The 100: Human Trials Recap

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Oynox96l0]

The 100: Human Trials (2×05)

Synopsis: While Kane leads a mission to make peace with the Grounders, Jasper agrees to participate in a risky experiment, and Finn’s search for Clarke takes a violent turn.

Rating: ★★★★½☆

I think it’s safe to say, that this episode ended as darkly as season 1’s ‘Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ did with The Culling. Granted, not nearly as depressing, but it did seem to have that same feeling of hopelessness.

Clarke is finally back with her people (and it seems like Dichen Lachman’s Anya is confirmed dead). No time for tears and long conversations though, less than a day after Clarke is back with her mom at Camp Jaha, she is sneaking out to go save her friends. It’s a little hard for me to reason with the adults in this. When someone tells you that a group of people are literally sucking the lives out of people who are immune to radiation, my first thought would be to take this matter very seriously, and then plan to storm the mountain.

But, delinquents will be delinquents. As Clarke reunites with her friends, they agree that the adults are wrong and decide to go after Finn and Murphy first before they start any wars with the Grounders. After this episode, I’d say that was the best decision they ever made. Anyways, Clarke is reunited with Raven, Octavia, and of course, Bellamy. As you may suspect, I adore “Bellarke” and Clarke running up to hug Bellamy was pretty much everything I wanted, not to mention the shining light in this dark episode. Even if I didn’t vie for a Bellamy/Clarke romance this scene would still be poignantly important.

As Bellamy states later in the episode, the last time they saw each other, they thought the other was dead. Since then both of them have been surrounded by veritable strangers. They’ve been treated terribly, and they’ve lost what frail stability they had towards the end of Season 1. It’s pretty clear no matter what relationships the kids had in season 1, they are glad to see one another around Camp Jaha. Let’s face it, they may be adults, but when it comes to the ground, they are amateurs.

Throughout this episode, I named quite a few unlikely voices of reason. The first was Raven. She’s never been unreasonable, but the person she was schooling has consistently been a reasonable person. However when it comes to her daughter, Abby can throw reason out the window in favor of being a protective mother. When she finds out that the kids have run off to find Finn and Murphy, she is furious. She not only confronts Raven, but slaps her when Raven lies to her.

Abby’s response to Clarke and Raven’s disobedience echoes what the adults must feel about the delinquents on the ground, “She thinks because of what she’s been through, she’s changed. She’s still just a kid.” But like I said, the adults are being naive if they think that they are in the right about the choices they make.

Not only should Clarke and Bellamy have a say in the council over their decisions, but the kids should be consulted. Because Raven is right, they stopped being kids the day they were sent to earth to die.

Their naivety is the most evident when we pan to Kane and his team, letting the Grounder lead him to their leader. We already know that Grounders, in general, do not trust the “Sky People”. And the episode does a clever little thing that links together two story lines. Not only do we find out whether or not we can trust this Grounder, but we also find out where Jaha has been taken. Kane is going through the same trial by fire that the kids went through when they first came down. Hopefully this will lead him to support their decisions a little more when he returns… if he returns.

Meanwhile, in Mount Weather, Monty and Jasper continue to butt heads. President Wallace informs Jasper that Clarke ran away and that he would not dispatch men to bring her back, but he was free to go find her. As nice as this notion seems, it feels a little like they would be letting him go to track him and Jasper would lead them back to a camp full of people who are immune to radiation for them to bleed dry. Of course, we learn from the end of the episode that the President is ironically not the worst of them all.

Monty, voice of reason number 2, is ready to leave the mountain to go after Clarke. He’s pretty much done trusting the mountain men and is ready to go after Clarke. Maya asks Jasper not to go, and Jasper obviously doesn’t want to leave her. Their argument is cut short when there is a radiation breach into the room they are in and Maya begins to die from the radiation. Taken in by the doctors, Dr. Tsing informs Jasper and Monty that all of their conventional methods are not working, and suggests an unconventional one. Three guesses as to what it is. That’s right, Tsing manages to trick Jasper into giving his blood to Maya.

I saw this coming the minute we found out what was really going on on Mount Weather. They already stated that the people in space have an even higher immunity built up from being closer to the sun’s radiation, and through Tsing’s human trials we find out that Jasper’s blood (and therefore the other 46 kids’ blood) is super effective in treating the radiation poisoning.

More experiments occur in Mount Weather as we not only find out where Lincoln is now but also how the Mountain Men control the Reapers. Meet President Wallace’s son. He’s been the one dosing the Grounders with an addictive drug that makes them susceptible to pavlovian torture. He begins the experiment with Lincoln who eventually becomes not only addicted to the injections, but becomes afraid of the same high frequency sound like the Reapers, and kills one of them for an injection of the drug. Yeah, this is not going to end well.

And, then we have Finn and Murphy. Finn, who has clearly gone off the deep end without Clarke, and Murphy, unlikely voice of reason number three. God, when Murphy is the voice of reason I have to question everything in this world. The two arrive at the outskirts of Lincoln’s village, the same village where Nyko and Indra are from. Finn, quick to get answers about where his friends are, disregards Murphy who notes that the village seems to be one with women and children, and does not seem like the kind of place they would hold prisoners.

Rounding up everyone in the village, he holds a gun to their faces and demands to see his friends. Nyko, voice of reason number four, tells Finn he is free to search the village for his friends. After running all through the area, it becomes clear that they are not here, until he finds their clothes there. At this point the villagers are also starting to get anxious. The kid that Octavia saves in “Inclement Weather” is ready to jump into action to take down Murphy and Finn, but is consistently held back by Nyko.

Got to hand it to him for keeping the villagers calm as Finn furiously asks them why they have their clothes. Murphy reasons that as a group of scavengers, they undoubtedly raided their camp. Nyko follows it up by saying he did meet one of his friends, Octavia, but that was all. It seems like Finn is ready to accept that his friends aren’t here, until one of the villagers jumps out of the pen they are being held in and makes a run for it. Finn shoots him without a second thought.

Hearing the gunshots not far away from the village, Bellamy, Clarke, and Octavia book it towards the village, all the while hearing more and more gunshots. They arrive to see that Finn has basically gunned down the village. A few look to be dead, even more injured. Bellamy stated earlier in the episode to Clarke that he killed the Grounder they had point-blank and that he is not the same Finn anymore. This episode confirms it.

Farewell pacifist spacewalker. From the war, to the Grounders, to Raven, to losing Clarke, it’s all culminated into Finn breaking down in his own mental stability. We’ll see how this pans out in two weeks. Thankfully he stopped shooting, but it’s pretty damn clear that things have changed.