The 100 Review: Fallen (Season 3 Episode 10)

To say I’m upset with this week’s episode of The 100 feels like an understatement; I’m devastated, angry, hurt, and mostly just disappointed.

After last week, I believed the show was back on an upswing from the bumpy first half of the season. And granted, “Fallen” is a riveting hour of television. It’s incredibly well-acted, and I simply could not look away from the horrors playing out on my screen. Unfortunately, the episode is filled with so much negativity it would be an injustice not to address the problems it presents.

The overall theme of this episode is entirely unsettling; it perpetuates the idea that free will can be circumvented and that consent can be gained through coercion.

In both the Arkadia and Polis plotlines we see this executed in various ways. In Arkadia, ALIE and Jaha are trying to recruit more people to the City of Light, but they’re being hindered by Raven’s resistance and Abby’s refusal to join the cause. Jaha convinces ALIE to force them into submission.

ALIE: You’re suggesting I coerce complicity.

What follows is difficult to watch: ALIE uses Raven’s pain against her until she possesses her in a scene straight out of some kind of AI version of a horror movie. All the while Abby is fighting tooth and nail to get Raven out, to help her reduce her pain, something she’s been trying to do all season. Jaha and ALIE use Abby’s love for Raven, her moral code as a doctor, and her generally kind heart against her. They give her an ultimatum: let Raven die or enter the City of Light.

This is the very similar to the impossible decision that Murphy is given later in the episode.

Ontari has him chained to her wall, strips in front of him and gives him an ultimatum as well: have non-consensual sex with her or die. We do learn that Ontari was put through a terrible childhood under Queen Nia in the Ice Nation, but that doesn’t excuse her actions with Murphy. Cool backstory, still rape!

While ALIE, Jaha, and Ontari are all clearly playing villains in this story, what does it say to the viewer when all of them win?

“Fallen” is disheartening and harrowing to watch because it causes real pain to see our heroes suffer this deeply and endure traumas that, for some, hit far too close to home. There has to be a line somewhere; there is a way to show people overcoming hardship without aggressively shoving their pain and suffering into our faces.

Consent through coercion is not consent. Murphy said no, Abby said no, and Raven had said yes, but she changed her mind and said no. The fact that all of their protests are ignored or circumvented in this episode is just plain frightening. I can’t believe we’re still having to explain that no means no in 2016, let alone in a world set over a hundred years in the future.

The violence doesn’t stop there; it also carries over into the one satisfying plot of this episode, in which Bellamy finally begins to redeem himself.

Bellamy’s allegiance has always been to Octavia, at the end of the day she’s what matters most to him. She beats him to a bloody pulp for Lincoln’s death, and while it’s cathartic to see Bellamy face the brutal reality of his actions, again the extremeness of the violence seems excessive.

There’s also something to be said about the way agency and power keep being taken from various characters recently. Lincoln takes it from Octavia when he sacrifices himself, Octavia fights Bellamy while his hands are tied, Murphy is chained to a wall, Abby is drugged and forced to take the key to the City of Light which further takes away her free will, Raven is tortured to the point of complete submission. Our favorite characters should have more say in their own fates; stop knocking them out of their own stories.

The story you’re telling needs to have a purpose. When what you’re saying is love is weakness, love is pain, free will and consent are optional, what does that tell your audience, an audience made up largely of young people? You have a responsibility The 100 writers, do better.

Other thoughts:

• Jasper is suddenly someone I am rooting for with abandon. I love seeing him team up with Abby and seeing him take the rover and Raven. Way to go buddy!
• Kane’s long pause after “Tell Abby…” made my heart grow three sizes this week. There are so many things he needs to tell her but he settles with the one he knows she’d want to hear most and the one that says all she needs to know. He loves her, he’ll look out for the person she loves most.
• WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO HIM IN POLIS?
• Hannah made us think she cared for a whole five minutes before we learn that she actually sold Monty out to Pike. I am so conflicted over how I feel about this character.
• I don’t know how Jaha managed to make an evil AI lady who literally destroyed the world worse, but congrats pal, you did it.
• Lindsey Morgan and Paige Turco absolutely blew me away. Lindsey does a magnificent job of showing Raven’s struggle and then portraying the way ALIE possesses Raven’s body. Paige tugs at every single one of my heartstrings with her emotional range: resistance, intelligence, indignation, fear, love, desperation, emptiness, all shown beautifully and expressively.
• Clarke shows up just in time to hop in the Rover with Jasper, get a fresh dose of terrible news, and see her mother turned into a CoL zombie. You better go back for her, girl. And uh, welcome home I guess, you missed some stuff.
• I’m very concerned for Abby, I’m hoping there will be problems with her CoL chip since she didn’t truly consent to joining. I’m also hoping Clarke and Kane come to her rescue. Her final line gives me chills. Have they captured EVERYONE in Arkadia? And what in the holy hell is phase two?

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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