The 100...Bitter Harvest

[shadowkat]

Okay, just finished watching "Bitter Harvest" and alas, I am still struggling with this plot line. Apparently, I am not alone. I found THIS post validating my own feelings regarding how Bellamy's actions don't quite work...and how his subplot is coming perilously close to ruining the show and sending it careening out of control. It doesn't feel morally ambiguous enough to me, somehow.

Because this is a show that, until now, has differentiated itself from the smorgasbord of other post-apocalyptic worlds in science fiction by portraying a future where people are driven by more than reckless tribalism. Where enemies and allies can come from anywhere.

If Bellamy can no longer see that, I guess I’m relieved that Clarke, Lexa, and others still can. As it is, his botched storyline is a huge warning sign that The 100 might be starting to careen out of control.

Yup, that's my problem with this storyline -- it's following the cliche route of one too many post-apocalyptic worlds prior to it. And I'm wary of the Allia storyline...which reminds me a little too much of BSG. Up until now it had managed to veer around that. But the last couple of episodes have veered straight down that path. And this episode was particularly guilty of it.

And later...in another review, this time, AV Club, says the same thing HERE. Actually, I agree a great deal with AV Club's review.

But, I went and found THIS interesting and in-depth interview with the show's head-runner, Jason Rothenberg on IGN. It gave me pause.

IGN: There was a huge turning point for Bellamy and Clarke in this last episode. They laid everything on the table and brought up a lot of history. But then he ultimately handcuffed her and was going to lock her up.

Rothenberg: He believes he’s doing that for her own good. He believes that it’s dangerous [in Polis] and he’s keeping her there to protect her. That’s what’s behind that moment. I think, in that episode, there’s a few scenes -- like with Bellamy and Kane -- where Bellamy says what he feels. He reminds that audience that Tri Kru killed 37 of his people before Kane even got to the ground. Obviously it’s a huge area of conflict with Lincoln, who is standing right there, and that’s hard for Bellamy. It’s hard to square that circle... “I love Lincoln, Lincoln is my friend, my sister loves Lincoln and I believe now that we are unsafe because of those people.” And by the way, they had a kill order on Lincoln. Maybe the kill order has been lifted by now, but in Bellamy’s mind, Lincoln is an exception and is someone he is trying to reconcile his choices with the Grounders with. So I feel like that scene that you’re referencing with Clarke is one where Bellamy states his case and we see the levels of pain that he is in. It will haunt him, because on a human level you can’t participate in something like that and not have that.

Again, there’s historical precedent of people involved in massacres like that. A switch flips in your brain and you do these things. The My Lai massacre took place over hours and hours and hours. Bellamy is going to have to grapple with something like this forever and I’m not sure he’s recoverable. People will have to decide that themselves as they watch that story. In that scene, he lays it out. He says, “Lexa abandoned us.” He says all of the things that people needed to hear to understand his choice. And some people still won't agree with his choice, because I think we’ve done a good job of dimensionalizing the Grounders. People really believe that Lexa is a hero, even though she betrayed them. They really believe Indra is a good guy, but she abandoned Octavia not too long ago. It’s complicated and Bellamy is grappling with that and he's made a choice and gone down a path now that has put him on the opposite side of Kane and Lincoln and his sister and Clarke. That’s what the season’s about… How do we get back? How do we get the band back together when they’re on opposite sides of a civil war?

I think they are trying to explore the moral ambiguity of violent choices that humans have made over and over again throughout our history. Including how we handle past transgressions. Do we seek vengeance and kill the transgressor, answering the crime with violence, or deport them, get them away from us - to protect ourselves?

How do you live with doing something that horrific? Can you? And how do you justify it? Is it even possible?

They seemed to be paralleling the massacre of the 300 warriors with Clarke's decision to kill the 381 people in Mount Weather -- although Bellamy did flip the switch with her, and Monty enabled it. It was ultimately her decision. What is interesting is both Monty and Bellamy are now on the opposite side with Pike making this decision again - with Pike in Clarke's role. Clarke could barely live with what she did at Mount Weather...how will Bellamy deal with this massacre?

GN: Following up on that, Bellamy’s choice has been divisive with viewers -- we spoke on the podcast about my thoughts about it -- and clearly for the characters within the show too. For Clarke, for Octavia, could they still see him as someone who is redeemable? And should the audience, and should they look for a light at the end of the tunnel?

Rothenberg: I hope so. I hope people will eventually be able to root for him again or love him again. His friends, his sister, Kane, Clarke, are voicing what the audience might be feeling. Octavia says, “What’s the matter with you?” Kane says, “Is this who you’ve become?” Clarke says “I know you don’t want war.” People are feeling that in the audience and that’s good. I think the experience hopefully, in this last episode, is saying, “We’re not crazy. People in the show feel the same way. Bellamy, how could you do this? Can't you see that these aren't the bad guys? That they were here to protect us?”

