TV Review: The 100: Season 3, Episode 12: Demons [The CW]

The CW’s The 100, Demons TV Show Review. The 100: Season 3, Episode 12: ‘Demons,’ was another swipe at leveling the playing field, disguised as a Scooby Doo mystery, disguised as a slasher flick – all to keep us occupied, while baby steps to bigger things happened elsewhere.

Now every slasher flick needs a demonstrative set-up, to let us know what we’re in for; so remember, kids, when Harper (Chelsey Reist), Miller (Jarod Joseph), and Bryan (Jonathan Whitesell) got bumped in the night, right off the bat, Harper asked for it (“OK, Miller, scare me”).

With Raven (Lindsey Morgan) still more forthcoming on how to stop Alie (Erica Cerra), than why, Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) In-betweeners (The ‘Tweeners?) made a house-call, only to find the place deserted. Apparently Alie had moved on (to Phase 2), and took her entire bag of chips with her. This gave the ‘Tweeners a chance to go live, with their countermeasure, even as Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) circled closure, over the dead. With Clarke & Bellamy (Bob Morley) still slowly circling each other – kinda-sorta bonding over their respective Red Ledgers – the slasher flick kicked in, to give them a little push.

They wouldn’t be the only ones needing a fever break. There was something particularly galling about Jasper’s (Devon Bostick) ‘perspective,’ concerning Octavia’s grief; but insight into the nature of the A.I. chips left Monty (Christopher Larkin) on the at-risk watch list.

Monty… don’t go irrational emo on us now – you’re mother was… less than saintly, before joining the bag of chips (sorry, Monty). First chinks in the armor, or not, at least he knew a slasher film cliche when he heard one.

Memo to the showrunners: if a good sense for the show’s plotting doesn’t get the viewer’s spoiler sense tingling, then a quick cast check on IMDB might. I mean, I got the former going, so I guessed the mystery guest; but just seeing his name listed was likely enough to give the game away to any casual browser.

Spoiler alert: Clarke’s latest costly mistake to answer for, and overall team building exercise, was Lt. Emerson (Toby Levins).

Like any typical slasher flick, would-be victims got to fight back – give the viewer some hope, and the suspense level goes up, and all that – but unless his Grounder getup really slowed him down, Emerson’s military training should have made that a non-factor (especially when he was the only one that could see). I felt sort of cheated that the showrunners went soft on the kill-count; but I don’t think the fans would’ve stood for a culling of that magnitude. Still, a useful character was lost (second time teaming up with Raven, over a Mt. Weather crisis, did the trick); so I hope the Red Shirts in the team earn their reprieve. As for the slasher flick’s resolution: the slasher usually has an emo breakdown, once the mask comes off, and this was no exception. Emerson passed on a number of opportunities to have his revenge, just so he could have it a specific way. Good thing he missed the plot point about the ‘Tweeners’ countermeasure going killer, once it went live.

I’ll admit, I had a different fate predicted for Emerson – ironically, involving an A.I. chip as well – but dead is good. Not enough bad actors get nipped in the bud when they should, just so they can pop-up later, yelling “what a twist!”

To have this filler plot serve as the balance of the episode did serve a purpose – since there’s nothing like a mutual near-death experience, and a costly loose end finally dealt with, to get everyone on the same page – so I guess we can finally get to getting somewhere, now.

On the short list would be Polis, where Murphy’s (Richard Harmon) faker-with-benefits status got him reunited with Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira). I was happy to credit Emori, for not taking news of Murphy’s Royal boy-toy status badly – since they’ve both been consistently pragmatic about the ways of the hustle – but then the questions of where the bag of chips went, and what Phase 2 entailed, were answered. More typical histrionics followed, and Murphy was again left as the last mind standing (not that he was in a position to appreciate it).

‘Demons’ may have been a more useful kind of filler episode; but another filler episode, all the same. I get that we are meant to appreciate Clarke & Bellamy helping each other cross the finish line, to the redemption race, together; but too many bad decisions, coming out of the woodwork, just leaves a pretty bad legacy to clean up – i.e. a taller order than any redemption twist might actually be able to fill.

Still, the wheels are in motion. I will be waiting for that order to be filled….

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