It’s Unity Day, the anniversary of the day the twelve stations banded together to form the Ark on The 100. But the people on the Ark and the ground are anything but unified.
On both the Ark and in the camp on the ground, people are celebrating Unity Day in this episode of The 100. The episode opens with Jaha talking about the day the stations unified 97 years prior, and a video of his speech is being shown to the 100 on the ground.
But Finn explains to Clarke that the story is a lie — the stations didn’t become unified until a thirteenth station was blown up. When Clarke argues that that violence brought about peace, Finn questions why there had to be violence in the first place.
It’s a great opener for an episode that really questions the price of peace, although Finn’s explanation of the true story of the Ark’s eventual unity is one that reminds me a bit too much of The Hunger Games series, personally.
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Loctavia? Lintavia? Octcoln?
I honestly can’t come up with a proper relationship title for Octavia and Lincoln, but I’m sure their fandom will do it for me shortly. Anyway, while the 100 are celebrating Unity Day in the camp with alcohol made in Monty’s still, Octavia sneaks up to meet with Lincoln in the woods.
She brings him flowers, and when she reaches his cave, they embrace happily and kiss. That kissing soon turns into much more than kissing, and Lincoln and Octavia get a love scene on The 100. I can’t say that I mind; have you seen Ricky Whittle?
When Lincoln brings Octavia back outside, however, they are found by Finn, who brings something back that belongs to Lincoln. And when Finn is led down into Lincoln’s home and sees the horn that warned a few of the 100 of danger in an earlier episode, he realizes that maybe Lincoln isn’t so bad and that their two sides can find peace with one another.
Chaos on Unity Day
Meanwhile, the Ark is making plans to launch the first Exodus ship for Earth in less than 60 hours. Jaha announces this during his speech before a pageant ceremony about the history of Unity Day is performed by a group of young people on the Ark.
Diana approaches Abby during the speech, and then seems irked when Jaha cuts the talk short and skips over some of the words she claims to have prepared. Then she leaves, which turns out to be a very suspicious move when there’e suddenly an explosion during the performance.
Kane was approached by his mother during the ceremony and asked to bring the tree she finds precious down when he goes to Earth on the first Exodus trip; she also requests that he do a sort of “safe travels” spiritual ceremony beforehand, but he claims that he doesn’t remember how to do it.
So it’s especially heartbreaking when, after the performance, Kane’s mother Vera is found badly wounded by her son, and he starts to recite the words she had requested while she lies dying in his arms. When he finishes, she passes away in the middle of the chaos.
Jaha tells Kane to find out who caused the explosion, and it’s quickly revealed that Diana left before the end of the speech. Jaha puts the Ark on lockdown and vows that the launch will not be delayed by the attack.
Finn’s Hope
On Earth, Bellamy convinces Clarke to have some fun and drink a little for Unity Day before the others come down to Earth and the party’s over, and she agrees and finally lets loose a little. That doesn’t last long, however. Finn approaches her while she’s playing a drinking game and asks her to speak privately.
After speaking to Lincoln, Finn was able to set up a meeting with the leader of the Grounders to discuss a truce between their two sides. He explained that the rest of their people were coming to Earth, and he didn’t want a war to break out. So, he was sent to talk to Clarke about the meeting because the Grounders, or at least Lincoln, see her as the leader of the 100.
In an earlier conversation with Raven, Finn talked more about practicing nonviolence with the Grounders, and although Raven basically thought he was crazy, he’s still adamant with Clarke that he thinks it’s possible. He tells Clarke he thinks they can do better this time around than their ancestors, and she ultimately agrees to the meeting. And although she wants weapons backup at first, he says it was agreed there would be no weapons, so she relents. At least, Finn thinks she does.
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Deception
On the Ark, Diana plans with some of her followers to get the first launch ship off of the Ark early, even though it will mean disruption to many of the systems on the ship and certain death to many of their people. It becomes clear very quickly that she did in fact orchestrate the explosion, and she will stop at nothing to mobilize her people against Jaha and the Council.
She fakes innocent with Kane and Jaha, turning in one of her men as the culprit instead, but he’s merely a plant. Cuyler Ridley, she claims, is a terrorist, and he wants revenge for the death of his wife in the culling. Kane is clearly suspicious of her, but there’s nothing he can pin on her just yet.
When Kane confronts Ridley in a prison cell, he claims the coup is about more than just a mutiny — the working class of the Ark are the ones with the most kids on Earth, he says, but they aren’t the first to board the drop ships. “Today is your reckoning,” he ominously states, before one of the guards attacks the other and Kane and the attacked guard are left in the cell while the other two escape.
Meeting
On Earth, Jasper and Raven bond a bit when Bellamy approaches and tells Jasper he needs to come with him. Clarke asked him to follow her and Finn with weapons, and he wants Jasper there as his own backup. Raven demands to join them, so she and the boys follow Clarke and Finn to the truce meeting.
