The 100 – Terms and Conditions

By starrymag | March 11, 2016

By: Allison Schonter

 

 

Last week’s episode was set solely in the Grounder capital of Polis. This week’s episode, Terms and Conditions, brought us back home to Arkadia. The time-line being the same as the previous episode’s, we are offered a glimpse into what is happening at Skaikru’s home while everything is going down in Polis and things aren’t going much better.

 

 

Grounders Enact the Blockade

 

In last week’s episode, Commander Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) decided to uphold her order of “Blood must not have blood.” With a second attack on Grounders; however, the leader was forced to take action against Skaikru. Showing mercy and peace while still enacting justice, Lexa called for a blockade, something which has now been brought to fruition in last night’s episode Terms and Conditions.

 

The armies of the twelve Grounder clans have marched on Arkadia and are now surrounding the camp. With orders to kill any Sky Person who breaches the blockade, multiple people have already fallen victim. The Grounders are not seeking to decimate the entire Skaikru population, though, they are only seeking one man: Pike (Michael Beach).

 

 

Pike vs. Kane

 

With the blockade enacted, tensions within Arkadia only run higher between the former chancellor Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) and current chancellor Pike. The two competing men have very differing views on how things should be handled concerning the Grounders. Kane seeks a more peaceful route, whereas Pike sees no peace with Grounders.

 

Already suspicious of Kane, Chancellor Pike has his men keep a close eye on him, attempting to catch the man in the act of spying. He knows that information has been leaked to Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), who had informed the Grounder village that there would be an attack, but he has yet to garner any concrete evidence against the former chancellor. Furthermore, Pike is unaware of who is helping Kane. In order to catch Kane, Pike promotes Monty (Christopher Larkin) to coordinator of internal surveillance; he is supposed to spy on their people.

 

Pike’s next concern is the threat of the Grounders. Arkadia is running dangerously low on food and with a blockade set up the Arkers are not able to go out and hunt. Within a matter of two weeks at the most, Arkadia’s food supply will be critical and Pike feels that they need to attack the Grounders in order to set an example. His plan? Take the rover, set up a minefield and kill as many Grounders as possible.

 

Meanwhile, Kane is devising his own plan in order to prevent the loss of human life. The man goes to Pike to talk, attempting to convince the chancellor to turn himself over to the Grounders. Pike isn’t having any of this, bringing up Finn as an example to prove his point that surrendering to the Grounders won’t bring peace. In a previous conversation with Harper (Chelsey Reist) and Miller (Jarod Joseph), Kane had expressed his unwillingness to hand Pike over himself; doing so would be committing treason and murder.

 

Having overheard Pike’s plans to create a minefield and kill more Grounders and not being able to convince the chancellor to turn himself in, Kane moves onto his next measure of action: preventing Pike’s plan from going through. Teaming with Sinclair (Alessandro Juliani), they target the rover, attempting to disable it so that the team isn’t able to go out. Unfortunately, Monty had seen the exchange between the men and informed Bellamy (Bob Morley) that Sinclair could possibly be Kane’s partner. This leads to Sinclair being caught as he is trying to disable the rover and thus leading to him being arrested and charged with treason.

 

Kane has more tricks up his sleeve; however, even with Sinclair imprisoned he still has ties to the other prisoners, particularly Lincoln (Ricky Whittle). As Pike and Kane meet to “discuss Kane’s surrender,” which is just a rouse to get close to Pike, the prisoners engage in a riot. This riot provides a distraction so that Kane can shock Pike, kidnap him, put him in the rover and begin to drive towards the gates. He doesn’t get far though as he is stopped by Bellamy pointing a gun at him and Kane is arrested and charged with treason, kidnapping and attempted murder. The sentence for his crime? Death.

 

 

Bellamy

 

Every week it seems as if Bellamy continues to delve deeper and deeper into a deep dark pit of no return. He keeps siding with Pike and making some not-so-smart decisions. The Bellamy of season two, the man who was there for his people and actively moving them in the right direction, making alliances with Grounders, and seeking peace, seems to have vanished completely. Or has he?

