an I’m-Still-Bitter-Almost-3-Months-Later Post Mortem (part 5/5)
Show Not Tell (Too Late): The Missing 6 years
Long story short? (If I’m even capable of that.) You can’t just continually tell us that “six years is a long time” and expect that it makes up for everything we missed during the time jump. Because it doesn't.
Space Kru is a family now. Bellamy makes that very clear by telling both Clarke and Octavia (who use to be his family) on more than one occasion. We veeeeery briefly see this in 5x03; which is one of my favorite episodes for the very fact that it’s Space Kru centric and we get to see them interacting together. Also, during the 2 secs that Space Kru is still in space, Echo tells us that Bellamy forgave her and indicates that they’ve been in a relationship for awhile now. This was hard to swallow for a large part of the fandom that doesn’t like Echo. We are told that she’s changed. Octavia even says, I like to think sarcastically, at one point, “You’re right Bellamy, she has changed.” One space flashback episode could've help alleviate these issues, at least partially. One episode where we see Echo reflecting on her Azegada roots, where we see her and Bellamy even start to partially mend the rift between at the end of S4 (and lets be honest-- it was a pretty big rift). Show us Echo bonding with Monty on the Ring, and maybe we don’t roll our eyes when he gives her a heartfelt hug goodbye in 5x06. Show us a moment or two where Ring Bellamy is first thinking about/acting upon his new Head-Instead-Of-Heart status (end of season 4 doesn’t count), and maybe we don’t lose our shit as much when he agrees with putting the flame in Madi’s head. (okay, I still would’ve, but whatevs.) One through-the-years Space Kru flashback episode. And things would’ve been so much better.
Case in point of flashbacks done right to show us what we’ve missed: Clarke & Madi. We see Clarke struggle. We see the desolation of her alone in the world. And so it makes sense that when she finds Madi they form a tight bond as literally the only two people on the face of the planet. We see them meet, we’re shown their bond in fishing and berries and story telling. We feel their connection. 5x01 is fantastic.
On the flip-side of Eden, we have Red Queen and The Dark Year as examples of how flashbacks were not helpful to the story at all. 5x02 drags on for the first 45-ish minutes, with things really only getting interesting/important when Jaha & Octavia are trying to open the cafeteria door. I must say, though, that the “Choose” scene is one of the series’ most powerful, and one of my favorite Octavia scenes to date. The Dark Year, however, comes too late to be effective. By the time 5x11 rolls around, we’re already well aware of the cannibalism and so the “reveal” is underwhelming. At this point in the season we’ve spent so much time disliking Abby and questioning her actions/motives, that when her Bunker backstory is finally revealed, we have no emotions left for her but apathy. The Dark Year flashbacks needed to be moved up to be effective. In fact, what they should’ve done was merge Red Queen and The Dark Year into one flashback episode at 5x02. There were plenty of scenes in Red Queen that could've been cut/condensed to make way for The Dark Year material. We would’ve had the whole season to empathize with Abby and a better understanding of Blod Reina. In this instance, it wasn’t that we weren’t shown the Bunker Horror- it’s that we were shown it far too late.
The 100 Season 5 jumped over six formative years in it’s characters lives. When it did so, we missed character and relationship development that was vital to wholly understanding and believing the events & actions in S5. Having these developments occur off-screen, or having them occur too late in the season, is a massive way that Season 5 failed us.
