The 100 Review: Damocles – Part One (Season 5 Episode 12)

The 100 kicks off its two-part finale with Season 5 Episode 12, “Damocles – Part One.”

This penultimate episode of Season 5 may be one of the best yet, and is easily a top contender in a season filled with excellent episodes.

Directed by Dean White and written by Justine Juel Gilmer, “Damocles – Part One” puts your heart in a vice and it doesn’t stop squeezing for a second. This episode has you grinning from pure delight, and sobbing through moments of both sorrow and triumph.

MY BROTHER, MY RESPONSIBILITY

I’ve had my doubts about The 100 being able to wrap up all of Season 5’s loose ends before it’s over but “Damocles – Part One” goes a long way in getting us there. These characters are finally allowed to have some pretty important conversations that have been building all season long.

Particularly in need of a good long chat, Bellamy and Octavia are forced to work together to survive when their plan to enter the valley ends with a massive portion of Wonkru being slaughtered at the gates.

It’s a shame that it took the deaths of so many of her people for Octavia to get to this point, but watching her finally at least attempt to atone for her sins is just so satisfying.

Throughout this episode, Octavia must repeatedly face the consequences of her actions. She brought them here, she took away their choice, she got her people killed. She broke them.

Octavia: Wonkru is broken, I broke it.

Indra: Yes you did.

And while some of what she had to do to get Wonkru to the valley can be understood, most of it is pretty hard to excuse. Which is why Bellamy, along with Gaia and Indra, are the perfect combination of people to bring her back to her old self, or at least a little bit of the old Octavia.

Trapped and virtually powerless, on “Damocles – Part One” Octavia finally has the breathing room to learn from her mistakes.

As she watches countless members of Wonkru die at the hands of McCreary’s men, and she actually listens to the perspectives of both people who knew her as she became Blodreina, and Bellamy who doesn’t know what happened to his little sister, she realizes that while she may not be able to fix what she’s done, she has to try.

Octavia still has a long way to go in redeeming herself, and honestly, I don’t know if I even really need her to actually redeem herself, but it’s truly heartwarming to see her finally take steps in that direction.

She’s gotten good at telling herself that what she’s doing is right, but the smart thing isn’t always the right thing. Octavia has to face the cost of what she did to her people to get them to this point.

These people she’s with, in the gorge, Bellamy, Indra, and Gaia, are her family and a week ago she was willing to let them all die in order to keep her power.  Octavia lost her way, but her family might be able to lead her back into the light.

Octavia: I may never be able to fix what I broke, but I can save you.

Octavia embraces the true meaning of “all of me, for all of us” and lays down her life for her family. I get chills each time I watch her give herself up in order to save them, and if this had been where Octavia’s story had ended, it would have been a good death, a warrior’s death.

But this isn’t where her story ends. Half of Spacekru shows up in the rover, in the eleventh hour to save the day. Wonkru didn’t come for Octavia, but Spacekru came for Bellamy because family takes care of each other.

Octavia lives to fight another day, and now that she’s reached this turning point, maybe there’s hope for her.

I’d also like to note that everything between Gaia and Indra in these scenes is absolute perfection. Adina Porter and Tati Gabrielle have me clutching my heart and on the verge of tears with the strength of this mother/daughter bond.

The relationship between these two characters has always been fraught with tension but at the end of the day they love each other and that’s what truly matters.

LIFE SHOULD BE ABOUT MORE THAN JUST SURVIVING

With the flame making Madi more rebellious than ever, Clarke is getting the full experience of how difficult it is to raise a teenager. Which in turn allows her to understand Abby more than she ever has before. Abby has always done whatever it took to protect Clarke, and now Clarke is trying to do the same with Madi.

War and fear make Clarke desperate pushing her to use the shock collar on Madi. I definitely don’t condone this, and I don’t think it’s what Abby meant when she was all “protect your baby no matter what.” Abby never physically harmed Clarke to protect her, and this moment feels like a departure from who Clarke is as a person and as a mother.

I feel like these shock collars are The 100 Season 5’s version of Season 3’s reaper sticks. Occasionally effective and purposeful, but they reach a point where they’ve been used too much and it becomes repetitive and harmful to the characters and their agency.

Having Clarke do this to Madi crosses a line; violence is a necessary evil on The 100, but even in a war a mother shouldn’t (and I’d like to believe wouldn’t) harm her own child in the name of keeping her safe.

Echo: I imagine becoming a traitor in the eyes of everyone you ever cared about must suck.

Clarke: It does, but if it means keeping Madi safe, I can live with it.

Clarke’s reunion with this portion of Spacekru isn’t exactly what I’d hoped for either, especially her interactions with Raven. It’s jarring it’s uncomfortable and no one in that church is completely right or completely wrong. The audience is torn, pulling for both sides in this war in different ways.

While I’m sad that this is such a stark division between Clarke and her old friends, the subsequent conversation with Echo is important for understanding both women, and the show itself.

They both have blood on their hands, everyone on The 100 has had blood on their hands at one point or another, because everyone on The 100 has been fighting for their people, for what they think is right, for survival and love and hope. So they do what it takes to protect who they love, to make sure their side wins, to ensure the survival of the human race.

Our heroes don’t always make the right choice, most of the time, someone gets hurt in the process, but when the fighting is done all of these characters are fighting for reasons that we can understand and relate to.

Clarke is having to learn the same lesson that Abby had to learn on The 100 Season 2: there comes a time when you have to let your child go. The instinct to protect your children from everything is strong, and it’s hard to overcome when they no longer need it.

The 100 never completely gave Clarke or the audience closure on Lexa’s story, but her legacy lives on in Madi. Lexa uses the connection that she and Madi share through the flame to show her a side of Clarke that she’s never known, and to show Clarke a way back to who she really is.

