Octavia spills blood to establish her command when overcrowded conditions and violent clan tensions turn the bunker into an underground war zone.
Tropes in this episode:
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Kane tries to reason with Abby that she is too valuable to Wonkru as a doctor to let die, and that is why he saved her, not just because he loves her. Abby snaps back that that this doesn't make any sense, as he had previously tried to float her on the Ark.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Octavia proves once and for all to the grounders that she is in charge. She kills nearly 10 of them in single combat to prove this point.
- Backhanded Apology: Jaha honestly apologizes to Octavia for her treatment aboard the Ark, but makes it clear that her mother violating the law endangered all residents of the Ark, and that made her the enemy, so he is not sorry that he floated her.
- Becoming the Mask: It's clear that Octavia has fully embraced being the leader she insisted she wasn't by the end of their 6 years. We get to see at least part of this transition during the episode itself.
- Body Horror: Abby tries to reason with Kara by describing in detail what will happen to the people starving to death because she keeps the door to the hydroponics farm locked.
- Call-Back: Several:
- Niylah gives Octavia a copy of the Illiad she found in the bunker. Also serves as a Chekhov's Gun, as it reminds Octavia of Ancient Rome and gladiator games.
- Once again, the characters are faced with the possibility that they will have to cull members of Wonkru to survive in the bunker.
- Abby references Kane trying to float her in the Pilot.
- Character Death: Jaha dies.
- Death Glare: Octavia sends a terrifying one at Kane following the Time Skip as he enters the gladiator ring, making the audience wonder exactly what has happened between them.
- Defeat Means Friendship: A twisted example. After Kara's gang is defeated, Octavia forces them to fight each other to the death, and Kara wins. Six years later, she is shown to be one of Octavia's trusted advisors.
- Descent into Addiction: Abby is showing signs up this in the beginning, taking painkillers for headaches that were supposed to have already gone away.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Jaha dies peacefully with Abby and Kane holding him.
- End of an Age: Jaha's death and Octavia embracing her status as as leader signals both the end of the age of the Ark authority and the end of the age of the Commanders.
- Gladiator Games: Octavia establishes a duel to the death as her means of keeping the peace in the bunker. At first glance, it is as fair, if nor more, than floating on the ark and the "blood have must have blood" mentality of the Grounders because the contestants at least have a chance to survive. After 6 years, however, it's clear that this form of justice has become a sport for Wonkru as the crowd cheers for the deaths of those in the pit.
- Handicapped Badass: Kara proves to be this in the end. She manages to kill several Skaicru and Grounders in the gladiator pit, all just after having her hand stabbed with a knife.
- Honorary Uncle: Ethan calls Kane and Jaha "Uncle Marcus" and "Uncle Theo."
- How We Got Here: The episode begins just over a month after Praimfaya.
- Interrupted Suicide: Octavia prevents Kara from shooting herself in the head when Level C is breached. With an Impaled Palm to boot.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kara is rude and openly hostile towards Octavia. However, everything she says about the Hydroponics farm is completely accurate and sensible.
- Mortal Wound Reveal: Octavia discovers that Jaha received a grievous stomach wound when he was attacked in his bedroom. He reasons that an attempt to treat it would be futile, as the two doctors available are both trapped behind the locked door to Level C, and uses his last strength to open said door.
- My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Inverted. As she slaughters to Grounders attempting to break open level C, Octavia starts repeating who they are to them.Octavia: You are Wonkru, or you are the enemy of Wonkru. Choose!
- No OSHA Compliance: Somehow, Cadogan and the Second Dawn didn't think to add an emergency exit to the bunker, and built it under city that was likely to collapse in the event of a nuclear detonation (exactly what the bunker was built for in the first place). However, they did build it with layers of redundancy, so that if the bunker was somehow compromised, level C (food and water production) could be self contained and remained operative.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Abby underwent the same treatment as Raven did to "reboot" her brain to purge herself of A.L.I.E.'s code by freezing and and resuscitating herself offscreen. However, she had been using strong pain killers to deal with the pain before hand, and their prolonged use has led her to develop a nasty addiction.
- Perspective Flip: We see what the Wonkru did in response to Clarke beating on the roof in the previous episode. Turns out the the collapse of the building didn't just keep Clarke from getting in. It sealed the exit for the inhabitants as well, trapping them under several tons of concrete.
- Redemption Equals Death: Jaha gives Octavia important advice about leading and opens the doors in the bunker, saving most of Wonkru, in his dying moments. Word of God has said that he wanted Jaha to go out as a hero and didn't want people to celebrate his death.
- The Reveal: Several
- Abby finally explains why the Ark floated their dead. They needed to get rid of the bodies to prevent cannibalism, which had begun to occur after a plant blight destroyed much of the produce on the Ark.
- Shout-Out: Jaha reads Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree to Ethan. He explains it used to be Wells' favorite. It is sufficiently battered and torn for a book that, by this point, is nearly 200 years old.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Jaha becomes this to Octavia as he is bleeding to death. He holds the ability to open the door to Level C hostage, blackmailing her into making the Grounders stand down and only punishing the guilty, reasoning that otherwise once the door is open otherwise, everyone on Level C will die. He does it both to save the remains of his people and to get her to embrace her position as leader.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Several examples
- Without proper equipment, it isn't easy to tunnel through bedrock and concrete, especially when you have to puncture a bomb shelter specifically designed to withstand a nuclear explosion, and thousands of tons of rubble on top. Jaha makes it clear that cutting their way out of the bunker will be virtually impossible.
- Kara the Hydroponic Farmer was tasked with doing the calculations for how many people the bunker could support. She did this under the assumption that they would be in the bunker for a maximum of five years, and therefore maxed out the hydroponics gardens to support the maximum number of people for that long. Now that Wonkru can't get out of the bunker, it means they will eventually exhaust their available nutrients because they will need to farm for maximum yields. Also, in order to get the maximum number of people in the bunker, they are already at the minimum ration requirement. If they go to half rations, some people will die.
- Take Care of the Kids: Jaha, who has been caring for Ethan, asks Octavia, Kane, and Abby to watch out for him.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Ethan has become one after the Time Skip. He seems just a little too excited for the fight.
- With Us or Against Us: How Octavia enforces conformity to the idea of Wonkru.
- Yearning for a Nemesis: Octavia insists she isn't a leader, she's a warrior, and Jaha clocks her as this trope: a warrior needs a war, or a clear-cut enemy. He tells her that on the Ark, they made death the enemy, and therefore anyone who put others on the Ark at risk for death was an enemy of the Ark. This helps Octavia solidify the idea that there are no clans, only "Wonkru" and "enemies of Wonkru," even that if that meant killing others in the bunker.
