The 100 – Fallen

By starrymag | April 8, 2016

By: Allison Schonter

 

 

Set in Polis, Arkadia and the cave, Fallen brings together all of the issues that have been brought up in the previous episodes and throws them all at the viewers at once. The City of Light? Check. The issue of a new Commander? Check. Pike? Check. Bellamy? Check. Yep, it’s all there and it’s an epic hour of heartache, revenge, anger and pain.

 

 

Polis

 

Things still aren’t running smoothly in Polis and the issue of whether or not Ontari (Rhiannon Fish) is truly the next Commander has yet to be solved. With Roan (Zach McGowan) gone for the moment, Ontari is left in the room with Murphy (Richard Harmon) who is chained so that he can’t leave. Murphy is the only other person who knows that Ontari hasn’t truly ascended and if he tells anyone then Ontari will have no hopes of becoming Commander. Even if Murphy doesn’t tell, Ontari still faces a huge obstacle: to truly become Commander, one must recite the lineage of the previous Commanders.

 

After Murphy says that he’ll help her, which is his only way to get unchained and ensure his own safety, the two go to the Fleimkepa’s room of sacred symbols in the hopes of finding something that will have the lineage written down. It turns out that one can only recite the lineage if they have the Flame in them, which Ontari doesn’t have. She believes that her only option is to kill all of the ambassadors. According to her, she deserves the throne. She was snatched from her parents when she was only a child and forced by Queen Nia’s (Brenda Strong) side. She’s killed all of the other Nightbloods and has won the conclave. The throne belongs to her. Murphy, once again trying to save his life, says that he can help her. A fake Commander needs a fake Flamekeeper, after all.

 

Murphy brings the ambassadors to the room. One ambassador in particular refuses to accept Ontari as Heda until she recites the lineage. He doesn’t believe that she has truly ascended. When Ontari refuses to speak the lineage and he continues to refuse to accept her as his Commander, Ontari gouges his eyes out with her thumbs. A little violence goes a long way and soon the other ambassadors are bowing to their new Commander, albeit she is not a true Commander as she has yet to receive the Flame.

 

Back in the Commander’s chambers, Ontari orders her guards to chain Murphy again. She still doesn’t trust him, but she also has other motives. After telling her guards to leave, she undresses in front of him. Murphy tells her that there’s someone else in his life (#Memori!). Ontari asks if this other person would kill him if he lied to her or did something to upset her in the slightest way because apparently that’s what Ontari would do.

 

 

The Cave

 

We are back in the cave this episode. Having just witnessed Lincoln’s (Ricky Whittle) execution and having nowhere else to go, Miller (Jarod Joseph), Harper (Chelsey Reist), Sinclair (Alessandro Juliani), Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) flee to the cave where Bellamy (Bob Morley) is still being held. As soon as Bellamy notices the absence of Lincoln, he knows that something is wrong and Octavia isn’t holding back her anger. She punches him repeatedly, blaming her brother for Lincoln’s death. He was helping Pike and that is what ultimately led to Lincoln being imprisoned. Octavia is so upset with Bellamy that she tells him the he’s dead to her.

 

The group needs to figure out what to do next, though. They know that Pike (Michael Beach) will have people out looking for them, but they also know that the blockade is still ongoing. So, if they cross the line the Grounders will kill them. They are trapped in the cave, but they all agree that their foremost goal has to be to kill Pike. Peace between Skaikru and the Grounders can’t happen until Pike is no longer in command. Their plan does pose a problem; however, as they entered into the coalition under Lexa’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey) reign. With Lexa dead, there is no knowing if the new Commander will accept them. It’s a risk that they have to take.

 

Receiving word from Monty (Christopher Larkin) that he needs them and that he is no longer working for Pike (his mother told him to flee so that Pike wouldn’t catch him), they agree to meet at the dropship. The group is worried that it could be a trap and Kane and Octavia decide to go and take Bellamy along as a hostage. Upon making it to the dropship, they discover that Monty is now being held hostage by Pike, who orders Octavia and Kane to put down their weapons as a shooter fires at their feet. Octavia holds a machete to Bellamy’s throat, but before anything more can happen, Bellamy quickly takes the machete from Octavia and both Octavia and Kane are bound and gagged.

 

Bellamy tells Pike that he knows where the others are hiding and can take him there. As they walk, Pike promises Bellamy that Octavia will be offered immunity for her crimes. “My sister, my responsibility,” Bellamy states, promising Pike that he’ll keep Octavia out of any further trouble. Thankfully, Bellamy doesn’t really lead Kane to the cave. Instead, he leads him to the blockade line and tells the Grounders that they’ve brought Pike for them. Bellamy says that they can take Pike and lift the blockade the Grounders quickly shoot (with arrows) and kill Pike’s men before sending an arrow through Pike’s shoulder. Kane, being the leader that he is, decides to follow the Grounders back to Polis to meet with the new Commander.

