The 100: Blood Must Have Blood, Part One Recap

Synopsis of 2×15: Clarke and Lexa prepare for battle, while Raven and Wick experience a major setback. Meanwhile, Octavia and Lincoln are each forced to make a difficult decision. At Mount Weather, Jasper and Maya witness a horrible act, Bellamy follows through on a promise and Cage goes public with powerful information

Rating: ★★★★☆

As we go barreling towards the season finale, the writers and creators of The 100 continue to blow us away with the winding turns it makes throughout Season 2.

With the 44 still on the loose within Mount Weather, Cage is slowly realizing he’s losing grip of the presidency that he’s taken over. Without any measure of defense against the army at their doorstep and his own presidency tearing itself apart from the inside, it’s made very clear that his militant form of opposition isn’t winning him any favors and has forced his enemies to come together.

Ex-President Dante Wallace, who continues to surprise me every episode, has shown himself to be a diplomatic man through and through, advising Cage in the best course of action to save his people. In fact, we can take the actions of each person in this episode as ultimately self-serving. Yes, Dante is a fair leader; yes, he wanted to protect the 44; yes, he is ultimately the lesser evil when compared to Cage and Tsing. But none of this means that he’s a push over, and it definitely doesn’t mean that he’s going to let his people die at the hands of the army waiting outside.

He knows full well what kind of legacy they are leaving, he knows exactly what it is going to take to protect his people. The same can be said for Lexa, who makes a shocking deal at the end of the episode that seems to undo weeks of hard work and sacrifice. Is she a bad person for reneging on her alliance with Clarke to save her own people? Maybe. Is it out of character? No.

She’s continuously been seen as a leader for the Grounders first and foremost. Despite any personal feelings she might have for Clarke, the fact of the matter is that after bargaining back her own people, she would no longer benefit at all in helping Clarke. It will be the majority of her people charging into Mount Weather, and if they loose, it will be her people getting drained of their blood or worse.

Lexa, like Dante, thinks with her head. In war, there are not good decisions, the most humane objective is to try and save as many lives as possible. Going into the mountain with swords and sticks, against people who have stockpiled weapons that they can’t even begin to fathom, is a veritable suicide mission if just one part of the plan goes wrong.

Despite this setback that Clarke faces, the episode does a brilliant job of showing us just how calculating Clarke can be. The plan she sets forward and delegates is nothing short of ingenious. It’s the culmination of all the knowledge they have on the Mount Weather, utilizing the mines, the dam, the 44, and the Grounders all to the best of their abilities.

Like most plans that play out on television, it always seems hinged on perfection, anything less will send them into chaos. Raven and Wick, recovering from a less-than-beneficial hook up in the previous episode, are discovered in the dam planting explosives and in the process of executing the plan damage an explosive.

Raven, who seems never short on quick fixes, continues to demonstrate just how quick she is on her feet. She is still very much the girl who piloted herself out of the Ark and back to earth. Her intelligence marked with her own determination and will to live is what makes her indispensable to the team. In the end, she is able to destroy power to Mount Weather just as they are about to be taken out by the guards. Injured in the process along with Wick, they are unable to do anything but surrender when Lexa makes the deal with Cage.

Within the mines, Indra leads a team along with Octavia through the labyrinth and through Octavia’s guidance find the entrance to the mountain. It’s a triumphant moment as we get to see Octavia get what she’s always wanted, acceptance. She’s been an outsider her whole life; a child that wasn’t suppose to be born, hidden from the society that defined her very existence as illegal, used by Kane as a potential mole for the people of Camp Jaha, she doesn’t belong anywhere.

When Indra names her Octavia of the Tree People, giving her a true title and accepting her as one of them, for that brief moment, she seems to be on the verge of getting everything she wants. Then, Lexa sounds for retreat and we are reminded that one of the only things she holds dear is her brother. Her loyalties to Indra, to Clarke, to whomever is passed aside in her loyalty to the person who has supported her and protected her for her entire life.

It’s heartbreaking to see her lose whatever semblance of a home she has when Indra takes away her title as her second, and leaves Octavia at the door of the mine alone.

If Lexa and Dante think with their heads, then Octavia and Clarke definitely think with their hearts. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s definitely the product of people who have not lost that kind of empathy that gets slowly torn down through the process of survival.

With Clarke abandoned by her army, it seems like Season 2 will end with just as much of a cliff hanger as Season 1. The majority of the kids within the mountain have been rounded up after being rooted out of their hiding places with the rebels (the guard spares no rebel in the process, killing them point blank in a brutal attempt to stop insurrection) while Bellamy, Monty, Jasper, and Maya snake their way to the Grounder cages to free their army (at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if Bellamy ends up living in those vents), only to find the prison empty and their plan in shambles.

The finale shows us the capture of Abby and the survivors at Ton DC, as well as a stand off between Clarke and Cage. It remains to be seen if Lexa and the grounders will play any more of a role with the finale, or if we will get a glimpse at Jaha and Murphy as they have literally sailed into the sunset chasing after empty hopes and dreams.