#that’s why I’ll always defend Ovid

[sarafangirlart]

Honestly Ovid was cooking hard with story of Eurydice quote

Bro was so real for this like he wrote bs every now and then but he can still cook.

[justalittlebluetiefling]

5x04 - Pandora’s Box

So, I did a thing again and I was tempted to not publish it, but why would I write almost 4000 words and then just let it sit on my OneDrive forever? (Oh wait, you mean like all those WIPs sitting there???)

Here’s what I cover this time. Trigger warnings are addressed in the tags.

Random Things I Think Are Important Eligius III The Dark Year

Wonkru Kane and Abby Bunker Excavation Octavia

Eligius Miles Ezekiel Shaw Pirate Mechanic

Spacekru and Clarke Raven and Murphy The Big Reveal Bellamy and Clarke

Other Drawn Lines Death Watch

Random Things I Think Are Important

Eligius III

The blockage of the information on Eligius III is going to come back. It feels a little too obvious to have Shannon Kook’s new surprise character be someone returning from the Eligius III mission, but it has the potential to be super cool. It is obviously important enough to bring up, so it will show up again.

Could they really bring in space travel for season 6? Jason did say that the ending of this season opens up the possibility for more seasons. They talk about long-haul interstellar missions a lot. They’ve already talked about Hythylodium as a long-range fuel twice this season. I’m hoping that my man Zeke can help my gal Raven unlock those files on Eligius III and we can get a little more information so that the true speculation can begin.

The Dark Year

Alright, I know that no one really wants the cannibalism theory to be true. I sure as heck don’t. It makes me queasy just thinking about it. However, Abby brought up The Blight in episode two. “They won’t have to fight the temptation to eat their friends. You’re third generation farm station. You must have heard the rumors about the blight. It’s why we started floating our dead.” It’s why they started floating their dead. They’re not going to bring something like that up if it’s not going to relate to the current story. Most of the information they offer up early in the season is useful and foreshadows something. Maybe they’re not partaking anymore. I sure as hell hope they never did, because gross. This is still something that needs to be watched out for.

Wonkru

In some weird perversion of grounder culture and the justice system on the ark, it almost sounds like they’ve created a new religion. Octavia seems to be less a queen and more a religious figurehead. It would not be unprecedented. The mythos of the Commander also felt religious. Wonkru seems to have developed into an Imperial Cult.

An imperial cult is a form of state religion where the leader is worshiped as a demigod or deity. “The cult may be one of personality, or one of national identity or supranational identity in the case of a multi-ethnic state. A divine king is a monarch who is held in a special religious significance by his subjects and serves as both head of state and a deity or head religious figure.” 

Quite a few ancient civilizations were run this way. Ancient Egypt, China, Rome, Japan, etc. Pharaohs were believed to be incarnations of Horus and generally acted as a go-between for the gods and the people. Quite a few Roman emperors were declared gods by the Roman Senate, but typically after their death.

In the beginning of the episode, Gaia says, “As always, as we invite death into this hall, we honor it.” They bow their heads and say as one, “All of me for all of us.” It feels like a religious ceremony, but they’re not worshiping any god. They’re worshiping Blodreina and her justice. It’s the point where Blodreina doesn’t have to be Octavia. It could be anyone. Is this where the initiates will come in?

Still, I don’t know if they’re scared of her or what, but when Charmaine tells them to round up their things, no one moves until Octavia nods.  

It should be said, though, that I’m sure not everyone agrees with this system. Kane clearly doesn’t. Abby doesn’t. Jackson and Miller both seem hesitant. Indra doesn’t seem comfortable, but she and Miller are protecting Octavia, although probably for different reasons. There is definitely the potential for an uprising.

