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‘The 100’ 3×16 Roundtable: Perverse Instantiation Part Two

Every week, Fangirlish writers (and sometimes guests) sit down to discuss new episodes of The 100. We share our thoughts, feelings, and speculations on everything and anything in what we like to call Fangirlish Roundtables.

Today, we’re breaking down episode 3×16 of The 100, “Perverse Instantiation Part Two,” where we discuss our thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the season finale. We even address the bits and pieces of this season that didn’t quite hit the mark.

Let’s dive right in!

The Good

What was the best part of the finale? Tell us all that you enjoyed about “Perverse Instantiation Part Two?” Or the season?

Lyra, Fangirlish: Best part of “Perverse Instantiation Part Two” was the City of Light. Actually entering it was an ordeal in itself, but experiencing this world…it must’ve blown CLARKE’S MIND! This is everything she could’ve been experiencing if ALIE hadn’t decided that the world was overpopulated. It’s a shame for her to experience this for it to all just be ripped away because it wasn’t real. As far as we know she might be the only one to have experienced this world with a full awareness of where she was. Let’s just that to the list of burdens she must experience on her own.

Let’s not forget the entrance of Lexa. She was powerful, brave, and determined despite not having a physical body. Whether you liked Clexa or not, expressing how much they cared for each other is good for Clarke. You can even say it’s liberating. She’ll be able to move past Lexa’s death now without lingering feeling clouding up what comes next.

As for the season, I continued to enjoy Octavia Blake’s character. Despite her circumstances she never faltered. She stuck to her beliefs and planted herself like a tree against those who told her to move or give up. Even when she killed Pike, I don’t think it was out of character. She’d been waiting for her moment, and when it came she took it!

Lizzie, Fangirlish: I enjoyed the pacing, and really, the resolution of an arc that at times felt rushed and badly planned. I even enjoyed Clarke again, which is something that I didn’t really feel for the first all the other episodes of the season, really. I enjoyed her experience in the City of Light, and even if I’m not partial to Clexa, I enjoyed their sort of reunion too. Clarke needed the closure. She needed that final step that was going to allow her to move on. She’s done a lot of mourning, and she might now be ready to, not forget, no, but to forgive herself and accept what happened.

As for the season? There were more lows than highs, to be honest, but I enjoyed Octavia regularly. She was the most consistent character for me. I also enjoyed Raven a whole lot. The rest of the cast, even my favorites from earlier seasons, like Bellamy, suffered from the bad writing and the frankly awful pacing. So I’m going to stick with the ladies on this one.

Caralynn, Tell-Tale TV: The Clexa reunion was really powerful and so necessary after Lexa’s terrible send-off. Lexa’s entrance was amazing. So badass, epic, totally in character for her. Alycia Debnam-Carey and Eliza Taylor both did an amazing job during the entire City of Light sequence. I also loved Becca vs. ALIE, arguing whether Clarke should flip the lever and destroy the City of Light. It was cool to hear both sides of the argument.

As for the season, I loved all of the Raven-possession episodes. I particularly loved “Nevermore” which is definitely one of my favorite The 100 episodes of all time. Such strong acting and I always love seeing the core group/the original delinquents working together and interacting (which they did unfortunately quite rarely this season, given that they spent so much time apart).

Samantha, Tell-Tale TV: I really enjoyed the return of Lexa and her helping Clarke through the City of Light while her friends and family took care of her on the outside. Lexa’s entrance was without a doubt one of the best entrances I’ve ever seen on television. This was also a much more fitting send off for her. I still think it’s a shame that Lexa had to go at all, but at least this time it’s on her terms and the last we see of her is the fierce warrior protecting the girl she loves.

I also really enjoyed how everyone was crucial to the plot of the episode and everyone had a hand in saving the day. Abby got to shine as a truly badass doctor, and we got the unlikely team of she and Murphy being sassy and intense together. I was really glad to see Bellamy’s turn-around and his attempts to protect everyone and keep them all safe; he finally felt like the Bellamy I loved again.

The aftermath after Clarke pulls the kill-switch is also one of my favorite scenes of the season. Seeing the kids back at Arkadia smile again, while everyone in Polis clung to each other and comforted one another gave me a lot of hope. If they lean on each other next season, the way they did in this scene, I’m sure they can handle whatever comes their way. Even a second nuclear apocalypse.

The Bad

2. What was the worst part of the finale? Maybe something that grated your nerves? Don’t hold back on what you didn’t like!

Lyra, Fangirlish: The worst part of the finale was how ALIE was destroyed. It seemed pretty anticlimactic. After so much strife and pain it all came down to one lever? It didn’t live up to the expectation that I had of ALIE. To make matters worse there’s an impending doom coming for everyone on Earth in the shape of nuclear stations going critical. It seems like a last minute addition that was added for dramatic effect. (Honestly I’m still not sure if ALIE was lying about the coming death and radiation.)

If ALIE was capable of using love and torture as coercion methods then she surely could of told EVERYONE, “Hey, the world is totally going to end in a couple months. Here’s a way to survive forever.” Who wouldn’t sign up for that? ALIE is smart and it’s sad that The 100 tried to downplay everything she’s accomplished with this flimsy flaw.

