The 100 Review: Demons (Season 3 Episode 12)

For a show that doesn’t normally slow down for anything, The 100 has certainly tapped the breaks for the last two weeks.

Following last week’s bottle episode I’m surprised to see the narrative stay so closed off again in “Demons.”

The episode takes on a horror genre feeling and amps up our fear for our beloved delinquents, while also allowing them to feel some things they’ve been avoiding all season.

Murphy’s story is shaken up when Emori pops up in Polis. Ever the troublemaker, the girl is hard to read, and the writers take full advantage of how little we know about her. 

Emori’s reverence at the temple filled with ancient technology, markings of Becca, and her motto “SEEK HIGHER THINGS” should have been a clue that she’d taken the chip. We later learn that she’s already part of the City of Light and is seeing all of this through ALIE’s eyes.

Emori being chipped during her sex scene with Murphy again brings up the question of consent.

Yes, they already had an established relationship, but their reunion feels gutted and hollow once we learn that she is only there to gather information to use against him. 

Jaha arrives in Ontari’s throne room with a proposition for the fake commander: who needs the flame when you can have the key? Naturally, the power hungry nightblood takes the key without a moment’s hesitation, only to become another mindless servant of ALIE.

Unlike the other characters that have been brought into the City of Light I have little sympathy for Ontari. Jaha, most likely motivated by ALIE, keeps Murphy alive because he’s still the player with all the cards in his hand. Murphy has become a sort of linchpin for the season knowing things about ALIE and Becca that most don’t.

Hopefully, he can team up with Raven and the rest of the adventure squad to save their people.

Emori: The gates to Polis are open.

ALIE: Thank you, Emori. It’s time to fill the City of Light.

Speaking of Jaha, how did he beat Kane and the grounder blockade back to Polis, having left at least a day later than they did? 

And better yet what has he done with the army of chipped Arkadians? They certainly aren’t home when the adventure squad returns to the fallen Ark station.

While it’s good to see the loose end that is Carl Emerson officially tied up, he actually derails the greater story for most of the episode. However, we can all agree that Miller, Bryan and Harper telling ghost stories in the opening scene is actually delightful. 

Can we also just imagine for a moment how Emerson managed to get these three from the cave to the airlock? How did he actually manage to drag 3 full grown teenagers that far against their will?

Emerson’s attack on the delinquents serves to bond them more tightly back together. Bellamy and Clarke are able to set aside their issues for the sake of their friends and of each other. Bellamy also shows his endless devotion to Octavia; she’s essentially his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

Bellamy: You’re out of your mind if you think I’m letting you do this alone.

Clarke manages to save all of the delinquents, but not before enduring an extremely aggressive fight with Emerson. This is another moment in which I think the violence this season has just gone over the top and into the unnecessary. 

Perhaps it’s just me, but the fight between these two characters is incredibly hard to watch; I found myself cringing and looking away during my rewatch. From the way he holds her against the glass, forcing her to beg for her friends lives, to the shot of him atop her, nearly choking her to death more than once, it’s just a very difficult thing to witness.

Emerson gets what’s coming to him though when Clarke uses knowledge from Raven and Sinclair to activate the flame and use it to kill him. Using the Latin phrase “ascende superius” Clarke turns on the flame and slams it into Emerson’s neck, showing us just how crucial the nightblood serum is to interfacing with the flame as he dies bleeding out of every orifice on his head.

Raven’s time in the City of Light apparently left her with skills and knowledge she didn’t have before: now she’s able to read code and other languages she’s never been taught. With Becca’s journal Raven has a huge advantage now to figuring out how to take down the City of Light and get their people out of it.  

Raven: I can barely walk and my shoulder’s killing me, but my brain is all kinds of awesome.

Unfortunately, we can’t go a single episode without making her suffer either. Raven has to witness the death of her mentor, Sinclair as Emerson decides to just kill him rather than taking him with the others to the airlock. What is the point of his death other than to cause Raven pain? 

Killing Sinclair sends a very ugly message to the audience when we’ve just watched Lexa, Lincoln, and Hannah die. The 100 has killed a named character in four out of the last six episodes, and all of them have been a part of a minority. This has got to stop.

The delinquents give Sinclair and Lincoln a grounder funeral in the fire pit before they depart from Arkadia. Lincoln’s death is still so fresh and seeing Octavia mourn him is absolutely heartbreaking. She’s dealing with her grief by pushing it down and away until she doesn’t have to face it, while lashing out when it all becomes too much. 

Logically, Octavia can only keep this up so long before it breaks her. She even leaves Lincoln’s funeral only minutes after lighting the pyre, unwilling or unable to face her pain.

Jasper: It’s okay to fall apart a little Octavia, you loved him.

Octavia: A warrior doesn’t mourn the dead until the war is over.

There’s something to be said for her determination and dedication to saving a people who have continually made her an outcast. 

However, I hope Octavia gets a chance to fully deal with this loss, and Jasper, Bellamy, and the others will be there for her to lean on when she does.

Questions and other thoughts:

• Seeing all the kids chained up in the airlock is legitimately frightening, and once again shows us our heroes with their agency being completely revoked. Can that trope stop soon please?
• Speaking of the airlock, why does it still function like an airlock now that they are on Earth? What possible purpose does that serve for daily life in Arkadia?
• The use of the music carousel is textbook creepy, then with the addition of the iconic Mount Weather red smoke it works as a truly heart stopping moment. A+
• Will the ability to turn the flame on with a verbal password come into play later, or was that revelation simply so Clarke could use it to kill Emerson?
• Does anyone else think that Latin and Trigedasleng might be connected in someways? Also they’re both just really fun to speak aloud.
• The adventure squad go their separate ways in the end: Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, and Jasper are off to find Luna while Raven, Monty, Harper, Miller, and Bryan stay behind to work on the City of Light. My interest is primarily with the geek squad on this one, show me what else Raven’s awesome brain can do!
• Where are Kane and Abby? I hope they’re doing alright. I hope ALIE let Abby take a nap, she deserves one. I hope Kane is making all sorts of new friends on his grounder road trip.

What did you think of this episode of The 100? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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

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