The 100: Survival of the Fittest Recap

Synopsis of 2×10: A new enemy puts lives in danger; Lincoln and Bellamy decide to break into Mount Weather together; Octavia receives an irresistible offer.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

So, after the events of last week, the grounders and Camp Jaha have formed a tentative alliance, with Indra and Kane training the soldiers and Clarke and Lexa devising a strategy to get into the mountain.

We learn a little bit about the Grounders and their lifestyle in this episode. We’ve always known them to be a tough group of people, survival of the fittest kind of mentality. But it looks like they are far more intimidating and hardcore when we start seeing them being trained by Indra. Their kind of wild and no-holds-barred fighting techniques seem to be their forte, though none of them are willing to hold a gun due to superstitions that the mountain men will come and kill them if they do.

It’s made obvious that while they are a tough people, they have a lot to gain from their alliance with Camp Jaha. Octavia, it seems, is the bridge between them. Not really a member of the Ark and not really a grounder, she toes the line in both of the worlds. It hasn’t been beneficial until now, when she proves herself to be made of hardier stock by taking on a grounder in hand to hand combat. Granted, she gets her ass handed to her, but Indra seems to see something in her and asks her to be her second, an apprenticeship.

The alliance might be in question and unstable, but it seems like so is Octavia’s loyalty. It’s not hard to see why she’d pick a people who accepted her for who she was over a people who didn’t even want her to exist in the first place. Kane tries to remind her of who she is, but she makes it pretty clear that she’s standing with Indra.

While the warriors train, Clarke and Lexa and her council of advisors try and come up with a plan to break into Mt Weather. It doesn’t seem to be easy, as they can’t simply break open the doors and contaminate them all. Clarke insists that they wait for Bellamy to break in and be their inside man, but everyone agrees that this is more of a dream than a plan. On a walk to clear her mind and figure out a solution, she’s met by Quint, a member of Lexa’s council and the brother of a man Clarke killed with their bomb.

Quint is violent and murderous, but before he’s able to cause any real harm to Clarke, Lexa disables him and tells him that his fight is over. She gives Clarke the duty of killing him. Clarke wavers, unable to do “what is necessary”, and is interrupted as a loud rustling comes from the woods. In a hilarious and weird turn of events, it seems like there’s a huge gorilla running around being feral and killing people in the forest. It kills Byrne initially, though Clarke thinks it’s Quint’s doing. Then when he centers on Clarke and Lexa, Lexa cuts Quint in the leg and leaves him behind for the beast.

Running together from the feral gorilla, they barely make it into a safe hiding place, after Lexa injures her arm and they are locked in a prison. Lexa chastises Clarke for not leaving her behind and not being able to kill Quint. She tells her that to lead well, you need to make hard decisions. This conversation is mirrored again in Jaha’s conversation with Murphy about making hard decisions as a leader. But as we’ve learned from Jaha and the fallen 100, hard decisions don’t always yield desired effects and you have to live with those choices.

Clarke makes it clear that despite Lexa’s harshness, she is willing to work with them. If she were to die and another commander were to be put in place, they might not be as willing to comply with Camp Jaha. But Lexa informs Clarke that if they die, her spirit will go into the one of the next commander so she will still be with them in spirit. This makes it clear why Lexa is a commander at such a young age, and why people like Indra and Gustus and Anya follow her.

Jaha, taking the chance while the alliance with the Grounders holds, asks Murphy to take him to Wells’ grave after getting him off of cleaning duty. We learn in their conversation together that Murphy’s father was floated for stealing medicine for Murphy when he was a child. Murphy makes it clear to Jaha that there is still a lot of residual animosity from him and the rest of the delinquents who were sent to the ground to die, and despite the “blank slate” they were given, are still being treated like convicts.

After visiting the grave, Jaha opts to rest in the drop ship for the night. In the morning a group of people meet him outside the drop ship and he reveals that he intends to go to the City of Light where “everyone is accepted”. He tells Murphy that this can be the place he starts over. Murphy, who has definitely been on the ground the longest amongst all these people, tells Jaha it’s a pipe dream and affirms that Jaha doesn’t even know the way. But instead of returning to a place where he is hated, he decides to go with Jaha.

It’s hard for me to feel sympathy for Jaha, since he is literally leading about twenty people into a likely death and seems to be fine with it because someone somewhere told him a story that may or may not be true. I can see why Murphy would accept the idea despite it’s fallacies, he’s been treated as an antagonist since day one, he wants the opportunity to be someone else. I can’t see why other people would be so ready to leave. They are aware that going with Jaha is signing about as sure of a death warrant as it is going up against the mountain men with the grounders, right?

Clarke manages to use her wits to escape with Lexa. Lexa tells her that she was wrong about calling Clarke weak, and that she sees no weakness in her. If Jason Rothenberg is switching out Bellarke for Clexa, I think I could get behind it (but please, Jason, #bellarke). Clarke also comes to a realization about the plan with Bellamy and Mount Weather; instead of Bellamy letting them in to fight, he can simply let out the grounders in the cages, and use the veritable army inside to break the place down from the inside out.

And it would be an awesome plan, if things didn’t seem like they were about to go pear-shaped. Lincoln guides Bellamy to the mouth of the entrance of Mount Weather disguised as a reaper. He seems to display some serious anxiety about returning back to the belly of the beast, and for good reason, it doesn’t look like he has shaken the addiction to the red yet. His plan with Bellamy, to cause chaos that will allow Lincoln to escape and Bellamy to get inside, goes awry when a hunting party comes back early and Lincoln realizes he has to face more reapers than planned.

Bellamy encourages Lincoln to be strong, and as the Mountain Men and Dr Tsing come out to procure their new prisoners, it seems like the plan is still in motion. But seeing the red, and being offered the drug is too much of a temptation for Lincoln. Instead of causing chaos, he regretfully takes a willing dose of the red as Bellamy is dragged into the mountain for processing.

God damn it, Lincoln. God damn it, Bellamy. The next week previews show Bellamy’s painful processing and ends in him being hung up like a carcass, waiting to be drained of his blood. It’s hard to imagine him leading any army when they all seem too weak to stand, let alone fight. Also, am I crazy or did the Reapers seem a lot more organized this episode? They seemed a group of organized mercenaries rather than the murderous cannibals I seem to remember. And, was that King Kong plot line really necessary? It not only killed off another interesting grounder, but also killed of Byrne, who seemed to actually be really useful as a plot device.