TV Review: The 100 4×09 “God Complex”

There are two forms of stories taking place in this weeks episode of The 100 (and the last until it returns late April) and it’s a pointed decision by the writers. The first is a story of survival and the desperate lengths the human race will go to in order to ensure it, even if it leads them down a treacherous path where they’re forgoing their humanity for its survival. The second is the showcasing of the ability to live in the moment, to relish in the freedom of having no control over what’s going to happen tomorrow.

It’s no surprise that it’s the leaders and the scientists that end up in the former camp, with Clarke, Abby, Roan and co., planning to use Emori as their next test subject, even as they watched the former convulse in pain until his last breath. Then there’s Kane, Jaha and Monty who are making the push into Polis to find what Jaha believes was the real bunker for the last death wave.

What is more interesting is that on the other side-the side where people are beginning to realize that by wasting their last ten days on earth worrying and fighting might not be the best use of their time, are the foot soldiers. It’s Jasper, Harper and Bellamy (who even cracks a smile this week!) who are taking a moment of reprieve before the world ends.

Here are some other thoughts I had during this weeks episode “God Complex”

What the fuck Abby

I have to hand it to the showrunners, despite the constant misery the characters have been put through so far this season as each glimmer of hope is tragically ripped from them, for the most part it’s made logical sense as to why. Each hurdle, each mistake has caused rippling effects and at the very least through it all we’ve seen the characters try their absolute hardest to try and resolve the ever worsening problem.

But then Abby literally goes and smashes their last remaining hope to test and see if Clarke- taking Emori’s place- can survive the radiation using Luna’s bone marrow, and it seems like a cheap, illogical conclusion to one portion of the storyline. The idea being that Abby having seen Clarke in a vision with radiation burns caused her trauma and that the fear of her loosing her daughter was too much for her makes sense in theory, but this is also the mother that sent her daughter to the ground without full evidence that it was livable.

It’s a moment that failed to empathize Abby with the viewers and rather made her extremely unlikable.

Emori and Murphy have become the most stable relationship on the show

Both romantically and otherwise it would seem that Emori and Murphy have become the most reliable relationship on the show and for a series that began with Murphy’s banishment, that’s a pretty remarkable feat. In part due to Richard Harmon’s strong and consistent work as the character but also due to the slow burn the show has done with these two, we deeply feel his pain when Emori is taken from him and even more so, we believe him when he tells Clarke that if she dies, he’ll kill Clarke himself for it.

Luckily it never actually comes to that but it gives us not just a character to root for to survive what seems to be the inevitable end of the world, but also a couple and that can do a lot for the emotional stakes of the show.

Whatever the hell we want 

The characters of The 100 have changed so drastically throughout the course of the show that there are moments when it’s easy to forget just who they were when they first stepped foot of the the drop ship. Bellamy, for instance, was just about the worst, something that was saved quickly by Bob Morley’s easy charisma which he had in abundance. However, if there’s anything to miss of that first iteration of the character is his slightly more carefree attitude and that’s something we get to peak at tonight when Jasper brings back his “whatever the hell we want mantra” but this time with a more melancholy twist. Jasper and Bellamy are two characters who have always played wonderfully off of one another and it was nice to see Jasper in the position of mentor for a change, telling Bellamy that there isn’t any time left to mourn those he’s lost or feel guilt and look for redemption. He just has time to live.

The 100 never fails in calling back to earlier moments of the series, from this weeks call back to Mount Weather, to how Clarke has taken over Abby’s role on the arc and how Bellamy, Raven and Clarke have begun to realize the horrors of leadership in the same manner that Abby, Kane and Jaha had before them.

It’s all making for a thrilling last third of the season and one that’s going to feel impossible to wait for in the April hiatus.

What did everyone else think of this weeks episode?