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Season 2 Episode 8
Spacewalker
Clarke arrives at Camp Jaha after speaking with Lexa, the Grounder Commander, who has ordered Finn's death for the massacre of Tondc before their truce with the Sky People can begin. Most of the Sky People want to give Finn up to the Grounders, especially because he wasted three months of oxygen on the Ark for the spacewalk that got him imprisoned. A fight breaks out with Raven punching Major Byrne.
In a flashback to a year ago on the Ark, Finn is helping Raven study for her upcoming Zero-G exam. He asks her what she wants for her birthday and she tells him she just wants to pass her exam. Finn presents her with a handmade metal raven on a chain for good luck.
At Camp Jaha, security has been increased and even Murphy has received a gun. Bellamy and Clarke approach and Finn offers to help with the perimeter security but Bellamy takes him inside. Clarke then blames Murphy for what happened at Tondc, even though Murphy had tried to stop Finn. He tells Clarke to blame herself since Finn was looking for her.
Clarke and Abby visit Lincoln, who is recovering from having been a Reaper. Abby asks Lincoln how to negotiate with Lexa in order to save Finn, but he says there is no way out of it and Finn must die. Octavia asks what would happen to him and Lincoln tells them that because Finn killed eighteen people, he would suffer the pain of eighteen deaths as a result. Lincoln then advises them to do it because one death is better than the elimination of their people. Clarke asks how he could say that about his friend, and Lincoln tells Clarke that some of the dead Finn had massacred were Lincoln's friends, too.
Abby visits Raven where she is locked up in the stockade with Jaha after striking Major Byrne and allows her to go free. Jaha tells Abby she should give Finn up to keep them safe.
Clarke finds Finn gathering supplies to leave. He tells her he is in love with her and that he did everything to keep her safe. He asks her to forgive him and Clarke asks him not to leave. They then hear the Grounders chanting loudly, jus drein jus daun (blood must have blood). Abby walks up to the gate to talk to the two riders Lexa left behind and tells them the Sky People are ready to fight if that is what it comes to.
Kane, Abby, and a handcuffed Jaha meet to discuss the situation. Kane tells them he has gotten to know the Commander and she might be willing to allow the Sky People to put Finn on trial. Kane tells Abby it is the most merciful outcome for the boy. When Abby leaves the room, Bellamy and Raven confront her, asking her what they're planning to do with Finn and she tells them they are all trying to find a way out of the situation. Bellamy takes that to mean they are giving Finn up.
In a flashback on the Ark, Finn wishes Raven a happy birthday and asks about the scores to her test. Raven tells him she got the first perfect score since they have been giving the test; however, she failed the physical due to a heart murmur.
Back at Camp Jaha, Bellamy finds Finn and tells him they need to leave because the rest of the Sky People are getting restless. They are approached by some Sky People and Bellamy knocks one of them down so Clarke and Finn can escape.
In another flashback on the Ark, Raven meets up with Finn who says he has another birthday present for her. He borrowed a spacesuit from the Maintenance Bay and has found a way to get her the spacewalk she has always dreamed of. Raven talks him through the procedure from his end while she floats freely in space.
At Camp Jaha, Kane and Abby are talking to Lincoln again and ask if Lexa would be willing to accept a deal where the Sky People put Finn on trial instead. Lincoln tells them it is not possible because Finn killed innocent people and they are already lucky because if it were up to Indra, all of the Sky People would be dead. Abby decides she needs to speak with Indra.
Finn and Clarke are headed to the dropship when they are attacked by a Grounder who knocks Clarke out. Finn pulls a gun on the Grounder and begs the Grounder to leave so Finn does not have to shoot him.
Bellamy, Raven, and Murphy (by Raven's invitation) arrive at the dropship and wait for Finn and Clarke.
In a flashback on the Ark, Raven is in the middle of her spacewalk when Finn tells her it's time to come back to the airlock. As Raven is getting undressed, an alarm sounds an "outer door breach."
Finn arrives at the dropship, carrying an unconscious Clarke. Bellamy and Murphy take care of Clarke while Raven tries to comfort Finn.
Abby meets with Indra outside Camp Jaha and tells Indra she does not want to see any more people die. Indra tells Abby that she lies because they saw Finn in the forest. Indra says that only Finn can die for what he has done.
Raven and Finn are watching over Clarke in the dropship and they promise each other that they will always be family. Clarke wakes up and Finn tells her he thought she was dead because of him. Clarke tells him he is not defined by the things he has done. Bellamy shouts a warning to them that the Grounders have arrived and they are surrounded.
In a flashback on the Ark, Raven is trying to figure out where the door breach is. Raven instructs him to use the manual override to get her back into the Ark but in doing so, the breach lost three months of oxygen. Finn instructs Raven to take off the spacesuit and he will wear it instead because Raven is 18 now and she will get floated whereas Finn is still under-age. Reluctantly, she agrees. When people do come, they find Finn wearing the spacesuit, not Raven, therefore earning him his nickname as "spacewalker".