Kane and Abby

Everyone was right in guessing that Kane was in the ring, because he “stole” medicine for Abby. However, instead of it being about saving her life, it was covering for her addiction. I’m trying to withhold judgement until it’s delved into a little more thoroughly, because it’s not really my cup of tea. A story about overcoming addiction can be a powerful thing, but I don’t understand why Abby needed the pills in the first place. The most likely option were that she was taking pain pills for headaches and got hooked, but yeah. We’ll see.

The addiction could be one of the reasons she was so willing to leave Clarke with Octavia and Wonkru. I don’t think that Abby would have left her behind in the past. I know she sees that Clarke has been self-sustaining, but Clarke and co. were arguably self-sustaining after they were sent to the ground and Abby had an incredibly hard time letting go then. It seems more likely to me that there were two benefits to her going with Eligius: an easy way to save Marcus from Wonkru and the ability to avoid Clarke finding out about the pills.

I have a few family members who suffered with addiction, so I am only speaking from my experiences. I could be completely wrong and we could have different experiences. There’s a point in your life as a parent where you accept that your child has grown up. Abby has mourned for Clarke’s death like Spacekru did, as well. I’m sure there are a lot of things that informed her decision.

It’s fantastic seeing this character development in Kane. In the pilot, he was just… well, he was a dick. He did always have humanity’s best interests at heart, though. He’s evolved from believing that the ends justify the means to considering the impact that his actions have on other people. Unfortunately, this also opens him up to being a martyr. We already saw that he was willing to go that far this episode. 

Bunker Excavation

This has been talked to death, so I’ll try to stay brief here. It’s been a very long time since I last took a mythology class. I had to look up Pandora’s Box again. When Pandora opens up the box (or jar, in older stories), she lets out: greed, envy, hatred, paid, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. And hope is left inside.

I’ve seen some different interpretations on this, but what if there’s someone or something left in the bunker that is going to help everyone. Not help them win this war with Eligius, but possibly to help expand the survivable area? I mean, terraforming hasn’t been mentioned at all in this show that I recall, so maybe that’s reaching, but the crux of the story is that hope was trapped inside the box. They sure aren’t trying hard to convince us that hope isn’t a theme on this show. I know that survival is the primary theme, but still. It’s a major part of the story of Pandora and in Ovid.

Anyway, let’s just put terraforming on the list of things that I can’t believe I’m considering as a possibility for this show and move on.

Octavia

Okay, why am I doing this? Skip past this part if you don’t like Octavia. This isn’t defending her, but it also isn’t persecuting her.

Baby Blake was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The system that she helped build is barbaric, but if she hadn’t formed this system, everyone in the bunker would probably be dead by now. All of Skaikru would be dead. There might be a few warring factions left at this point, but they would be starving, because they didn’t know how to operate the systems. The bunker could have opened up to something MUCH worse.

So, bear with me here, but our judgmental babes Clarke and Bellamy don’t have a lot of room to judge. Do I ultimately agree with them? Yes. But I don’t know what either of them could have done better. As Octavia says, six years is a long time. There had to be some kind of justice system implemented. Population apparently needed to be reduced (have I mentioned how much I hate that plot device and find it unnecessary?). Did it need to be a gladiator ring? No. But Octavia did win the right to the bunker in battle. If she had allowed all of Skaikru to stay in and had the other clans split the rest of the space equally, there may have been more of a chance for a more peaceful solution. If Clarke had made it in, everyone could have become Nightbloods, but would there have been enough food in the valley initially to support people? We don’t know if the farm could have helped supplement their diet for long. They would have had to ration. Rationing typically leads to rioting. I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Regardless, Octavia will say something about doing what was necessary to survive at some point this season. Clarke and Bellamy will be horrified. This episode started off being about reunions, but by the end, the lines started to be drawn for the upcoming conflict.

Eligius

Oooh the dynamics here are becoming more and more interesting every episode. I thought Charmaine seemed a lot like Dante at first, but this episode corrected me. They’re more like the Grounders than the Delinquents from season one: pretending to make deals while intending to kill the people we care about. 

