Tell-Tale TV Panel: The 100 Season 3

This season of The 100 put us through a LOT. We endured Lincoln and Lexa’s heartbreaking deaths. We fought against A.L.I.E. and our friends who had entered the City of Light.

But how did the season do overall? See what our panel of writers had to say about The 100 Season 3 below. And don’t forget to join the discussion by leaving a comment!

Our panelists are:

• Lyra Hale, senior writer for Tell-Tale TV
• Becky Peters, staff writer for Tell-Tale TV
• Samantha Coley, staff writer for Tell-Tale TV
• Smriti (aka Sim) Jasra, staff writer for Tell-Tale TV
• Lauren Busser, staff writer for Tell-Tale TV
• Allison Nichols, staff writer for Tell-Tale TV

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank the season overall?

Lauren: It’s an 8 in my book.

Becky: Honestly, I was hyper-critical of the show this season. I’ve been such a massive fan up until this point, but…I gotta give this season a 5.

Sim: I enjoyed the season! It’s an 8.5 for me!

Lyra: I’m going to agree with Becky. It was a 5 for me. Too many things were working against our delinquents.

Allison: This is hard because the first part of the season was such a mess. The tail end of the season felt like the show I know and love, but there are some things you just can’t get over. I’m going to agree with Becky and Lyra and say this season was a 5.

Samantha: I’ll go with a solid 7. There were a lot of big mistakes that should have been easily fixed, but there were also some stories and moments that became series favorites for me.

What was the season’s biggest mistake?

Lauren: It’s really just a personal preference but I have to say–Lexa’s death! I can’t say I didn’t expect it, but Lexa was one of my favorite characters, and I loved her and Clarke as a couple. So it may not be the story, but it broke my shippy heart.

Becky: I honestly really didn’t like the A.I. plot. That plot just had way too many holes in it. It asked us to just blindly go along with a lot of lazy writing (how does a chip they ingest get into the base of their skull…?). Also, including an implied rape and never addressing it in the narrative was a huge, huge mistake.

Sim: I think it was turning Bellamy over to Pike’s side so quickly. I know his girlfriend has just died, and he was grieving, but he became so OOC. People deal with death in different ways, but Bellamy almost seemed like he had a switch that he just turned off. He wouldn’t listen to his closest friends or people he cares about. That was one of the biggest issues I had.

Lyra: The biggest mistake of this season was…trying to be like Game of Thrones. Instead of working with what they have and what they’re good at, The 100 decided that it was going to ramp up the killing/torture for the hell of it. Countless people were killed for shock factor more than anything else.

Allison: So many things. The time jump didn’t work. It rushed us along to places that didn’t feel right. Bellamy’s “characterization” never worked, and while you tried to make sense of how and why he joined up with Pike, you just couldn’t completely reconcile it with the man we’ve known.

I think everyone has made valid points as to what the show did wrong. The way Lexa and Lincoln were killed was a huge mistake, and while I knew Lexa was going to die (Alycia is on a new show now), there was no excuse for the manner in which they killed her.

Samantha: Incredibly poor pacing and killing/torturing characters for shock value. The first half of the season desperately needed Lincoln’s mysteriously non-existent arc, an election episode, and better motivation for Bellamy going dark.

Then throughout the season, we had to watch a parade of death and torture. First Lexa dies, the purpose for which was invalidated in the finale; then Lincoln was killed for no real reason at all (we never even saw those grounder prisoners again did we?). Raven, Kane, Abby, Clarke, Murphy, and various others were put through grotesque physical and mental torment to the point where it was very difficult to even watch.

What worked really well this season?

Lauren: It’s hard to say what worked really well because I feel like the entire season existed in such tension. I think that The 100 has finally started to build its world and get a grasp on it. We are starting to get a sense of history, and we are starting to see how these cultures interact.

There wasn’t room on The Ark for grudges, but they’re coming to the surface as people try to survive. I am looking forward to the show coming back next year. I think they have lots more story to tell.

Becky: I loved seeing more of Murphy and his relationship with Emori. I really, really enjoyed those two and hope we get to see more of them in the new season. Also, Luna. Luna was amazing and I want so much more of her.