And don’t even get me started on Bellamy’s journey this season. He was hot and cold with no explanation on why. Just assumptions.

Lizzie, Fangirlish: Like Lyra said, it was all just so anticlimactic. Like the whole season, to be honest. ALIE, meh. I expected more. I wanted her to die, don’t get me wrong, but I kind of expected more doom and pain and common sense. Maybe it’s on me. I’m the one that’s wrong. I should have just lowered my expectations.

Fact is, this season sucked. Period. Everyone I loved in the past I hated this season. Bellamy’s arc made no sense, Clarke was unlikeable, and I found it hard to root for anyone. At this point I’m kind of glad the season ended and everyone gets a break before they have to start thinking about what’s coming next.

Caralynn, Tell-Tale TV: I actually really liked the finale and as a whole slightly preferred this season to season 1 (season 2 is still by far the best of the three seasons, though), so I’m in the minority here. I don’t have any major complaints about it, except that I found it incredibly disturbing that Ontari was cracked open and her body used like that while she was still technically alive. I understand that Ontari wasn’t the best person and that this had to be done in order to save everyone else, but it was sort of shocking and wasn’t really addressed.

Samantha, Tell-Tale TV: I agree with Caralynn actually, so I guess we’re evenly split here! I thought the finale was one of the most entertaining and satisfying episodes of the season, and season 3 itself has some of my favorite moments from the entire series. The only thing that really bothers me about the finale is that parts of it don’t actually make sense. The kill-switch wasn’t in a citadel as Raven had said just a few episodes ago, but it was in space? Where were the other commanders, does the flame look exactly like the City of Light, if not why didn’t we get to see it too? Why did Lexa have to die for us to see them taking the flame out of her neck if Clarke can just say the magic word and it hops on out of her body?

If I could change one thing about it though it would be the plot twist being a second nuclear apocalypse. Yes, it’s shocking and twisted and I had no idea it was coming, but also how in the world are they possibly going to combat this threat in any logical way? They don’t have the protection of space, or even Mount Weather, and their means of travel isn’t exactly equipped to take them all over the world. I guess what I’m trying to say is, that these people have enough to deal with and handle without a ticking clock counting down the next six months until the Earth is unsurvivable, again.

The Ugly

What was the ugliest/most frustrating part of this season? Something that you wish you could erase from memory?

Lyra, Fangirlish: Ugliest/most frustrating moment will always come back to Lexa and Lincoln’s death. Both were unnecessary, inexplicable, and in many ways, cliche. For Lexa, they took a character who needed more development and cut her down to move forth the ALIE plot. It could’ve been done a different way without sacrificing a character that many people connected to.

Then there’s Lincoln. The development was there! Ready for the taking and the introduction of a badass storyline. Then he disappeared. Each episode he appeared less and less for no discernible reason. Lincoln was an asset that would’ve moved the storyline forward while bridging Grounder/Skaikru relations.

I wish I could erase both of these and go back to a time where they were both alive!

Lizzie, Fangirlish: Lincoln, and like, the whole Bellamy arc. Both things make no sense. Both things felt like a regression. The Lincoln thing as worse, obviously, because it’s permanent, but Bellamy bothered me just as much. Can I have the Bellamy of Season 2 back? Can I just have Lincoln period?

Caralynn, Tell-Tale TV: I didn’t like Bellamy’s arc (and by extension, the character of Pike). It was too much of a leap, or rather, a regression, for that character who had come so far over the past seasons. They did some work undoing the damage near the end of the season, but it’s nowhere near a complete rehabilitation of his character. Lincoln’s and Lexa’s deaths were terrible. Lexa at least had her moment post-death in the City of Light with Clarke, but Lincoln died in such a tragic, utterly pointless way. Killed by Pike, the worst character of the season? Ugh.

Samantha, Tell-Tale TV: I definitely second Lyra, both Lincoln and Lexa’s deaths were hugely problematic. It’s not even them dying that I’m most upset about, while I do wish I could bring them both back to life. It’s the way that Lexa was reduced to a very gross trope for a plot point that is later invalidated, and the way Lincoln was essentially written out of a story he was a crucial part of, only to be killed for no real reason when we finally got to see him again.

I would have liked to see more effort put into these and other storylines. There were a lot of things we were told this season that we needed to actually see for them to have the intended impact.

Bellamy going to Pike, the election, Pike having more dimension than “the bad guy,” how ALIE 1 and 2 actually worked and how they differed from each other–this is all stuff that would have rounded out these plot lines to actually make sense. I think this season included some really unnecessary things that weren’t all that plot relevant, like the Ontari/Murphy assault and even Luna’s people as cool as they were, and didn’t give enough definition to parts of the story that really needed it.

I hope in season 4 everything has a bit more purpose and reasoning, that motivations make more sense and that we’re shown important character moments and not just told that they happened. There needs to be more reason for things to happen other than someone in the writer’s room just thinking it’ll look cool.