Also, McCreary has been planning to overthrow Diyoza for a while. I can’t wait to see Murphy’s reaction to this guy (1x12 anyone?). If it’s not the fake episode title, I think that conflict will be the one that comes to a head in ‘Sic Semper Tyarnnis.’ I thought that might apply to Octavia, and it’s possible it still does, but knowing the underlying motives here changed my mind. If anything, this will be the point that Diyoza will officially ally with Clarke, Bellamy, and co. in order to save her own life. Or die before she has the chance.

We know Charmaine was a decorated war hero and that she became a terrorist. They’re going to explain why. I don’t even know how to speculate on this, though. My big fear is that if 5x9 is a story about McCreary overthrowing her, that it’ll be closer to 2x8 and the backstory we got for Finn right before his death. Jroth does like killing people, but she’s too interesting for me to want her to die, even though she’s currently an antagonist.

Okay, but how about some more imminent issues dealing with Eligius. ALIEN STOMACH SNAKES. This has to be what they want the doctor for, right? We don’t have enough information to speculate, but is it an alien parasite? Do they have to kill it with fire? Is it contagious? Is it a result of cryosleep? Is McCreary sick with them? Is someone that he loves infested with them? Did they pick it up while they were mining? Is it the thing that made Zeke feel guilty enough to help the prisoners overthrow the ship? Oooh, were they being experimented on? Could they form a symbiotic relationship with their host? Are they like yeerks in Animorphs? I DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING.

Miles Ezekiel Shaw

Oh man, this guy. This guy. I don’t even know where to start. So far, over the course of this season, we’ve learned that he was a guard on the ship and helped the prisoners with their mutiny, because he didn’t agree with what was being done to them. He is the one who suggested that they orbit the planet for a bit. He’s their pilot. He can code. He pushes for a peaceful solution instead of war. He was an altar boy, an adrenaline junkie, but he’s logical. He’s sarcastic and witty and fucking ballsy. Alright, this is getting away from me. 

We are already seeing proof that Zeke is going to turn on Eligius and come over to the “good” side.

First, they make a point of showing that he’s listening to the exchange between Diyoza and McCreary when they talk about grabbing the doctor and killing the hostage taker and his girlfriend. Zeke is not on board with this plan. Their behavior since they’ve landed is making him question his choices. 

I’ll admit that my second point is a little shaky, but we all seem to be in agreement on him pretending that he couldn’t launch the missiles. Lot’s of things back it up. Raven was focused on keeping them out of the systems in space and there was no explicit mention of her hacking into their ship on the ground. Thanks to Occam’s Razor (or wishful thinking), Zeke flubbing the codes and pretending it was Raven after he’d hyped up her awesomeness all episode seems pretty likely. 

Finally, we’ve got the ‘our people’ vs ‘your people’ moment. It starts around the 33-minute mark. Diyoza starts laying it on a little thick and mentions “our people” twice. She uses it to guilt him into opening the docking bay doors to kill Raven and Murphy. But he doesn’t want to do this. He knows very little about them. He knows Raven’s hacking skills, he knows his opinion on Clarke, I think he respects Bellamy for working toward a peaceful solution, and he overheard their reunion via Lasercom. Would you want to kill these people?

“Wait.” “What is it, Shaw? Talk to me.” “They’re waking up.” “They opened the pods.” “Colonel, if we don’t close the doors right now, your people are gonna die, too.” “You mean our people, don’t you, Lieutenant?” “What are your orders?” “Close the doors.”

Zeke is relieved here, because he doesn’t have innocent blood on his hands. Charmaine is also impressed by these tactics. It’s a ballsy move, but it doesn’t matter.

“Either way, we’re back in control. Your friend may be smart, but she’s a coward.” “Live coward.”

