The 100 Review: The Dark Year (Season 5 Episode 11)

The 100 Season 5 Episode 11, “The Dark Year,” is one of the most gruesome, intriguing, and heart-wrenching hours of television that I’ve ever seen. This episode makes you think, it makes you sick, it makes your heart race one minute and then tears it to shreds the next.

The 100 strives to push its characters to the limits of their humanity, “The Dark Year” shows us exactly what happens when you push them over the edge.

YOU EAT OR YOU DIE.

As an Abby fan, having these flashbacks framed from her point of view is both a blessing and a curse. And as a fan of both Abby and Octavia, “The Dark Year” is most certainly a critical hit to the heart. Everything about these scenes is designed to put the audience out of their comfort zone and make them feel the impossible burden that each of these women has to endure.

In these flashbacks, both Abby and Octavia are essentially isolated from the rest of the group. They are forced to make this choice that will keep them alive but tear at the very fabric of their humanity in potentially irreparable ways.

Octavia is still young, they’re only two years into life inside the bunker, and though her fighting pits are already in place she still tries to rule from her heart. She tries at every turn on “The Dark Year” to get her people to comply through noble speeches and honesty.

Abby is detached and pragmatic, already broken by the things that they’ve had to do to survive. She has the medical expertise and the knowledge of the history of the Ark to know that this is literally their only option. They become cannibals or they all starve to death.

Neither one of these women wants to do this, but they have to.

Octavia: What else are we supposed to do? Kane, give us another solution.

Abby: There is no other solution.

The only other option is to starve to death, but it’s that choice that Kane makes, putting himself on the opposite side of the issue from Abby and positioning himself on the moral high ground he’s made himself comfortable on since coming to the ground.

Kane’s choice to starve rather than become a cannibal eerily mirror’s Abby’s choice to die on The 100 Season 4 Episode 12, “The Chosen.” He wouldn’t let her kill herself in Praimfaya, and she won’t let him kill himself (and by proxy a huge chunk of their people) by starving himself.

It’s ugly, it takes away people’s agency, and it’s brutal to watch, but at the end of the day, if Abby and Octavia didn’t make this decision, all of Wonkru would be dead. Bellamy and Clarke would have opened a mass grave and they would be all that remains of the human race.

Abby: There is no choice, if you don’t eat you starve.

Kane: There’s always a choice Abby, you know that.

It hurts to see Kane and Abby pitted against each other like this yet again. But much like I cannot fault Kane for saving Abby at the end of The 100 Season 4 I cannot fault her for what she does to save him. The fact that their relationship survived this within the bunker just gives me more hope that they’ll come out of this war back in each other’s arms.

All of our heroes have done horrible things in order to survive, and though this may be the darkest choice yet, it’s still the one that keeps them alive.

“The Dark Year” had to hold a pivotal moment for Octavia on her path to becoming Blodreina and this second cafeteria scene is it. It’s unclear, but I want to believe that Abby expects Octavia to arrest those that won’t eat, to throw them into the fighting ring like anyone else who commits a crime against Wonkru.

But Octavia breaks under the weight of her own leadership decisions. She commits a massacre to force immediate compliance and it works, but it breaks all of them in the process.

Clarke: She murdered her own people to break their will.

Abby and Octavia share this burden and the guilt that comes along with it. Abby lets her guilt consume her, it drives her further into her addiction and forces her to hate herself for the things she’s done.

Octavia turns her guilt into the fire that fuels her, she tells herself that if she can just bring her people home to the valley that all of the blood on her hands will be worth it.

Toward the end of “The Dark Year” Madi makes an excellent point and even taking into consideration her hero worship of Octavia, she’s not wrong.

Madi: She bore it so they didn’t have to.

If Clarke had been inside the bunker, she probably would have made the same choice as Abby and Octavia. She understands better than anyone the burden of leadership and the cost of making impossible choices.

Men like Kane and Bellamy can strive for a better world, and we still want them to, but without Clarke, Abby, and Octavia making these decisions and carrying the weight of these responsibilities, none of our favorite characters would be alive.

Octavia: These are my people you’re talking about.

Abby: I know that, they’re mine too.

CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP.

Octavia maintains her steady march toward Eden with the fractured remains of Wonkru in tow, while all our heroes in the valley who aren’t Griffins scramble to make plans behind enemy lines. So many of my favorite people are working at cross purposes on this episode that I’m still not sure who’s on who’s side.

Bellamy: Since we can’t go back because you burnt the farm, and since we can’t stop because we’ll starve, we thought we should let you know you’ve killed your people. Enjoy your walk.

Octavia has done everything she has to make sure that her people get to the valley, she’s not going to slow down now just because she’s at a disadvantage. The 100 Season 5 has torn multiple relationships apart much to our chagrin, but none so thoroughly as the relationship between Bellamy and Octavia.

Because he didn’t witness the horrors of the bunker it’s impossible for him to understand who his little sister has become, and for that same reason, he bears little sympathy for her in the face of her harsh and unyielding rule.

Blodreina isn’t Octavia, but knowing what happens on “The Dark Year” I want to believe that she’s still in there. These are harsh words from Bellamy, but his relationship to these people is completely valid. They survived together with no one else for 6 years.

