Agent Dark

Nice easter egg with Undercover Liv's alias - Gwen Dylan is the name of the main character from the iZOMBIE comic :) One thing I really love about this show is that those little scene gags they go out of their way to include - Clive walking on the half-hearted attempt to cover up the zombie rat dissection and they all just stand there awkwardly was hilarious. And Blaine's big mute guy sending him the emoji text lol. And the scene where Vaughn is explaining to 'Gwen' that yes they do have a secret basement with top-secret research and the music starts swelling as if he's about to reveal the big zombie secret - "Fisher-Price probably has a secret basement" and the music abruptly cuts out lol. I just love how legitimately fun this show is.

Jonathan Nolan was randomly hanging out on Reddit to thank the fans for watching the show. Only made a few posts but in his words:

Check the links in the Ratings and Scheduling thread - they're gonna air 2 episodes a week.

It was meant to be a combination of the jacket label and the Turkish coffee that led Weller to make the connection. They drew attention to the clothing earlier in the episode by Weller mocking the OPR guy for wearing a 3 piece suit while complaining that it was hot in the office. I guess all Russian spies and their drivers shop at the same store and drink the same coffee.

I'm ok with this. We all knew it was coming, especially with Sarah getting cast as a lead on a new show. It's not like it's a shock to the system. But now for sure when I get to look forward to a ripper of a conclusion to what's been an amazing story. Every story has a finish, and I have every reason to believe that this show will deliver a fitting end.

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not from around here ;)" - damn, Sara's got game. I want an episode of just Sara and Stein picking up all the ladies and Ray and Jax are just like "this isn't fair".

I think that while they fumbled with the mechanics* of how she died, the fact that her death was shown as a big huge event with serious ramifications for the wider universe and the deep personal effect it has on Clarke, is what makes it ultimately OK by me. Yes it sucks Lexa dies and if they were to go back and retcon that, then I will have zero problems. But what's done is done, and I am keen to see how this plays out especially with Clarke. Clarke is probably the biggest reason I watch this show, because she's such a fantastic character. I actually think she's the one character the show can't kill off, because she is the protagonist of this story. Everyone else, including Lexa, are playing parts in her story. *The way I would have handled it would be to use Emerson. Have Titus approach him after Clarke exiles him, with an offer to let him get revenge on Clarke for the genocide of his people, if he makes it look like Skaikru was the assassin. But Lexa interrupts and dies, heroically protecting Clarke. Then there's not quite as direct an unfortunate implication of a disapproving father figure killing his lesbian daughter. Bonus points for getting a scene where Clarke goes full Wanheda and utterly destroys Emerson in revenge, thus getting a 'have our cake and eat it too' resolution to Emerson's story.

One thing I've noticed in these last two episodes is the change in the soundtrack. I remember the soundtrack being perhaps my biggest disappointment when Gotham first aired, being this utterly unsubtle, blaring of sound. Nothing at all like I expected a Batman soundtrack to be. But it seems they've dialed the music way back, and there is definite elements of the brooding music from Batman (1989) and Batman: The Animated Series especially in the scenes with Bruce Wayne.

Objectively: Brilliant episode. Subjectively: Fuck that shit.

Oh wow, this episode just blew the mythology wide open. What Pike and Bellamy are up to is almost like an annoying itch distracting from something much bigger (which is probably exactly what Lexa thinks of it lol, and what Clarke may be coming to understand). There's so many interlocking bits of mythology starting to come into play now: What really happened prior to Unity Day The founding of Polis and it's connection to Polaris (aka the 13th Station) The origins of the Nightbloods and the Commander - as per Lexa, the Commander is re-incarnated and Lexa 'talks' to the previous Commanders in her sleep. Is this connected to the next point below? ALIE v1.0 and ALIE v2.0 The City of Light showing it darker side (wiping away pain would appear to mean ALL pain, including the memories of your dead son or boyfriend...) The change in Grounder society driven by Lexa's new 'Blood Must Not Have Blood' approach possibly throwing a wrench into the balance of the various factions in play. So excited for the rest of the season, to see where this is all going. Also, Clarke is a fucking badass. "May you live forever". The Commander of Death has just given you a life sentence.

lol at the scene were Emily fights The Car - that was terribly staged. I'm hoping The Car is the new A though. That would be a good twist.

Mr Boss is one of *those* Dungeon Masters... I now have an idea of the true depravities he will be able to achieve.