Madi: Betraying you was her deepest regret. She’s showing me that because she doesn’t want you to make the same mistake she did.

The lessons that Madi shares with Clarke on “Damocles – Part One” are things that Clarke taught Lexa: love is not weakness, life should be about more than just surviving.

Clarke can still be a good mother, and fight to protect her friends and family at the same time. I love the way that Madi, and by proxy, Lexa show Clarke that she doesn’t have to choose between these parts of her life.

The love between a mother and her child is consistently one of the strongest bonds on The 100 and this season especially is a tribute to mothers and daughters. Madi and Clarke exemplify this connection beautifully.

Clarke: You may be the Commander, but I am the Commander of Death and I say we will meet again.

This isn’t goodbye, this is: I believe in you, I’m proud of you, and we can do this. This is the union of everything Clarke Griffin has worked so hard to protect for the entirety of The 100.

They may not call themselves heroes, but all of our heroes on The 100 are finally working together again in the name of love. And that gives me all the hope in the world.

WE WILL FIND OUR HUMANITY AGAIN

“Damocles – Part One” seems to be an episode for reunions and reconciliation across the board; Kane and Abby are finally reunited on the other side of her addiction.

Kane and Abby are no strangers to war and making difficult decisions in the face of only horrible choices. But it’s starting to take its toll on both of them. In their hearts, (like many characters on The 100) they want to believe in a better future, in a world where everyone lives happily ever after.

The two of them don’t always hold this belief at the same time, throughout the series they’ve taken turns being the one to hold out hope for the other. For the first four seasons of The 100 Abby taught Kane to believe in the goodness of humanity, and at the beginning of Season 5, it was Kane’s turn to lead Abby out of the darkness.

Now they’ve come back to where they once stood, with Abby being the one to save Kane once more.

There’s something beautiful and real about the portrayal of their relationship, especially in this aspect. As people, we cannot be everything we want to be all of the time, but in a relationship–in a really good relationship–your partner sees the good and the bad, they believe in you when you can’t believe in yourself, they keep you centered and they share the burdens of this world together.

Abby: First we survive, then we get our humanity back. You told me that, remember? A long time ago.

Kane: I wish I still believed it.

Abby: We’ll get there.

Abby has always been a beacon of hope on The 100 and after seeing her addiction rob her of that hope for an entire season, it’s so satisfying to see her come back to that ideal.

Abby is clean and while this is probably something that will follow her for the rest of her life, she definitively turns the page on this chapter of her life on “Damocles – Part One,” first in destroying the pill that she finds on the ground, and then again by killing the man that would see her relapse by attempting to kill the man she loves.

We’ve been waiting for Vinson to go full monster since he was introduced earlier on The 100 Season 5, and though we got a taste (pun intended) of his true nature the last time he enabled Abby in order to get what he wanted, this is the full, warped and dangerous, extent of his obsession with her.

Vinson voices both Abby and Kane’s demons, encouraging them to be the worst versions of themselves. And when Kane represents a life for Abby unmarred by the continuation of her addiction, he decides to kill him in order to keep controlling her.

But Abby has lost so much in this life, now that she has hope again, she isn’t letting go without a fight. In another incredible full-circle moment, Abby turns the shock collar up to 11 and murders Vinson to save Kane. Season 5 began with him killing to keep her safe, and she’ll do exactly the same for him.

Time and time again these two prove that they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep each other safe, and they’ll never stop fighting for their love.

Kane feels as though he may be dying, and he uses what he thinks are his last breaths to take the burden of “The Dark Year” off of Abby’s shoulders. Though I do hate how late in the game this conversation comes, I am glad that they have it.

Realistically, I’d like to believe they’d shared this moment before as it’s been 4 years since the events of “The Dark Year” took place. But narratively it has to come after the audience has also learned what happened during that time.

The 100 has consistently run into pacing issues that push important moments like this past their due date in the story, hopefully, that’s something they can get a handle on for Season 6.

Kane: I forgive you. I know you told Octavia to break me. She killed those people, not you. It was Octavia.

With these words, and Abby moving past her addiction, they’ve finally exorcised all of their demons from their time in the bunker. When Abby saves his life in true Kabby fashion, they can finally move forward together and take their second chance.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• McCreary wanting his kid but wanting to kill her mother is gross. Can someone take him out already? Please and thank you.
• We’re only with the Wonkru reserves for a minute but wow this scene is excellent. Mackson feelings! Doctor Harper! I love this ragtag little med-squad fighting for their lives and trying to save their friends.
• RIP Ethan. I forgot for a minute that The 100 isn’t above killing children, but as soon as Ethan shows up at Octavia’s side we know he’s a goner. Say hi to Uncle Jaha for us little buddy.
• Protect Charmaine Diyoza and her baby at all costs.
• Abby not knowing if she accidentally overdosed or if she did it on purpose makes my heart hurt.
• Clarke and Abby finally, completely understanding each other makes my Griffin-loving heart very happy.
• It’s unclear what Kane and Diyoza’s plan was or why they thought McCreary would agree to a peaceful solution. But damn if I don’t still support them.
• I get Bellamy being mad at Octavia, but I don’t quite believe he actually wants her dead.
• Spacekru’s last-minute rescue literally makes me cheer each time I see it. Let’s hope the adventure squad pulls off as daring a feat to save everyone on “Damocles – Part Two.”
• Can Kane and Abby please kiss before the end of Season 5? I am a simple woman with simple needs.
• This is the most I’ve cared about Shaw and Raven’s relationship all season. I love that he’s willing to die to protect her and that she would rather endure being tortured yet again than let him die. I hope Clarke can save them both.
• Are you ready for the finale? Let me know your thoughts, hopes, fears, and predictions in the comments!

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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