The 100 season 2 episode 11 review: Coup De Grace

This review contains spoilers.

2.11 Coup De Grace

The second season of The 100 began with Mount Weather, a place we knew nothing of instantly expanding the universe that the show had set up for itself in its short first season, but since then the world has exploded in every direction, demonstrated best by the opening credits that now map Earth as we and the Sky People currently know it.

But in dealing with all of that, we haven’t actually been able to spend as much time in Mount Weather as we might have liked, our glimpses limited to watching scientists hatch evil schemes and a group of B-characters arguing about how to get out. It hasn’t outworn its welcome yet mostly due to limited screen time, but the time for something huge to happen was fast approaching.

Thank God, then, that the politics going on outside have finally been shelved while Clarke, the Sky People and the Grounders finally decide to storm the castle and rescue their friends.

Bellamy is integral to the plan, having clumsily infiltrated the base as Lincoln succumbed to his Reaper-addiction, and the fact that we witness him going through the mill throughout the episode ups the tension. That cold open was particularly nasty, and beautiful, and disturbing.

It’s also rare that we know more than Clarke on the show, so flitting between perspectives during Coup De Grace was a smart move. Splitting the cast between locations so much demands that this be an ensemble show.

But Clarke is still our protagonist, as she continues to assert her leadership over both her mother and Kane, the guy who just a few weeks ago was quite literally cracking the whip. He seems to have wholeheartedly embraced the idea of handing over the decision-making to the kids, rather than attempting to retain the old regime from the Ark, but Abby isn’t there yet.

It’s a power struggle that’s been going on since the show began – Abby cannot fathom that her child would know how to lead a group of people better than she ever could, and that attitude has frequently put everyone in unnecessary danger. There are scenes in this episode where she practically insists that Clarke be vulnerable, upset about being attacked, and it’s almost as if she’s relying on her still needing protection.

But she doesn’t, and it’s a change that’s about more than turning off her emotions about Finn. She’s no longer uncomfortable about being the person everyone is looking to for reassurance and instructions – a stance owed in part to Lexa’s influence – and hasn’t taken the easy way out by allowing the adults to take charge as soon as they had landed.

But the current plan to rescue Jasper, Monty and the rest is entirely reliant on Bellamy and, if he fails, then “they all die”. Those are some pretty dire consequences to be dealing with and, though we can be sure that the last part of that statement won’t be true (season three renewal and all), there’s always a chance – even a likelihood – that our heroes won’t have the upper hand come the end of the season.

Mount Weather is too nifty of a concept to be dealt with and discarded so quickly – for one, and there’s more drama to be mined from the Grounders and the Sky People as enemies, rather than allies. We also know that this show isn’t afraid to kill characters off, and there are a few currently loitering the chopping block.

I fear for Jasper and Monty the most, mainly because the show has done such a great job of developing them both in the short bursts of time we’ve spent with them this year. Its The Walking Dead rules – as soon as you start to like a character, something horrible is probably going to happen to them.

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, Survival Of The Fittest, here.

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