The 100 (Season 3) (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

The CW is producing amazing shows in recent years.

My wife is into The 100 like few other shows. I'm very impressed with the story-telling. I love that will play out the consequences. Last season I was disappointed they expediently set aside Raven's injury and made essentially whole again. This season, engaging the reality that she was seriously wounded, lacks Arc-quality medical technology, and is permanently diminished has been very satisfying and leads to excellent engagement with ALIE.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

TVLine made Lindsey Morgan its performer of the week for Thursday's episode, and I completely agree with them. When A.L.I.E. fully seized the reins, it was eery how well Morgan mirrored Erica Cerra's speech patterns and body language.

With this episode, Clarke is back being Clarke. And I love it.

I agree completely. They're leaning into the A.I. storyline heavier than I'd like, but there was a definite spark of energy that comes from having our first season youth regulars back together, with Clarke leading the charge and again making the hard decisions.

I love the Clarke/Bellamy dynamic, too. It's not a romantic vibe; it's something deeper and harder won than that. The show suffers when they're separated.

 

[DaveF]

The line from Monty to Octavia: You're part of the original 100. You're one of us. Then echoed in the closing scene with the core group heading off to stop ALIE. The story has been solid, but it's moving to a more essential direction now, with an emotional resonance that is stronger for me.

 

[mattCR]

A lot to think about. This show surprises me sometimes, and I have to mull it over.

 

[DaveF]

John Gaeta just can't catch a break!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Interesting that Octavia has stripped away a lot of the grounder adornments of her look following Lincoln's execution. Marie Avgeropoulos was again phenomenal in Thursday's episode.

This episode did a pretty admirable job of clearing up the narrative threads and stakes for the remaining five episodes. The grounder storyline has been combined with the A.L.I.E. storyline as Polis and the other thirteen clans are absorbed into her collective. At Arkadia, Raven and Monty will try to reverse engineer A.L.I.E. from the copy of her left on the mainframe. The remainder of our core Team Lord of Flies from the first season will seek out Luna to crown a new commander who in turn will (hopefully) be able to take down A.L.I.E. The story cleanup was deftly handled in an organic way, and the standalone "A" plot with Emerson the Last Mountain Man satisfyingly wrapped up a dangling plot thread from earlier in the series.

I don't think I'd be so down on the A.L.I.E. storyline if the show hadn't been so good at the macro-level human drama. The problem with the thirteen clans being absorbed into the City of Light is all of the development that went into forming these unique and distinct culture is -- at least temporarily -- wiped away.

John Gaeta just can't catch a break!

First Monroe and now Sinclair. Harper better watch her ass, because this show is really burning through its recurring background characters.

 

[Jason_V]

As good as the last two episodes were, I can't be the only person who smacked their heads when the group split up with two different objectives. I completely understand divide and conquer, but there's also strength in numbers. It reminded me of every horror film ever made (not to mention Lord of the Rings).

If I didn't know any better, I feel like this is the end of the show. The supporting players are being killed off, Arkadia is deserted, etc. All the storylines we've been dealing with for the last three years are coming to a head in the remaining few episodes of this year.

 

[mattCR]

One hell of a finale. And a complete open ended future ahead.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This final hour was the very definition of edge-of-your-seat television. I must have shouted at the screen half a dozen times.

It was also a disciplined hour that wrapped up the season's storylines and brought everybody what they had coming to them, for better or worse.

So glad that Bellamy has finally acknowledged that he was in the wrong.

So glad that Pike died at Octavia's hand, even though he'd saved her life moments before. He had to answer for Lincoln's death, and he had to answer for the slaughter of allies.

There's something thematically statisfying about the fact that each season has ended with Clarke having to pull a lever and make a terrible choice. In the first season, it was burning the Grounders alive with the jet fuel. In the second season, it was killing every man, woman and child in Mount Weather by flooding the city with irradiated air from outside. This season, it was killing A.L.I.E. and leaving humanity to grapple with a world cooking from the heat of a dozen uncontained Chernobyls.

And I'm glad the A.L.I.E. storyline is over. It was just a bit too conceptual for my tastes, and as more and more characters joined the drone army, we lost the show's bread and butter of great human complexity. My guess is that, if the Grounders and Skycrew can show her that they've achieved a lasting peace, Luna will take the Flame and become the new commander so that humanity has the resources of the second A.I. at their disposal as they grapple with their nuclear problem.

I only have two quibbles about the finale:
1) Octavia slashing Pike's leg moments before they were to be overrun by the drone army was such a tactically disastrous move that it seemed unworthy of her character, no matter how great her (fully justified) hatred for Pike.
2) The second season finale had a great final act devoted entirely to resolution, where the show could really exhale and put its load down. While we saw the immediate aftermath of Clarke's decision, the ending still felt pretty abrupt. I would have been fascinated to see Jaha's stance on things, for instance, finally freed of A.L.I.E.'s influence. Would he stand by his alliance with her? Or would he be horrified at what he helped bring into the world?

 

[mattCR]

I think the question for the next season is whether or not ALIE was lying; are the nuclear reactors still out there that could go critical and meltdown without her control, or are they long dormant? That's the part that is hard to know.. and we're going to have to find out next year.

 

[Jason_V]

I may be biased, but The 100 is arguably the best show on TV regarding how they use their ensemble cast. Everyone plays a very important part in the overall story and the texture would be lost without them. The 100 is also the bloodiest show on basic cable. Can any of us really see another network show cracking open a young woman's chest and manually pumping a heart to transfuse blood? I'm not even sure the hospital shows have enough guts to do that anymore.

What The 100 has always done to varying success is set up the next season at the very end of the current year. I was less than impressed with the whole City of Light story (and the tease at the end of last year), but the show is great at those teases. In this season, we have a built in clock already for season four. It's a credible clock and storyline, assuming the information is accurate. Assuming there's some kind of peace with the Grounders now, let's explore the bigger world again.

It's going to be hard waiting until 2017 now...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

There had been some commentary about the strange editing of Jasper's scenes toward the end of the Season 3 finally. Per showrunner Jason Rothenberg via TVLine: Season 3 was originally supposed to end with Jasper emerging from the City of Light… and “blowing his brains out,” Rothenberg revealed. "It was too dark, even for me. I don’t think anyone will ever see that scene. It was a horrible way to leave what was a really dark season."

Also Zach McGowan, who plays Roan the politically pragmatic king of the Ice Nation, has been promoted to series regular, filling Ricky Whittle's slot that opened up when Lincoln was assassinated.