The 100 Review: Priamfaya (Season 4 Episode 13)

The 100 Season 4 Episode 13 “Priamfaya” launches the show into a whole new world and wraps up Season 4 with one of the most exciting, and dare I say hopeful, finales yet. Season 4’s final hour focuses on the remaining delinquents as they race against time to beat the deathwave.

I LOVE YOU, BIG BROTHER.

The Blake siblings are separated again and now for longer than they’ve ever been apart. This relationship ran through the gauntlet in Season 4 and I’m happy to see that they’ve come out stronger on the other side.

Octavia: I love you, big brother. I guess it takes the end of the world for me to say it.

Bellamy: I love you too.

They’re both different people than they were when The 100 began, but I feel like their time apart having what I’m sure will be wildly different experiences during the 6 year time jump will change them yet again. Their goodbye is one of the most emotional scenes of Season 4. Will Octavia draw inspiration from Bellamy’s words as she governs over the bunker? Will they meet again?

FROM THE ASHES WE WILL RISE.

Literally rising from the ashes Team Rocket must overcome their differences and their own personal road blocks in order to work together and save themselves. Many of the core relationships on The 100 are within the group of delinquents that first fell to Earth in Season 1.

What’s interesting The 100 Season 4 Episode 13 “Priamfaya” is that it takes those relationships, and shakes them up and brings characters we haven’t seen together in years and it all still works beautifully.

Murphy and Monty must work together to get the oxygen generator from the lighthouse, and Monty isn’t too jazzed about being around Murphy again. Murphy is one of the characters who’s changed the most over The 100’s 4 Seasons, but Monty hasn’t spent enough time with him to actually know how he’s changed.

Murphy, on love: It’s crazy how it changes you isn’t it.

These changes in Murphy’s character and the growth he’s gone through with his love for Emori, while he maintains his classic snark and sass, all make him one of the most delightful and surprising characters on The 100.

Monty: You chose the machine first?

Murphy: Yeah. I did it’s back at the lab.

Monty: I may not hate you anymore.

Season 1 Murphy wouldn’t have gone back for Monty or cared about saving anyone but himself, but in 4 Seasons his heart as grown as many sizes. I’m interested to see if this relationship is something that continues to grow during the time jump and where we’ll see these two in Season 5.

“Priamfaya” is actually filled with unexpected dynamics within these 8 characters. Echo panics in the face of nearly insurmountable odds and the prospect of a life in space that she can hardly fathom. Bellamy is the only one that can get through to her and remind her that she has a place among their group.

Bellamy: You are strong. We have a better chance of surviving if you’re up there with us.

And he’s right, they wouldn’t have been able to get the oxygen generator installed if she hadn’t been there to rip off the door. I can’t wait to see how Echo makes a home for herself among these friends who’ve known each other for so much longer. I believe she’ll make herself useful and the boundaries of the ground will fall away as the delinquents make room for Echo in their found family.

One relationship dynamic that returns in “Priamfaya” isn’t surprising at all. Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven have always been the head, the heart, and the hands of the original 100 and seeing them use those different, yet equally valuable strengths in “Priamfaya” is absolutely beautiful and reminiscent of the best parts of Season 1.

Raven needs Bellamy’s heart in order to get out of her own head and find the solution. Clarke needs his heart to keep her grounded. They all need Raven’s hands (and her great big brain) to save them, as she’s done so many times before. And Bellamy and Raven need Clarke’s wisdom, her sacrifice, and her decision making in order to do what needs to be done in order to survive.

Raven and Bellamy have to leave Clarke behind, a decision she wanted them to make and one she would be proud of even though it’s clearly difficult for them both.

Raven: She saved us again. You think we can do this without her?

Bellamy: If we don’t she died in vain, and I’m not gonna let that happen. You with me?

Raven: Always.

I can’t wait to see the reunion between these three and how their relationships have changed over the 6 years that they’ve been apart. Raven and Bellamy think that Clarke is gone, but they’re going to survive for her, and Clarke hasn’t given up on them either. She still tries to make contact with the Ark every day, using the memory of her friends to keep her sane and give herself hope.

Clarke: I don’t know why I still do this every day. Maybe it’s my way of staying sane, not forgetting who I am. who I was.

IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, DON’T WAIT.

Clarke went to some of the darkest places she’s ever gone on The 100 Season 4, as the weight of the decisions she’s had to make nearly broke her. But in “Priamfaya” Clarke’s actions are nothing short of heroic. Clarke does what it takes to make sure her friends survive even though it means she may not.

Clarke: Raven, Bellamy, if you can hear me, don’t wait.

Clarke’s knowledge of Abby’s nightmare allowed her to believe it was a possibility that she was never going to make it onto the rocket. Giving her the space to prepare to sacrifice her life if she had to if it meant that the others would be saved.

For a few terrifying moments we’re made to believe that Clarke may not actually make it, her body covered in burns, the way it had been in Abby’s dream, as she collapses to the floor in Becca’s lab.

But when we see her again we find an entirely new Clarke. This is a Clarke who hasn’t had to be a leader, for 6 years, a Clarke who has found a nightblood child that she protects as her own. She’s had time to breathe, and to grieve, and to grow, and she still hasn’t given up hope. Even from the few minutes we see of Clarke after the time jump, it’s evident that she’s been changed by it.

Her love for this child, the peaceful and hopeful way she carries herself in this new world, and the fierce protectiveness that comes out when the unknown ship lands all make this a Clarke Griffin someone I can’t wait to get to know. I am so excited to see this new world that “Priamfaya” has opened up for The 100.  

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Emori asks if they can wait another minute for Clarke, showing that she too has grown so much.
• The ship that comes down at the end is from a long mission mining colony that was mentioned a few times throughout Season 4. The return of these “prisoners” gives the show a complete role reversal from Season 1. I can’t wait to see what these newcomers bring to The 100 in Season 5.
• This finale is absolutely phenomenal, but I definitely wish we had gotten to see more of Kane and Abby, and the rest of #TeamAdults during Season 4. Hopefully, in Season 5 The 100 will hit a pace that allows the story to be more balanced as it was during Season 1.
• 6 years and 7 days is a lot of time, I can’t wait to see glimpses of what happened during that time throughout Season 4.
• I don’t know why I didn’t anticipate the bunker being too buried under rubble for them to come out after the 5 years. This heightens everything about that storyline and I can’t wait to see how tensions are beneath the surface.
• Our heroes have been cast to three different quadrants for 6 years. For some of them this is longer than they’ve known each other. I can’t wait to see how this time jump has affected the relationships between characters who have been both separated from each other, and those that have been forced into close quarters.
• Clarke Griffin is essentially a mom now. How do you feel about that? I’m thrilled. I can’t wait to see how this allows her to become closer to Abby when they are finally reunited.
• Whose reunion are you looking forward to most?
• Clarke has Madi now, do you think any of the others will have little ones of their own?
• The 7 that make it on board the ring each saving each other and sharing their oxygen tanks is one of the best moments of television I’ve ever seen.
• The 100 finally feels like something entirely it’s own and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here!

 

What did you think of The 100‘s Season 4 Finale? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The 100 will return to The CW for Season 5.

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