All hail the Commander.
By Eric Goldman
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below…
…We really mean it!
So.
Yeah.
Lexa’s dead.
It sucks. It really, really sucks. I loved the character, I loved Alycia Debnam-Carey in the role and I loved the Lexa and Clarke relationship.
On the other hand, you kind of had to figure this was a strong possibility once Debnam-Carey signed onto Fear the Walking Dead as a series regular. Because Lexa had become integral to the story on The 100, yet the actress who played her was committed, contractually, to another series. One that has now moved production to Mexico in its second season, while The 100 still films in Canada. And as The 100 executive producer Jason Rothberg notes in my new interview with him about this episode and Lexa’s death, yes, that innate scheduling conflict played a big role in the decision to kill her off.
It’s still gonna be really difficult for some viewers though, which is understandable, because Lexa had become a rightfully beloved character.
For me, both assuming Lexa was going to die at some point in Season 3 for a long time (don’t forget, Debnam-Carey signed onto Fear TWD before we even saw her episodes of The 100 begin to air) and because, full disclosure, I’d accidentally been spoiled on her death last summer – though not on the circumstances – my main question was whether she got a good death that did right by the character.
And I’d say the answer is… Sort of. Because I will say, I wasn’t a fan of the cause of death. The “accidentally killed by a bullet meant for somebody else” thing just felt a bit lackluster and soapy, especially given it happened right after Clarke and Lexa finally consummated their relationship. I couldn’t help but wish someone like Lexa had gone out on the battlefield or via some kind of grand, sacrificial gesture. It also was unfortunate that it was similar to a “lesbian character is shot by a bullet meant for the lead character” moment on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, considering it already couldn’t help but evoke the fact that lesbian characters on TV shows often seem to end up dead.
That being said, given the bullet didn’t kill her instantly, Lexa’s actual final moments were really well done and moving. From her making Titus (Neil Sandilands, who gave a terrific performance here) vow to never try and harm Clarke again, to her final words with Clarke, repeating back what Clarke had once told her (and thus letting her know how she’d affected her), this was really touching material, beautifully played by Debnam-Carey and Eliza Taylor.
Minor quibble: What was Murphy doing in this scene? Not literally (we saw the role he played in Titus’ plan) but just dramatically speaking, it felt really odd to have Murphy of all characters just kind of there, looking mournful in the background. He’s never had a bond with Clarke and hadn’t even seen her since before she met Lexa, who he didn’t know at all, so it just felt odd to include him in such a key moment.
Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa and Neil Sandilands as Titus on The 100
Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia on The 100
Eliza Taylor as Clarke, Neil Sandilands as Titus, and Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa on The 100
Neil Sandilands as Titus and Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa on The 100
Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia and Zak Santiago as Semet on The 100
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Neil Sandilands as Titus, Zak Santiago as Semet, and Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia on The 100
Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia on The 100
Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa and Neil Sandilands as Titus on The 100
Neil Sandilands as Titus and Zak Santiago as Semet on The 100
Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa on The 100
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Neil Sandilands as Titus on The 100
Lexa’s death is going to have everyone understandably talking, but it was actually just one part in what was a really fascinating, engrossing episode, written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (which gives me another excuse to tell everyone how awesome The Middleman was!). This was quite an uncharacteristic installment of The 100, only involving three of the main cast (Taylor, Richard Harmon and Marie Avgeropoulos), along with notable recurring characters like Lexa, Titus and Indra, while also including key scenes featuring people we’d never seen before, in the flashbacks to the Polaris space station – or in the case of Becca, only briefly seen. Kudos to Grillo-Marxuach and director Dean White for juggling these aspects in such a deft manner and delivering such a strong episode.
Erica Cerra, who’s been excellent as Alie in Season 3, was more than capable of anchoring these flashbacks, as we saw Becca desperately attempt to complete Alie 2 – believing it was the key to humanity’s salvation, after having been the cause of so much death thanks to her first AI’s actions.
For so much of the season, it’s been hard to see how the Polis and Alie storylines would ever cross over. Both obviously impacted Arkadia, but they just seemed to be completely detached from one another. Which is why it was so cool and exciting to find out they were completely tied together!
Lexa had Alie 2 inside her! That was crazy and awesome and the idea that it’s this AI that is considered her “spirit” by the Grounders was fascinating. Intercutting between Titus removing Alie 2 from Lexa’s body with Becca arriving on Earth and bringing it to the Grounders in the first place was really well done. And yeah, you could see it coming once we met Roger Cross’ character and saw his uniform, but Becca as the original “Commander” was still very satisfying.
(Though I will say yet again I wish they’d said the nuclear holocaust took place 397 years before the show began, not 97 years. Those survivors Becca met existed in America, pre-nukes, speaking and writing English, and would have understood everything about who she was and where she was from, so it’s a stretch you just have to accept that so much information was lost and/or altered in less than a century. But let’s just go with it!)
In the midst of so much anguish over Lexa’s death, it was impressive as well that a relatively much smaller moment – Indra deciding to accompany Octavia back to Arkadia – also had a lot of weight, as the two joined forces again, complete with a badass walking-in-unison shot.
Oh, and how amusing (and appropriate) was Titus absolutely owning Murphy when Murphy tried to get the drop on him? Though Murphy had some great lines along the way, including, “I get that’s hard for you to grasp, considering you pray to garbage.”
Lexa also had some standout moments even before that fateful ending. Her confrontation with Titus, as they spoke about Costia and his lessons to her about love as a weakness, contextualized both who Titus was to her and also who Lexa was when we met her. And it was a very nicely played beat before their “at last!” sex scene when she clearly was about to tell Clarke, “That’s why I love you,” but instead changed it to, “That’s why you’re you.” (it’s okay, Lexa, we all knew what you were feeling!)
Going back to the mythology side of things, we now understand that Lexa’s black blood was caused by the AI inside her, as we saw first was the case with Becca – though I still am not sure about the Nightbloods in general. Do they all have the black blood and if so, why, if Alie 2 only has one host at a time? Also, what’s the deal with the missing officiate Lexa didn’t want to talk about when Clarke was looking at her tattoo?
Much to ponder, but all quite intriguing.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pour one out for Lexa. You were one hell of a Heda and will be missed!
This was a very different, offbeat and engrossing episode of The 100 that managed to expand the show’s mythology, and crucially link two different storylines in the process, in a very skillful manner… And then Lexa freaking got killed! And while the manner of her death felt off, both its emotional impact and what we learned about her in the process was very meaningful.
Check out my new interview with The 100 showrunner Jason Rothenberg as we discuss this episode and Lexa’s death.
