The 100 prisoners were initially sent down to the surface as guinea pigs—is the planet safe? Is it inhabitable? But Project Exodus also represented a fresh attempt at utopia. As we’ve seen throughout the season, though, this group of survivors does not see or understand the potential they represent for mankind to save itself. Actually, that’s not true. Wells understood what was at stake, as does Clarke. She continues to believe in the greater good of their group, and what their success means to those left on the Ark. We’ve known that Bellamy, a reluctant leader like Clarke, is willing to put aside his own humanity in pursuit of the remaining prisoners’ survival. And, as we find out, that also includes torture. But this time they’re not attacking one of their own, as they did with Murphy when he was suspected of murdering Wells. This time, Bellamy has captured the grounder who imprisoned Octavia—and he wants answers. Clarke, ever the reasonable, practical one, suddenly sees torture as a justifiable means to an end if it means saving Finn from the grounder’s poisoned dagger. This, to me, is an important turning point, not only for the show, which has finally taken the gloves off, but for Clarke as well. Bellamy later tells her a simple truth: “Who we are, and who we need to be, are two very separate things.” This applies to the council members as well—especially Jaha and Kane. They understand sacrifices must be made for the greater good. In this case, the greater good represents what is left of humanity, and these sorts of decisions cannot be made lightly. But in light of making contact with the 100, not only does the Ark learn the planet is inhabitable, but the loss of 320 people was apparently in vain. This forces the Chancellor to come clean about Project Exodus, but such transparency is too little, too late. The people are leery of the council’s actions and they no longer trust the Chancellor. Like so many others who lost loved ones in the Culling, Jaha has suffered a terrible loss as well—namely his son. It’s a devastating, emotional moment driven home by Isaiah Washington’s powerful performance. Some closing thoughts: The moral ambiguity in tonight’s episode reminded me a lot of Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica—specifically season one’s “Flesh and Bone.” In that episode, Starbuck puts her own humanity on the line as she tortures a captured Cylon to save the fleet. This similarity was further driven home for me when Kate Vernon, who played Ellen Tigh on BSG, showed up as Diana, the former Chancellor (Alessandro Juliani, another BSG alum, is also part of The 100 cast). While this was probably obvious to a lot of people, the grounders speak English. This, too, greatly alters the show’s trajectory—or at least it should. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
