The 100 5×01 Review: Eden
Disaster Porn Weekly, aka The 100, is back for season 5. “Eden” both picks up where the season 4 finale left off and gives us a little glimpse into those missing six years since Praimfaya.
“Eden” begins 42 days after Praimfaya, when Clarke has finally managed to dig herself out of the lab. She immediately heads for Polis and the bunker, only to discover that the main tower has collapsed and the entrance is 
buried. She then heads to Arkadia, only to find very little left. When the rover is caught in a dust storm and the solar panels are damaged, she must walk. Starving and dehydrated, she passes out. When she comes to, a vulture is pecking at her foot. She follows the vulture to the little patch of green we saw her in at the end of season 4 – the only livable piece of land on Earth. That is where she finds Madi.
When we shift to the Ring, it’s six years after Praimfaya. In fact, it’s the moment at the end of last season’s finale where the prison transport lands before Clarke. For reasons yet unknown, Murphy is living apart from the group. When Bellamy goes to take him his food, they happen to catch sight of the transport’s ship of origin, in orbit around Earth. Their attempts to hail the transport are met with silence, but the crew decides to go over to the ship and see if they can make it down to Earth. Monty is skeptical and doesn’t want to leave the Ring, but everyone else seems willing to take the risk. Echo is hesitant to return to Earth, considering she tried to kill Octavia.
The prison transport is, not surprisingly, filled with prisoners. One of them mentions what happened while they were sleeping, so they could have been in some kind of hibernation. EP Jason Rothenberg says they were on a long-duration space mission and overthrew their jailers to return home. Two of them find Madi and one attacks her, forcing Clarke and Madi to kill them and reveal their presence to the others.
“Eden” ends with a brief scene of a deadly fight going on inside the bunker, Octavia watching from above like a queen.
Eliza Taylor is phenomenal in this episode. Clarke is alone for almost the entire first half, and her loneliness is palpable. Her frustration and despair when she is unsuccessful at digging out the entrance to the bunker, her anguished scream when she flounders in the desert. If I didn’t know she survived, I would have been seriously tense at the scene where she holds the gun to her head.
Confession time: I didn’t cry when Jasper died last season. But I did tear up watching Clarke mourn his loss.
I’m never really a fan of narration, and there is a lot in this episode, which I guess makes sense, considering that it’s just Clarke for the first 25 minutes or so. I suppose they felt that people would get annoyed of 25 minutes with no dialogue. I actually think it would have better emphasized how alone Clarke was, but I also think that it was good to show how important it was to believe Bellamy and the others survived.
There is a lot to unpack in “Eden”. I know that throughout the season, we’ll get more backstory as to what happened in the six-year time jump, but for now there is so much confusion. I’m most interested in what happened on the Ring. I’m eager to see how the dynamics shifted and how the relationships changed in the six years they’ve been in space. Something happened between Emori and Murphy and it was bad enough that Murphy “left” the group, even though he’s on a ship and can’t go anywhere. I’m pleased to see that Monty and Harper are still together, but not yet a fan of Bellamy and Echo. (I’m not a fan of relationships where we don’t get to see the development.) I was expecting this, but I’ve got to be sold on it.
At least there are no babies. (So far.)
All in all, “Eden” was a pretty decent premiere. I’m not getting my hopes up that this season will be any easier on the group than the previous four were, and with no news on a renewal yet, each episode is going to be a nailbiter. Allegedly there are plans for two more seasons, but honestly, what else can they do to these poor people?
Have you seen “Eden”? What did you think?
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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Great review as always, & overall I’ve to agree with your take on this show (also with your older posts), big melodrama all the time & an ambition to be the next “adult Hunger Games” for me.
That said sometimes I’d have preferred *less is more* y’know, since there’s always too much of everything going on in this seres & the viewer tends to get quite overwhelmed at times: anyway I respect the effort done with the complex narration, & for being a CW series they’re doing a great job no matter what. ;-P)
Besides I’ve almost read all the entertaining book-saga upon which this show is based on & regardless that some people didn’t enjoy them compared to the tv series I’ve to say that, even if clearly more YA compared to the gritty fiction, at least they seemed more realistic as pace & had less characters (hence easier to follow & identify with IMO)…plus last not least Bellamy & Clarke are together since ages, whereas who knows about the series (tired of waiting for it, they’re pushing it too much :-/).
Finally I just hope that they won’t overdo it this season, since I’m almost sure we’ll have another 1 so they’ve all the time to tell a rewarding plot.
PS-However ok, we don’t have babies onboard but we’ve the new stepdaughter of Clarke & I bet Ethan too as Octavia’s stepson…I didn’t expect it so I’ve to still get used to the idea (don’t know how I feel about it, apart that now the cast seems so mature compared to the book 1, that didn’t make the time jump…I’ve appreciated it last year as surprise shock factor, let’s hope it’s worth of this sort of total reboot of the show, fingers crossed <3).