I don't think Lexa's decision was bad at all. Yes the Mountain Men couldn't get out of Mt Weather but neither could Lexa's forces get in. The choice to send waves of warriors to die in choke points against machine gun emplacements inside Mt Weather is not a particularly good one. Sure, neither is eventually letting the Mountain Men harden themselves against the radiation, but at least if the Mountain Men came out of Mt Weather the Grounders would have been fighting them on terms that suited the Grounders. Bows, axes and swords work a lot better in the forests where the Grounders can use their skills to ambush and fight from the trees than they do when they're trying to assault choke points in narrow hallways defended by .50cal machine guns. One of the first things we learn about Lexa is that she is a "visionary" - Kane says those exact words when he's released from imprisonment in Season 2. I think that perhaps another Heda wouldn't have blinked twice at sending their army to die on the guns inside Mt Weather, to send them to their deaths in glorious battle - Blood for Blood. But Lexa is not one to throw lives away pointlessly - even if they had of won against Mt Weather, the cost in Grounder Warriors would have been so high that it may well have been the end of her coalition.

Everything in Polis was fantastic. From a tense political standoff between Lexa and the Ice Queen, to Clarke nearly pulling off a daring assassination, to that awesome fight scene between Lexa and Roan to the Ice Queen getting speared in the chest (!!). All of it was top tier stuff, and absolutely goes to show why The 100 is one of the best shows around. Unfortunately the rest of the show didn't hit the same level of quality, which is fairly rare misstep. I get where Pike is coming from - Farm Station has been hounded day and night since they landed, being killed off one by one by the Grounders. Then suddenly, they're rescued! Other Arkers have survived and they've established a pretty neat home! Oh and by the way - the Grounders are our friends now! Pike hasn't stopped fighting the Grounders, and can't accept that there's peace. There hasn't been any decisive victory, to end a war, and he's stuck in the mindset of Grounder = enemy. I think Micheal Beach is doing a really good job of portraying that. As for Bellamy... well he hasn't exactly been the greatest at making good decisions in the past (just remember his season 1 actions, where he was 'kill the grounders!', plus that massively selfish decision to steal the radio from Raven's ship which led to the culling of 300 people on the Ark, and the destruction of Grounder villages from the flares The 100 were forced to launch to alert the Ark). And when you consider that in Season 2 he spent the first half trying to find Clarke and the others (believing they'd been captured by Grounders) to watching the Grounders have Finn be executed and Raven get lashed over a misunderstanding, to then spending the last half of the season infiltrating Mount Weather... He's had almost no interaction with the Grounders as a people. Having said all that however, I don't think they've done enough justification to show exactly why Bellamy is not differentiating between Ice Nation and Loyalist Coalition Grounders. Surely Octavia and Lincoln would be able to give him a crash course in Grounder politics? Or Kane? Or what about Clarke - he's seen that she's pretty committed to Lexa's coalition in spite of Lexa's actions at Mount Weather. They show just needs to show why Bellamy is not respecting that. Maybe it will down the track, but right now it seems really random that he's suddenly all about slaughtering grounders indiscriminately.

They should have timed their announcement for just after The Flash episode aired lol. Imagine everyone losing their shit when they unexpectedly see Supergirl pop up on The Flash haha.

Mt Weather I would presume. LPG (or Propane or Autogas as you might know it) doesn't degrade over time like Diesel or Petrol/Gasoline, but it will evaporate at room temperature so it needs to be stored in pressurised containers. Assuming the integrity of the pressure vessel used to store the gas was kept intact over all those years (through regular maintenance, inspections etc) Mt Weather could have had a significant storage of LPG buried under-ground. LPG conversions are a relatively simple thing for an internal combustion engine, so that Jeep could be running on a LPG fuel. The other explanation is that in the future, an additive or something was developed which extends the shelf-life of diesel so it could last all those years. You would expect a shelf-life of maybe 10years for diesel at today's technology, and is under ideal storage conditions.

Lexa: THIS. IS. POLIS! There was some awesome character stuff in this episode, as well as a nice plot twist to cap things off. Pretty much all I ever ask for in a story. Kane - How great has this guy's character arc been? From the 'evil 2IC who wants to assume power' in the first few episodes of season 1 to a genuine humanitarian and statesman now. Like he's even too awesome to just simply take leadership when Abby offers it to him - 'nope, we do things the right way and hold elections instead!' Unfortunately I think that might not turn out too well, what with Pike and probably Bellamy going to sow some discord over the new status of the now 13th Tribe. But still, Kane reacting to Polis and it's people was such a good scene. Plus how awesome are Super-Bro's Indra and Kane? Raven - Another day, yet another metaphorical beating into the ground. Like she finally got a point where she was maybe able to consider to herself that she might actually be worth fixing, and then Mt Weather and all its fancy medical equipment get blown up. That's So Raven. I wonder who's going to completely snap first - her or Jasper? Clarke and Lexa - Yeah, I'm with the 'she totally just married Lexa' camp lol. I think Lexa is feeling extraordinarily guilty about what happened at Mt Weather (not necessarily about the deal she made, but rather the situation it put Clarke in) and is going the distance to make up for it. I'm really looking forward to how Clarke responds to this, especially with a war against Ice Nation brewing. Clarke's someone who seems to really step up to the plate when the stakes are at the highest and it will be interesting to how she goes about prosecuting another war alongside Lexa, now with the added burdens of their recent history. Also, I think the contrast between Clarke and Bellamy was pretty interesting in this episode - Bellamy was driven by his personal desire to protect Clarke from an assassin, and it blinded him to the subterfuge of Echo and the Ice Nation leading to the destruction of Mt Weather. Clarke, while still clearly holding her reservations about Lexa, was able to forge a political alliance for her people and ensure their survival. Bellamy has pretty consistently shown to make decisions based on his own personal stake (remember, what swayed him over to Clarke's plan to irradiate Mt Weather was him seeing his sister in peril and remembering 'My Sister, My Responsibility' which, while understandable from his character's point of view, is still a pretty questionable 'justification' for genocide...). While I think there's dark times ahead for Bellamy, I'm trusting the writers not to go Finn 2.0. EMERSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!! *shakes fist*