Back at the dropship, Raven wants to give up Murphy instead of Finn because Murphy was also at the village. Finn steps between Raven and Murphy and tells them they need to stay and defend the dropship. He instructs Murphy to go upstairs and watch the back while he takes the lower level of the dropship and Bellamy, Raven, and Clarke will take the front gate. Finn and Raven hug goodbye and Finn tells her, "may we meet again." He then climbs out the bottom of the dropship. Clarke, Raven, and Bellamy are watching the front gate when they see Finn step out in front of them and surrender himself to the Grounders.
Back at Camp Jaha, Clarke, Raven, Bellamy, and the rest of the Sky People watch as the Grounders start setting up for Finn's execution. Abby says there is nothing to be done. Clarke, Raven, and Bellamy then meet up at Raven's Gate where Raven gives Clarke a knife so Clarke can kill Lexa because Raven owes Finn her life.
Clarke approaches Lexa's tent and Indra stops her with a spear. Clarke presses against the spear, drawing blood. Lexa tells Indra to let Clarke through. Clarke begs Lexa to show how powerful she is by having mercy and that Finn killed those people for her. Lexa tells Clarke that Finn will die for her, then. Clarke asks if she can say goodbye and Lexa allows her to. Clarke walks over to Finn and hugs him, telling him she loves him and that he will be okay. He says, "thanks, Princess" and she steps away from him to reveal that she had killed him with the knife Raven gave her. Lexa tells her warriors that it is done and keeps them from attacking. Raven screams and crumples in hysterical grief while Bellamy catches her and holds onto her.
Tropes
- All for Nothing: Twice:
- Clarke's attempts to bargain for Finn's life, and shelter him, all come to nothing when he turns himself in.
- In flashbacks, Raven's spacewalk was a one-time-only occurrence that Finn secretly arranged for her after she failed her physical necessary to pass the Zero-G exam. After Finn is arrested after taking the blame for Raven, Sinclair nonchalantly reveals that he over-ruled the rejection and passed her anyway, meaning she was always going to get to work in Zero-G, and Finn got arrested for nothing.
- Batman Gambit: Raven tricks Murphy into coming to the Drop Ship in order to trade him to the Grounders instead of Finn.
- Big "NO!": Raven, when she realizes Clarke killed Finn instead of Lexa.
- Call-Back: Members of the 100 are once again trapped in the Drop Ship and surrounded by Grounders. This time, they have even less backup, less ammunition, and no fuel to set off the thrusters.
- Chained to a Bed: Abby took the precaution of strapping Lincoln to a hospital bed in Medical as part of his recovery process. Apparently, he insisted on it.
- Character Check: In flashbacks, we see Finn assume the cocky attitude he originally displayed at the beginning of the series that was fazed out as he gained more development. It's implied that he develops it as part of his strategy to take the heat off Raven, as people would assume he was just cocky enough to try to spacewalk himself while knowing the consequences.
- Character Death: Finn is mercy killed by Clarke.
- Cold-Blooded Torture/ Cruel and Unusual Death: Lincoln describes in detail how the Grounder execution process works. It begins at night. First they burn the accused with fire, as is tradition for the killer of innocents. Then they will cut off his hands, his tongue, and his eyes. After that, anyone who grieves for the dead will get to cut him with a knife. At sunrise the Commander will finally end his life with her sword, although Lincoln admits he's never heard of anyone surviving that long.
- A Death in the Limelight: Combined with Death by Flashback. Finn's backstory of the crime he did that cost The Ark three months' worth of air (and thus how he ended up amongst The 100)... and his death.
- Death Is the Only Option: Finn gives himself up to the Grounders when he realizes this and that his friends trying to defend him will only result in their deaths and the Grounders would kill all of his people for not turning him in.
- Dramatic Irony: In flashbacks, Raven despairs after she fails the exam to work in Zero-G. However, we as the audience know she must have passed at some point, as her Establishing Character Moment had her doing just that.
- Dying as Yourself: Whatever trauma and madness drove Finn to murder the Grounder villagers leaves him the moment Clark embraces him and stabs him, and he's just Finn again.Finn: Thanks, Princess.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Inverted, Clarke admits to Finn that she does love him, as he dies.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted. Lincoln learned about Finn's massacre of his village offscreen. He is therefore perfectly willing to let the Grounder's execute Finn to save the Ark survivors, despite Clarke's insistence that Finn is his friend.Lincoln: He massacred my village. Some of the dead were my friends too.
- Empathic Environment: Subtle, but it is clearly raining lightly during the climax.
- Flashback: The story of Finn and Raven's relationship on the Ark and why Finn ended up in prison in the first place.
