by Hayley Charlesworth
In the explosive finale of this debut season, questions are answered while others are raised, lives are left in jeopardy, and the show looks to be taking an entirely new direction for season two. In what is a sterling end to a superb season, we finally see the face-off with the Grounders, the Ark’s mission to return to Earth, and the true moral worth of our characters.
In the explosive finale of this debut season, questions are answered while others are raised, lives are left in jeopardy, and the show looks to be taking an entirely new direction for season two. In what is a sterling end to a superb season, we finally see the face-off with the Grounders, the Ark’s mission to return to Earth, and the true moral worth of our characters.
Giving an overview of what happens in this episode seems pointless, it is 50 minutes that simply demands and deserves to be watched. What perhaps we can do is examine how the events of the finale have affected the heroes for what may be to come in the future. The fates of at least four of our leads are very much up in the air: Raven’s life is in jeopardy, with a bullet in her spine and massive internal bleeding. Chancellor Jaha is abandoned in space, with only a month of oxygen, having sacrificed himself to give his people the chance to return to Earth, with only a few surviving the impact. That could easily be contrasted to Bellamy, the boy who began the season shooting the Chancellor but is more like him than perhaps he thought. Leaving Octavia in Lincoln’s protection to give her the chance of survival was something we’d always expect of Bellamy, but potentially sacrificing his life, along with Finn, to buy the others more time to defeat the Grounders shows just how far Bellamy has developed as a character, how caring and protective of his people he truly is. But with Bellamy and Finn’s status unknown, there is another, even more intriguing mystery.
As the surviving kids emerge from the drop ship, surrounded by the charred corpses of the Grounders, they are attacked once again. Anya ominously declares them the “Mountain Men”, and the episode closes out on Clarke, trapped and isolated in a stark white room, seeing through her small window the missing Monty in the same predicament. This facility is the Mount Weather that the Hundred were destined for, but who the Mountain Men are, and what their intentions may be, remain a mystery. Having lost the space element with only Jaha remaining on the Ark, Mount Weather looks set to be our contrast to the wilderness for season two, and it is a fascinating cliffhanger.
The strengths of the first season of The 100 are numerous. It is a show that is not afraid to take risks, killing off lead characters, dealing with suicide, imbuing all its characters with a moral complexity instead of the standard “good vs evil” dichotomy, and this has put it in a strong position going forward. Who lives and who dies? Well, that will be a torturous wait for fans.
The strengths of the first season of The 100 are numerous. It is a show that is not afraid to take risks, killing off lead characters, dealing with suicide, imbuing all its characters with a moral complexity instead of the standard “good vs evil” dichotomy, and this has put it in a strong position going forward. Who lives and who dies? Well, that will be a torturous wait for fans.
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