The 100 4×11 Recap: All the Things I Say (and Maybe Some I Shouldn’t)
I’m back! Unfortunately I missed last week’s The 100 article after a small bout with a stomach bug (and I won’t lie to you: Cinco de Mayo kicked my ass before that. I might be a twenty-something, but I’m not twenty-one and I don’t bounce back like I used to). But, I’m all better! So, before I dive in to this week’s recap filled with commentary and unasked for opinions, let me touch on 4×10. NO, ROAN, WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY?! LUNA! *ugly sobbing* But really, while I saw the progression of Luna’s arc going from my peace craving, meditating, lover of the sea to a murderous lunatic it was still a little hard to swallow. I’m sure it’ll tie together better once I binge the entire season on Netflix and see each beat in its entirety. Illian…well…I hate to say it but while his death was certainly a shocking moment (DAMN IT, ECHO!) after the burning of Arkadia…well, yeah. Have I forgiven other characters for much worse? Yes. Am I a hypocrite? Also, yes. Let’s move on!
Overall, I very much enjoyed this episode. There are some issues that will be discussed, mostly in the ‘things I shouldn’t say’ category, but we’ll get there. Meanwhile, enjoy this recap of 4×11: The Other Side.
See You On The Other Side/May We Meet Again
Since the release of the episode’s title, it has long been speculated that this would be the episode that held Jasper’s demise. If there was one thing I would 100% change about this episode, it would be that there should have been a “Viewer’s Discretion Advised” warning at the beginning. Just because Jasper’s suicide didn’t go the way of 13 Reasons Why with its extremely graphic wrist slitting scene, it still caused a lot of reaction in a lot of people and should have been dealt with a bit more delicately. The beginning of Jasper in this episode has him firmly placed in Arkadia with the rest of the partykru who are feeling the effects of the rapidy rising radiation. Monty is wearing his hazmat suit because even though he has stuck behind for Jasper and Harper, he isn’t on the Suicide Squad. After Riley collapses-bye Riley, I wish I knew how everyone miraculously knew you- Monty tries to save him, despite Jasper interfering. It wasn’t the radiation that was killing him, it was overdosing on the jobi nut tea. Jasper insisted that he was now at peace which was better than being burned alive by the radiation, convincing the others, tonight. Tonight. The death waves is hitting in 24 hours and Monty has had enough, so while they’re doing their ‘tonight’ he’s getting the hell out of dodge.
Harper, my poor guilt ridden baby Harper, is still on team suicide and she broke my heart up until the very end. In a last ditch effort to get Monty to leave without her she told him that it didn’t matter that he loved her, she didn’t love him. It didn’t matter that as an audience member I didn’t believe her or even that Monty probably didn’t either, the words stung (just like my eyes as they filled with tears-I feel like this is also a good time to say that I watched this episode on video chat with four other women and if the recording of my reactions ever get out, I’ll sue).
Post break-up, Monty comes across Jasper staring at the blood red moon through a large window in Arkadia. A last ditch effort to convince him of the risk of the death wave brings up nothing but a joke and then leads in to the most heart-breaking scene of the episode. Monty notices the empty cup and quickly deduces that Jasper has decided to overdose like Riley.
I completely lost it when Jasper asked Monty to tell him that he loved him. Share on XI completely lost it when Jasper told Monty to tell him that he loved him and I was even able to do a brief giggle at the “Unsanitary” quip, because that’s just Jasper, right until the end. Monty never did get to tell Jasper that he loved him until after it was already too late, a fact that made me sob and will probably eat the character alive. During the whole one sided begging, “Please wake up. I love you, Jasper, I love you.” I kept begging for him to not say, “See you on the other side.” Jasper’s trademark phrase. I caught a break there.
In support of Jasper Jordan tonight pic.twitter.com/JKkjsrDTE6
— Everything Bellarke (@LifeIsBellarke) May 10, 2017
Realizing that everyone and not just his brother from another (excuse me, I’m still not over it) had chosen to overdose, Monty hurried in to the main area looking for Harper. For a split second we think that Bree is Harper before Monty turns her over. Alas, Harper picked to live, hugging Monty, and confessing her love to him. As much as it stung to hear that she didn’t love him, this one hit just as sharp so close on the heels of Jasper’s dying plea for Monty to tell him the same.
