‘The 100’ Recap: ‘Stealing Fire’

The 100 returns from a
seemingly long break, and we’re faced

with the harsh reality that perhaps there’s no light at the end of this dark
and
twisty tunnel. Contrary
to the opinions of many of my fellow fans, I still enjoy
this show. I’ve
been reading the tweets you’re
sending me, and I understand your
continued aggravation, and the fact that
your pain is still very fresh, and

still very real. My love for our fallen Commander has not diminished just

because I continue to indulge
in this sci fi world. Yes, I am still distraught
over the loss of Lexa, I
believe an injustice was done when
they killed her off
in the way that they did, and even seeing a recap of our
beloved Heda meet her

untimely demise was borderline unbearable… but there’s still more story
to be
told and I still have a
job to do.

This episode didn’t
fall short of death, deceit and
downright destruction–
but despite all of that, I thought “Stealing Fire”
was a well-executed 42
minutes
of television. That’s not to say that I agreed with everything that was
done
in the episode. But, the stories
are solidified, they are set in motion and
we must ride these waves, or not.
Your choice. Yes, this is a show
where life is
fragile, no one is safe and these are just the terms and
conditions we are
forced to face
in this post apocalyptic world. But, when you’re constantly
throwing
hardships and monumental losses at your
viewers there needs to be a
balance. A give and take if you will, or else
the audience becomes this

emotional punching bag, which the fans have been feeling since “Thirteen”
aired.
Now, how that balance is
achieved? I have no clue, which is why I’m not a member
of this writing
team– but can we get a moment of
peace, perhaps…

Brief second
to acknowledge Heidi
McAdams’
stellar work, she came into The
100 this season, and really
rose to the occasion. Keep in mind,
the writers hands are tied–
between
schedules changing, off-screen happenings and big events already set
in stone by
the showrunner
of the series, there’s not much they can do in terms of killing
or not
killing a major character. And to
blame them for the episodes tragedy is
counter-productive.

Now
that I’ve
said my public service announcement for the episode, let’s just
jump in.

Lincoln’s
Death

Credit: The CW

Starting off with the toughest plot point during this
episode–
because– bad news first, right? Lincoln
is dead. He was killed
execution style by Pike, a man who has proven to be
an all-around d-bag and
quite
frankly aren’t we all sick of his shit? I sat through this episode

anticipating the fate of our well-loved
warrior and when the time finally came,
I watched in disbelief that it was
actually happening. That Octavia’s
love,
Skaikru’s ally, and fellow peacemaker would meet his maker at the
hands of some
secondary character
that has quite frankly consumed the whole season and with
very little good
reason (that we’ve seen on screen
anyways). It was tough to
watch. LIke, really tough. I have had the pleasure
of interviewing Ricky Whittle

and he is a class act. Such passion, determination and love for his fans and
I’m
sure those loyal
followers are feeling the brunt of this loss even more today.

I
spent a good portion of the rest
of the night calming an irate and
distraught sister, who was inconsolable
over
the death of her favorite character, Lincoln kom Trikru. He’s her
Whittle
Wednesday (kind of like a
man crush Monday) afterall. I know that watching this
very intense and
emotional scene probably came at the
worst time possible, and
so close after enduring such a massive blow to the
fandom mere weeks before.

But, that being said– Whittle did land the role in American
Gods (which I am
so freakin’
excited for). A show he’s starring in
and from the looks of his
tweets as of late, we all knew his fate on the
show was sealed. We’ve seen this

with Alycia Debnam-Carey, whom we lost to The Walking Dead’s
sister show,
and unfortunately we
have to acknowledge that we might
lose a few more
considering the caliber of talent this cast possesses. Not
to mention other
behind the
scenes factors are at play, ones I don’t have adequate information on
to
form any real public opinion on so
I’ll leave that to fan speculation. Rather
than harping on the fact that
Lincoln is gone. I would like to
celebrate his
life, and commend this character for going out with an
honorable
heart.

Here are the facts: He
protected Octavia by
drugging her and having Kane take her
away so that she
didn’t come after him and get herself killed in the
process. We know that
Octavia is a
strong willed woman and would never have walked away knowing that
Lincoln
was on a suicide mission. Instead
of fleeing Arkadia after being
sentenced to death for his crime of staging a
coup with Kane and Sinclair, he

went back for the remaining members of his clan and in the end he succeeded
in
sparing their lives.
Perhaps the only right thing Pike has ever done was to say
that even though
he had to kill Lincoln for
treason, that he might not be able
to let his people go, but he will take
care of them. Who knows if Pike can
be
held to his word, but perhaps that gave Lincoln the glimmer of hope all
of us
are so desperately
searching for these days when it comes to The 100.

