‘The 100’ Recap: ‘Nevermore’

The 100 made a huge shift
from its usual tone to become a

full-blown sci-fi horror flick in its most recent installment, “Nevermore.”
This
week’s bottle episode
was written by Kim Shumway, who I’ve ranted and raved
about in the past–
and featured many of the original
cast members, with a few
welcomed additions. It was concise, focused and
brought several of the show’s

great elements back together again in triumphant harmony.

Everyone knows that I love this show to pieces, but, I
would be lying
if I didn’t point out the fact
that this season has struggled
with its fragmented storylines, from Polis to
Arkadia, it’s been an overall

mess, not because the writing is bad or because the show isn’t any good, but

because so much has been
happening and there’s just not enough time to tell
everything in the detail
that it deserves. I’ve said it
before, and I’ll say it
again, Polis could survive all on its own as a
spinoff series (wink wink nudge

nudge, I’m lookin’ at you CW Network). Luckily, in the last few episodes
we’ve
seen this dystopian sci-fi
world expand and grow into its epic plots and
subplots. We ditched (for now)
the focus on war with
neighboring clans and we’re
gearing up for a new war, one that has been
slowly brewing since its

introduction in season 2. ALIE. Probably the biggest current threat to the
Sky
people, next to Ontari and
her irrational ways (where has that little dictator
in the making been
lately, I wonder) and we’re stuck
asking ourselves a pretty
important question: what comes next?

ALIE

“Now

that Arkadia has fallen,
we’ll move onto stage two.” – Abby

Griffin

Credit: The
CW

What is stage
two? And do we
want to move onto it? As we saw from this episode, ALIE is
not screwing around.
She’s
absorbed nearly everyone in Arkadia, including Clarke’s mom and shit just

got super real. She is cutthroat
and manipulative and she will stop at nothing
to get her metaphorical hands
on version two of her software.
She used Raven as
a pawn in a much larger game that I’m still unclear as to
what the end result
will
achieve. I suppose that’s where the writers are doing a great job, because
I
literally cannot foresee what’s
about to happen. Sure, I can speculate that
ultimately Clarke will stick
that chip in her neck and venture to
the City of
Light, where she’ll have to defeat ALIE and her mindless minions
in a mad dash
to save her
people, but how will we get to that point? If that’s even the point
we’re
getting to? The possibilities are
endless and I’m curious to see how this
all plays out.

I’m
still unclear
as to why Jaha so eagerly hopped on the Team ALIE train, what
does the former
Chancellor
get out of this? Has it always been about him regaining power over
the Sky
people? Did he truly see the good
intentions in ALIE and thought that
this would be the end to their suffering
on Earth… or is he just sporting
a
bruised ego and wants to take the control back from Clarke and the rest of
those
in power. Clearly you
can see that I have more questions than answers and my
mind just won’t stop
reeling. The one thing I do know
is that Erica Cerra is
bone-chilling in her performance as this Artificial
Intelligence, and I tip my
hat
to her for pulling off such a creepy character when most of the time she’s

just staring and making gestures
with her body. That’s a true testament to a
good actor, when they’re saying
everything without saying a

word.

Raven’s not here

anymore

Credit: The
CW

Let’s face
it, Raven has
never gotten a ton of screen-time since she came down from the
Ark in season 1
and I was
elated to find her character slowly coming to the forefront during the
last
few episodes. “Nevermore” was the
episode where Lindsey Morgan got to show
us what she’s made of and proved,
beyond a shadow of doubt, why she
is an
invaluable asset to The 100

world. Save Raven Reyes at all costs,
because I don’t think I
can deal with losing another
stellar members
of The
100 team this year. Morgan not only physically challenged herself, but

mentally as well. Her scenes in this
episode can be compared to those in the
Exorcist, and holy crap, did I
cringe watching Raven’s shoulder pop
out of the
socket and the horrified look on Jasper’s face when it didn’t
even phase her.
“There’s no pain
in the City of Light,” she eerily chants. The way she portrayed
her
character, who was being puppeteered by
ALIE and her mind games, was beyond
words. Morgan has tied in the sci fi
elements that make this show great,
and I’m
going to miss her demonic shouting just a wee bit.