Here’s where I take a moment and commend the lovely folks of The 100 twitter fandom who in a group effort of support wrote Earth Day 2052 on their wrists.
https://twitter.com/bobslexa/status/862330683108229120
I have 4 kids with a very strict no writing on yourself rule so in support of Jasper Jordan I did a bracelet. May we meet again. #The100 pic.twitter.com/ny0GmyKUtF
— Erin (@eeandg81) May 10, 2017
Safe passage on all your travels, Jasper Jordan.
Our fight is far from over. We WILL be happy.
May we meet again.#The100
[EARTH DAY 2052] pic.twitter.com/PeIV5PwvlL— Ari (@FinalJudgement) May 11, 2017
And in an even more serious moment, here’s where I tell you: You matter. You’re important. And you deserve to live. If you or anyone you know is suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts, please please PLEASE call, 1-800-273-8255.
Choosing Life
To parallel Jasper’s journey, is Raven Reyes. This season has been rough for Raven, a character who has already been through so much through the series progression. I won’t list all of her grievances, if you’re reading this, you know what they are. Just like Jasper, Raven decided that she didn’t want to live anymore, she was going to spacewalk her pain away. Luckily for us, Raven’s brain was at war with itself. Literally. Beccalie (really, I’m so torn. Is it a Becca hallucination or an Alie hallucination? I’M SO CONFUSED) went to war with Raven’s newest hallucination buddy, Sinclair. When Sinclair came on to the screen after Raven seized, I was so happy.
Words cannot express my joy at seeing Raven's father figure, Sinclair, back. Share on XWords cannot express my joy at seeing her father figure back and representing her survival instinct. brain!Sinclair helped Raven come to term with the fact that she did actually want to survive. She wasn’t choosing pain, like Beccalie was saying, she was choosing to live. Slowly, Raven formulated a plan to help her brain heal itself and get the rest of Alie’s code out. She just needed to die a little, no big deal. Formulating a plan to slow her heart long enough for this to actually happen, Raven chilled out (hehe) in a tub of ice water, forcing her body to enter a near dead state, allowing nature to do its job. Her survival instinct of course kicked in, but with her hand to the glass and brain!Sinclair’s meeting it, she powered through. In a true display of human feat, she was able to haul herself out of the ice tub and shock her heart before it gave up for good. For a moment, it looks like she was too late, but this is Raven fucking Reyes. She’ll die when she decides to die, and guess what? “I’m Raven Reyes. And I’m alive.” All in all, her experiment worked, as both Beccalie and brain!Sinclair were gone.
BunkerGate 2….wait…what year are they in again?!
So much happened in this part. SO. MUCH. This episode picked back up right after the end of the last with Bellamy, Clarke, and Jaha arguing about them being Slytherins and stealing the bunker while the conclave was happening. Clarke and Jaha had tried to make sure that Kane, Octavia, and Bellamy had been gotten but unfortunately, they only had time for the one. Clarke is at least expressing a little bit of shifty guilt while Jaha remains unbothered, convinced that he did the wrong thing for the right reasons. 4×03, anyone? That’s perfectly in line with his character. Bellamy and Abby, once she joins in on the conversation, are a little pissed about this. Jaha even goes as far as to not allow them to use the radio to find out the results of the conclave and thus the fates of Octavia and Kane, though Clarke gives in and allows them, a small comfort in an otherwise horrendous situation.
Getting the radio connected, the group learns that Octavia won the conclave and decided that all twelve clans got to go in, 100 from each group. I love this show and it’s ‘The 100’ tie-ins, I really do. Bellamy assures Octavia that he’ll get the doors open, though Jaha vehemently disagrees, stating that to open the doors would be to kill them all. How very Mount Weather of him. I feel for Clarke in this situation because she did what she did to ensure that humanity survived only for Octavia to accomplish what she has been trying to do since the beginning of the season: one clan, united. Either way, Jaha isn’t having it. Bringing in the guard which contained Miller (MILLER!) and some others, he restrained Bellamy who had point blank said that the only way to stop him would be to kill him. Of course they didn’t shock-baton him until after he had tried to escape, BUT STILL. Rude.