While Jasper, Bellamy and Raven are in hiding, Octavia, Clarke and Finn meet up with Lincoln on a bridge. Finn grabs Clarke’s hand after seeing Lincoln and Octavia embrace, which upsets Raven. The embrace between his little sister and a Grounder upsets Bellamy as well.
A small group of the Grounders arrive on horseback, and their leader, a woman named Anya, is present. They also brought weapons, which Lincoln was not aware they would be doing.
I think it’s very cool that both the leaders are women, and it’s an interesting direction for The 100 to go in. And of course, the wannabe leader on the Ark is a woman as well.
Anya argues that the 100 have shown through several actions that they don’t want peace, such as burning down one of their villages thanks to the missiles they launched, or torturing one of their people. She tells Clarke that they are invaders, but Clarke warns that they need to put an end to their tension before the others from the Ark come down or they really will have a war on their hands.
The New Chancellor in Town
Back on the Ark, as the first drop ship is prepared by Diana and her followers, several systems in the Ark are failing. As parts of the ship lose power, they lose heat, and people will soon start dying by freezing to death. One of those sections happens to be the prison, and one of those people set to die is Kane, but he’s soon rescued when the others realize where he is.
Kane warns them that Diana is committing a mutiny and trying to launch the Exodus ship, and the scene cuts to Diana doing just that. Abby is in hiding, watching the whole thing, while they prepare. She watches as Diana approaches some of her men for a status update and is announced by one man as Chancellor, which is of course bad news.
With less than 50% of “their people” on board, Diana makes the decision to have anyone not loyal to them thrown back onto the Ark, and to have the ship launch in five minutes. While Abby watches, one man runs to warn Jaha, but will he be too late?
Jasper’s Folly
When Anya asks if Clarke can promise no one from the Ark will attack them if she agrees to the truce, Clarke can’t make that vow. She claims she will do everything she can to make them follow the terms, but that’s not good enough for Anya.
Clarke warns her that she really should agree, because the technology the people of the Ark have will wipe the Grounders out, and Anya says others have tried before. Interesting.
But just then, Jasper spots some Grounders in the trees with weapons, poised to strike, and he freaks out and yells for Clarke to run, before he starts shooting at them. Anya is hit, and everyone starts shooting at one another, then Lincoln is hit as well. Before Octavia can really tend to him, however, he tells Finn and Clarke to take her away, and he stays to follow after the departing Grounders.
The Launch
On the Ark, Jaha and some of his men try to force the doors where the Exodus ship is housed open, because if the doors are open, it can’t launch. With two minutes to its launch, Abby is caught, and brought before Diana while Jaha and the others watch.
Diana tries to convince Abby to go with them, stating that she owes Jaha no loyalty and tempting her with the thought that she’ll be able to see Clarke again. But Abby isn’t buying her, and she depressurizes the room so Jaha and his group can try to force their way through. She’s knocked out for her trouble, but doesn’t appear to be too badly injured.
When Jaha argues with Diana in an attempt to stop the launch, saying everyone onboard the Ark will die if they launch the ship now, Diana won’t listen. She then reveals that there aren’t enough drop ships for everyone on the ship, and some of Jaha’s men are thrown by this admission.
One of the men, after some back and forth between Jaha and Diana, admits that he doesn’t trust either of them, but then he forces his way through to join the others of the Exodus ship. But the doors close behind him, and Jaha and his group are forced back as the ship launches. Then the Ark goes threateningly dark, and its people are left in limbo.
The Opposite of Unity
On Earth, the group who went to the truce meeting argue about its outcome, Finn arguing that they agreed to no guns and Bellamy arguing that the Grounders brought weapons to kill Finn and Clarke anyway. When Octavia tells Jasper he ruined everything, he’s pissed at her because she doesn’t acknowledge that he “saved” her, and basically everyone is just upset with everyone else for how things turned out.
Bellamy and Clarke are left to scoff at the idea of it being the best Unity Day ever when the others have left, and together they witness the first drop ship entering their atmosphere. Bellamy remarks that Clarke’s mom will be there earlier than expected.
Witness
But Clarke soon realizes that something is very wrong. The ship is moving too fast, and has no parachute, and to her horror, she understands that it’s going to crash. In the distance, the ship hits the ground and explodes, and Clarke falls to the ground in despair, fully believing that her mother was on the ship.
Will Clarke learn that her mother wasn’t on the ship in the next episode of The 100? Or will she continue to believe Abby is dead? And what about the Grounders? Will they retaliate thanks to Jasper’s rash actions? We’ll have to continue to watch the CW’s The 100 to find out!
The 100 airs every Wednesday night at 9pm on the CW.
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(Image courtesy of CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