Octavia says, “Does it make you proud that these are people that were here to protect us?” We’re not letting him off the hook for it and I hope the audience won’t let him off the hook for it. I think the audience will be in the seat of Clarke and Kane and Octavia for sure. It’ll be a hard road. The question is, in the narrative, how far is he going to go? When is he going to wake up? How far down that path will Pike lead him and have Bellamy still follow? Bellamy is a follower. He’s a soldier; a general. He needs to be lead. There’s nothing wrong with that. There are very few people that should be president. There are very few people that should be a general, also. Bellamy is that. He needs to hook his wagon to the right leader. Right now he’s obviously not. It doesn’t excuse what he’s done. I’m not suggesting that a good argument is, “I was following orders.” That will never be the case. He’ll never get off the hook saying that. It’ll be a dramatic journey back.

So apparently there is a story arc in place? Hope they don't take the shortcut and kill him, which they did with Finn and ultimately worked, but won't again. You can't do the same thing twice. Also Bellamy's actions were a bit different.

The better arc is what's going on with Allia and the Polaris...the 13th Ship. 13 again. The Sky People are the 13 clan, and Allia is looking for her counterpart, Rebecca, who was housed on the 13th space station - which the Arkadians had shot to earth in order to survive. Effectively killing the inhabitants, or so they thought of that station. Banishing the 13th station. Oh, the irony.

And the 13th station is torturing Murphy for information on Allia and the City of Lights.

Meanwhile Abby is questioning a device that rewires the neurons of the brain to stop all pain, including painful memories. Theolonius' memories of his son Wells are effectively removed and therefore no longer pain him with either remorse or regret. Is this a good thing? And what was Rebecca's edict? Was Allia's counterpart - the system that set off the missels?

Also, I rather liked Clark struggling with her own demons. As much as she wanted revenge against Emerson for what he'd done to her people, she realizes that the best punishment is letting him live, alone, with his ghosts and his sins. She also grapples with the hypocrisy of her desire for revenge, while refusing to allow the Grounders to seek their own against her kind. That storyline is morally ambiguous in a way the other one isn't.

Still good...just a bit wary of the Bellamy and Pike subplot which is frustrating me. When we were focusing on the other plots, I was more enthused.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to keep an open mind, but the last three episodes....outside of Clarke and Lexa's scenes, haven't quite worked.

Right now, I don't see how they are going to get out of the Pike/Bellamy/Monty's Mom/Monty subplot.....Pike and Monty's Mom are dead people walking at the moment. So far, Bellamy and Monty haven't really done anything outside of go along with it...which is similar to their roles with Mount Weather. And they both look conflicted and deeply pained by it. So there's...a way out of that one. But not for Pike and Monty's Mom, neither of whom have been built up well or explained outside of a throw-away line and a brief story. They need a flashback episode on what happened to the folks at the Farm Station. Then again, not sure I want that. Still feels like a rehash of a lot of other plot-lines in other series.

And the City of Light bit still feels very cliche to me as well and reminiscent of what Whedon was trying to do in his various movies, comics, etc post-Buffy. As if all these people watched BSG and are trying to do what Ron Moore did.

As an aside, it's a difficulty that I've begun to notice in genre related works -- this tendency to either copy or rehash the same plotlines over and over again. Whenever the story becomes more thematic or plot driven...if begins to slowly fall apart and feel like a copy of something else. I don't know why genre writers insist on focusing on plot over character or theme over character - that's a death knoll. Always have the plot come from the characters - you can't lose that way.

If you make the plot come from some theme or political issue you want to explore -- it can fall into bad allegory, or
go off the rails. Serial writers are notorious for doing this...they begin to want to explore some political issue more than they are interested in exploring the characters and...ugh. That's what happened with the Buffy comics, it's also what happened with various other things I've read and seen. Very few serial writers can sustain the story and the characters without falling into that trap.

But, for the time being, I'm hanging in there to see what they do. If I get too bored...I'll drift away, there's far too many choices out there at the moment to hang on to something that doesn't hold my interest.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

But, for the time being, I'm hanging in there to see what they do.

Me too. And I'm sorry if I keep raining on your parade. After the first two episodes, I was really enthusiastic about s3, but it's really gone downhill since then. But if it works for anyone else, I certainly don't want to ruin it.

I do like that the series is doing a very obvious allegory on what the political landscape looks like at the moment. I just wish it were a bit smarter about it, and didn't completely chuck some characters under the bus to get there.

As if all these people watched BSG and are trying to do what Ron Moore did.

Which I'd understand in the first few seasons of BSG. That anyone is still doing it after seeing how BSG fell apart at the end is ... curious.

And yeah, I really don't get why they won't get more into Monty. He's the only major character so far to never get an arc of his own, and then they introduce his mother as a villain, and then... do nothing with that? Really?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No worries. I'm not really that emotionally invested...and most likely, I'll save the next five to ten episodes on my DVR and binge watch later in the season. That works better for this series sometimes...because it, like all television series lately, is rather unevenly written.

I can't say that I'm really invested in anything at the moment. No television obsessions...

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

They need a flashback episode on what happened to the folks at the Farm Station.

I have been thinking the same thing. As much as people hate Pike, I can't help but wonder if what happened to the Farm Station after they landed is just so far beyond what has been intimated by Pike to date, that after watching a flashback, viewers might at least have some understanding of what to me is clearly psychosis. This man isn't just angry-- he's clearly insane. As to Bellamy-- well, a lot harder to explain his actions, despite the comments posted by the showrunner.