Bellamy still loves Octavia but she’s risking the lives of everyone else he cares about, and that’s not something he can just let slide. And the fact that she sentenced him to death last week certainly doesn’t help.

Can this relationship be saved? Can Octavia herself be saved? Only time will tell. In this war, I’m on the side that keeps the majority of the people I love alive.

Spacekru is a family. They protect each other, they love each other, and they see the best in each other. No matter what combination of these 7 people The 100 gives us I can feel the connection they share in each scene they’re in.

There are definitely going to be casualties in this war but all I want for these kids is a happily ever after.

WE BEAR IT SO THEY DON’T HAVE TO.

Let’s just say it: Griffin ladies are strong as hell.

I’ll forgive the questionable science behind a 24-hour detox for how well The 100 shows the gamut of emotion, self-loathing, and pure physical agony that Abby is dealing with both through and because of her addiction.

First of all, where is Paige Turco’s Emmy? The range of emotion that she shows on each scene of “The Dark Year” is just breathtaking. From the soft shame at Clarke seeing her at her worst, to the steadfast assurance in knowing what she needs to do, to the monster she becomes in withdrawal, and the unguarded self-hatred that’s left behind when it’s all over, Turco is a force to be reckoned with.

Abby: First get rid of the pills.

Though Abby getting clean happens under less than ideal circumstances, I am eternally grateful that it is her choice. And because of the way it plays out, I want to believe that she really did have every intention to stop once they were safe. Why else would she bring an opiate blocker with her from the bunker if she didn’t plan to use it on herself?

The information that Abby reveals about how long her addiction has been going on and how many times she’s struggled with trying to get clean breaks my heart but it also gives me hope. She wants to get better, and in the right world, with enough people who love her by her side, she can.

This also isn’t the scenario that I had hoped Abby would meet Madi in, but I love the way it plays out nonetheless. Madi knows who the real Abby is because of what Clarke told her.

Abby: If I die you’re never going to forgive yourself.

Madi: You chose this, not Clarke. Clarke told me her mother was kind, and loving. What happened to you?

There’s no judgment between these three women, just sadness, and heartache for the horrors they’ve each witnessed.

Clarke doesn’t have to tell her whole story for Abby to understand that she loves Madi in the same way the two of them love each other. These women love each other unconditionally, which makes Clarke the perfect person to finally help Abby through this and make her believe she’ll survive it this time.

I am a little disappointed that this comes so late in the season, but overall I am really pleased with the fact that Abby does get to explain her story and how she became the suffering addict we’ve seen her struggling as this year. Now that she’s been allowed to unshoulder the burden that has caused so much of her self-destruction I hope she can finally begin to heal.

The Griffin women are not only some of the strongest characters on the show, but they also never put themselves on a pedestal. Clarke doesn’t see herself as a hero and Abby sees herself as the villain, but both of them have made the choices necessary to save the people they love.

To Madi, and Lexa, (and hopefully Kane and the others that they love), that is exactly what makes them heroes.

Saving McCreary’s people is a tough call, in all honesty, he’s my least favorite leader in this three-way war. But I have no doubt that given the opportunity Clarke will once again make the choice that keeps not only her family alive, but she’ll go into this battle looking to save everyone she cares about even if those people are on opposing sides.

Caring for Madi and doing what it takes to protect her doesn’t mean that Clarke has given up on everyone else she loves. She fought to save her daughter and mother, and with her family by her side, there’s no war she can’t win.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Bellamy and Indra’s weird friendship is something I didn’t know I needed but now I can’t get enough of it.
• I love that all of Spacekru speaks fluent Trigedasleng now.
• Okay, but what were they doing with the people who died in the fighting pits before they started eating them?
• Miller’s faith in Blodreina is steadfast. Is Jackson this dedicated to her? If he’s not, does it cause friction in their relationship? If he is, does it cause friction in his relationship with Abby?
• Guys I really want to ship Shaw and Raven, but does everything they do have to be covered in a layer of cheesy tropes? How is it that this episode both acknowledges Raven’s mental prowess but also has her seeming like a lovestruck schoolgirl at the same time?
• I will say, my heart does a little flip at Echo seeing them happy and missing Bellamy. And Emori knowing that she’s worried about him under her tough exterior is a sister moment I cherish with my whole heart.
• Seeing Abby get mean and ugly in the worst part of her detox is 100% necessary and I’m really glad The 100 goes there. And I say that with her being my absolute favorite character.
• Emori giving Murphy the sonic blaster is a pure moment. It’s the gun he deserves, to be honest.
• Can Kane please go kiss and make-up with Abby already? Even Diyoza has come around, from using their relationship for her own purposes to now admitting that they need each other. I don’t know how much more of this stoic angst I can take!
• I’m still not sure who’s on who’s team can someone clear it up for me? Are Echo and Kane working together? Or is Echo’s team helping Octavia while Kane and Diyoza work for their own agenda?
• Or are they all running their own game to save the people they love and it’s all just one big hot mess where it would be best if everyone started hugging each other and stopped shooting?
• In Eden, the food is better than both algae and people. Clarke’s house even says there are pancakes.

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

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The 100 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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