The 100 Episode Review: "Survival of the Fittest"

My wife and I were forced by our busy schedules to wait a couple days before watching this episode and, overall, it was worth the wait.

I think the thing that really stood out for me was the way it sets a variety of events (both obvious and potential) in motion. Lincoln, at the end (at least from what we were shown) proved he can't be trusted. Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) earned Indra's (Adina Porter) respect and is now stuck between choosing to spy for her people or join the Grounders and Jaha's decision to leave sets up the potential of their world expanding.

There were a couple subtle aspects about this episode I found intriguing. This includes Lincoln mentioning seeing another drop ship when he was a child and Bellamy referring to "suicide by Earth." I have a feeling this is going to come into play at some point later in the series with, perhaps, the City of Lights being run by former Ark residents who chose to leave on their own.

That gorilla Clarke and Lexa were forced to face was also entertaining to watch. I'm fully expecting to see it, and creatures like it, return in future episodes, especially since it looked like they were in an abandoned zoo (meaning there are likely plenty of other animals like that one around).

Another thing I'm wondering about is Lincoln and his willingness to be injected with that Reaper drug. Either he as an ulterior motive and will show up to save the day or he wasn't really cured. If it's the latter, then that might ultimately undo the new alliance since the only reason the Grounders considered it in the first place was Clarke's ability to cure a Reaper.

I thought Clarke was a little too quick to shoot down the Grounders plan of attacking the dam that powers Mount Weather. Yes, it survived a nuclear holocaust. But, that argument only really comes into play if she knew for certain it had suffered a direct hit. And, surely she and her team of scientists could find a way to disable it if they gained access to it. At minimum, it would have at least been worth discussing it.

I also couldn't help but notice the episode didn't give us updates on the hostages inside Mount Weather or even Raven (Lindsey Morgan), who was injured the last time we saw her. I'm sure the writers could have found a spare couple of minutes to show us they were still alive.

I ended up enjoying this episode because it did a great job setting up some future episodes while still having just enough action in it to keep things from getting dull. I can't wait to find out what is going to happen next, especially since Lincoln appears to be turning against the group.

My Grade: A