TV Show Review

TV Review: THE 100: Season 3, Episode 14: Red Sky at Morning [The CW]

Eliza Taylor Nadia Hilker The 100 Red Sky at Morning

The CW’s The 100, Red Sky at Morning TV Show Review. The 100: Season 3, Episode 14: ‘Red Sky at Morning,’ amounted to a lot of near misses, with some ‘A’s for effort. When it’s not quite the finale, you should expect knockout solutions to fall short; but it wasn’t just some well laid plans that collapsed, in this case, it was all human error. Not just human error, but the worst kind of human error: TV melodrama human error.

It was all the more galling when you consider how things started. What should have been an example to the rest of the cast – Pike (Michael Beach) & Indra (Adina Porter) not mincing words, and just getting to whatever action needed doing (including setting aside differences) – was a little hampered by Murphy (Richard Harmon), of all people. That should have been a warning sign, right there. With Alie (Erica Cerra) playing spoiler every step of the way, the combination of action muscle & schemer mind put Alie on emergency defense from three sides, while prematurely adding more permanent residents to her City of Light.

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Am I the only one who finds it a little perverse that Alie has all of her CoL residents dressed by Urban (renewal) Outfitters? Maybe it’s because I’ve been staring the process in the face, these last few years, but the gentrification of Grounders just seems like something PC Principal should be made aware of (CoL likely got a Whole Foods, too, I reckon).

The second threat came from the Genius Bar, back at Arkadia, where Raven (Lindsey Morgan) & Monty (Christopher Larkin) were on the same page over method, but at odds over timing. Monty’s sense of reason & impulse control won out; but then he got distracted (hopefully, that wasn’t the intent)….

The, um… mounting of Monty (“finally”) seemed a bit sudden; but as the most consistent force for good, among the original Exiles, I can accept someone having noticed… and doing the guy, as his due (go, Monty). Harper’s (Chelsey Reist) not a bad catch, either, as the doer of the deed, and at least pairing up with Monty will give her something to do – other than be a Red Shirt. On the other hand: stress sex jinx is still a thing. At the very least, Harper might’ve worn him out enough to let Raven outlast his oversight. Hey, jinxes come in many forms.

Forms like a ghost mom, for instance, preying on emo sentiment to delay a genuine Alie-in-jeopardy moment. As much as I don’t relish the idea of Monty now having a beef with another member of the group, having to pull the trigger twice – in order to hold on to his Most Reliably Responsible Exile title – may have earned him some emo time, as well (and we’re back to sorry, Monty).

I suppose I should say something about signs of life, over at Jasper’s (Devon Bostick) corner of the World; but I dowanna. Unfortunately, acts of Showrunner left him in a last line of defense position, when Alie found an in to threat number three.

That only became really necessary when Clarke (Eliza Taylor) decided that saving her people (whoever they are, from one moment to the next) should once again become a Faustian matter.

Clarke had found that she could lead a team to Luna (Nadia Hilker), but she couldn’t make Luna drink the ascension kool-aid. It was made fairly clear that Clarke was at least as desperate to get Lexa back, as she was to counteract Alie; so her decision to force the issue seemed all the more self-serving.

No surprise, she got a second from Bellamy (Bob Morley) – seeing as how they gave Luna a choice, after all. Hey, Bellamy, it’s only a choice if the choice is respected. After you watch Clarke’s back, while she takes another unilateral walk on the dark side, you can just roll over and let her rub your tummy.

Well, maybe after she rubs a little balm on the schooling she got. How dumb do you have to be to not expect a Nightblood to at least be capable of self-defense? After extolling the strength in waging peace, to Lexa, expecting a pacifist to be weak is how I’d spell hypocrisy, in this case.

So that thing the Luna Rovers made worse, by trying too hard to prevent, happened; and Jasper was the only one that could do anything about it. One problem: he was having a happy moment with a new local somebody. A happy Jasper is a jinxed Jasper (sorry, Jass), a jinxed Jasper is an emo Jasper, and an emo Jasper is a useless last man standing. There was a last woman left lying, however; so nevermind, Jasper.

Way too much was decided by emo moments, this episode; but I don’t know who disappointed me more: Murphy, or Pike. As important as Imori (Luisa D’Oliveira) has been to Murphy’s rehabilitation, he should’ve known better than to waste any time on her, once she became another extension of Alie. Pike, for his part, should’ve stuck by his reactionary principles, and not leave matters to a hesitant Murphy. In any case, just disconnecting the blasted thing would have saved everyone a lot of trouble – including us – but: drama. So close, but yet so far, would apply, here; except Alie really took that saying to new heights (yeah, I said it!). Her winning ultimate king of the hill may have distracted from a little nugget, about having eyes in Arkadia – but only if you made it past all the forced suspense leading up to that win.

Drama would also be the reason a pacifist, like Luna, wouldn’t know how to take out a loved one non-lethally; but I guess real motivation was required. On the other hand, so obvious a set-up does distract from social gathering rules 101 – y’know, rules like pour your own drinks, when in unfamiliar company. Maybe I was too busy mourning Murphy going Jasper, to consider Luna having Monty levels of consistency.

Yeah, for a second there, they really did (think it would be that easy).

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Sam Joseph

Sam is an Avid consumer/observer of Geek culture, and collector of Fanboy media from earliest memory. Armchair sociologist and futurist. Honest critic with satirical if not absurdist­­ wit with some experience in comics/ animation production.
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