TV Review: The 100 1×12 “We Are Grounders” Part 1

Ivanna Barrera

10 years ago

I thought The 100 had taken their episodes this season to some dark places. But, after seeing part 1 of their season finale, I’m further convinced that The 100 has no boundaries as to where their story plots can go.

As we left off on the last episode, Finn and Clarke had been captured by the grounders. Finn was being sentenced to death, and Clarke was caught by a wire trap as she tried to escape.

Clarke is being held prisoner by Anya and her guards as she awaits her execution. Anya however becomes second in command when a grounder captain swoops in saying they will attack The 100 camp at first light and destroy it—the mission that Anya has failed to do.

As Clarke is about to be killed by the grounder captain, they spot a fire signal across the lake from what the grounders call them, reapers. The fire was caused by Lincoln as a distraction to save Clarke. Lincoln killed one off his own people in order to save Finn and then be able to disguise himself to rescue Clarke. What a guy! I think these scenes gave us relief. We know The 100 writers are basically capable of anything. At some point, we were truly wondering if they would kill Finn off and if they had ripped Octavia and Lincoln apart so abruptly. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case for either scenario.

Lincoln truly is such a catch; Octavia is a lucky girl. One would think that he’s turning against his people solely on his love for Octavia, but as he tells Finn and Clarke, it’s more than that. He doesn’t believe that what his people are doing to The 100 is right, and he can’t stand for that. I think this is why Lincoln and Octavia hit it off so well the moment they met—they’re both made of the strongest moral fiber.

Lincoln then proceeds to guide Finn and Clarke through hidden tunnels that will lead them back to the camp. But they aren’t the only ones making their way through these tunnels. The reapers truly do exist, and if you thought the grounders were scary, then you haven’t seen anything yet. The reapers are a flesh eating tribe who has a hunger for devouring humans…alive. Clarke was horrified, as I would be too when a tribe is having a flesh eating contest in the middle of a cave you’re trying to pass through. But Lincoln ever so kindly offers himself as a distraction once again. All the reapers follow after him as Finn and Clarke are able to pass through the pathway of the tunnel. Hopefully, he makes it out alive! Unfortunately, one of the reapers that Lincoln hit gained consciousness and attacked Clarke, leaving Finn with no option but to attack him with a large stone.

This marks the first time that Finn has ever killed anyone, and he surely feels terrible about it. Despite his player ways, Finn has been able to keep his integrity when it comes to killing. It’s this moment where he can now understand where Clarke has been coming from— survival at any cost means doing things you never thought you would.

After Finn’s first murder, they have a quick love declaration where Finn tells Clarke that he’s IN love with her! *Swoon* But, it could be too late for Finn. We know Clarke has feelings for Finn, but the way he broke her heart could have made those feelings turn into stone. I also can’t help but wonder if Clarke maybe has grown affection for Bellamy after Finn’s betrayal. Bellamy and Clarke together would be so great!

They head to camp after they hear a sound of an explosion. An explosion that Murphy caused as he used up gunpowder to escape from the drop ship he had taken hostage. Murphy was up to his killing shenanigans just when Jasper walks in on him. As Jasper alerts Bellamy through the walkie talkie, Murphy decides to close the door on the drop ship and take Jasper hostage. Bellamy at this moment shows true leadership unlike he ever has before throughout this whole season.

He acted selflessly as he agreed with Murphy for an exchange— Bellamy goes into the drop ship in exchange for Jasper. Murphy hates Bellamy; he was the one who kicked his feet off the stool when he was being unjustly hung for Charlotte’s murder.

He intends to make every single one of the people that helped with his torture feel the exact way as he did. We get to see a truly vulnerable side to Bellamy as he not only apologizes but faces the fact that he could die with Looney Murphy. Fortunately, Bellamy and Raven had come up with a plan that for a second it seemed was very close to not happening. Raven goes under the drop ship and does her usual playing around with wires to finally be able to open the drop ship door. But in the process she’s shot by Murphy who hears her under the floorboards of the drop ship. Bellamy is found hanging, gasping for air, and Murphy runs upstairs locking himself inside. He’s trapped, and the only way for him to escape scotch free is using the gun powder and breaking through the drop ship doors. He makes quite an exit, and I think we can all agree on hoping that the grounders or reapers take care of Murphy.

Was what Murphy had done wrong? Yes. But he was never a great guy to begin with; he was Wells’ constant source of torment. If he hadn’t worked himself up such a terrible rep with all his past behaviors, then maybe he wouldn’t have been blamed. This doesn’t justify what was done to him, but it also doesn’t justify for him to be taking lives left and right.

Finn and Clarke finally arrive at camp and warn every one of the grounders’ impending attack, Clarke ordering them to pack as much of their things so they can start heading for safer grounds. Bellamy believes that staying in camp is the safest thing they can do. He truly delivers an honest, heartfelt, sincere speech about how they should stay. They’ve survived Earth, they belong there—THEY ARE GROUNDERS.

But we see Clarke quickly dismiss Bellamy’s urging to stay in camp; she gives everyone orders to pack up and everyone obeys. It’s clear who the leader is and suddenly it seems that Bellamy and Clarke are no longer on the same page. Bellamy has been known to act recklessly, but I have the hunch we could be right this time—staying at camp will save more lives. Clarke however has the final word.

Meanwhile on the ark, we see that they have 51 hours before all resources and rations run out. As usual, Jaha seems resigned to a dreadful fate, while Kane insists there has to be a way to save people from dying. Abby is heartbroken at the fact that she will never be able to make amends with Clarke, who she thinks will hate her forever for her father’s death. She symbolically comes to terms with her broken relationship with Clarke as she’s operating on a young girl who passes away. It’s a great scene where we see a mother fully accept her wrongs.

As Jaha looks over footage of Wells and Clarke when they were younger, he seems to be inspired and a brilliant yet dangerous idea comes into his mind.

Either they have the option to sit there and wait to die or they do their best to prepare and take the ark to Earth! A bold and daring move, there’s a 5% chance that everything could go wrong, and they plummet into a fiery death. But I truly like the side of Jaha that is finally willing to take risks instead of sitting and sulking over misfortune. I’m totally rooting for the ark to make a grand landing on earth.

If they do, this will be a HUGE game changer.

There’s still no sign of Monty.

Part 2 of the season finale continues next week.