The 100 Season 6 Episode 4:The Face Behind The Glass-Review And Recap

The mystery of season 6’s hosts was solved as Becca’s evil A.I. continues to haunt The 100.

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Courtesy of CW Network
This season the theme is how the past shapes the future.  Mistakes and successes alike change us.  Murphy, who sadly only got a mention this week, is drowning those feelings in booze, Bellamy is drowning in guilt and lashing out at Echo, and Clarke is begging for understanding.  The whole Kru is catching feelings.  Guilt and pleasure co-mingle in an unhealthy mix of heightened emotion that has all too real consequences.
Episode Four, The Face Behind The Glass was a bit of a mixed bag.  It started very strong with Diyoza giving advice to her unborn child.  Improvise, adapt, overcome is her mantra.  It is a good one and fitting for this fierce leader.  The addition of Ivana Milicevic(Charmaine Diyoza) has been good from the beginning.  She is another smart, strong woman, which The 100 both loves to highlight and writes very well.  She also is complex.  The strategic mind is not two dimensional.  She is a multi-faceted character with traits to be admired and hated.  Her motivations are understandable even if her full history is not.  Her arch as a warrior to soon to be mother has been surprising the last two seasons.  Last episode, she showed tender moments with Madi that belied a softer side. She demonstrated the practicality that is a hallmark of her personality mixed with a caring nature we didn’t know she had.  By the end of the episode, her inevitable team up with Octavia is realized.  With these two forces of nature banding together, anything is possible.  It is unfortunate that Rose, the young child of Sanctum, was collateral damage.
Octavia’s capture and rescue served to develop a more palatable Blodreigna.  Her time with the Children of Gabriel was a data dump of sorts.  It also was a kaleidoscopic change from angry, calloused fighter to sympathetic protector.  The Octavia publicity machine is in full effect.  The writers understand if she is to continue in the storyline, she needs to be something other than rage-filled.  In episode four, she isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, but at least she is showing a softer side.  The mythos behind Gabriel aka the Old Man and what the Anomaly is gets thrown out in a flurry of words and actions.  Does Gabriel live in the Anomaly?  Where and what is the Anomaly?  Has he uploaded himself Matrix-style into the system rather than take over another’s body?  With Sanctum’s secrets revealed this week, The Children of Gabriel are the only unknowns left to explore.  A.L.I.E.’s gifts keep giving.  It seems even when humans are in charge of artificial intelligence, it is used nefariously.  The 100 season six seems to be headed the way of Keanu Reeves’ Replicas from early this year.  That’s not a terrible thing if something new is brought to the common theme.
Jordan gets some much-needed love as his time in space gets further fleshed out.  Monty and Harper created a beautiful soul worthy of their purity of spirit.  He is kind and innocent.  He also is becoming the tragic figure of season 6.  He was lonely on the ship with only his parents.  He chose to leave them and go into cryostasis despite knowing it would mean he was saying goodbye forever.  Now, his first romantic relationship ends with a goodbye that is even crueler.  Since the Naming Ceremony is revealed to be just another iteration of the Flame, Jordan is forced to watch as the girl who looks like the one he fell in love with, now doesn’t recognize him.  Shannon Kook(Jordan) explains the loneliness of the face behind the glass for him and then later his folks, and now Delilah with such honest vulnerability he is a joy to watch.  Everyone else has been through so much they are hardened and jaded.  He is a breath of fresh air, and I sincerely hope he doesn’t get beaten down like the rest.  The diversity he brings is needed.  Delilah is gone as Priya took over.  For a boy finding love for the first time, this will be heartbreaking.  He can talk to her, touch her, but not reach her and through his confusion, the horror of what the ceremony is becomes apparent.
Sanctum is a hyper-stylized place filled with bright colors, spectacular flowers, all the creature comforts our group has never had, and seemingly decent people who ask for and grant forgiveness in moving speeches delivered without any shame in front of the whole community.  On paper, this should be Utopia.  Where people are expendable, and rebellion is forbidden, Utopia can never be achieved.
Asking for forgiveness should be hard.  Giving it even harder, and for Raven, it is impossible.  She skewers Clarke with her indictment that it is not enough to continuously say you’re sorry after doing terrible things.  No amount of apologizing can wipe away your sins.  Raven is right about Clarke and Octavia.  O is honest about her choices and doesn’t hide behind the unfairness of her situation.  Clarke does play the victim.  It is what has made her more relatable than O.  All of her internal struggle was put on full display.  Whether you agreed or not with her decisions, you knew how she made them and that they haunted her.  Raven now accuses her of never learning from those mistakes.  Sanctum is anything but heaven, and happiness comes at a steep price.  Hopefully Raven continues to find happiness in the machine shop.  Ryker may become an ally or a foe, but for now, he isn’t totally Team Russell, and that puts him firmly in the friend camp.  Which Prime he holds if any could be interesting to explore moving forward.
Bellamy wants to move on.  Absolve everyone of their sins and be absolved oh his.  He’s tired of conflict.  Season five radically changed him. Forgiving Clarke is as much about him as her.  He has done bad things too, abandoning O last episode for example.  If he can forgive and move on with her that gives him hope there could be happiness for him also.  Echo lives her life without regret and Bellamy should learn from her rather than abusing her.
Like every good dark fairy tale, things begin in a perfect sunny world.  Filled with music, laughter, and cookies, nothing could be wrong about Sanctum.  Small beats of concern weave themselves into conversations.  Sheidheda’s intrusion on Madi’s dreams, Delilah saying, “we should take happiness when we can”, and Cillian telling her not to worry, “after tonight it will be like it never happened at all”.  Each statement is innocuous enough but put together they begin to paint a disconcerting picture.  Free speech is not encouraged, and book banning is as real here as the deep South with their ban of Arthur’s wedding episode.  When Raven is told, she will like Priya I the picture comes into focus.  Priya I should be long dead.  There should be no present tense meeting of her, only her descendants.  This knowledge comes too late for Clarke as Josephine finds a new body.
Cillian was a spy.  If Clarke could have excused the whole paralytic dart thing he was trying to save her.  He was proof that not all those who live in Sanctum are into possession.  There has to be more, and the growing dissent will be interesting to watch.  There’s is nothing this group does better than strike a match.  I have become a tad tired of the sex is bad vibe the writers keep dishing.  These kids have been through so much.  Is it too much to ask for them to have some peace?  It felt slimy to watch Clarke completely incapacitated hear Cillian confess he slept with her to save her and then slit his own throat.  Why couldn’t Dr. Sexy Rebel escape?
I was intrigued by the whole host idea.  Like everyone else, I got carried away.  My imagination ran wild with theories of cloning, robots, zombies, aliens, you name it.  Unfortunately, it was none of those exciting possibilities.  It was just more of A.L.I.E being bad and a more invasive Flame.  Strangely, I am hopeful that this is good news, though.  If the Sanctum reveal came this early in the season what is left in the tank?  It must be something huge to give away so much so early.  The 100 has never been afraid to take chances and do massive things.  Expect the unexpected always and you won’t be disappointed.

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 Lastly, how will Clarke’s manufactured Nightblood affect the chip?  She couldn’t fully assume the chip in the City of Light because of it.  I’m betting even though Russell thinks our girl is gone, she is just resting.  Josephine Lightborn(who I hate already) and all her hair twirling is in for a rude awakening if he thinks she can control Clarke.  It’s only a matter of time before the group figures things out and Clarke assumes control.  My money is always on Ms. Griffin.