The battle of the conclave is ready to commence, and Octavia is amped up and ready to battle for her people on one of the best episodes The 100 has offered us.

“Die All, Die Merrily” Recap

With each sect providing a warrior (in addition to two advisers), they gather inside the walls of Polis to fight for those they represent — but Clarke and Bellamy have no intentions of persuading Octavia from proving herself in this epic battle. Everyone else represented in battle must resort to a warded-off section to remove them from the fray, concerning Bellamy and Clarke. Octavia on the other hand becomes more concerned by the fact that her brief fling with Ilian will be coming to an end as he is present to fight for his own people in a war where only one is intended to survive. He doesn’t seem as concerned to fight Octavia as much as she is, so the budding romance looks to (potentially) be a false alarm. 

Enter Gaia, who fills the warriors in on the rules of battle — a gruesome fight to the end — and collecting the sigils of the fallen, which is when Luna arrives and makes her presence know to enter the battle. The difference between Luna and those other warriors is that Luna has nobody left to fight for, so if she were to win it would mean that nobody will survive (a very dark and bittersweet notion for the Floukru sole survivor.) Clarke knows it cannot bode well for the others seeing as how Luna is actually the only with legitimate training for this very reason, but Roan doesn’t want to forge any alliance that deviates from their traditional tactics. Clarke’s concerns only grow because of Roan’s indifference, so all of their survival rides solely on Ocatvia in battle. 

As Octavia prepares for the intense trials, Indra appears to give her a few tips to withstand the others, throwing Octavia off since she opted to be an adviser for Trikru. That’s when Octavia is genuinely surprised by the next thing Indra does, telling our favorite grounder that “she” is her people. How can you not love these two? I am all for a Octavia/Indra 2020 presidential campaign, and, if you aren’t, you need to get there with me. With Octavia nearing the battle, her brother and Kane offer suggestions to aid her survival (basically, the good old-fashioned hiding technique) until only one other remains. It might not be Octavia’s preferred method of battle, but it’s something she begins to see as a viable option to dodge some of the unavoidable bloodshed. Even though she misses an inital portion of the fight (Roan had already established a kill count.), she comes face to face with an enraged Luna who has abandoned her peaceful way of life to cuase some carnage against the fleeting humanity. Octavia manages to stray from Luna’s path just in time to turn down a proposed pact between her and Illian – but it doesn’t stop him from helping her fight off three other men. Kane and Bellamy (who watch from afar) notice that Echo is no longer around which leaves a scent of untrustworthyness to the Blake sibling, later finding her shooting arrows at the other warriors.

Just as Bellamy is able to stop Echo from interfering any further, she fires off an arrow that pierces Illian’s throat before Octavia’s eyes (a very dark scene one might add.) Echo prepares to finish Octavia herself, but Bellamy nearly kills her when Roan discovers what she has done – banishing her from Azgeda and resulting in a slow-clap from myself. Next we learn of the conclave fight, everyone except for Roan, Octavia and Luna has since died and Roan offers a partnership with Octavia to kill Luna and battle it out between the pair. I must admit, I really wanted to see the three make it out alive, but at least it makes for an interesting event! We briefly see a shot of Bellamy getting kidnapped by a mysterious figure, but the attention is fully focused on the brewing battle between the three remaining participants. As it begins, Luna Octavia and Roan begin a masterful fight that showcases some of the major assets to The 100 for its intensity and enjoyably manufactured fight sequences. Mid battle, the acid rain begins to pour down, sending Octavia for cover but Roan and Luna continue their epic brawl until she stabs him and ensures the death by drowning to send a message — she really likes a sense of finality apparently.

Luna follows Octavia whilist giving a speech about the inner darkness of humanity, stumbling up to a cabinet with trickles of blood she assumes is Octavia’s. Luna begins to stab-away and is met with a blade through the back courtesy of Octavia’s cleverness and ability to hide (such as her entire existance on the ark I suppose.) With the final death now in place, Octavia is told that her people now hold the bunker as their own… but something Clarke has done may change that for everyone again. Octaiva offers that the bunker is for everyone to suggest a peace treaty as Lincoln would have appreciated to everyone’s pleasure, but Clarke and Jaha took out the guards and moved Skaikru into the safe haven. So after putting her life on the line for her people, humanity as a whole and a chance at survival, Clarke has once again made an executive decision that thwarted anyone else’s input and continues to ensure I will not ever be able to root for the worst person to lead Skaikru or anyone for that matter.

Overall Grade: 8.5/10

Of all of the episodes this season, this feels to have the best essence of the series by returning to the conflict for survival and the high stakes aspects the series does best. I additionally was pleased to see an Octavia centric episode and I believe The 100 writers should groom her to be the next lead as Clarke spirals further down the rabbit hole of unsuccessful leadership. The fight scenes and dramatic overtones were a perfect fit to the post-apocalyptic series, making the 10th episode one of the most memorable installments they’ve provided thus far.

Aedan’s Final Thoughts:

• With 3 episodes left, I am very concerned to see how things will play out for the survival of Skaikru if Clarke continues as the role she’s placed herself in.
• RIP to Roan and Luna, two supporting characters who I enjoyed for the time they were around.
• This episode was one that original fans of the series should truly enjoy. It felt like an mini-film with all of the series’ best elements.