Warning: this recap contains major spoilers from Thursday’s episode of The 100. Read at your own risk, and don’t say we didn’t warn you …
It sucks when your supposed savior has no interest in saving the world, huh? The 100 taught us that harsh lesson in tonight’s episode, “Join or Die,” when we finally got to meet the legendary Luna by the sea, the only person in the world (or so we think?) who can take the flame/ALIE 2 and defeat ALIE. But she wasn’t as into Clarke’s Hail Mary plan as everyone else was, putting a rather large road block in the way of literally everyone’s only hope. Seeing as how things could not be going any worse in Polis, that’s really not good for anyone. Let’s get right into this hopeless recap, shall we?
It’s time for more eye-opening, game-changing flashbacks! This time, we went all the way back to the Ark, to when Chancellor Jaha first commanded Pike to teach the juvenile delinquents Earth skills before they were sent to the ground. But Pike couldn’t tell the kids why they were learning his lessons, or else he’d be floated. Plus, he only had two weeks to teach them all a lifetime of skills. Talk about an impossible task! Seeing Jaha, Kane, Abby, and Pike all in a room together before any of the events of the series began was pretty illuminating, as was seeing all the kids together before they were sent to the ground. Pike’s key lesson to surviving on the ground? Keep fighting against all odds, against all costs. It’s a lesson Murphy truly took to heart, although much later in life than Pike hoped.
Pike started to suspect the real reason why Jaha was sending the kids down to the ground: the Ark was dying. When Jaha’s son Wells was arrested, Pike immediately knew that he found out the truth, and so he confronted Jaha. The kids weren’t learning from him, because they didn’t know it was life or death for them, so Pike wanted to tell the kids the truth. But Jaha still wouldn’t let him. He was forced to resort to drastic measures to make the kids pay attention: he antagonized Murphy and beat the crap out of him until the rest of the kids came to Murphy’s aid. Was he trying to teach them the only way they’ll survive is by sticking together? I guess that’s one way of making the lesson stick.
The most beautiful sequence in this week’s episode was the slow-mo goodbye scored to a haunting cover of Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” (bringing it back to the pilot, but this time without any hope!), as Abby and Kane watched all the delinquents board the drop ship and an unconscious Clarke was dragged away on a stretcher. The flashbacks to when Clarke and Wells were bracing for impact as the drop ship fell to the ground gave me chills. This show has come so far since then!
Back in the present, Polis was a downright nightmare under the new regime. The streets were literally flooded with blood, and Grounders who refused to eat the City of Light chips were nailed to giant X’s … still alive. Yikes. It turns out that Jaha got Ontari to command all her people to eat the City of Light keys, and so the entire city was under ALIE’s command. First Arkadia and now Polis? ALIE isn’t pulling any punches! Kane and Pike were horrified to see what Jaha did to the once-great civilization, and Pike refused to eat the key so he was dragged away. Kane literally threw his key away, right in front of Jaha and ALIE, so he was dragged away too. Abby offered to break Kane herself, which is not what I had in mind when I first wanted these two to share screen time this season. Be careful what you wish for, right?
Kane was taken to a private room, and Abby followed him. She pretended to not have eaten the chip, and tried to get info out of Kane about Clarke’s whereabouts by acting like a worried, scared mother. With ALIE egging her on, Abby then put some moves on Kane. Again, this is what I wanted, but not like this! I need Abby in her right mind hitting on Kane! Obviously Kane realized Abby had eaten a chip, because she didn’t normally act like that, and he pushed her away, so Abby ordered him to be put up on a cross when he wouldn’t tell them where Clarke took ALIE 2.
Watching him get nails driven through his wrists … ouch, man. The 100 really isn’t holding back this season. ALIE and Jaha realized Kane was too strong to let his own pain lead him to take the key, so Jaha held a gun to Abby’s head instead. That was the leverage they needed, and Kane broke immediately. He ate the key. Noooo! Not Kane! ALIE, you are officially on my shit list.
After refusing to eat his key, Pike was brought to the dungeons in Polis, to the same cell as Murphy and Indra (who of course refused to take the chip, because duh). That’s when Indra finally got her revenge for her 300 fallen soldiers that Pike executed on the battle field by using a stake she found in the wall to give him 300 cuts. Murphy got fed up with Indra and Pike, though, so he made a speech to the rest of the prisoners about how they needed every strong man and woman to fight together, and to put their individual thoughts of revenge aside for now. Indra listened to him and begrudgingly stopped cutting Pike. But she promised she’d finish getting her revenge later. Once again, because of course.
Meanwhile, the rebels were on their way to finding Luna by the sea, following Lincoln’s map. They found where the village was supposed to be, but Octavia and Clarke were horrified to see that any village that used to be there or should have been there was gone. Raise your hand if Octavia’s gut wrenching scream just absolutely destroyed you? Yeah, me too. But after Jasper accidentally threw some pines in the fire Octavia made, they were all shocked to see the flames grow and glow green. Octavia remembered a note in Lincoln’s journal about their location that had a piece of that same pine in it, and realized he was trying to send them a message: the fire is a signal fire, the way they contact Luna. Finally, a break!
But Bellamy was heartbroken when Octavia rejected his apology again and again after his actions led to Lincoln’s death, and Clarke tried to cheer him up later away from Jasper and Octavia. She told him to keep holding on to hope that Octavia would forgive him eventually, but the bigger question is if he would ever forgive himself. She also told him that she was still struggling with that same notion herself. These two are quite the pair, huh? At least they got to finally forgive each other for everything that had happened between them this season, and we finally. Got. Our. Bellarke. Hug! Anyone else feel like a huge rock was just lifted from their chests watching these two finally get back to a good place with each other? Good, happy moments are so few and far between this season! But the beautiful moment was cut short when Grounders showed up and captured them. This is why we can’t have nice things, guys.
Octavia stepped up and told their captors that Lincoln had sent them, and so they gave the Skaikru kids “safe passage,” a.k.a. small vials of unidentified substances. They all drank it, and immediately passed out. This seems like a good idea. They all woke up hours later in a shipping container without their weapons, although Clarke was relieved to see that she still had ALIE 2. They were then greeted by Luna who walked in to the container to find out why Lincoln sent them. Octavia told her Lincoln was dead, and Clarke told her she was the last Nightblood and needed to take the flame.
Luna then revealed that when she left her conclave, she told Titus she would never kill again. Clarke tried to explain that she didn’t need to kill anyone, and showed her the flame, telling her that Lexa’s spirit chose her as the next Commander. But Luna simply said “no” to Clarke’s proposal, instantly shattering all their dreams. When Clarke and Octavia followed her out of the shipping container they were being held in, their arguments were cut short by their own shock: they were no longer on land. And they weren’t on a boat either. They were on some offshore oil rig … namely the one from the opening credits. Whoa! How far away from land were they? Why was Luna so against becoming the Commander? What do Clarke, Octavia, Bellamy and Jasper do now? I have so many questions!
What did you think of “Join or Die,” The 100 fans? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!
Images: The CW
The 100 airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
