The 100 Review: Perverse Instantiation – Part One (Season 3 Episode 15)

I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I’m pretty sure I nearly had a heart attack watching this week’s episode of The 100. “Perverse Instantiation – Part One” is the first half of The 100’s Season 3 finale and it is one of the most high-stakes, adrenaline-packed episodes of television I’ve seen this year.

The last 15 minutes of this episode packs so much into a short space of time, I’m still not sure my heart rate has returned to normal. True to it’s nature, The 100 brings our heroes to their lowest point just before the end. It truly looks as if there is no hope.

Although things are bleak and we will almost certainly lose some beloved characters in next week’s thrilling conclusion, I have faith that the Adventure Squad will prevail over ALIE. After all if there really was no hope, what would be the purpose of watching characters you love suffer for nothing?

ALIE’s favorite hobby has quickly become manipulating the relationships of people, both in and out of the City of Light, in order to get what she wants. The pairing in her cross-hairs this week? Abby and Clarke.

We’ve seen ALIE threaten the lives of loved ones in order to get people to take the chip, but this week she’s trying to get something so much bigger from Clarke. As the stakes are higher this time, ALIE ups the ante on her manipulations.

First, she forces Abby to physically harm Clarke, something the real Abby would never do in a million years. However, as with most characters on this show, Clarke won’t break under physical harm, no matter how much it hurts.

Clarke: Mom, this isn’t you, I know you’re in there.

Love is weakness.

That’s what we, and our heroes, have been told over and over this year. ALIE has taken that as a fact and decided to use love against Clarke. When her plan to torture Clarke’s friends in front of her is unable to come to fruition, she “improvises” by having her mother hang herself to give Clarke the same ultimatum she gave Abby and Kane: submit or watch someone you love die.

Jaha: Stubborn, like her mother.

Clarke can’t give in because that would mean the end of all of their lives, including Abby’s. Even knowing Abby wouldn’t want Clarke to give up the pass phrase to save her, this scene is incredibly hard to watch. Thankfully, my heroes, Murphy and Bellamy roll up into the throne room just in time that Clarke doesn’t actually have to watch another parent die.

In a pair of great call backs to Season 1, Murphy saves Abby from being hanged and Bellamy shoots Jaha again. Losing Ontari in this scene is supposed to be some tragic downfall, but thanks to set photos from January, we’ve known all along that it’s going to have to be Clarke that goes into the City of Light to save everyone.

Frankly, I would rather have the fate of humanity in Clarke Griffin’s hands than in the hands of someone who gouges people’s eyes out and threatens death while demanding sexual favors.

Back at Arkadia, the Geek Squad is hard at work on building a portal back into the City of Light, which they can do since Raven’s a genius. Unfortunately, Jasper is chipped, so ALIE knows everything.

If we hadn’t known already that Jasper was going to go into the City of Light, this reveal would have been masterfully done, but knowing that in advance takes all the air out of this plot twist. It’s somewhat confusing too that after all this time, Jasper would just give up and take the chip.

Devon Bostick’s “I’m dead inside” voice is phenomenal though, and Jasper does an excellent job of bringing in an unsettling creepiness to the episode.

Raven keeps Monty strong even when chipped Jasper knocks out Harper. Their resolve pays off when Raven cracks the code and makes it back inside the City of Light bringing it back online inside Arkadia’s computer system. This moment sparks real hope for the finale, and Raven and Monty’s happy tears warm my heart.

Indra and Octavia are reunited once more and Indra finally learns of Lincoln’s death. It’s heartbreaking, but thankfully Indra has some wise words for Octavia that may help her not only process her grief for Lincoln, but learn to become more forgiving. Not that Pike necessarily deserves Octavia’s forgiveness, but it’s important that Octavia see that not everything is black and white.

Indra: The dead can’t help us.

Bellamy also shows a real change in this episode as he says multiple times that they aren’t there to kill anyone but ALIE. His mindset has come to reflect Kane’s and Abby’s and even Lexa’s and Lincoln’s before their deaths: every life matters, blood must not have blood, grounders and Skaikru alike are their people. Even when he has to kill someone to save Murphy, his internal struggle as he pulls the trigger is evident. Well done, Bob Morley, well done.

I believe ALIE has made a huge miscalculation in counting love as a pure weakness. Love is the only way that these people will band together next week and come out stronger. Love is the strength that will be ALIE’s downfall. And love is the only way that our heroes can survive this much trauma and still come out of it alright.

Life is about more than just surviving, life is about love.

Other thoughts:

• Roan is back! I love King Roan! Hopefully, Roan can survive not one but two gunshot wounds this week because I want him to be around forever.
• Kane is still chipped and it breaks my heart. Someone save this kind soul. Indra hasn’t forgotten their alliance from the beginning of the season and it’s clear she considers him a real friend when she protects him from two separate bomb blasts. I need them both to make it out of next week alive.
• It looks like Abby is unchipped in next week’s trailer. Do you think they use Raven’s wristband on her since Ontari’s brain is dead? How do you think they’ll rescue everyone else before Clarke flips the killswitch? It’s going to be pretty heartbreaking if taking down ALIE also means killing everyone under her control.
• I would have bought the struggle to protect Harper vs. keeping Jasper out even if she hadn’t been turned into a plot device/love interest last week so I’m still not quite sure why that had to happen. Hopefully, Harper escapes ALIE’s clutches on her own.
• Miller and Bryan have a really cute moment where they talk about growing corn and raising chickens and growing old together by a lake. It immediately makes me fear for both of their lives and I am praying to anyone who will listen that they both make it through next week. Please don’t be the show that kills half of all your queer couples, The 100, please just don’t do that.
• Do we know what ALIE stands for? What is the meaning behind her name? Will we ever find out? Does it even matter? That feels like it should be important.
• “Perverse Instantiation” means doing something good through a perverse means. For example ALIE is attempting to “save” humanity by uploading all of their minds to the City of Light. Will Clarke and the rest of our heroes have to do horrible things, as we’ve seen in the past,  in order to truly save their people next week, giving the title an interesting double meaning?

 

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

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