The 100 4×12 Review: “The Chosen”

I was really not looking forward to tonight’s episode of The 100. This show just keeps getting more and more depressing, and I’m starting to get tired of it. “The Chosen” has perhaps more despair than normal, considering the looming threat of Praimfaya.

Throughout four seasons of The 100, there has been the overlying sense that Skaikru thinks that they are better than the Grounders. I’ve mentioned it before, with Clarke trying to impose her own values and ethics on a culture that’s different from her own. The show hasn’t helped this by portraying the Grounders as savage and lawless, turning on allies and settling everything with violence. This has never been more evident than in “The Chosen”. Jaha’s arguments especially ring hollow, considering his actions as Chancellor on the Ark. Skaikru deserves the bunker because they had already started planning their future is hardly a valid reason why thousands of other people should die. Random man’s declaration that Skaikru deserved more slots because they knew how to work everything is also incredibly elitist. The Grounders are unfamiliar with technology, but they’re not stupid, and five years is plenty of time to learn how to operate something.

This is why I appreciate Octavia so much. I’ve waffled on Octavia a lot this season, unable to really sink my teeth in her rather uneven storyline. However, I feel as though she really came into her own in “The Chosen”. She’s long considered herself a Grounder, and this is when she finally, officially declared her allegiance. I was proud of Octavia in this episode because she was one of the few people who was willing to call Skaikru out on their crap. Every other clan was able to choose 100 people for the bunker; we don’t know how smoothly that went for each clan, but for a culture that’s pretty accustomed to death, it probably went over better than it did for Skaikru. Octavia asserted her dominance and laid down the law, and when it came time, she was willing to follow through on her threats.

Kane is finally able to convince Jaha that it’s in the best interest of humanity for them to do the lottery. Trying to fight back will only lead to more bloodshed and the possibility of everyone in Skaikru dying. In the end, with the Arkadians riled up and ready for a fight, Kane and Jaha are forced to use knock out gas to calm them down. They abandon the lottery and return to Clarke’s original list. This loops the list back in nicely, but there really was no good way to end this. It was going to be awful no matter what the outcome, and the scene where they designate who stays and who goes is particularly heartbreaking. (Miller’s dad! This makes me so sad, you guys, you have no idea. Mostly it’s the wasted potential. This is the first time we’ve even seen him in ages. And whatever happened to Bryan?)

And then there’s the rest of our crew. Tasked with choosing between two unthinkable choices, they decide to go with option three, which is just downright ridiculous. Faced with the prospect of Clarke’s Nightblood conversion not being successful, and not having enough time to bring Raven back to the bunker, the group – Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Monty, Harper, Murphy, Emori, and Echo – all decided to go back up to the Ark in the rocket Raven was retrofitting. If we forget about their insane plan for a second, there was a lot of good in their scenes. Clarke exposing herself to the radiation to give Emori her helmet, Echo appearing out of nowhere to save them from attackers, Monty and Harper riding to the rescue even though it lowered their chances of survival, and everyone going to save Raven.

“The Chosen” leaves us with oh so many questions. Now that we know for sure that The 100 will be back for season 5, I have to wonder just where these threads will lead us. There is still one more episode to throw yet another wrench into some already dented plans, so perhaps speculation at this point is useless. Still, you can’t help but wonder how things will go next season, with warring clans trapped in a bunker, and a plucky group of mostly teenagers back on the ship that sent them down to die in the first place.

What did you guys think of “The Chosen”?

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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