain starts to fall, it’s Octavia who helps him. She gives a hand to Ilian, who rides behind her on Helios to safety. Take that, stereotypical gender roles.
O and Ilian are able to make it to a cave, where there’s fresh water to rinse off their bare bodies. In case you needed a reminder this show is on The CW, everyone is stripping down at Arkadia as well. (For people whose clothes are more than a hundred years old, they sure have nice intimates.) They’re splashing themselves with water to stop the burning - except for one kid who was trampled during the rush. He had reached out to Harper during the rush into the doors, but she didn’t turn back. Heroes Kane and Bellamy rush back out to save him when they see him stranded in the mud. Once inside again, Bellamy is worried about Octavia, but Kane points out that she’s smart enough to find shelter, and they seal up the station.
Just as things begin to calm, they get a call on the radio from someone named Mark, who was out at Factory Station with his son. They’re stuck under an overhang and need help getting out of the black rain. Bellamy begins suiting up in a duct-taped Mount Weather suit. Kane tells him this is a bad idea, but Bell - who clearly is feeling the pressure to save someone since he couldn’t save his sister - says that Mark’s son, Peter, was one of the 100, so he has a duty to him. I’m sorry, THERE ARE STILL 100 KIDS WE DON’T KNOW!? I really thought there were approximately seven of them left.
Anyway, Bellamy runs out into the black rain, and as Kane thought, the suit doesn’t hold up and the rain soaks through his arm. Rather than turn back, Bellamy just rushes to the rover and jumps in. Kane pleads with him over the walkie to abandon this mission, but he says “no more lectures” and heads out.
Bellamy is trying to get to Factory Station quickly, but the rain and mud causes the rover to slide off the path and get stuck. He wants to get out and use the tow strap, but Kane pleads with him to listen to reason. “If you go into that storm, three people die instead of two,” the chancellor says. So Bellamy tells Mark the truth: He can’t get to them. Mark isn’t happy and lets Bellamy hear it, but before long the radio goes silent.
And those aren’t the only casualties of the day. Alpha Station is full of makeshift beds for people sick from the exposure. But none are as bad as the kid Harper abandoned, who eventually dies from his wounds. And with that, the first and only redhead on The 100 possibly the last redhead on Earth, is gone. Not cool, show. Not cool.
NEXT: Caving In
Frustrated he couldn’t save anyone, Bellamy isn’t ready to hear Kane’s “you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved” speech. And he’s really not having it when Kane says, “Your mother would be proud of the man you’ve become. I know I am.” I cried at this sentiment, but all Bellamy says in response is, “You floated my mother.” As much as we all love Kane now, it’s easy to forget he was kind of the bad guy in space. But Kane hasn’t forgotten. In lieu of comforting Harper over the redhead kid’s death, he says, “Who you want to be doesn’t always win.”
When Bellamy returns to camp, Kane gives him a sincere “I’m sorry” before telling him there’s still no word from Octavia. But they don’t need to worry about Octavia! She’s safe in a cave and getting busy! After she tells Ilian they don’t need to talk, he tries to relate to her about them both being murderers. He says he feels pain everywhere he looks, but Octavia says she feels nothing. Ilian tells her the person she was before is still in there. “You’re wrong,” she says as she starts to run out of the cave into the rain.
Ilian runs after her and drags her back into the cave. O fights back - “I need this,” she yells. And then they wrestle around in their underwear. (I’m sure this was the kind of scene The CW execs were picturing when Jason Rothenberg pitched his hot teen post-apocalyptic show to the network.) Ilian pins Octavia down so she can’t fight back, and she starts weeping and then she kisses him. A perfect gentleman, Ilian tells Octavia no, but when she says, “Just make me feel something else,” he relents. They start making out in the cave, and I am here for this. The girl needs something good right now.
Speaking of “good” news Clarke and Roan make it to the island, although it’s a barrel of hydrazine short. Abby tells Clarke that even though they can’t go to space anymore, there may be another option: Luna’s bone marrow. The only problem is that in order to test if that would work, they will need to expose someone to radiation. Abby refuses to do this, but Clarke says it may be the only way.
Emori overhears their conversation, which immediately makes me nervous - especially when Abby asks her to take Clarke up to the house. And Clarke trying to make small talk on the way over doesn’t seem to bring down Emori’s guard. When they get to the mansion and Clarke goes off to take a shower, Emori tells Murphy why she’s on edge: She’s convinced his Skaikru “friends” will sacrifice her to test the nightblood bone marrow. Murphy tries to talk her down, but Emori isn’t convinced and starts to pack a bag full of canned food to flee without him.
Clarke barely has a minute to rest after her shower when she hears someone break into the house. She’s just telling Murphy this when they hear Emori get attacked in the kitchen. When they pull the Grounder man off of her, Emori says she wants to kill him. “You don’t know what he did to me,” she says, alluding to their past.
Murphy ties the man up, and while Clarke cleans up her wounds, Emori explains why she wants to kill this man so much: “You were loved, told you are special. I was thrown away like someone’s garbage.” Dubbing herself the commander of death, Emori starts to beat up the man, but Clarke stops her. She has a better plan.
Roan takes the Grounder to Abby at the lab and straps him into the radiation chamber. Abby is struggling with the decision, but Clarke says if it works, they all survive. As Emori watches from above, Murphy applauds her for making the right choice. He says she can kill him later, if he survives the radiation and nightblood treatment, but Emori says she’d have no reason to kill him. After all, he’s just a random man who’s “going in the oven” in her place.
“Now that that’s a survivor’s move.”
100 (or just 6) extras:
“Now go back to your stupid sheep.”
Factory Station still exists - did we know this?
How is Alie’s mansion so spotless? Holograms can’t dust.
Is Octavia going to go become a sheep farmer now that she’s thrown down her knives and is headed off with Ilian??
I’m just as shocked as Clarke that Murphy can cook.
Kane tells Abby that first they survive and then they find their humanity. This is a departure from the Kane of last episode - like season 2 Abby said, maybe there are no good guys?