Clarke’s Going Through the

Motions in Polis

Credit: The
CW

We
see Wanheda struggling, she’s
locked in the room where
she watched the love of her life die in her arms
and to top it all off there’s

nothing she can do to make things better. You can see a choked up Clarke

attempting to “suck it up” and
figure out how her and Murphy are going to get
the hell out of the room and
to Aden, who Lexa had been
adamant about making her
successor. Titus comes in (insert middle finger
emjoi here) and reveals that he

is fulfilling his vow to Lexa and hands Murphy and Clarke robes– to help
them
sneak out of Polis before
the spectators for the Conclave arrive and it’s too
late for them to leave
without bloodshed. Clarke isn’t
having his nonsense and
throws the robe back at his face demanding to know
why he wasn’t dead for his

actions against his Commander.

Apparently
Titus is the only
Fleimkepa left and the grounders had no other choice but to
keep him around,
since he’s the only one who can
put the flame in the next
Commander. Seems like an unfortunate, and
convenient detail, that Titus would be

the last Fleimkepa and that no one thought it would be a good idea to
perhaps,
train a new one? If this
job is so important wouldn’t you do a little more to
secure a future of
Fleimkepa’s considering Titus’ age
and all. Oh, and don’t get
me started on the fact that Titus was nowhere to
be seen (or mentioned) in

season 2. So how important could he have really been. I would think he would

have been traveling with
Lexa, in case something should happen to her– what
would happen to the
flame? These details are the ones
that I rolled my eyes at
because it makes Titus’ whole character seem like
an afterthought. But back to

Clarke.

She demands to see
Aden,
even though the Conclave
has begun and all of the Nightbloods are performing a
ritual with Lexa’s
body. Yeah, that happened. When it’s
still hard to even look
at a mannequin with a sheet over it, that’s what we
call an impactful death.

Clarke has a moment with Aden, where she asks him if the promise he made to
Lexa
is one that he will
still honor. The adorable nightblood reassures her that his
promise would be
kept if he should become Heda,
along with the rest of the
novitiates up for Lexa’s thrown. Watching them
all stand up and bow their heads

in support of Clarke and her people swelled my heart, and immediately I knew

that it was too easy, and
something terrible was bound to happen to these
children. Aden says that the
Nightbleeders loved Lexa, to
which she nods in
agreement, and then is rudely interrupted by the arrival
of the Ice King and
Ontari.
Yep, she’s back!

Ontari’s Out for (Black)

Blood

Credit: The
CW

Ontari strolls back into Polis to claim her birthright
and immediately
attacks Clarke. Damn, girl can’t
you just give her a cheek kiss
like normal people do. To make matters worse,
King Roan of Azgeda is there,
and
he seems to be in support of Ontari becoming the next Commander (which,
why
wouldn’t he be… that
would give Azgeda the upper hand) and I was immediately
disappointed in Zach
McGowan’s character for quickly
turning on Clarke… even
though he did try to help her escape one last time.
Still shady!

If things couldn’t get any
worse,
it did. When no one’s
looking Ontari takes it upon her serial killing self to
get rid of the
competition without delay. She not
only kills, but massacre’s and
mame’s the other novitiates, and chops off
their heads. Aden’s was the most

impactful, seeing Clarke shout his name and Ontari looking like a proud
prowess
holding his innocent head
up made me cringe. I’m really glad they didn’t show
THAT. I shouted at the
TV “IS THAT EVEN FAIR?” more times
than I can even count.
I mean, really. Cheater cheater, Clarke should beat
her!

Even without the flame, Ontari decides to order
Roan to
announce her ascension
and all hell is about to break loose. It’s good point,
that how do they know
if Ontari has the flame inside
her? It’s not like they all
site around the table and watch it being
implanted into each Commander. I worry

for Murphy’s life though, he’s the one who knows it all– and they’re not
going
to let him go since he
knows that the flame is no longer in Polis’ possession.
Damn. I have heart
palpatations just thinking of his
fate if Ontari should have
her way.