Another great element of this performance was when we
saw possessed
Raven putting salt in her friend’s
wounds, exposing their
indiscrepancies, missteps and murders. It was so
strategic, such a passive

aggressive dig that pushed all the right buttons in our fallen heroes. Her
focus
was on Clarke, Jasper
and Bellamy and she really got to the heart of what these
characters have
gone through, and more importantly
all the horrors in their
past. Even though ALIE oozed out of Raven’s body
(nice skills with the scalpel,

Clarke), I can’t help but think that since ALIE was so desperate to not let
the
group have Raven, due to
her knowledge of what ALIE’s true intentions are,
perhaps a little bit of
the bitch in the red dress will
live on in
Raven.

Trading Post

Drama

Credit: The CW

Can I
just give
Niylah a hug real
quick? Homegirl can’t catch a break either. First her mother
is taken by the
Mountain Men and killed, then
Clarke storms into the trading
post while she’s on the run with her lone
ranger attitude… sleeps with her
and
then leaves in the middle of the night without a peep. To top it all
off,
Niylah’s father gets killed
at the hands of the rogue members of Skaikru (way to
go Bellamy) and now
Clarke shows up on her dirt stoop
asking for help without
even a ‘hey girl, long time no screw, hope you’ve
been well.’ I was delighted to

see Jessica Harmon again, I knew that bracelet would be relevant later on…

sneaky writers, you. And I
think that we should definitely see her again
(fingers crossed for season 4,
people).

Overall, I think it’s safe to assume that everyone
is still pretty salty
from
Clarke abandoning her post as the leader of the Sky people. Sure, the
adults
like to think that once they
came down from the Ark that they were the
ones in charge, but the truth is
Clarke was always the one that
people looked to
for guidance. The Grounders saw her as the Sky people’s
leader, and her own did
as well.
Yes, Bellamy was her co-leader in many instances, but she’s always been
the
talking head for the group. And
I’m desperate to see her rise to the
occasion once more, as long as it
doesn’t get her killed. Seems as if
people are
suffering from a little premature Clarke death anxiety (formerly
premature
Commander death
anxiety) and I can’t say that I’m certain she will survive the
finale. Hell,
I’m not sure any of the
characters will survive the finale.
Wouldn’t it be wild if ALIE just kills
everyone? I say in a joking
manner. Ha.
But, really. What if?

Credit: The
CW

We’re abruptly
reminded that
Jasper is still suffering from a bad case of PTSD, watching
the woman you love
melt in your
arms at the hands of one of your friend will do that to you. Out of
all the
manpain that’s going on right now
in the trading post (I’m looking at
you Bellamy) I think that Jasper’s is
the most relevant. Not to say that
what
Bellamy is going through isn’t as well, but we really didn’t get to
know Gina.
You know, remember
Gina? Bellamy’s girlfriend that died in the second Mount
Weather explosion?
Exactly.

Jasper
finally breaks down and confronts Clarke
about how he’s really feeling. This
was
a crucial moment between the two, Clarke needed to hear how brutally she
hurt
Jasper, and Jasper
needed to hear Clarke apologize. Up until now, I don’t think
she has ever
said sorry, truly said it. It makes
the moment later in the
episode, when everyone is scrambling to save Raven
from ALIE’s grip and Jasper

lunges to smash the Commander’s flame, that much more gut-wrenching. In that

moment, Clarke lets out an
indication that there might have been something more
going on between her
and Lexa. Her unsteady voice, and
desperation to preserve
that piece of tech was something that Jasper
immediately picked up on. In the
end
he doesn’t smash the AI, saying that he could never do what she did.

Meaning, kill someone that meant so much
to another person. In that moment it’s
clear that Jasper knows Clarke’s
feelings for Lexa were romantic. I
don’t know
if the rest of the group was privy to that detail, but I hope
that they are. I
really need
everyone to be on the same page and understand why the Clarke they
once knew
and loved is no longer there
anymore. There’s a reason she’s so broken
and bruised, and if no one knows
what’s she’s been through, how can
anyone help
her to truly grieve and move forward?