 

 

Arkadia

           

Back in Arkadia, Raven (Lindsey Morgan) is desperately trying to block out A.L.I.E. (Erica Cerra). She plays loud music, exercises, talks to herself, but nothing works. A.L.I.E. is in her head and she can’t get her out unless she can get the chip out. Raven being Raven, she has a plan. She tells Abby (Paige Turco) that the transmission bracelets that the delinquents had worn when they were sent to the ground can possibly fry whatever A.L.I.E put in her brain. It’s her only hope.

 

A.L.I.E. doesn’t understand why Raven is trying to get rid of her. Logic states that all human behavior revolves around the avoidance of pain and the chip to the City of Light provides an escape from pain. This leads Thelonious (Isaiah Washington) to suggest that they give Raven back her pain. If she remembers her pain and experiences it all, she will be forced to accept the City of Light and A.L.I.E. again. To prevent Abby from helping Raven, A.L.I.E. orders her minions to find the transmission bracelets and since Raven refuses to allow Abby to tell her where the bracelets are, A.L.I.E. likewise doesn’t know.

 

Raven begins to remember every single instance of pain that she had forgotten. She remembers the bone marrow transplants that took place inside of Mount Weather. She remembers the surgery that Abby performed on her without anesthetic. She remembers Finn and his death. These are all memories that the chip had taken away from her and experiencing them all at once proves to be too much for Raven. When A.L.I.E. tells her that she can take away the pain, Raven surrenders, giving A.L.I.E. full control of Raven’s synaptic network. A.L.I.E. now controls Raven.

 

A.L.I.E.’s next course of action is to get Abby to accept the City of Light and she recruits minion Jackson’s (Sachin Sahel) help. Jackson, who has already taken the chip, tranquilizes Abby and when she wakes up she is bound to a chair. She realizes that Jackson has joined the City of Light and asks him his mother’s name. He can’t remember, which only further proves to Abby that the chip takes away memories. Jackson’s mother is the reason that he became a doctor. Still in Raven’s body, A.L.I.E. offers Abby an ultimatum. She slits Raven’s wrists and Theloniuos refuses to allow Abby to save Raven until she consumes the chip. It’s either watch Raven bleed out or take the chip, which Abby does.

 

Jasper (Devon Bostick), who had since been chained to a shelf by Thelonious as he was stealing the transmission bracelets, manages to get free. He grabs the box of bracelets and goes to find Abby only to discover that she is now administering the chips. When he finds Raven, he is shocked at her current condition. Knowing that he needs to get out of Arkadia, he takes Raven and gets into the rover. A.L.I.E. sends her minions after him and Jasper plows through the gates of Arkadia, slamming on the brakes as he sees Clarke (Eliza Taylor). Clarke tells him that he needs to see Lincoln because she needs to get to Luna, but Jasper tells her that Lincoln is dead and they need to go. As the minions begin shooting at the rover, Jasper speeds off and Clarke sees her mother through the back.

 

 

Final Thoughts…

           

A lot of not so good, really, really bad stuff happened in this episode. First, you have the issue of Murphy and Ontari and the entire forced sex that they have. Murphy is only doing what he has to in order to survive and it never seems like he can catch a break. Ontari isn’t a good person at all and having her as fake-Commander will be a back track on everything that Lexa had worked towards. Ontari won’t bring peace so how will she react when Kane shows up in Polis with the brand of the coalition?

 

Then, there was Raven and the self-harm that was forced upon her by A.L.I.E. Once again, just like Murphy, can’t Raven ever catch a break? She is constantly put through painful situations, both emotionally and physically. Hopefully, Jasper and Clarke are able to get the chip out of her and free her from whatever spell A.L.I.E. is putting on people. Speaking of Clarke, she knows nothing about the City of Light and what has been going on in Arkadia. How will she react to the news? She already has a huge pile on her plate, and this will just be another thing to add to that pile.

 

And I can’t end this review without talking about Bellamy. He started a redemptive arc back in episode eight. He allowed Octavia to beat him up. He led Pike to the blockade line and handed him over to the Grounders. But do we trust him yet? Has he earned his redemption? He’s done some really bad things and I have a feeling that Octavia won’t be forgiving him anytime soon. Anyone else catch the way that she looked directly at her brother when she said “Jus drein jus daun” as she killed the man that was still alive? Was she possibly speaking those words directly to him? She blames him for Lincoln’s death and she has proven time and time again that she believes herself to be more a part of Grounder culture than Skaikru culture. How far will she go to avenge Lincoln’s death?

 

 

Don’t forget to tune in to The CW Network next Thursday at 9 pm EST for “Nevermore.”