You’ve gotta admit it

though, Rhiannon Fish is killing it, and yes, I went there this soon after
she
mamed our poor
Nightbleeders. I’ve said it on Twitter and I’ll say it here, she
is the
perfect villain. She is the one that
we are going to love to hate and
hate to love. And that, is what a great
actress encompasses.

Titus, Fleimkepa no

more

Credit: The
CW

So, Clarke is now
the Fleimkepa… after trying to steal the
flame (hence the title of this
episode)
Titus ends up giving it away to her. I would have thought you
wouldn’t have been
able to pry
that AI out of his hands with a crowbar and he chokes, then blesses
Clarke?
It’s that easy, apparently. The
guy who was so against Clarke’s very
existence, just gave up and gave away
over 100 years of tradition to an

outsider. Makes perfect sense. Not. Titus just puts his hand on her forehead

there’s some vague glowing
light and now she gets the burden of the flame.

Ontari demands
that the flame be
put into her, and instead, Titus “sacrifices” himself…
well, that was
uneventful. For a
being that was supposed to be so important to the longevity of
the grounder
clan and to the whole Commander
tradition– I walked away from this
episode scratching my head thinking that
Titus was merely a plot device
to drive
the death of Lexa forward. Was his only purpose to kill the
Commander and then
to pass his title
to Clarke all willy nilly? Does she know the super secret
password to open
that AI that’s about to go into
someone else’s neck? What
happens if she loses it, or heaven forbid gets it
went when she finally takes a

bath. I guess it’s probably liquid proof… being in someone’s body has to be
like
the ultimate waterproof
test. But, in all seriousness, I am so fond of Neil
Sandilands that the
moment Roan had the knife to his
throat demanding that he
tell them where Clarke was taking the flame, I knew
he was a goner. Sure, he

didn’t end up killing him but we could definitely see from the moment he
shot
the Commander that he
wouldn’t be taking his part in this tragedy well. He tried
to blame Clarke
for Lexa’s death, but in reality,
it was his close-mindedness to
love that got her killed, and the burden was
too much…

We do learn some important details about the flame,

that it heightens attributes
within the host and if Ontari gets a hold of it,
it’s surely going to
magnify that already cutthroat and out
of control mentality
she seems to be sporting these days. Also, when someone
without the blood of the

Commander takes the flame, the flame takes their life. Perhaps a detail
we’ll
want to remember if Clarke
decides she wants to pull a Becca and put the AI into
herself.

Murphy

He is the
only one
who knows what’s going on. He is the only one who got a glimpse of the
bond
Lexa and Clarke shared and in
some sense that makes Murphy an important
part of the rest of Clarke’s
story. If she doesn’t share with
people the love
that she had for the Commander, then how will anyone know
what she’s going
through. This
is something that plagues me and I hope that she doesn’t have to
just “suck
it up” for the rest of the
season. Murphy provides that much needed
dry sarcasm to cut the emotional
tension of this episode and I
almost wish that
there was more of him in it.

Favorite
Murphy line with context: “She’s here!” As he tumbles down the
stairs, after
Ontari gave him a swift beating
before entering Titus’ man cave.
His enthusiasm for seeing how the Conclave
worked was another quote that I

enjoyed… Oh, and can’t deny the tub scene with Murphy and Ontari. Dat was

interesting
😉

Bellamy

Where
do I begin… I’m
not buying this whole “I want to help save my friends now”
act. You mean to tell
me that
murdering 300 members of a peace army is OK, and locking up innocent
people
because they don’t serve your
bottom line, but you draw the line at
killing your friends that you haven’t
been behind since you went all
Team Pike.
I’m still just having a tough time swallowing this storyline, and
perhaps
Bellamy’s now rapid
road to redemption. I’m ecstatic to see that Octavia isn’t
buying his BS and
she drugged him and chained him
up so they can infiltrate
Pike’s camp. Bellamy’s pleading to both Octavia
and Indra was almost convincing,

and perhaps he really did want to help save the lives of Lincoln, Kane and

Sinclair, but it felt a bit
unearned. Why should they believe him now? And after
the death of Lincoln,
I’m thinking that the Blake’s
aren’t going to be on good
terms moving forward, or perhaps ever again.

I only wish that Bellamy came to this conclusion sooner. It’s
great
that he’s starting to
come clean, removing bugs from Miller, and trying to save
those he helped
get sentenced to death… but, again,
it might be too late now to
say sorry. Ew. I hate myself for quoting a
Justin Bieber song in this review.