Wow Aria, not cool clam jamming Emily... Actually Emily had it pretty bad this episode. First Hanna is just ever so casually dropping mentions of how awesome private jets are into a conversation with a girl that can't affording to pay for car parking, then Aria clam jams her (twice!), then Spencer drags her to an election campaign. She can't catch a break lol. Go back and find that hot Italian chick you banged Emily!

Wow, I thought for sure Clarke was going to kiss Lexa then. With a Glasgow Kiss I mean. In fact, I'm not sure why they didn't go with that instead of a spit if only for the A+++ troll they could have pulled with some pre-airing teases to the fandom lol.

I dunno, maybe I'm just sensitive to the thing because I work in an electrical engineering field, but the idea of witnessing someone get an electrical shock and not doing anything about it is big no-no. Not only are the burns you receive from the shock likely to significantly change your quality of life (seriously, if you think the whole "burnt hands" thing is overdone then you should google some pictures of electric shock burns.... I doubt you'll be saying the same thing after that), but an electric shock is something that can be fatal if first aid is not administered promptly. Hell, you can get a shock, feel fine, then fall over dead a couple of hours later from the effects of an electric shock - thats how critical it is to get medical treatment even for the smallest of shocks. I get that I'm probably hyper-aware of the hazards of electricity due to my job and the first aid training I have to do for it, but if any of the liars were to feel guilty about it I certainly would see Emily as the one. While it was definitely Sara Harvey's own fault for her injuries, there's a certain level of guilt to be had by simply walking away and doing nothing.

Because as far as the Grounders are concerned, Clarke is the one who's in charge and calling the shots. She's the one that burned their warriors and defeated the assault on the Drop Pod. She's the one that first stepped up to negotiate with the Grounders when they assembled outside Camp Jaha. She's the one that exacted Blood Must Have Blood on Finn for his crimes. She's the one that was dealing directly with their Heda. She's the one that was coordinating strategy against Mt Weather. And the last thing the Grounders saw before they retreated at Mt Weather was Clarke standing alone at the Gates. History always seems to remember that it was the daring actions of a brave few who made all the difference. Reality is a bit different of course. I mean its not like General 'Monty' Montgomery was the sole reason the Allies turned the tables back on Field Marshal Rommel (the Desert Fox) and his Afrika Korps in WWII. But its the version people like to suggest, because it gives you a Hero to identify with.

I think its more that there's a definite Imperialistic undertone to the way the Arkers have conducted themselves on the ground. Whether that's deliberate or not, I'm not sure, but given the quality of the show I'm going to say that the writers intended it. I'm interested to see if the show goes further and makes a comment on Imperialism, and the devastating effects it can have on indigenous populations.

The actress, Jessica Harmon, is also Richard Harmon's sister :o Pretty sure she won this week in the sibling rivalry game!

Technically Electrocution is death via Electric Shock, and since Sara is still alive (or is she!?!?!) she can't have been electrocuted. But depending on the amount of energy in the circuit, an electric shock can result in severe 1st degree burns. Look up some photos of electrical burns for some fun times. In fact, you don't even need to make direct contact with the circuit - the Arc Flash released from an electric fault is what does you in (talking a shockwave of gasses and molten copper that could be several thousand degrees Celsius). I know nothing of making bombs, but if it had been hooked up to a low voltage bus in the hospital or something then there could have easily been a high fault current potential in the circuit. Add in some dodgy switchgear in an old abandoned hospital that failed to operate in time, and there's a nice big electrical explosion waiting to happen.

The Fine Brothers (the guys who make the Kids/Teens/Elders/Youtubers React series on Youtube) did a "1 Take Recap". They seem to be big fans of the show - they've had Eliza Taylor on do some of the 'Try Not to Laugh' challenges in the recent past.