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This week’s episode of The CW’s The 100 built on the foundation of the season premiere and presented a clear (for now at least) picture of the kind of season it wants to be. Whereas the season premiere was a little rough around the edges in its quest to set story for the season arc, “Red Sun Rising” gave us more substance to dive into an analyze.
The 100 Review: “Red Sun Rising”
Season 6, Episode 2 | Airdate: May 7, 2019
Directed by: Alex Kalymnios | Written by: Jeff Vlaming
Most reviews of my reviews for The 100 will be broken into three main categories — Things I Loved, The “Meh” Things and Things I Didn’t Like. I may deviate from the formula from week to week and occasionally add a new category if it calls for it. This week you’ll see a new section — Theories (of which I have many).
Thankfully, there’s no “meh” section for this episode. Let’s dive in!
[Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for the “Red Sun Rising” episode of The 100.]
Things I Loved
Hallucinations: This will probably be a long breakdown within the breakdown. The hallucinations took up so much time of the episode and I’m not complaining about that. We know from the premiere that the plants are releasing some sort of toxins that are making our faves go nuts, Emori being the first to bite the bullet and stab Murphy at the end of “Sanctum.” Now, they’re all feeling the effects, slowly but surely.
Obviously the plants are releasing the toxins and making them susceptible, but are there other triggers? April from Truth Be Told Media has a theory on that that’s worth checking out.
Miller and Jackson: Miller and Jackson were the next ones to go under after Emori. While tied up upstairs they share a joint freak out thinking that the bugs they had in the jars escaped and went in to Miller through his arm. Something to note is that while the toxic plants are supposed to “turn people who love each other in to homicidal maniacs” — Murphy’s words, not mine.
Jackson came at Miller with a knife….to cut open his arm to get the imaginary bug out. While his cutting probably would have been a catalyst to death had Clarke and Bellamy not stopped him, it seemed his intentions were pure. Also something to note is Miller screaming at Jackson, Clarke, and Bellamy to not let the bug make it to his stomach because he couldn’t die like that one guy in the desert with those disgusting worms in season five. Seems he and Miller may have been close or at least close enough for his death to still weigh on Miller.
Echo: Assuming that April’s theory is right and there are other triggers that make everyone go bat-shit, Echo’s was clearly Emori.
While Bellamy is slowly but surely losing his mind and demanding that Echo open the door and give him her tranquilizer, Emori taunts Echo causing her to go in to her own head. We can hear whispers of her past with “Bring me her head!”/”Slit her throat!”/”Stop crying. Spies are ruthless. They kill.” Now, I’m not saying that Echo killed Costia on the Ice Queens orders but I’m not not saying it. Ultimately, Echo tranqued herself, keeping Bellamy out, and Emori once again in her own world with, “You lose, John. You lose.”
Murphy: Listen up, homies. Murphy is immune. Maybe not completely immune, but immune enough that he can control it. He escapes his shackles when Bellamy and Clarke leave to check on Miller and Jackson and leaves. We see him on a balcony chanting, “You’re okay, they’re all crazy, but you’re okay.”
My theory here is that Murphy is at peace with himself in a way that only cockroaches can be. He know he’s not a “good guy” and he’s made his peace with that. He tells people what he thinks and doesn’t hold back, he seems to leave nothing repressed so the toxins don’t affect him the same way they do everyone else. Why was he shooting at Bellamy and Clarke then? Glad you asked. He was distracting them. From his vantage point he could see Bellamy stalking towards Clarke and wanted them to separate before they could hurt each other.
Bellamy: Phew, oh man. There is so much to unpack about Bellamy’s slow regression then full-blown hallucinations. As he starts to really lose control he becomes more and more aggressive. As Clarke tries to talk him down and away from Echo and Emori’s door, he turns on her and snaps, “Maybe you haven’t noticed Clarke, but I don’t need you anymore.” First of all, RUDE. Second of all, let’s dive in to that multi-layered statement.
This one cuts on many levels both for the audience and for Clarke. First, he’s saying that he doesn’t need her to be the head to his heart anymore because he’s outgrown her and he’s both now, he doesn’t need her to balance him or lead with him. He’s saying that he doesn’t need her as his family anymore because Spacekru is his family. He’s saying he doesn’t need her romantically-not that they ever were, but the tension and possibility has always been there-anymore because he has Echo. He’s saying that for as much as she doesn’t need him — which seems to be a point of contention — he doesn’t need her either. It could also be seen as a dig about the radio calls, that she needed him but he doesn’t need her anymore.
It’s amazing how much eleven words can actually mean. Does he mean it? Probably not in the super aggressive and mean way that he’s coming off, but it’s probable that these thoughts have crossed his mind.
In season three A.L.I.E./Raven told Bellamy that he was “the good little knight by his queen’s side” and that it was a shame that he “was never that devoted to Gina.” It’s arguable that Bellamy doesn’t want to care as much about Clarke as he does because he’s confused about the way she cares about him. After all, she called him every day for six years and then left him to die (I seriously cannot wait for this conversation), so he has no firm grasp on where he actually stands with her. Poor guy.
Then we can dive in to, “How many times have you tried to kill me now?” I mean….yikes. But also, fair? She closed the door of the drop ship on him in season one, sent him in to Mount Weather in season two, shot at him in season four, left him in the pit in season five? Yeah…I can see why he’s scratching his head about what he means to Clarke now and why he might feel some resentment thinking she means more to him than he does her. Time for these two to have a long overdue chat.
Clarke: Where does Clarke hold most of her rage, guilt, and resentment? Internally. She blames herself for everything more than anybody else and her hallucinations prove that.
Her hallucination took form of Abby’s voice coming through the radio telling her that she’s toxic, a cancer that needs to be removed. Fake!Abby encourages Clarke to take a knife to her throat and just end it all for the safety of her loved ones, particularly Madi, who will die just like her father, Lexa, and anyone else that has loved her. Clearly Clarke harbors more insider of herself and her actions than she lets on, especially to other people.
When Murphy finds Clarke she has the knife to her throat, ready to take the plunge but he’s able to talk her out of it. Murphy seems to be surprised that Clarke is willing to take her own life saying, “Clearly you’re more of a threat to yourself and not to me so let’s go save Bellamy.” to which she agrees. The fact that Murphy tracked down Clarke first is telling to me. It’s probable that he thought that despite her apologies and claims to do better, be better, that she didn’t truly feel guilt or remorse for her actions. “Oh no, not you too.” can be seen as his realization that she’s not unaffected by her actions and decisions.
Diyoza: THE QUEEN IS AWAKE! When the Eligius three people bring everyone in the ship in to the cafeteria as prisoners, Raven is still free and wakes up Diyoza to help. I forgot how much I loved her to be honest. It took me about .2 seconds to remember. The first thing Diyoza does is sit up, touch her stomach, and say, “She kicked.” meaning her baby that is about 300 years in to development now. Despite being heavily pregnant, she still manages to kick some ass and take some names, killing three people in this episode who were threatening the people on the ship. I stan a ruthless queen.
Josephine Lightwood: I appreciated the look back to when Planet Alpha was first founded and what their mission was. Josephine Lightwood looks like a season one Clarke and I have THEORIES that you can read about in that section. Regardless, Josephine seemed like a pretty cool girl before her dad slit her throat while under the influence of the eclipses.
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