The 100 Review: Bitter Harvest (Season 3 Episode 6)

After five weeks of non-stop action, The 100 has finally settled down for a less eventful, more plot focused episode. “Bitter Harvest” takes the opportunity slow down, letting the twists and turns and power plays settle in, and finally digs a little deeper into the City of Light.

Back in Polis, Clarke is faced with the decision to honor Lexa’s new peacekeeping stance of “blood must not have blood” or seek vengeance on Emerson, the mountain man who helped the Ice Nation wipe out Mount Weather. The hypocrisy of her desire for revenge is not lost on her, but still Clarke initially decides that Emerson should be executed for his crimes. In her mind, Emerson is not an innocent bystander in someone else’s war; he is a murderer.

However, Titus brings up the reoccurring theme of The 100 that I love most, which is that no one is a hero in this world. At least none of the people faced with these kinds of life or death decisions. After Clarke tries to draw distinctions between pardoning the Sky People for Pike crimes, he reminds Clarke that she did no such thing when it came to Mount Weather. Lexa might have allowed the Sky People to live after Pike’s atrocities, but Clarke was willing to sacrifice an entire mountain full of people to stop Cage. No matter how much we’d like to paint Clarke as the noble heroine in this story, there’s just no escaping the fact that she has done horrific things.

Her decision to pardon Emerson and support Lexa proves that Clarke acknowledges these contradictions in herself, but it’s also a different kind of revenge.

Lexa: He will live, but he will live with the ghosts of those he has lost. Haunted until the end of his days by the knowledge that he is the last of his kind.

Back in Arkadia, Pike’s plans to massacre a Grounder village for their farm-fresh soil is intercepted by Miller and Kane, who pass the information on to Octavia on the outside. She warns the villagers to leave, but Grounders are never ones to surrender a fight easily, and they leave a trap for the Arkadia squad.

The wedge between Bellamy and Octavia is growing deeper and deeper with every episode, fostered by the mistrust Pike is sowing. There’s no telling what their breaking point will be, but I’ll reiterate how worried I am about Lincoln’s fate in this whole mess. It’s hard to shake the feeling that something bad is coming for him.

Finally, let’s talk about the City of Light.

We got a little bit of info about the strange “keys” Jaha has been having people, and frankly, the answer is worrying. Does a microchip that inhibits the pain receptors in the brain sound super dangerous to anyone else? The human body feels pain for a reason, and I’m shocked Abby didn’t just dump the entire bag down the drain once she understood how these chips worked.

Even more worrying, Jaha doesn’t remember Wells until Alie reminds him about his son. Taking away physical pain is one thing, but taking away grief? If Alie has to erase the memories of lost loved ones from your mind to help you reach “peace” then that’s not the kind of peace most people would be interested in.

And then the bomb dropped — pardon the expression. Alie’s upgrade, the missing part of her code she’s been searching for all these years, existed on the 13th station, which was “lost to conflict” before the Ark was created. Unfortunately for Jaha and Alie, the wreckage of that computer system currently sits in the caverns of Polis with John Murphy and Titus the torturer.

Other Thoughts:

• Acid tree sap causes acid smoke (which has disappeared since since Season 1). Cool.
• Abby and Kane. ABBY & KANE!
• I’m so jazzed to finally hear the story of the 13th station!
• Miller and his boyfriend are adorable.

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The 100 airs Thursday at 9/8c on The CW.

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