Monty

It was important that I
gave Monty his own section
because he was really put through the ringer with
this episode. It’s so

essential to touch upon his journey since it’s imperative that we understand
the
ramifications from
ALIE’s reign and the strain she is putting on everyone’s
mental and physical
abilities. While trying to bring
back a part from the
dropship that the rest of the gang needed back at the
trading post to give
possessed
Raven’s brain a jump start, Monty encountered his mother. She was all
alone,
trying to convince Monty that
she didn’t rat her son out. As a lover of
Monty and his sweet cinnamon roll
status, I wanted that to be true-
– that Hannah
wasn’t compromised by ALIE’s programming and that she would
join the right team
and
everything would be good in Monty’s world again. But, that’s just not the

case here. She quickly became
violent when her son wouldn’t listen to her
reasoning. They fumbled, they
fought and she even went after
Octavia, who was
trying to diffuse the situation to the best of her
abilities. Unfortunately, we
see a
torn boy, standing there with a gun in his hands, his friend being
attacked
by his own flesh and blood– the
only blood he has left on this Earth
and in that moment he had to make a
decision. That decision resulted in
him
shooting his mother, dead. Probably the most intense moment (and there
were a
lot) during this
episode and I couldn’t help but feel lost.

Monty has never had
to get his hands dirty, sure, he
was also responsible for the massacre at
Mount Weather, but he never
received
credit for that. Not that he wanted it, but it’s a detail people
often overlook.
But, up until
now he has never had to shoot a gun, fight for his life, or make a
snap
decision that many of our other
heroes have been faced with. The fact that
he had to kill his mom in order
to arrive to that same level as
many of the
other characters is unfortunate, but it’s absolutely necessary.
I’m interested
to see what he
does moving forward, especially after he found out with Raven
that they
could have saved his mom. That if he
just knocked her out and brought
her to the trading post, maybe they could
have removed the chip from her
neck
too. These ‘what ifs’ are going to haunt Monty for the rest of his
days. And
perhaps we’re going to
see him unravel, similar to how Jasper did after losing
Monty. Sure, this
thought process seems all too
familiar, but, it’s a
development I welcome because Christopher Larkin is
brilliant and I need to see
him
evolve a little more on the show.

FINAL

THOUGHTS

• Tonight’s MVP
  was definitely Clarke’s cleavage, damn girl, the corset
  brings all the people to
  the
  yard. P.S. How about the new grounder gear Clarke is sporting? I’m digging

  it! I wish it were possible for
  Clarke to become the next Commander (without
  dying)… hint hint, nudge
  nudge.

• I replayed
  the part where Niylah decked Bellamy after she found
  out that he was a part of

  massacring her father’s army, over and over again. Niylah is the voice of
  the
  people. You go,
  girl!

• Now that
  we know the
  Commander’s spirit is the key to
  stopping ALIE, does that mean
  finding a plausible host to wield such a
  weapon will skyrocket to the top of

  everyone’s list? Jasper was all like ‘Girl, eff your flame… we have Raven’s

  brains to fry’ last episode
  but now that they know it’s the key to her
  destruction, will these world’s
  mesh?

• Was ALIE aware of Clarke’s relationship with Lexa?
  When
  possessed Raven
  mentioned Clarke being responsible for the death of Wells, Finn
  and then
  Lexa (which struck a nerve), it
  seemed like she knew something. Could
  ALIE have control of someone who knows
  about the relationship? Could
  Murphy be
  chipped? Is it a plot hole that I should just overlook? I don’t
  know!
  
• The Blake’s are still not
  on good
  terms, and I don’t think they
  should be any time soon. Bellamy’s actions
  are unforgivable at this point,
  and he’s going to have to do a
  whole lot more
  than take a few punches and pretend like he wouldn’t be right
  by Pike’s side
  still if he
  hadn’t gotten taken off to Polis.
• Speaking of Polis, I
  hope Kane is okay… I’m concerned
  for his well-being. Showing his face in
  Polis after everything that’s
  transpired
  thereafter Lexa’s death is going to be risky.
• Please give Clarke a moment to grieve, or some closure,
  girl is
  struggling to cope with the loss of her
  soulmate and I just can’t see
  her moving forward until she’s acknowledge
  what’s she’s going through.

• I still don’t ship
  Bellarke
  past a friendship….
  Sorry, guys.