The 100 – Join or Die

By starrymag | April 29, 2016

By: Allison Schonter

 

Hope, hopelessness. Forgiveness, blame. Past, present. All were present in Join or Die, the latest installment of “The 100.” The characters, struggling with their actions, with the actions of others and how to move forward are thrown a constant set of obstacles. And just when the faintest signs of hope appear, it remains intangible.

 

The Ark

 

A bit of flashback was brought into Join or Die and we were given the chance to see what happened before the delinquents were sent to the ground. Jaha (Isaiah Washington) had recruited Pike (Michael Beach) to teach the prisoners Earth Skills, all things necessary for survival on the Earth. For once, Pike would be teaching Earth Skills to kids that may actually use them and he agrees to the task. Unfortunately, none of the delinquents are interested in learning. To them, the class is pointless; they are being taught things that they will never have to use. It isn’t until Jaha refuses to allow Pike to tell the delinquents that they are being sent to the ground that Pike takes the class up a notch, putting survival skills to the test. He begins to beat up Murphy (Richard Harmon), taunting him until he fights back, beginning to beat up the others. The delinquents band together, relying on one another for this moment of survival.

 

Polis

           

Polis is, quite literally, a bloody mess right now. Pike, in captivity, and Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) enter the Grounder’s capital with the Grounders who had led them there. Where the capital had been teaming with life and activity only a few episodes ago, it is now something out of a horror movie. The streets are littered with puddles of blood, people are hanging from crosses and hundreds of Grounders are on their knees in the City of Light. A.L.I.E. (Erica Cerra) has become Commander and she has easily found her subjects.

 

Ontari (Rhiannon Fish) makes her appearance and orders Pike to be unchained. Grounders being the loyal subjects of their Heda, they do as she says – not even flinching when she orders them to consume the chip. Both Pike and Kane refuse to take it; however, and this results in them both being taken prisoner (again). Abby, who has also found a home in the bloody streets of Polis, requests that Kane be brought to a separate room so that she can deal with him.

 

Pike is taken to a cell where, coincidentally, not only Murphy (Richard Harmon) is being held, but also Indra (Adina Porter). Having been the only survivor of Skaikru’s massacre of 300 Grounders sent to protect the Sky People, Indra wants vengeance. Jus drein jus daun. Indra is seeking blood. So begins a long and torturous process of inflicting the pain on Pike that he had inflicted on the Grounders and Indra. Cut after cut, Indra uses her knife to slice through Pike’s skin. She doesn’t stop until Murphy finally speaks up. He realizes that Pike is strong and that their real enemy is on the other side of the cell. He asks Indra if she wants revenge or if she wants her people to live because killing Pike would mean killing one of the only people who isn’t chipped. Indra resolves to enact her revenge later.

 

Meanwhile, in a much cozier room, Kane is alone until Abby (Paige Turco) is forcefully thrown into the room with him. She tells Kane that she was captured in the woods and asks to know where Clarke (Eliza Taylor) is. She is pretending to be worried about her daughter, but she is only trying to garner the whereabouts of Clarke so that A.L.I.E.’s minions can prevent Clarke from finding a Nightblood and activating the second A.I. Pushing Kane further, Abby kisses him and that is when Kane realizes that Abby has consumed the chip.

 

Abby orders Kane to be put on a cross and he is taken back outside. He is lain on a cross, arms and legs chained before nails are driven through his wrists. He refuses to take the chip. The cross is erected and Kane screams in pain. Kane still refuses to take the chip until Jaha puts a gun to Abby’s head. Abby is Kane’s weakness and he won’t let her die.

 

Mission to Find Luna

           

Elsewhere in this world, Clarke, Bellamy (Bob Morley), Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) and Jasper (Devon Bostick) are still on a mission to find the last remaining Nightblood aside from Ontari. Using Lincoln’s (Ricky Whittle) book, the group has been driving in the rover trying to find the shore. When their path is blocked by a fallen tree, Octavia and Clarke don’t hesitate to get out, Jasper following and Bellamy reluctantly trudging along. They hear water and follow a river to the shore. They discover that Luna’s village is a pile of rocks and there isn’t anybody there.

 

With night approaching, Octavia begins to build a fire. It seems she learned something in Pike’s Earth Skills class. They are trying to decide what they do next and Octavia tells them that they’ll split up in the morning to look for the village. She is still angry with Bellamy, though, and she expresses that anger. Every time that she looks at her brother, she sees the gun being brought to Lincoln’s head and Lincoln’s lifeless body falling to the ground. Lincoln’s blood is on her brother’s hands. Bellamy walks off and Jasper throws a stick in the fire that turns it green. Octavia quickly realizes that it’s a signal fire. I know it’s hard to believe, but Clarke actually smiles!

 

Clarke (being Clarke) follows Bellamy to check on him. He feels that he has lost his sister, but Clarke assures him that Octavia just needs time. There may be blood on his hands, but it isn’t Lincoln’s. Clarke realizes that Bellamy didn’t want Lincoln to die and he had tried to prevent it. He needs to forgive himself, just as she needs to forgive herself. Clarke tells him that they all need each other. The only way that they can accomplish what they’re doing is by relying on one another. And then a moment that many had been waiting for, Bellamy and Clarke hug.

 

The moment is short-lived, though, because Grounders pop out of the water. Bellamy and Clarke are gagged and their hands bound. They are taken to the signal fire where Octavia tells the Grounders that Lincoln sent them. This prompts the Grounders to release Bellamy and Clarke. Each member of the group is given a vial and Octavia doesn’t hesitate to take it because she trusts Lincoln. It causes her to fall to the ground unconscious. Jasper takes it and Bellamy and Clarke take it at the same time.

 

Clarke and the others next wake up in a freight container, not knowing where they are. Clarke quickly makes sure that she still has the Flame and then the doors to the container open. Luna (Nadia Hilker) walks in, the last remaining Nightblood and their only chance at taking down A.L.I.E. Clarke tells Luna that she’s the last Nightblood and that Lexa’s spirit has chosen her. When Luna had left her conclave, she had sworn to never kill and Clarke promises her that she doesn’t have to. Regardless of Clarke’s promise, Luna refuses to accept the Flame and Clarke and the others follow Luna out of the container and onto an oilrig.

 

 

Final Thoughts…

           

We finally met Luna, someone who was spoken of in Season One, but never became vital to the storyline until now. Only Luna doesn’t want to be vital to the storyline. She ran away from being Commander once, turned her back on her conclave, and she is doing it again. What does this mean for the war against A.L.I.E.? And what does this mean for Clarke? Finding Luna became her mission after Lexa’s death and now that mission has seemingly failed.

 

And then there’s Polis itself. The capital has become a place that is unrecognizable. A.L.I.E. has rooted herself in the city and has managed to gain hundreds of occupants in the City of Light. She has found an army of loyal subjects and the City of Light is growing. Is it even possible to defeat her now, when it seems as if more people than not have consumed the chip?

 

 

Don’t forget to tune in to The CW Network next Thursday at 9 pm EST for Red Sky at Morning.