The 100 Recap: “Exit Wounds” Hurts In More Ways Than One

Sometimes you love an episode, sometimes you’re “meh” about it, sometimes you just don’t like it. The 100’s sixth episode of Season 5, “Exit Wounds” falls into the latter category for me. Guess what? That doesn’t make me a bad fan, or an awful commentator – it makes me human. We all have things we love, things we want to pull our hair out over and things cause no reaction at all. “Exit Wounds” shockingly had all three.

Before I dive into my thoughts for this episode, I saw some discourse online earlier about reviewers keeping their opinions out of reviews and recaps. Well your’re going to get plenty of opinion here. TV Source Magazine believes in opinionated reviews and recaps, it’s one of the reasons why my editor approached me to join the team, because he felt like this was a good platform to amplify my voice. If you’re looking for a straight play-by-play recap, stop reading now. If you want opinions, reactions and feelings – please continue. You don’t have to agree with everything I write, I’m okay with that. My reviews are my way of sharing my truth as a viewer. At the end of the day I want to start a conversation.

Things I Loved:

Yes, there are things that I enjoyed this episode. It’s very rare for me to actively all out dislike an entire episode. Exit Wounds, like all episodes, had its shining moments:

Number one with a bullet had to be Niylah/Clarke/Gaia. Man oh man. Of all the people I was expecting to be Clarke’s ally in protecting Madi against Wonkru, I never would have pegged Gaia over Niylah. Niylah has always been a good friend to Clarke, whether they were lovers or not. To have Gaia warn Clarke against trusting Niylah with the secret of Madi being a natural born night blood was genius. It finally clears up the question of where Gaia’s loyalties lie and what her agenda is: she is and always be a flame keeper, Wonkru or not. I am here for this storyline. How far will Gaia go in the name of her faith, against Wonkru, against Octavia? I don’t know but I am so excited to see.

https://twitter.com/winter_widows/status/1004477927294038016

Two | Octavia’s softness for Madi. Her entire demeanor changes when she interacts with Madi. She could even pass for season one Octavia before she got all murder addicted. When the knock on the door comes after we discover that Octavia gave Kara orders to shoot at people who were abandoning ship, her entire demeanor shifter from fearless leader to concerned after discovering it was Madi instead of her second in command. Furthermore, Octavia and her creepy blood ritual and pledging Madi to Wonkru even had its own sort of sweetness to it.  Octavia might not be my favorite character but seeing her get some humanization is a welcome change. In that vein:

Three | Octavia refusing to let Bellamy go on a suicide mission to Eligius, acting as a defector. The Blake siblings have given the term “strained relationship” a brand new meaning this season. And last season. And the season before that. Honestly, they’ve been in the toilet for a while now. Regardless, after Octavia basically threatening Bellamy with death at the end of 5×05 it’s nice to see that she does still care about her brother and want him alive. Sometimes I wonder just how far she’ll go in the name of Wonkru and this was a nice moment.

https://twitter.com/Pantalaimon32/status/1004416602274713600

Four |  #Memori (Murphy and Emori) hashing things out in a beautiful way. Yeah, sure, some could argue that Murphy pulling away from Emori just because she found her purpose in life is the very definition of man pain, but it works for them. Murphy made Emori his entire world and he was hers….until he wasn’t. She found a drive, a life, a passion that didn’t involve him and he felt jealous and insecure. It was very Ross Gellar of him. I digress. I loved how they had their come to Jesus moment and finally talked about the issues that plagued them and further, I love that despite that they were working together again and almost got frisky in the dirt she was quick to tell him that this didn’t mean they were back together. Yes, Queen. Make him work for it. Emori, as a whole, has been so enjoyable this season. I am so grateful for the character growth that she has been given.

Five | Kane and Diyoza. I still have no clue what is actually happening here but I am digging whatever it is. Diyoza’s line of, “Stop worrying Kane. I take care of my friends.” WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHY AM I SO IN TO IT?!

Things I was “Meh” About:

One | McCreary and his goons hunting Murphy down. Yes, it was plot relevant but it didn’t fit for me. I love McCreary as a villian and want something meatier for him going forward. Now that he’s Murphy and Emori’s hostage-after genius plotting from them- I’m hoping to get my message. Let this villian do his villian thing and let me see it! Yes, he did pull a gun on my queen Diyoza but even that had no pay off. Not that I really wanted it to because I like Diyoza and hope to see her be villiany some more, but I’d like to believe that he actually  would have shot the gun, which I didn’t. She has some hold on him and his loyalties, however shaky and ambiguous, are with her. The time he spent on hunting Murphy and playing a card game could have been used to give me a little bit more back-story on him.

📺EPISODE | Clarke seeing Bellamy with Echo in 5×06 Exit Wounds #Bellarke #The100 pic.twitter.com/vtNqIik5oX

— Beliza Buzz (@BelizaBuzz) June 6, 2018

Two | Clarke watching Bellamy and Echo mack. Yes, I am completely here for Bellarke and any crumbs they decide to throw my way. But the same exact thing twice in two episodes? Girl, yes. You look like you got punched in the stomach and like you just DO NOT LIKE IT, and that’s a hard same. (The) 100(%) relatable. It’s great to get some insight to Clarke and her feelings about it and I am HERE for Clarke being the more emotional one now.  But it’s time to move this to the next level. Maybe using actual words and dialogue and not just Eliza Taylor’s amazing face.

Click the Next Page for Things I Didn’t Like