Sim: I think what worked really well this season was how the whole A.I. story snuck up on us. For a really long time, it was just Jaha being crazy, and Murphy being skeptical. But somehow, by the end of the season, every character’s storyline (Jasper’s grief, Raven’s pain, Clarke and Lexa, Bellamy’s power struggle, Octavia’s need for revenge) ended up dealing with ALIE. It was intricate writing, and I thought it was so intelligently done.  

Lyra: Octavia worked well all this season. She is fierce, unforgiving, logical, and loving. She is a warrior of Earth that will survive by her wits and heart. All beware the strength of this woman because once she realizes the power she has…she’ll be the most dangerous of all.

Allison: Once we got back to our core delinquents against the world, this season felt more like the show I’ve grown to love. We delved into what it means to survive on the ground, and then we tackled those tough, morally gray decisions.

I think that Murphy was also a highlight, if you ignore the fact that he was raped and we never talked about it again. I loved how he all of a sudden became the character that knew the most about what was going on.

Samantha: I agree with Sim! The insidious way that the A.I. plot snuck up on everyone was really well done. I’d have liked to have seen more from the inside there at the end, but over all I think the build up was done expertly. And I agree with Allison and Becky, Murphy became such a good begrudging MVP this season and it was great to watch.

Raven’s arc was really well done as well, even though the torture is, at times over the top. But Lindsey Morgan did some of her best work this season and that is worth high praise.

I also loved the development between Kane and Abby, that relationship worked beautifully this season while so many others fell apart. The two of them didn’t have an overwhelming amount of scenes, but they really made the moments they were together count. It was slow burn romance at it’s best.

What was the biggest surprise of the season?

Lauren: I think the location of ALIE 2, aka The Flame. I wasn’t expecting it to be in The Commander. Lincoln’s death is a close second. I think my jaw dropped equally both times.

Becky: I love that Becca was the first Grounder commander. I thought that was really cool, and it was interesting to see where their beliefs stem from.

Sim: It has to be when I found out that Lexa had the flame in her and that the flame was a form of AI. It blew my mind. A friend of mine was also very amused. He had stated many times before that Lexa acted in the best interest of her people almost in a robotic way. It was just ironic, but very shocking.

Lyra: The biggest surprise of this season was when Luna turned away Clarke and her friends. Every plot you’ve ever seen dictated that this was going to work. They were going to join because it always happens right? Wrong.

Luna chose her people over any of the problems that Clarke and her merry band of delinquents were having. It was refreshing to see someone stick to their principles and not fall to the weakness of pain.

Allison: I’m going to have to give it to the Becca reveal and the Flame being ALIE 2.0. My mouth dropped both times. I loved the weird connection ALIE had to the Grounders. Uncovering more of the Grounders’ belief system and how the Commander was chosen was just really awesome.

Samantha: I think the biggest shock for me  was the surprisingly low death tally in the finale; I expected so many more people to die, and I’m really glad they didn’t! I also really liked all of the twists that dealt with Polaris. I loved getting that information about the 13th station!

What did you think of this season’s big bad?

Lauren: ALIE is terrifying, but the idea that she wants to do good and to her doing good means taking pain away is almost childlike. She’s like a five-year-old that has been given this magnificent power and doesn’t know what to do with it except try to make things better. And for her, making things better means no pain.

Becky: As I mentioned before, I was not a fan of this plot at all. I would have much preferred it if they’d kept the Ice Queen alive and gone that route instead. It still baffles me that they killed her off so quickly.

Sim: I think the idea of an artificial intelligence whose core command is so vague, is always terrifying. Because if you think about it, that is very plausible today. I liked ALIE because of how she affected so many characters, so differently. I think it will lead to some great stories next season.

Lyra: This seasons big bad was effective in frightening us with her disregard for human life. But at some point it just dragged on forever and ever. Like Becky said, the Ice Queen should’ve lived. Lexa too. They would have made the fight against ALIE more complicated and diverse. I could’ve done without about half of the ALIE episodes.

Allison: I had mixed feelings about ALIE. She never really was the main threat, and she, as Sim said, snuck up on all of us. I did like that in the end, ALIE was trying to do what was best for humanity. She wanted to save us all, but she went about it in a crazy kind of way.

I just wish we had everyone on the ground rallying together to fight ALIE, instead of spending the first half of the season going back to season one and having Skaikru and the Grounders at war with one another.

Samantha: I found ALIE fascinating! Her moral ambiguity and her firm belief that she was doing the right thing, the thing she was created to do, made her wonderfully complex.

 

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