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THE 100 “Perverse Instantiation – Part One” Recap and Commentary

In this week’s recap and commentary of The 100, “Perverse Instantiation – Part One,” we discuss another failed plan to get rid of ALIE, Clarke and Abby’s respective torture scenes, and Jasper taking the key to the City of Light. A lot happened this week, so this recap is going to be one hell of a ride.

The Delinquents at Arkadia

So, the episode starts with Jasper, Octavia, Clarke, and Bellamy hanging out by the Rover, while it’s charging. an anxious Clarke starts rattling off a bunch of different options to destroy the City of Light.

Bellamy tells Clarke that they need to regroup at Arkadia and meet up with the others, but Clarke isn’t listening. From everything that she’s saying, we can gather that Clarke will basically stop at nothing to get the flame inside a nightblood.

When no one voices agreement for her plan, Clarke looks at Bellamy, very surprised that he didn’t immediately take her side. Clarke walks angrily into the forest, and Bellamy helplessly watches her walk away.

In the forest, Clarke takes out the chip and apologizes to it. Whether she’s apologizing to the spirit of Lexa or for  failing her people, Clarke is obviously very upset about the recent turn of events.

All of a sudden, a City of Light follower tries to attack Clarke, but Roan, our favorite Ice King, is there to save her. Clarke is extremely surprised to see him, but he takes the chip from Clarke and tries to gets her to go with him back to Polis.

Clarke tells Roan to give her back the chip, and when he doesn’t comply, she pulls a gun on him. However, he knocks the gun aside.

Then, Bellamy appears, aiming his gun at Roan.

Obviously at an advantage, Clarke gets bold and tells Roan that they want the same thing– to put the flame in Ontari. At this point, Bellamy (and all of us) are pretty confused as to why 1) Clarke would be willing to work with Roan and 2) she would be willing to put the flame in Ontari. However, while Bellamy doesn’t trust Roan, he trusts Clarke and goes along with it.

Bellamy shoots him in the arm to make sure that he isn’t chipped (he isn’t).

Later, the Delinquents arrive at Arkadia. When Raven asks where Luna is, Octavia tells her that she didn’t agree to come. Clarke tells everyone that Roan is their way into Polis, and Raven realizes that they want to use him to get to Ontari.

Roan is hanging out in lock up when Bellamy and Clarke come to visit.

Clarke tells Roan that they want the same thing, and that she can help him get what he wants (an Ice Nation commander) because, at this point, she can’t be really choosy with nightbloods. She says that ALIE is out to make everyone join the City of Light, so if they place the flame in Ontari, they will have access to the key to destroy ALIE only if they disconnect Ontari from the City of Light..

Finally, Roan agrees and asks them when they’ll be leaving.

Everybody’s preparing for the trip, and we find out that Raven has rebuilt a wristband to help shock the chip out of Ontari, like they did with Raven in 3×11 (“Nevermore”).

Everyone says their goodbyes, and, right before they get into the Rover, we see ALIE standing there, watching all of them. While we guessed in our last recap that one of the Delinquents would be chipped, in this moment, it was 100% confirmed. Because of this, our hearts sunk because we knew that ALIE already knew all of their plans, and they were walking into a trap.

When they get close to Polis, Roan makes Clarke give him the flame, but she tells him that she’s coming with him, even though that it wasn’t part of the plan. Clarke tells him that she’s “not letting that [the flame] out of [her] sight.”

Without Clarke, Ontari can’t ascend because she’s the only one (besides Murphy) who’s seen where the AI goes. Roan tells her that she can go, but that she has to be taken as his prisoner. Bellamy is completely not on board with this plan.

Bellamy asks Clarke why she would trust Roan, and she tells him that she doesn’t– she trusts him.

We’ve come a long way from season one, folks.

Back at Arkadia, Monty and Jasper are looking for equipment, so Raven can hack into ALIE’s mainframe again.

Finally, the moment that we’ve been waiting for, the Jonty reunion, has arrived. Jasper goes on a spiel about, after what happened in Mount Weather, he blamed Clarke and Monty for Maya’s death.

Jasper tells Monty that he’s done blaming, and they hug, and we’re crying.

Suddenly, ALIE is there watching them, and Jasper stabs Monty in the stomach. We finally find out who was chipped– Jasper. Monty runs to Raven, and they lock Jasper out of the control room, scared that anything they say or do will be transmitted back to ALIE.

Raven picks up a radio and tries to communicate with Bellamy, but they realize that Jasper has cut through all of the wires.

Later, Monty tells Raven that Harper is out there, and she doesn’t know that Jasper has been chipped. Raven tries to convince him to stay in there with her by telling him that Harper can take care of herself.

In the hallway outside the room, Jasper tells Monty that he didn’t take the chip because he was tortured. He took the chip because they managed to disrupt and almost destroy a peaceful society and kill a girl that he kind of had a thing for. Jasper tells Monty that ALIE can take away all the pain that he’s feeling and that he shouldn’t let Raven destroy the City of Light. Monty, however, ignores him.