The bright side? Kane and
Sinclair
got out of Arkadia and I
guess in a way, Bellamy helped to propel that task at
least.

Prayer Circle for Octavia

Man, this girl has had to live

under the floor for 16 years, she has been eaten by water monsters, poisoned
by
arrows, beaten, sliced,
and now she loses the love of her life? What’s next… is
a radioactive anvil
going to fall on her and crush
her body to go along with her
soul… The women of The

100 seem to go through the most
and I
could see Octavia’s pain
erupt as she watched Lincoln’s head blown to
smithereens in front of her at
the hands of Pike. That moment of
pain and loss
and sorrow quickly turned to anger and hate and I was just
like whoa. No time to
mourn,
apparently.

One moment that came full circle was when
Octavia
was helping Lincoln, Sinclair
and Kane escape they tricked them into
thinking that they left the room and
really they were hiding under the
floor
boards. A nice throwback to Octavia’s roots and perhaps a bit
sadistic. But,
man did it hit home.
Lincoln and Octavia’s goodbye felt like a permanent one
and I believe
that’s what struck home even more.
The fact that Octavia knew
that she wouldn’t see Lincoln alive again. Do
you think Lincoln made the right

call drugging her so that she didn’t go and do something stupid like
fighting
alongside him? I would
have to say yes. No chance in hell she was sitting this
one out. And it
would have gotten them both
killed.

If anything has to
come from this death, I hope Octavia gives
Pike the most brutal beating
The
100 has ever seen, because he’s got to go!

Luna

We finally got
a Luna
mention! Ever since we had hints of this
unknown person in the boat clan
we’ve been wondering if she’d ever make an
appearance. It’s a pretty good
chance
we’ll be seeing her before the season is over. Who that is, remains
to be seen.
Is it a new person
we’ve never met before? Is it someone we already know? Beats
me! But, the
way that minor detail was carried
throughout the seasons from the
first and is finally coming to light is one
of the good things I do love
about
this show. No detail is wasted. Now, we also know that Luna was part
of Lexa’s
conclave and that
she fled because she was a coward… according to Titus, that
is. Was Luna
another lover of Lexa’s? Is that why
she didn’t allow Titus to go
after her and hunt her down for not succumbing
to her birthright? Or perhaps is

Luna related to Lexa somehow and she couldn’t see her own blood killed for
not
being ready to serve a
greater cause. I sure do hope we find out more about
Luna… and we get to
meet her!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• How about that moment Clarke had with Lexa!Chip, we see Lexa’s body
  burning
  from the tower in Polis
  and you can just tell that Clarke is somehow comforted
  by the fact that her
  beloved is in there, somewhere.
  *sobs* I picked a great
  time to give up sweets, said no one ever.
  
• I’ve said this before, and I’ll say this again,
  Murphy
  and Clarke’s friendship
  should be the best thing moving forward. An unlikely duo
  to swoop in and
  save the day.
• Pike, ugh. I don’t even have words
  for this motherfloater. I would
  build a
  ship just to skyrocket his ass back to space and then float him a
  million times
  over.
  
• Harper had the best

  line: “Does your mom know you’re
  here, Monty?” Boom. Chelsey Reist delivering
  the goods.

• I’m shipping
  Ontarub so hard right now, you know that bathtub looks
  pretty fun– even when
  it’s
  covered in blood. “Way to go, Titus! You ruined the fun tub!” –an exact

  quote from my 30-year old
  sister.

• Bryan done
  floated up, Miller knows that he’s the
  one who put the
  listening device on him and he ain’t happy with his hubby.
  
• When I
  said that I wanted to see Clarke and Lexa back together, I
  didn’t think mean
  figuratively. I meant really.
  Better be more specific next
  time…
• Headcanon, Luna is Lexa’s

  twin sister and we can have Alycia Debnam-Carey back now, okay?
  

• Could Emori really be Luna? Doubtful.
  They would never put the
  night blood into someone who was
  considered a “stain on
  the bloodline.” Or would they?
• The Kabby kiss finally happened and it was everything I ever dreamed
  of. I
  only wish I could many,
  many, many more of them!
• Abby has
  stayed behind, why,
  oh why. That preview for next week
  shows Jaha trying to
  force the chip down Abby’s throat and I am not OK with
  this…

  *sobs*