TV Review: THE 100: Season 5, Episode 1: Eden [The CW]

The 100: Eden Review

The CW‘s The 100, Season 5, Episode 1, ‘Eden,’ might not have been quite the fresh start I had hoped for; but it was a good start. With the original 100’s Mt. Rushmore trio – Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Bellamy (Bob Morley), and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) – all left locked away, to ride out the series reset disaster in separate evo-chambers, a new ground was prepared for a new kind of conflict; this conflict being staged for a new set of menacing faces, plus the return of some reconditioned ones; and maybe all those ground rules – laid out over the course of the series, so far – no longer applying.

I’ll tell you, right now: I’m all for that – all of it. It’s just… you might not want to take the entirety of your grey matter to this one. Logic, science, and reasoning had not played huge roles, in the show’s success; and it looks like it has no reason to start now – just accept that, or you’ll be bleeding-out grey matter all over your binge-watching outfit.

Personally, I was hoping not to have my own brain fitted for grey pants; but, hey, last season’s ending teaser was intriguing enough – even for my inner critical thinker. First up: Clarke takes the Fury Road re-intro.

So, right off the bat – doomsday levels of radiation & enough actual fire to evaporate a small sea: somewhat manageable, for a Nightblood Knockoff, after all of 42 years. “I’ll need a check number for my brain, good sir; the jacket stays with me.”

With that bit of business taken care of, her digging up a fully functional Fury Roadster (built good enough to survive being Praimfaya buried, but not a sand storm) didn’t seem as ridiculous a way to proceed, to me, as it definitely should’ve.

I was also free to appreciate the dramatic bits – like the initial futility of her Polis bunker rescue/ reunion effort, or the joys of that first rain (what black rain, that was such a thing, back when?) – which is what we’re supposed to do with this show, all you silly, critical-thinking-type persons (“Remember to breathe,” he whispers to their brains, “it’ll go easier”).

There was also the bit about losing it, over losing everything. Never mind that she still had her voice, various working parts that a vulture had better appreciation for, and the fact that said vulture’s persistence reminded her about the reason to live – just before she gave up on living. Y’see, with my critical thinking brain out of the way, I, too, resisted the urge to end it all; and look where it got us both. I had a better food break, though.

In any case, the episode pivoted to the titular main thread – aka Clarke’s Castaway setting build – where the radiation, that left most everything there useful, killed off everyone who would’ve objected to sharing. Almost everyone, anyway. By the time Castaway Clarke’s Wilson came along, Clarke had been living solitary long enough to not spot an obvious trap, when led into one. Seclusion is a helluva drug.

Anyway, they did have the same blood type, and the feral Wilson kid knew stuff about stuff (except spotting an obvious bonding trap, when left one); so there was a future, there.

On an unrelated note: did anyone else notice what seemed like a glimpse of someone wearing a white hoodie, in the wooded background, just before Clarke’s swim (in the still man-eating eel free water)? My critical thinking brain might’ve been resisting too hard….

Fast forward 6 years, Wilson had grown into Madi (Lola Flanery) – the Wanheda Padawan, first glimpsed at the end of last season – Clarke had apparently gained all of her Tom Hanks merit badges, and we were catching up, regarding the season 4 teaser that the show had left off on.

Some Legend of Octavia story-time seemed as good a point as any, for a look at how the other half had been living, so that’s what we got.

The other half, in this case, was up on the station; and nothing said a different kind of hard living like furious sparring, as the backdrop to Bellamy Beard (clearly, some things change). Once the Upton Abbey kids started talking, however, you’d think they actually had it way easier, by comparison. Well, throw in trying to keep Monty (Christopher Larkin) patented green goop down, and hard living comes in many forms, okay? Sorry, Monty (clearly, some things don’t).

A thing to do, when you’re Showrunners more interested in drama, than disciplined storytelling, is work like hell to bring a couple together, then break ’em up for reasons. Murphy (Richard Harmon) & Emori (Luisa d’Oliveira) got the honor, this time around; but the same could be said for Murphy & Bellamy, in a way. What is Murphy without a redemption road to run, anyway? Echo (Tasya Teles) was having cold feet (about stepping on Octavian ground), and there was still talk about Jasper – making 6+ years feel like a mere season ago.

The Space Others (remember them – also from last season’s teaser?) made their appearance just in time to keep things from getting instantly uncomfortable, for the Upton Abbey thread, by starting an unwitting race to the ground. A quick jump back to that teaser moment, where that race was pretty much already called, and we were fully caught up.

So where was season 4 headed, before being interrupted by season 3 ending? Well, no time was wasted in establishing the Space Others as Neo-Australians – a colony evolved from hardened convicts, left marooned by a ‘more evolved’ society (he said, heading off massive trolling, from Down Under) – and our best bet for the season’s antagonists.

On the other hand, it is early; so there’s plenty of room to mix things up a bit, before a real Big Bad rises to the surface (fingers crossed for no more natural disasters). Distinctions were already made, between the criminally clever, and the criminally violent (all eyes on the young Adrian Pasdar looking MoFo); but for now, season 4 kicks off with some Swiss Family Robinson action, with the Upton Abbey kids racing to the rescue. Absent from the season build: the Downton Abbey kids of the Polis bunker. However interesting the set-up has been, so far (“I hope you remembered to breath”), it won’t be a real set-up without the rest of the Ground Crew. If the closing scene was any indication, Octavia’s been pretty Darwinist with her tenure; so no expecting daisies pushing out of the ground, when the Neo-Aussies (Nawsies?) come Waltzing Matilda (looks over shoulder for killer koalas).

The good news, is that even my critical thinking brain is interested in how it all comes together (he remembered to breath… and wore the grey pants); so we’re off to a good start.

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