The 100 S 2 E 6 type TV Show network The CW genre Sci-fi

Last week Finn made a tiny mistake, wherein he massacred most of a village. It has caused him to come under the wrath of Clarke, the Grounders, and the audience. (If you are somehow unaffected by this, just read the comments on the “Human Trials” recap to see the public outcry.) The resounding audience response to Finn’s actions was that he is now beyond redemption, some went so far as to say the only way the show can move forward is with his death.

But let’s not get too carried away. Yes, it will be hard for Finn to find redemption, but it’s not impossible. Look at the case of Murphy: Lest you forget, he caused Charlotte to kill herself, personally killed Connor and Myles, led all of the Grounders to the Dropship last season, which led to many deaths, and tried to kill Raven. Murphy is most definitely a murderer. And now we’re all watching season 2 like, “Oh, Murphy. You’re so sassy.”

In TV, good writing and brilliant acting can heal all wounds, and The 100 has proved that it has both. What I’m trying to get at is this: Don’t write off Finn just yet. The adults have given him a pardon, and maybe someday so will we.

That’s where “Fog of War” begins: Finn and Murphy have been given the “all clear.” Back in season 1, Jaha told the young prisoners that on Earth their crimes would be pardoned, and apparently that includes the time on the ground before the adults arrived.

Much of this episode is Clarke throwing brooding looks and someone giving her a deep thought about the wages of war. It begins with this line from Bellamy: “We’re at war, Clarke. We’ve all done things.” But she can’t hear that yet.

No one has time to contemplate anything for long in the constant battle that is Earth. Raven immediately comes with news to Clarke: She’s learned that they haven’t heard from the other stations because Mount Weather is jamming the signal. (Don’t you love how Raven came to Clarke with this? They might have adults around now, but Clarke is still the leader.)

Of course that creepy creepster Byrne overhears this and tattles. She goes with Abby to yell at the girls for … talking? Abby says she doesn’t get why Clarke can’t understand that she’s not a soldier and she needs to stop acting like one. And here is where I have to rant about this yet again: Abby, when will you learn? The 100 may not have been on the ground THAT long before you came, but they were there long enough to become soldiers in their own right. They defended themselves against grounders; they developed survival skills; they learned from and about their enemy. What do your soldiers of the sky know how to do, Abby? It seems like every episode she comes around and then we’re back to square one at the start of the next episode, but maybe this time it will stick.

Anyway, Byrne is worried about the Grounders retaliating for a massacre committed by a guy who used to be best known for an illegal spacewalk. But Abby quickly realizes—as she realizes in every episode—that Clarke won’t stop. So she decides to lead the team to stop Mount Weather from signal jamming.

Mount Weather

Post Maya’s near-death, we’re learning more about the Undergrounders’ radiation/blood fix. Apparently Jasper’s blood has allowed Maya to metabolize radiation on her own, something unheard of with Grounders’ blood. Dr. Tsing and Cage are trying to convince President Wallace to “move forward with The 47,” but he says no. He won’t put the kids in cages “like animals,” but he does ask Jasper to get them to volunteer.

Jasper tries and fails—even the line, “Come on, they gave us cake” doesn’t work. Before Monty can shame Jasper for working with the Undergrounders, Maya comes in with a written message (“they’re listening”) and covertly gets the guys to follow her. In a room without listening devices, she reveals that (as we all suspected) the leak wasn’t an accident. She was used to test Sky People blood against “the standard treatment.” What’s “the standard treatment” Jasper and Monty ask… Oh, just a little thing called the Harvest Chamber™.

Monty wants to break out, but Jasper—stepping up to be The 47’s new leader—says he won’t leave their people behind. Instead, they will become human blood bags for the Undergrounders and wait for the day that Clarke will save them. They have so much faith in her (or they just know she’s the main character).

The Train Station

It’s also been two days since Kane and Jaha were thrown into their underground train station together. Kane is doing everything he can to get his shackles off, but Jaha is just being very Zen/borderline crazy: If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it already … This is not how our story ends … We’ve still got work to do … My dead son told me … etc.

A group of Grounders comes in with their leaders and tells them about the massacre (Finn is Earth famous now). They think that as the leader, Kane must have ordered it and tell him that, “Blood must have blood.” They leave a knife—for one man to kill the other—and a young woman named Lexa, who can report back when the job’s done. If they refuse, they both die.

Although we know neither of them will actually die (after all Jaha already said that’s not how the story ends), we learn a lot about the two leaders through this process. Jaha sees this deed as an act of murder; Marcus sees it as a sacrifice. He tries to get Jaha to kill him; it seems here he’s trying to atone for all he did on the Ark, but Jaha refuses and says he doesn’t need redemption. Jaha tries to plead that they did things on the Ark for the survival of the human race, but as Kane points out, the human race was surviving. With this knowledge, it is difficult for Kane to reconcile the acts he sanctioned on The Ark. Jaha, not so much, apparently with his newfound lease on life.

When Jaha refuses to kill him, Kane slices his own arm. Jaha gets Lexa to help save him, and then quickly takes the knife to her throat.

When “the commander” comes back, we quickly learn that Lexa is the commander. She says she’s learned that Marcus’ intentions are honorable and that Jaha will be used to send a message. Because again: “Blood must have blood.” So Old Testament, these Grounders.