Bellamy must have the worst headache being chloroformed and shock-batoned. Share on XWhile Bellamy is chained up in the basement (poor guy must have the worst headache being chloroformed and shock-batoned within a few hours) Jaha, Abby, and Clarke have a little pow-wow to discuss what it is they’ve done and why. Abby confesses to at least having guilt for her part while Clarke remains silent, and Jaha does everything but twirl his stache. While I can objectively see why Jaha is being a total dick, he’s giving off so many dictator vibes that my hackles rise. After Abby skedaddles off in her-completely justified-disgust, Jaha talks to Clarke as if she’s an equal…sort of. A lot of this episode, especially the beginning, has Clarke being completely shut off and quiet, all facial expressions and taut shoulders. After Jaha tells her that Abby is strong, but she is stronger (a comment that again, hackles? Rising) he tells her that they need to find someone to keep guard over Bellamy, someone who cares more about surviving than being liked. And Clarke knows just the man for the job!
I won’t lie, I was actually expecting Murphy to release Bellamy, but who am I kidding? That wouldn’t be in character. After Clarke and Murphy relieve Miller and company from watching over a screaming Bellamy’s door, he gives her the chance to go talk to him. It’s clear that she wants to, but her guilt and probable fear that he 1.) hates her now for leaving Octavia and 2.) would probably be able to talk her in to opening the doors, makes her hesitate and ultimately flee. Murphy does go down to check on his ward and we see that Bellamy’s wrists are shredded from trying to escape his chains. After a verbal smack down, Murphy goes and naps while Bellamy proves that he is more than just a pretty face. Knowing that Murphy would report his wrist wounds to medical and that Abby would probably be the one to come to him, he hurt himself on purpose to further his plan. Those doors are coming open. Drawing on Kane’s words from 4×01, “We do better today than we did yesterday,” he convinces Abby to help him open the doors. As a ruse she calls up to Murphy to help her where Bellamy sneak attacks him, choking him just enough to cause him to lose consciousness before laying him down with his head on a pillow. How sweet.
Next part of the plan is for Abby to get close enough to Jaha to sedate him, something he should have seen coming, honestly. Jaha should have known that telling Abby that Kane “…was a good man” would have been the last little nudge she needed to cement her plan to defy him. With a firm, “He still is,” she stabs him in the leg with some sleepy time tea and lets Bellamy in so they can figure out how to open the doors. Meanwhile, around the corner and across the hall in Niylah’s lonely little room, Clarke uses her as a great sounding board for some storyline exposition. But more on that later. Bellamy and Abby figure out that to open the door, it’s going to take two people to open the door; one to push the button, one to actually open the door. Splitting up, Bellamy rushes to the door, leaving Abby to push the open button after he assures her that Octavia and he won’t let anything happen to Clarke.
Clarke is going to relieve Murphy when she notices the door to Bellamy’s jail room is open and figures out that he’s gone and what he’s up to with a quickness. After nabbing Murphy’s gun, she runs to the main doors where she stops Bellamy in a tense stand-off. Not blinking an eye, he tells her they don’t have time for her shenanigans, only stopping when she fires off the gun above him to keep him from moving. Now he says “This isn’t like closing the dropship door, or pulling the lever at Mount Weather or in the City of Light.” but what I hear is, “This isn’t a season finale, Clarke! Put down the damn gun! You’re two episodes early.”
In the end, he tells her to make it a kill shot if she’s going to shoot him because it’s the only way she’s going to stop him. To know the character of Clarke Griffin is to know that she would never kill Bellamy Blake. Ever. Even taking the potential for romance out of it (which again, we’ll get to a bit later), he is her person, the heart to her head, a fundamental part of who she now is. And finally she breaks. The stoic mask of doing what she has to do finally breaks and she cries and this scene? It’s incomplete because the next time we see her, the mask is right back on.
She chose Bellamy! That's my OTP! #Bellarke #The100 pic.twitter.com/K28DMKHDgT
— merve (@soulmagnetsx) May 11, 2017
As soon as Clarke lowers the gun, Bellamy opens the door and we get the long awaited Blake family reunion. These two have been at odds since last season and it’s been painful. It seems that Octavia finally forgives Bellamy and he just tells her that he loves her because what else needs to be said? Personally, I don’t know if I’ve forgiven Octavia for all the crap she’s pulled on Bellamy, but that’s another discussion for another time. At this point I was mainly thrilled that SkaiKru finally didn’t take an L and got the damn bunker open before the rest of the clans realized that they’d been locked out.
