The 100 Review: Red Sky at Morning (Season 3 Episode 14)

Is anyone else feeling as hopeless as the Adventure Squad right now?

The 100 brings us another week of coming incredibly close to some kind of victory for our heroes, and then snatching it away at the last minute. “Red Sky at Morning” is filled with tension and action and any small victories are overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of loss and defeat.

In Arkadia, Raven falls prey to some pretty heartbreaking Icarus parallels. Already a technical genius, her skills enhanced by her time in the City of Light, she can see the whole place in lines of numbers and letters and code. Her newfound abilities and that classic Raven Reyes confidence lead her to believe she can hack ALIE and take her down on her own, though Monty urges her to wait for the others.

Raven’s confidence is not unfounded, she’s completely capable of everything she thinks she can do. But when Jaha and ALIE play dirty by blocking their path with Monty’s mother, they come up short.

Monty summons the strength to delete her code forever, having to make the decision to kill her again. He knows that she’s already gone anyway, and that they need to destroy ALIE.

They find the kill switch and Raven knows exactly what to do but ALIE pulls herself from the mainframe before she can press the button. The scene is incredibly emotional and Lindsey and Chris do an amazing job. Monty is enraged that she didn’t just wait for everyone else and feels like everything they’ve done is a waste.

Raven, heartbroken and remorseful, now knows where the kill switch is and how to use it. Thanks to her ability to see the city in the lines of code, she knows what it looks like on the inside too. Hopefully, this information will be crucial (and completely worth it) when she meets back up with Clarke and the flame.

In Polis, the most unlikely team ever bands together to try and take out ALIE’s other power source: the nuclear fuel cell backpack.

They come up short as well, hindered by some interesting words from Emori. She claims that if they destroy ALIE’s server/power that the minds of everyone who’s been chipped will be destroyed too.

Is she telling the truth or is she just trying to stall because she knows Murphy cares for her? They need to find a way around that because destroying ALIE is pointless if they lose everyone she’s taken.

ALIE has used Becca’s escape pod to transfer herself to the somehow still-functioning ring of the Ark that remains in space. I’m fascinated by this, even if I don’t quite understand how she managed it.

How can the pod communicate with a station it was never a part of? How do either of the machines still have power? How are they going to take THAT down? I do love being back in space though, I really really do.

Speaking of things I love, Luna is incredible and I hope we see more of her in Season 4. The way of life on her oil rig is completely different than any we’ve seen so far. They aren’t fighting for survival like everyone else, they aren’t fighting at all. They are at peace, they play games, they smile! But true to their reputation, Skaikru brings death to the rig and back to Luna.

Luna: Remember Clarke, the path of violence is a choice.

Clarke: When the choice is fight or die, there is no choice.

They both have valid points, but Luna see’s Clarke’s all too well when ALIE threatens the life of a child and Luna has to kill her own people.

The choreography of this fight scene is phenomenal. Though we only saw them for a single episode, the grief Luna feels at killing these people, including her lover and/or second in command is palpable and heavy.

I respect Luna for wanting nothing more to do with Clarke, the flame, and her birthright, but when she kicks the Adventure Squad back to the mainland empty handed the hopelessness of their situation is almost too much to bear. Where will our heroes go from here?

Other thoughts:

• What in the world was the point of that Monty/Harper scene? I don’t see the chemistry at all and if they wanted to show someone taking a break for some good ol’ “no one’s trying to kill us today” sex, why not Miller/Bryan? They’re in a relationship, they could use a good reunion after being at odds, and we haven’t seen them in two weeks. This whole thing seems out of character for both Harper and Monty and I’d like to forget it happened.
• The fake out with Emori and Murphy after Pike smashes the server is perfectly done. I also love the way Pike respects that Murphy can’t smash it and steps in to do it himself. And the way Indra picks up the gun to guard the door is filled with apprehension. This entire scene is filled with little excellent moments that are impossible to over look.
• Clarke’s attempt to put the flame in Luna without her consent shows how desperate she’s become. I hope she learned from Luna’s ways while they were together though, some lines should not be crossed. When you become no better than your enemy, are you still doing the right thing?
• The few glimpses we see into the City of Light are amazing. I hope we get to see a lot more of it in the two part finale. And then I hope they destroy it.

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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