NEXT: So THAT’s the fog of war…

A Field & A Bunker

The radio hunting mission goes off with a motley crew: Finn, because he’s good at tracking; Raven, because she’s good at radio stuff; Abby, because she’s in charge; the Blakes, because they’re awesome; guards, because safety; and Clarke, because of course.

As they close in on Mount Weather, they see the radio towers. They decide to make camp there, but quickly realize the Blake siblings are gone. Finn wants to go with the guards to find them, but when everyone freaks out at the sight of him holding a gun, he sulks off. Clarke goes after him. She yells at him to come back, and all he has to say is, “It was an accident.”

Finn, come on. An accident is when you spill red wine on your sofa. Maybe an accident is when a gun misfires. But an accident is NOT when you gun down 18 unarmed people. But before Clarke can say what I’m yelling at my TV, they see acid fog. Conveniently, they’re close to the bunker.

In my notes, I wrote how Clarke was going to be so sad to see that Finn had defiled their love shack. But when the scene actually occurs, it is not joke-worthy. The music, mixed with Clarke’s expression when she sees the body, it is just … tragic. True, she had seen the evidence of his massacre two days earlier, but there’s something even more shocking for her to see a man who was bound, completely unable to fight back, executed by someone she thought she knew.

Finn quickly covers up the body with a shower curtain, and Clarke just looks at him with disgust. I call it disgust, Finn says she’s looking at him like he’s “the enemy.” She protests, but he says “Well, you don’t look at me the way you used to.” (And Flarke shippers worldwide cry.)

It’s definitely not the right moment, but he gives her back her dad’s watch. When he tells her that it was around the dead man’s neck, maybe this opens her heart a little? She’s nowhere near forgiving him, but maybe this, ever so slightly, helps her see that for THIS murder, he really thought the man knew/had/killed Clarke. As for the massacre, well you’ve got a long way to go for redemption on that one, buddy.

Every time the episode cut back to this bunker, it just got more depressing. As they’re preparing to leave once the fog has cleared, Clarke says, “I don’t even know who you are anymore.” And his lip quivers. THAT LIP QUIVER. If she had seen his face, maybe she could have forgiven him right then. But instead he just kneels down and says “neither do I.”

“What have we become?” Clarke says. It seems that all of them are in the fog of war.

The Parking Garage

Bellamy and Octavia left the group to find a way into Mount Weather. They don’t get too far before the guards catch up, though. But then something worse happens—probably the worst thing that could possibly happen happens. ROACHES. (I guess it’s true what they say about roaches surviving a nuclear attack!) Thousands of them start swarming the area. Octavia notices they’re scurrying under a door, which they quickly get inside—minus one guard.

“Inside” turns out to be an underground garage. Bellamy says that he needs to find an access point to Mount Weather. The guard pulls his gun out, and then hands it to him—nice fakeout guard; you might be the one adult on the ground with some sense, which probably means you aren’t long for this world.

The guards search the cars, and one finds an MP3 player on a wind-up charger. Once Christmas music started playing, any loyal CW watcher knew something bad was about to happen. Cue flashlights frantically cutting through the dark and landing on one guard being eaten by two reapers and then the other guard being eaten by … Lincoln. (How will Octavia ever kiss those lips now that they have eaten human flesh?)

This is not the Bellamy we knew from season 1; he understands Octavia’s love for Lincoln, and promises to get him back. Using a little bit of Octavia bait and a shock baton, they’re ready to take him “home”—wherever that is.

Rendezvous Point

Luckily the radio gang brought hermetically sealed tents with them so Abby and Raven are protected from the fog in the field. Raven works on the radio while they wait. She finds some muffled chatter on the only channel that’s not jammed, and eventually Raven unscrambles the signal and learns that the fog is actually a weapon.

Abby immediately wants to blow up the tower, but Raven reminds her they’re listening in to the enemy. This is a big decision for the new chancellor: She can blow up the tower and make contact with the other ships or listen to the enemy and have an upper hand on the war. “Tough call,” Raven says. “I know what Clarke would do.”

And maybe Abby has finally learned to listen to her inner Clarke because when her daughter and Finn return, she tells them the radio tower is staying in place. Abby’s decided she wants to bet on the certainty of The 47 rather than the unknown of the other dropships. Mount Weather, here we come.

But maybe not… because seconds later the once and future Chancellor stumbles out of the woods (and Abby’s eyes bug out of her head). He’s bringing a message from the Grounder commander: “Leave… or die. We have two days.”

WHERE ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GO?

Questions on my mind:

Seriously, where are they supposed to go?

What happened to cause the Undergrounders to hate the Grounders SO MUCH that they would create so many weapons against them? (We now know of three: the Reaperization, the Harvest Chamber/Body Chute, and the Acid Fog.)

Also, how surprised were you that the acid fog is not a side effect of the nukes but a man-made device?

How good is Abby at throwing shade? Case in point: “That sounds clear to you?”

Can someone who understands radio signals and jamming explain to me how the Undergrounders caused the Exodus ship to crash?

How will they save Lincoln, and what does Bellamy mean by “home”?

If there has been “a Wallace in this office since the bombs,” can that really be called a presidency?

Will Clarke ever forgive Finn?

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