Here’s where I wonder if Zeke can empathize with making a choice to save yourself. I do believe that he thinks he had the moral high ground siding with the prisoners, but there’s a good chance that it was a survivor’s move, too. Also, the implication that he’s their only pilot was a little surprising to me. Piloting a ship across the solar system seems like it might be a little exhausting. They’re trying to make me believe that he’s indispensable and lull me into a false sense of security. They’re going to ruin my life by taking him away. I HAVE BEEN BURNED BEFORE. 

Anyway, Jordan is giving us QUITE a performance as Lieutenant Shaw and I’m loving it. His delivery of “It’s done” after he opens the docking bay doors is heartbreaking and I just want to hug him. It seems fairly obvious at this point that he’s going to help Raven and Murphy escape, because the poor guy is reaching the end of his rope.

Pirate Mechanic

This seems as appropriate a place as any to talk about Zeke and Raven. This is a specific variation of Meet-Cute, but I can’t remember the specific kind. I wanted to say Love At First Punch with a heavy dose of Defeat Means Friendship, but there are a ton of possibilities.

Regardless, he seems incredibly annoyed and impressed by this girl at the same time. “I told you, this girl is some kind of genius. Everything I thought of, she thought of first. She even had time to flip me the bird.” When you’re the smartest one around, it’s really frustrating to encounter someone quicker. But he’s intrigued already.

And finally, we have Charmaine calling out a relationship that isn’t established yet as at least something when she refers to Raven as his friend. I’m sure she’s not going to be surprised when Zeke turns on them to save these people. It’s the most unfortunate thing about him, after all. He seems like an all-around decent dude, but he makes no effort to keep his emotions hidden. It will probably get him into trouble.

My guy has no idea what he’s walking into next episode. I mean, he already respects her for her mind. He heard her emotional reunion with Clarke and I’m sure that hit a few buttons. But when he sees her? Shoot. I have palpitations whenever she’s on screen. I can’t imagine what he’s going to go through.

Really, I think this ship has a ton of potential and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop it!

Spacekru and Clarke

I need to come up with a better name for this entire group. The Griffin-Blakes & Co.? I could just keep calling them The Delinquents. It seems apt for now, but it’ll depend on where lines end up being drawn. 

Raven and Murphy

I want to talk about Raven before I get into anything else. Lindsay Morgan always blows my mind, but she ascended to a new level this episode. So did Murphy, for that matter.

Raven doubts herself a lot for being such a badass. And this episode showed a new layer of her self-doubt. She was scared that she wouldn’t be able to pull the plug on the prisoners like Clarke or Bellamy would be able to. She knows that they’re murderers, but she’s hesitating over taking their lives. I’m sure it won’t be addressed, but my theory here is that leaving Clarke behind on earth really fucked her up. Raven was the one who said that they had to go, she knew that Clarke would want them to go, but ultimately, she thought she left her friend to die. She might have a hard time staying pragmatic this season for that reason.

Now, Murphy.

“Everybody was so surprised when I stayed behind, I mean, most of all me. Thought maybe I was doing it to impress Emori, but the more I think about it… I mean, why do you always have to be the one to sacrifice? Anyway, if it comes down to it, I got this.”

The fact that it’s Murphy up here to support Raven is cool. I’ve mentioned before that I haven’t entirely forgiven him for shooting Raven, even though he did it accidentally. But he’s grown and changed. Shit, this episode really solidified his redemption arc. He knows that Raven is afraid she won’t be able to pull the plug. He is going to pull it for her. “I mean, why do you always have to be the one to sacrifice?” He acknowledges her losses. She lost full use of her leg, she lost Finn, she’s been tortured, chipped, he watched her deal with the aftermath of using the EMP to get the chip out of her head. Murphy feels genuine guilt and admiration for her, now. Raven has forgiven him, so I should probably make my way that direction, too.