Wrapping up the episode, Octavia tells SkaiKru that they get to pick 100 people to share the bunker with the rest of the clans, an irony that is not lost on Jaha. Telling everyone that Bellamy gets a spot and the rest is up to them, she gives them twelve hours to figure out their shit. Next week is going to be tense based on the trailer alone. I already have anxiety.
And The Things I Probably Shouldn’t Say…but I’m Gonna
This section might cause a bit of a reaction, so I ask that if you have a comment to any of it that you do so with kindness in the comment section.
Writing for PostApocalytpicMedia has been an absolute treat. They give me enough freedom to say what I really think and what I really feel from my fan’s perspective with no input from them. As long as I’m not dropping F bombs every other sentence or verbally boiling bunnies, we all remain happy. So, please note that my next words are in no way a direct reflection on Derek or Stephanie or their viewpoints, simply my own fan(dom) perspective.
It’s no secret that I am absolute Bellarke trash and happily at that. So, of course my twitter feed would be other Bellarke fans (and some politics…and soap operas. What can I say? I’m diverse.). Never before after an episode have I seen my little side of the fandom so tired, and beyond tired, apathetic. I can’t tell you how many, “I give up” tweets that slammed my feed during and after this episode.
I feel badly for the writers of The 100 and The CW because they are stuck between a rock and hard place. With the death of Lexa and thus Clexa came an incredible backlash that nobody could have foreseen. The repercussions of that backlash are still felt now, more than a year later. It’s a sticky situation to TPTB because how do you navigate something so incredibly complex without stalling story, further alienating fans who have already left in rage, or alienating the ones who are still here? It’s a tight-rope and the tightness is vibrating through the storyline. Natural storyline beats are being missed, stalling not just the ‘Bellarke’ story (even assuming that they take romance 100% off the table, their natural friendship/leadership/repertoire has taken a beating this season, aside from some key moments) but Clarke’s personal story. She’s isolated and alienated getting very little growth or perspective, but always being compared to her deceased girlfriend. Using Niylah as her sounding board was important for audience exposition and for Clarke to be able to get a POV without Jaha as a mouthpiece. It was necessary but also completely unnecessary. It felt like cheap fan-service and appeasement in a beat that should have been played with an alternative character. And of course I mean Bellamy. I’m not wearing shipper goggles (which is a term that can 100% die in a fire by the way. It’s rude because whether you’re watching for a character, a storyline, a ship, or a plot, a viewer is a viewer and all viewers count) when I say that this episode was a prime opportunity to finally progress the storyline and it stayed stagnate. The character of Lexa did leave an imprint on the show and it shouldn’t try to be filled, not yet. Throwing in another lady love isn’t going to just make the backlash disappear. In the end, you run the risk of doing just what you’re afraid to do: alienate all sides, with both sides feeling used, betrayed, and let down.
I’ve been of the opinion that the world that The 100 is set in is beyond titles such as gay, straight, or bi. It appears to be a place where love is love no matter the gender, a theory that seems a little more solid after the Miller and Jackson vibes I was picking up in 4×09. Maybe that is the case, maybe I’m completely off base, but either way, a world where we can all just love each other based on who a person is? That seems like the type of place I’d want humanity to be so far in the future since we’re still fighting for it now.
A world where we can love each other based on who a person is? That's where I'd want humanity to be in the future. Share on XHow We Did:
0.3! I want that 0.4 back, damn it, but I’ll take it. I was a little distracted with my video chat to focus too much on if we trended world-wide, but I actually don’t think we did. Correct me if I’m wrong, please. I do know that Bellamy trended in the US and I believe Jasper did as well.
For Your Viewing Pleasure:
These girls’ reactions? They’re me. From all of the crying-though they do it much prettier than I do-to the commentary at the end.
Happy viewing!
Two episodes left. I honestly have no idea how I’m going to make it through hiatus. I’m dreading it already. What am I going to do with my life for eight months?
You can watch The 100 Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
Like what you read? Heather writes about The 100 regularly for Post Apocalyptic Media. Join our email list to stay updated by clicking here and be sure to follow us on Twitter. And while you’re waiting for the next article, stream some episodes of The 100 here.
