TV Show Review

TV Review: THE 100: Season 4, Episode 4: A Lie Guarded [The CW]

Eliza Taylor The 100 A Lie Guarded

The 100: A Lie Guarded Review

The CW’s The 100, season 4, episode 4, ‘A Lie Guarded,’ led with its most annoying bits showing off – mercifully warning viewers of what was yet to come. A prank, at Jaha’s (Isaiah Washington) expense set the tone for much of the episode. This tone would ultimately come at Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) expense; but it wasn’t a total loss – things got better & worse enough, by the end, to keep this singular tone from getting too unbearable.

Well, being Floated is finally funny – kinda like AIDS, and 911. No, really, it was clever prank. It’s what it said about Jasper’s (Devon Bostick) current mindset that was the head shaker. So by the time the Black Rain thing happened, I just really wanted that spear to come out of nowhere, again. Remember when stupid risks got you killed, on this show? Haven’t we had enough of tenure abuse? Can someone make Red Shirts Red, Again?

It’s always a loss of IQ points, when Monty indulges Jasper (at least to keep him out of everyone else’s way, I’m hoping); and this week’s enabler slip allowed Jas to get his hands on Clarke’s list (the one that would Make The 100 a Relevant Title, Again). Somehow, I think that fallout confrontation needs no further extrapolation from me – you should all know what to expect from Jas, at this point. Kinda wished I skipped it, myself (but: diligence – you can thank me with bags of Hershey Toffee Nuggets).

Advertisement
 

Sorry, Monty, but naive really doesn’t suit you. If you really can’t wrap your brain around Clarke’s actions, then you should’ve joined in a lynch mob for Jaha & Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) at the first opportunity. The fact that you got me defending Clarke just makes it hurt, man. Brain up, and make your own triage list of who your friends are, already.

This week’s stop-gap quest: dig up ALIE template Becca’s old research, and find a way to reverse engineer Nightblood. That meant Abby (Paige Turco) leading an expedition, Heart of Darkness style, to ALIE’s island – aka the A.I., A.I., O for outpost (only, not).

Speaking of dark hearts, now professional peacemaker, Kane, took Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), Assassin to task, over her growing list of accomplishments. Getting her to turn in her gun & badge probably wouldn’t have ticked her off as much had he not brought up both Lincoln & Pike, in the process. Sometimes diplomacy means not poking the hair trigger in its tender spot.

As with every heavy-handed decision, made on this show, her dismissal came at a very timely juncture. At some point, Bellamy (Bob Morley) fell into the clutches of crazy could-a-been ex, Echo (Tasya Teles). Worse, he had a particularly loose-lipped Red Shirt with him. Kane is no Clarke, Roan (Zach McGowan) is no Lexa, and Skaikru’s place in the coalition was always somewhere south of tenuous. Well, now it just wasn’t.

Is it just me, or is Bellamy the go-to-guy, if you want a shaky treaty busted? In any case, another season, another Grounder march on Arkadia. At this point, as an Arkadian, I’d be troubled by the days Grounders weren’t coming to kill me. Gotta be able to trust your calendar.

After becoming last episode’s miracle recovery, wary Nightblood donor, Luna (Nadia Hilker), seemed to make the transition – from desperately seeking help, from the people she spurned, to you people just bother the hell out of me – right quick. Some might consider that defaulting to be the mark of… let’s just say an ungracious character, for now. Much more understandable, when she was protecting her people; but now that it’s just her, it’s just, well, all about her.

When Murphy (Richard Harmon) starts setting positive examples – he was so getting a special request session, from Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira), at that point – you know there’s a new standard for being the stand-up type. On the other hand, Luna couldn’t appreciate what a stand-up Murphy meant. Raven (Lindsey Morgan) did, however – and she wasn’t buying it, just yet.

Nobody bought Emori’s concern about crossing a certain line, either; and it didn’t take long for the memo about Red Shirts to be addressed (making it official, all you ex-jasper-ated, squeaky teens do still get greased). Unfortunately, useful characters still get their walking papers, too, in order to maintain room for useless ones. Nyko (Ty Olsson) went from managing Luna’s tics, to literally taking a bullet for her. In appreciation of the gesture: she bailed.

Maybe it’s all just been piling up, over the seasons, or tolerance is just wearing thin, but the sanctimonious sermonizing is really starting to get to me. It was easy when it came from one I-man-the-line character at a time – Jaha, Kane, Bellamy, Clarke – but getting it from Jasper, Luna, and even Monty – all in one episode…!

On the plus side, Raven did manage to talk Luna out of her tic (albeit with more corn syrup sermonizing) then cashed a check with her brain, that no one expected her body to write (talked Luna into doing that part, too – yay, team Mistress Blaster!). This week’s quest turned out to be more than the quest-of-the-week, after all. Titular puns aside (ALIE guarded by drones – the cleverness of it all), the question of what the Becca bunker was being guarded against, and all the ways scientists salivating over its contents can go wrong, could sustain this plot thread for at least one more episode.

The Jaha redemption has already begun to benefit from the Clarke proxy. Call it a stretch (or just my cynicism) but Jaha would make an excellent ultimate villain, if he were to acquire Bellamy Mulligan power, then use it for evil. Ah, but that’s way too much prognostication, for a season-to-season show like this (even if I did kinda call the John Locke outcome, on Lost – and they had no idea where they were going).

The confrontation between Octavia, Assassin & her crazy could-a-been sister-in-law also came sooner than expected. Anybody see LOTR: The Two Towers? Okay, so no point in opining on how that turned out. Has attention spans shrunk to the point where the showrunners thought they could get away with that? I will say that the sight of Echo in a mud mask counts as one more dodged bullet, for Bellamy, though (imagine that hovering over you, first thing in the morning).

So by the end, I was left hoping that the emo drama had burned itself off, some, back at Arkadia, and that the wheeling & dealing had been so done away with, over at Polis. All we need to know, now, is that some forced drama isn’t going to be coming out of the Becca Bunker, and maybe we can finally get back to the show’s regularly scheduled Grounder march on Arkadia.

Advertisement
 

I’m feeling optimistic – and not even in a 100% masochistic way….

Leave your thoughts on this The 100 ‘A Lie Guarded’ review, and this episode of The 100, in the comments section, below. Readers seeking more The 100 coverage can visit our The 100 page. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can go to our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page,  our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish  articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

FilmBook's Newsletter

Subscribe to FilmBook’s Daily Newsletter for the latest news!

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

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.
Back to top button
Share via
Send this to a friend