I know that next episode is not going to be pretty for them. Raven and Murphy are friends now. They want to protect each other. Eligius is going to use that against them and it is going to suck for us 

The Big Reveal

There’s no way around it. I lost it when Raven said Clarke’s name last night. I was full on sobbing in my seat. I’m getting tears in my eyes thinking about it right now. I can’t watch this scene without breaking down. And Murphy’s reaction was even more than I could have hoped for. I forget sometimes how grateful he probably is to her. I mean, she saved everyone, but she very saved Emori two other times (the nightblood experiment and the helmet tear).

I legitimately can’t wait to see them meet up in person. And to see Monty and Harper and Emori and Echo react to her being alive. (I’m not touching on the way this impacts B.echo right now, because that’s a hot minefield and I love and respect people who ship it, casually or not.)

Bellamy and Clarke

We finally got their official reunion and hoo boy, it was worth it. I loved all 78 seconds of it.

There’s so much good about this scene. Bellamy hesitates in the doorway and he RUNS to Clarke. When he gets to her, his hand runs from her ankle to her knee, because he seriously couldn’t not touch her for one more second. It’s a caress to reassure himself that she’s really there. Like, look at this fucking screenshot.

It’s romantic as fuck is what it is. 

Then the romance keeps coming. She’s so relieved that he’s there and they stare at each other’s faces before she jumps on him for a hug. There’s that slooooow pull back where there faces are sooooo close to each other before they finally talk for a second. The real killer is, “And now you’re home.” Bellamy is about to cry as he’s nodding, because shit you guys. He thought she was dead. I wanted to talk more about their potential turbulence, but this is a mindblowing moment and I got distracted. He gets to hold Clarke again for the first time in six years. She was his best friend. They relied on each other and trusted each other. They went through hell together and she was willing to die to make sure that he (and their friends) could live.

When they go in for the second hug, we get Clarke’s patented lip press to his shoulder, and for the first time in our lives, we see him reciprocate. BUT IT’S BETTER. Because his lips are pressing to her bare skin, his fingers are digging into her back. He’s taking her in, and lovelies? You don’t smell your friends. (Like this sounds weird, but I promise it’s sexy, you guys.) The piece of him that felt lost while he was up in space is back. NOT TO MENTION THAT HALLWAY SHOT! 

I mean, wtf was that? It shows how he basically pulled her into his lap. Even when they separate again, their hands are still on each other. They don’t separate much. His hand is on her hip and hers is on his waist. We wanted Bellarke constantly touching each other to reassure themselves that the other was actually there and well, we’ve got it. We wanted more proof that everyone except them “sees” it? We got Charmaine Diyoza EXPLICITY CALLING HER HIS GIRLFRIEND. We’re getting canon romance this season, babes. It’s coming.

They fall into sync again immediately. They’re communicating wordlessly across crowds again. Bellamy is already factoring her back into his life, even though it’s going to make his own life confusing as hell. He is going to make her protection a priority. I’m sure they’re going to argue about the best way to approach things, but that’s a minor obstacle. They have always argued, but they can empathize with each other. It’s part of what makes them a great team.

Other

Drawn Lines

Octavia is more focused on protecting Wonkru, Abby is more focused on protecting Kane. Wonkru is not going to be welcoming of Bellamy and Spacekru. They’re not going to welcome Clarke. Eligius is obviously welcoming none of them, barring their theft of a doctor.

So, we have Wonkru and we have Eligius.

I think the following will end up working with Spacekru:

Clarke Madi Miller Jackson Indra (I’m iffy on her, but she doesn’t seem entirely on board with the system O and Gaia built) Kane and probably Abby Zeke

It’s a small group, but I’m sure we’ll see alliance form and fail a few times before the season is over.

Death Watch

Not in order, but these are currently the people that I’m most convinced are going to die this season:

Octavia Kane Abby Charmaine Indra Monty OR Harper Murphy OR Emori McCreary

The End. Thank you for reading my rambling once again. Hit me up in my inbox or DMs if you want to chat about any of this as long as it stays respectful!