- Forced to Watch: The Grounders set up the post Finn is tied to in full view of the Ark survivors' camp, intending them to watch Finn's gruesome execution.
- Godzilla Threshold: Murphy jokes to Finn that they must really be screwed, as Major Byrne actually agreed to give Murphy of all people a loaded gun.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Finn giving himself up to the Grounders to prevent anyone from dying for him.
- Hope Spot: Multiple ones throughout the episode. The characters come up with at least four ways to save Finn and all of them fail.
- Internal Reveal: The episode begins with Clarke revealing the terms of Lexa's truce to the other survivors.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Subverted. Clarke accuses Murphy of being partially responsible for Finn's slaughter of the Grounder village, despite acknowledging that Murphy did try to stop him. Instead of pointing out there wasn't a reasonable way to stop the half-crazed and gun-firing Finn without shooting him, Murphy simply snarks back that Finn was looking for Clarke when he committed the massacre.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Clarke kills Finn, her First Love, once it becomes clear that there is no way to save him without incurring the wrath of the Grounders.
- Last Kiss: Clarke kisses Finn one last time before stabbing him.
- Mercy Kill: Once it becomes clear that Finn's death is inevitable Clarke stabs him herself in order to spare Finn from the Cruel and Unusual Death that is promised for him by the Grounders.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: Raven hides a small knife up Clarke's sleeve when she tries one last time to talk to Lexa, hoping Clarke will use it to assassinate her. Clarke instead uses it to kill Finn.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Kane, in a truly dazzling display of diplomacy, managed to negotiate with Lexa for his own release, and bought a day for the survivors to give up Finn to the Grounders. He did this all offscreen, and simply appears back at the camp to inform everyone.
- Oh, Crap!: The entire camp when they hear the Grounder drums and chants outside at dawn. It's made painfully clear they will all die if the Grounders decide to invade.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jaha, usually a relatively stoic and serious individual, seems to be teetering on the edge of breaking into laughter for most of the episode, and is uncharacteristically snarky when discussing Finn's fate.
- Ragnarok Proof: Averted. Finn and Raven's mishap with the airlock came because the airlock is nearly 100 years old and the seals are failing.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Invoked by Kane, who outright calls Lexa a visionary leader. The fact that she accepts Clarke killing Finn at the end of the episode rather then retaliate for denying the Grounders their usual punishment for those about to be executed gives further credence to this idea.
- Retcon: Finn originally was said to have wasted a month's worth of air on the Ark. This episode ups it to three months.
- Shown Their Work: Raven has a heart murmur, and was originally denied the chance to work in Zero-G because of it. This is entirely reasonable, and NASA in fact has very strict guidelines for the physical health of astronauts, as space travel can take a massive physical toll on the human body.
- Take a Third Option: Clarke and the others attempt to do this by trying to help him escape and Raven even comes up with the idea to try and have Murphy punished for the crime instead of Finn but this of course leads to Finn making the decision to turn himself in taking the option himself.
- After that Clarke attempting to have herself punished in Finn's place and when that fails she kills him herself to spare him the pain of their punishment and settling the issue.
- Take Me Instead: Clarke's last negotiation tactic with Lexa is to beg her to kill her instead of Finn. It doesn't work.
- Taking the Heat: Flashbacks reveal Finn took the blame for Raven's illegal spacewalk because, as she was 18 at the time, she would have immediately been floated, while Finn was still 17 and thus would have a chance at survival.
- Tap on the Head: A Grounder makes an impressively inverted flying swing with a club at Clarke, smashing her and knocking her clean out. The fact that it's not a decapitation strike is actually fairly accurate, as the moment the attacker's feet left the ground he lost almost all leverage, meaning the power of his strike diminished significantly.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Lincoln impressively switches back and forth between this and a Kubrick Stare during his description of the Grounder execution technique for murderers. Rather understandable, as he's witnessed the horrific act done multiple times.
- Tragic Keepsake: Flashbacks show the origin of Raven's necklace. Finn gave it to her as an eighteenth birthday present.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Finn and Raven accidentally wasting three months of air aboard the Ark meant that the already failing Oxygen system's downfall was accelerated, which made Jake Griffin more desperate to crowdsource the issue, which lead to his execution. It also means that the culling may not have occurred either, as the 100 may have had more time on the Ground to signal the Ark that it was survivable.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Kane and Abby still don't understand enough of Grounder culture to get why Lexa can't simply let the Ark try Finn. Lincoln has to patiently explain that, if Lexa would be seen as weak, she would immediately be subjected to The Coup and be dead by morning as the Grounders only follow the strong. And, as Lexa's status as a Reasonable Authority Figure is the only reason they are all still alive, this is a bad idea. Absolutely none of the survivors had considered this before Lincoln spells it out for them.