This reveal that Monty had taken the chip, seemed like, to us, really lazy writing. Jasper has gone through so much shit. He’s survived through months of intense grieving, PTSD, and depression. He’s resisted the temptation to take the chip several times before this. It just doesn’t make sense that, after all of this, Jasper would break after talking to and hanging out with a girl for a few hours. Jasper’s character is so much stronger than this. Honestly, this reveal just felt like an easy plot device wrapped in lazy writing.

Raven finally gets ALIE’s mainframe back up, and Harper walks up to the door and asks why they locked it.

Before Monty can open the door, Jasper shows up behind her, knocks her out, and threatens to kill her if they don’t let him in.

The Delinquents (and friends) at Polis

When they arrive at Polis, Roan and Clarke walk through a completely deserted city. Meanwhile, Bellamy, Octavia, Miller, and Bryan are traveling through the tunnels to find a place to cover Roan and Clarke.

While they’re getting ready, Bryan asks Miller if they’re ever going to be done fighting, and an incredibly cute scene ensues with them talking about their future.

Bellamy looks at the city courtyard, and Roan and Clarke finally come into view. They finally get to the base of the Polis tower where a bunch of City of Light followers are.

In the tunnels, Bellamy tells the group that they need to make sure that they don’t kill any innocent people because the only person they’re here to kill is ALIE. This scene shows how far Bellamy has come with his redemption arc.

In the courtyard, Roan announces his arrival and that he has the chip. Suddenly, everybody stands up and stares at them, ready to do anything that ALIE deems necessary.

Jaha comes out to meet Clarke and Roan and tells Roan to give him the flame. He tells both of them that they know that the other delinquents are in the tunnel. We already knew that ALIE and Jaha knew this from a previous scene, but when Clarke and Roan realize that they’ve walked into a trap, Roan pulls a knife on Clarke, threatening to kill the only person who can put the chip in Ontari.

However, Kane shoots Roan, and Clarke and the others are taken as prisoners.

At this point, we’re wondering if anything will ever go right for anyone outside the City of Light.

Jaha and the guards take Clarke to the throne room, and Abby tries to get Clarke to give them the passcode for the AI.

Clarke tells her mother that she can’t help them. So, they tie Clarke down, and her mother tortures her. Clarke is crying for her mom to stop, and it’s the most heartbreaking scene in this episode because you can see how helpless and desperate Clarke feels.

When Clarke doesn’t break, Abby tells ALIE that Clarke’s friends are her weakness, and she tells the guards that they need to start their torture with Bellamy Blake. Clarke is absolutely devastated.

This scene is so important. A huge theme within the last few seasons has been “love is weakness.” So, for Abby to say that her friends are her weakness, most notably Bellamy, is telling the audience that Clarke loves Bellamy. We’re not saying in what way Clarke loves Bellamy, but we all know that, within fandom, the Bellarke ship is thriving.

In the next scene, the guards try to take Bellamy to the throne room when, suddenly, Murphy, Pike, and Indra are there to save them. They shoot down the guards, and Murphy tells Bellamy, “You’re welcome” for saving them.

When Murphy tells all of them that they’re leaving, Bellamy tells him that Clarke’s in trouble. Murphy says, “Clarke’s always in trouble,” and, in that moment, we’ve never heard anything more true.

Bellamy tries to convince them to help, and they finally agree.

Murphy and Bellamy open the elevator door, and it starts to go up. Of course, ALIE, knowing that they’re coming, sends soldiers to keep all of them away from the throne room.

In the elevator, Bellamy asks Murphy why he’s here, and he reveals that he’s only there helping because he’s trying to save someone that he cares about.

In the hallway, Indra, who’s able to read Octavia like a book, knows that something is wrong with her. Octavia asks her why Pike is still alive, and Indra tells her that, even though he killed Lincoln, they needed him.

In an excellent performance from Marie Avgeropoulos, Octavia tells Indra that Lincoln was her home. We’re crying… again.

Kane, unexpectedly, comes walking down the hallway, shooting a gun to try to stop them from turning the wheel. While Octavia and Indra stop him, we find out that Kane’s shot both Bryan and Pike. To close off the entrance to buy more time, Miller sets off an explosion.

In the elevator, Grounders are trying to pry open the doors, but, in an awesome fight sequence, Bellamy and Murphy fight them off. To be honest, we’ve really missed these Murphamy interactions.

In the throne room, Jaha and Ontari hang a noose. Abby steps onto a platform and puts the noose around her neck and asks Clarke for the passcode one last time. When Clarke won’t tell her, Abby steps off the platform and begins to choke pretty graphically.

Finally, everyone else arrives to the throne room. Ontari picks up her weapon and gives it to Jaha. He takes it and brutally hits her on the side of the head, making her brain dead.

Luckily, Abby is still alive, if barely.

In the last scene of the episode, Murphy announces that they are trapped in Polis.

The next episode of The 100, “Perverse Instantiation – Part Two,” comes on Thursday, May 19 at 9/8c.

What did you think of “Perverse Instantiation – Part One?”

By Nat, the Geek Girl

Southern California native who likes movies, books (Shadowhunter Chronicles, NA, YA fantasy, Red Rising series), TV shows (The Sandman), and San Diego Comic-Con. I also like to write, but don't get to do much of that aside from on here. I fell into the BTS rabbit hole, and I refuse to leave.