 

In Terms and Conditions, Bellamy begins the episode at Pike’s side, starting the episode by killing the two Riders that have been sent to Arkadia’s gates to inform the camp of the blockade and the death of members of Skaikru. It is Bellamy who later catches Sinclair under to rover and charges him with treason. And when Kane comes to him to talk, attempting to bring Bellamy to his side and the side that he had once been on, Bellamy doesn’t listen. He is firmly rooted on Pike’s side. He believes that the Grounders are a threat and that Pike is doing what is best for them. He is blinded by the façade Pike puts forth, the promise that they will be able to defeat the Grounders, and Bellamy doesn’t see that it is Pike’s leadership that will ultimately turn the Arkers against one another and lead to the decimation of their community.

 

It isn’t until the very end of the episode that the first glimmer of hope is shown, the first sign that maybe there is still hope for Bellamy and that perhaps he is beginning to realize what is going on. When Pike sentences Kane to death, Bellamy (for the first time) really questions the Chancellor’s decision. And while Pike states that they are setting an example for their people, Bellamy had thought that they had escaped the way that things were while on the Ark. The episode ends with Bellamy lying to Monty’s mother, Hannah (Donna Yamamoto), stating that they weren’t able to figure out who Kane was working with when both Bellamy and Monty know that Harper and Miller are Kane’s partners.

 

 

Raven and the City of Light

 

With the drama of Kane, Pike and the Grounders playing out, the story of the City of Light was still very much present throughout the episode. A.L.I.E.’s (Erica Cerra) mission is put on hold for the time being. A.L.I.E. 2.0, the second version of the code, is located on Polaris, but nobody knows for certain where the thirteenth station landed when it fell to Earth. To make matters worse, the chipmaker has been confiscated and they are therefore unable to distribute any more chips to those willing to take them.

 

To get her plan moving along again, Raven (Lindsey Morgan) goes on a mission to retrieve the chipmaker, recruiting Jasper (Devon Bostick). Jasper had previously shown interest in joining the City of Light and he is more than willing to help Raven. They need to break into Kane’s office, which means figuring out the password. Being the new coordinator of internal surveillance, Monty is the one who would have set the password. So, having once been such close friends with him, Jasper is the only one who will be able to figure the password out. After much hesitation and a few jokes (and with the help of A.L.I.E.) the two finally crack the password and make it into the office.

 

While in the office, Jasper’s curiosity about the City of Light gets the best of him and he begins to ask Raven questions. He confides that he wants to forget Maya’s death and only remember the good parts, something that he believes is happening with Raven, as she never seems upset about Finn. As the conversation continues, Raven realizes that she can’t remember her first kiss. She can’t remember her first kiss and she is beginning to forget Finn. Raven, who had only relished in the relief of her pain, is now beginning to see a darker side to the City of Light and it’s something that she doesn’t like. She doesn’t want to forget Finn, even if it does bring her some amount of pain, because forgetting Finn means forgetting all of the good memories that she had made with him.

 

And so A.L.I.E. loses a vital member in her mission of populating the City of Light. She confesses her concerns to Jaha (Isaiah Washington), knowing that without Raven’s help her plans will fall through. A.L.I.E. is coded to understand free will and consent and it is something that must be present when someone consumes a chip and enters the City of Light. By no longer having Raven’s consent, A.L.I.E. fears what she has lost. Jaha; however, expresses a new plan: maybe he can override this code; maybe he can take away freewill and consent.

 

 

Final Thoughts…

 

Pike, I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you. I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, attempting to justify the things that you do because of your past history with Grounders, but with each passing week I am finding it harder and harder to like you. Kane, you better not die. Sometimes you seem like the only levelheaded one; the only one (aside from Octavia and Clarke) who really understand Grounders and see the beauty of their culture. Bellamy, keep on keeping on…Keep going down this newfound path of light and wisdom. Keep realizing that Pike is leading Arkadia to war, death and destruction. Maybe there is still hope for you, Bellamy; maybe you can still be redeemed. And Raven, please don’t go back to A.L.I.E. and the City of Light. Please be the one who helps put an end to A.L.I.E. before her power reaches too far. Jaha considering taking away freewill and consent only goes to show how strong A.L.I.E.’s power and influence can be and without freewill, it will only be a matter of time before the entire population of Arkadia is in the City of Light.

 

 

Don’t forget to tune in to The CW Network Thursday March 31st at 9 pm EST for “Stealing Fire.”