The 100 certainly knows how to deliver a game-changer of an episode, and “Bitter Harvest” was no exception. The final moments of this week’s episode finally tied Jaha’s crazy City of Light storyline in with the rest of the show, and it all came full circle to form a pretty ominous picture. Let’s get right into it!
That Clexa scene that opened the episode is going to inspire a thousand GIFs… if it hasn’t already. Clarke lovingly drawing a sleeping Lexa? Are we having a fever dream?! Nope, it was real, because it was cut all too short when Prince Roan had a gift delivered to prove Ice Nation’s loyalty to Wanheda: a tied-up Carl Emerson, Mount Weather Security Detail, a.k.a. the man responsible for the (second) Mount Weather massacre. Lexa told Clarke that it was up to her to deliver his punishment—either banishment from her lands forever, or death by 49 cuts… by Clarke’s own hand. A conversation between Clarke and Emerson didn’t inspire any mercy from her, though. He wanted to twist the knife, rub in her guilt, and remind her of all the people she killed in Mount Weather, including his two children. He didn’t want mercy; he wanted revenge on her.
But even though Clarke initially longed to bring about Emerson’s death, she also told Lexa not to seek revenge on the people who killed the Grounders. Titus tried to explain to Clarke that she’d been preaching one thing while trying to do another. It’s either “Blood must have blood” or “Blood must not have blood.” In the end, Clarke chose to not kill Emerson, because she knew she’d be killing him for what she did to Mount Weather, since it inspired him to do what he did to Mount Weather. She also did not want to get any peace from his death, because in her eyes, she didn’t deserve it. Clarke abided by her new “Blood must not have blood” policy, much to everyone’s shock. Lexa was proud of her choice, and banished Emerson from her lands forever.
However, Titus was less than thrilled with Clarke’s choice because it solidified Lexa’s decision to not avenge the Grounder army that was massacred by the Skaikru. He tried to push Clarke to get revenge because he knows the power she has over Lexa’s decision-making. But Titus himself is not to be trusted—he’s up to his own shady doing in Polis, like torturing Murphy for information about Clarke and the City of Light chip Murphy had in his pocket. What is he trying to learn? What does he already know? Titus does not seem like a good dude!
Back in Arkadia, Pike wanted to expand the camp borders to gain more fertile ground to grow food, despite knowing that there is a Grounder village in his path—one made up of the families of the Grounder army the Skaikru already killed. Talk about kicking people when they’re down! Bellamy and Monty were not thrilled about the idea of massacring an entire village of innocent Grounders (shocker), and thanks to Kane’s snooping, the rebel group inside Arkadia now knew Pike’s plans. Octavia got her horse back and rode to warn the village before the assault team arrived, and while they didn’t believe her at first, a Grounder kid she saved earlier from Pike’s scouting team vouched for her.
But it was all a ruse! The Grounders knocked Octavia out and left her tied up as a trap for the rest of the Skaikru. The village set off acid smoke when the attack team arrived, and Monty tried to save Monroe, but she died from the smoke along with another Skaikru member. The attack team realized the Grounders knew they were coming because of Octavia, and that means they have traitors at camp. Pike and Bellamy both know that it’s Kane giving Octavia information from inside Arkadia’s borders, and Pike set Bellamy on a mission to find him proof. Remember when Kane and Bellamy were besties at the beginning of this season? Those were some good times. Sob.
Meanwhile, now that Raven is totally pro-City of Light thanks to the chip eliminating her leg pain, the rest of Arkadia began lining up to get their chips, too. Jasper even seemed tempted, but Abby’s not as trusting as he is, and for good reason. Turns out A.L.I.E. is looking for a second version of her code and she thinks it’s in the Ark’s mainframe computer. Raven rightly concluded if there was a “version two,” that meant the programmers thought there was a flaw in the first version. But Jaha lied to Raven to quiet her questions, because he didn’t want her to know she was searching for an upgrade to the computer system that ended the world. So Raven agreed to search for it, and she uploaded A.L.I.E. into the Arkadia computer system. Jasper found her mid-mission, and wanted to eat a chip himself after seeing how at peace Raven was, but Abby caught him in the nick of time and made him stop.
Abby got Jaha to explain the science behind the chip—it lodges itself in the brain stem to block pain receptors and prevent certain neurons from firing. But when Abby asked him if he would so readily give a chip to Wells, Jaha didn’t immediately recognize the name of his dead son, and a huge red flag went up for her. Wells was such a driving force for Jaha for so long; how could he not remember his own name?! Something is clearly wrong with those chips. Abby vowed to shut down Jaha and took the rest of his chips, but what she didn’t realize is that her right-hand man Sinclair already ate one. He promised Jaha and A.L.I.E. that he would “keep an eye” on Abby. Yikes!
But let’s not forget the one amazing thing that came out of “Bitter Harvest” … the beginnings of a Kane/Abby ‘ship, y’all! Yes, that’s right. It’s all happening. When Kane seemed to hit rock bottom in his helplessness when it came to Pike and the impending Grounder war, Abby gave him a pep talk… and a kiss on the cheek! I feel like I personally wished this couple into reality through sheer force of will and finally, it’s coming true.
And now let’s get to the game-changing twist at the end of the episode—there was actually a 13th station that went into space when the apocalypse began! When A.L.I.E. was unable to find the code she was looking for in the Arkadia mainframe, she told Jaha she knew that her creator Becca went into space to finish it. Apparently, her creator needed to get away from A.L.I.E. to work on it (that doesn’t sound good), and so it’s located on the 13th station. Raven was confused because she had never heard of a 13th station before, but Jaha had.
Apparently, the 13th station was shot out of the sky a long time ago to convince the other 12 stations to join together to form the Ark. But since that didn’t exactly make a great Unity Day story, all information of that was scrubbed from the records. It did happen, though, because thanks to the shot of Titus torturing Murphy, we now know that the 13th station, Polaris, crashed on earth and became… Polis. So basically what A.L.I.E. needs is in the heart of the Grounder capitol. Suddenly, a Grounder/Skaikru war is looking a lot more inevitable.
What did you think of “Bitter Harvest,” The 100 fans? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!
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Images: The CW
The 100 airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
