‘The 100’: Redemption Is a Bittersweet, Painful Thing in ‘What You Take With You’ (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The 100 Season 6 Episode 9, “What You Take With You.”]
Two characters enter the ninth episode of The 100‘s sixth season morally conflicted and attempting, at any and every cost, to earn redemption. Only one of them leaves.
The title of the episode, as many have noticed over the show’s two-week hiatus, is a nod to Star Wars – when Luke entered the dark side cave, Yoda told him all that lay in wait was “what you take with you.” The clear application to the show is in Octavia’s recollection of the anomaly. After all, all that waited for her (assuming her memory is correct) was her past, and her pain, and she’s forced to confront her demons much in the same way Luke confronted the darkness within himself.
But another character—quite literally—takes something with them in shocking farewell scene that could very well alter the course of The 100 for the rest of its run, and proves how difficult and deadly it is to earn redemption.
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A Greater Purpose
Octavia wakes up in Xavier’s cabin. She tells him she doesn’t remember anything about what happened when she entered the anomaly, but he, having waited for 150 years for an answer, isn’t satisfied with that. He gives her a dose of the toxin in the air when they first went to the anomaly and also reveals that when he took it, it revealed his “greater purpose.”
As the toxin takes effect, Octavia approaches a pulsating, roaring box and out of it emerges red—not blue, as they were when she saw them in the Pilot—butterflies. She then finds herself trapped in the Wonkru arena.
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No Blodreina
First, Octavia’s haunted by Pike, who tells her murdering someone in cold blood—even someone she hates—isn’t justifiable. He asks her what she wants, and when she doesn’t answer, she admits it doesn’t feel good knowing everyone hates her. But the worst part, he gets her to realize, is that she hates herself, too. At last, she admits she wants not forgiveness, but redemption.
Of course, redemption isn’t as easy as screaming to a jeering arena that she wants it. Blodreina walks in and calls Octavia a coward, then tries to execute Pike. When her former foe quotes Lincoln’s final words as his own, she picks up a sword, saving him, and battles the manifestation of her dark side… and wins. Then she awakens, once more, in Xavier’s cabin.
Octavia tells Gabriel she still isn’t sure what happened in the anomaly, but she knows she needs to earn redemption. But she won’t have to go anywhere to earn her second chance, at least not right away: As they hear over the radio, Clarke’s coming to them. “Things are about to get weird,” Xavier says.
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Everything’s Wrong
In space, Kane takes stock of his new body and comes to the conclusion, despite Abby’s attempts to persuade him and insistence they’ll finally have peace, that “everything’s wrong.”
Abby wakes up without Kane next to her and finds him, along with Raven, in the cafeteria. Their conversation about morality is interrupted by Simone and the people from Sanctum, and Kane figures out one of the delegates knew Gavin. He grows angry with the lies Sanctum tells people about hosts, and tells Simone, “I am not one of the sheep you raised, though I might look it.” He and Raven wake up Indra and tell her they need her help, and introduce her to Marcus Kane, the Second.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Indra isn’t totally against what the Primes are doing. After all, the grounders practiced forms of ritual sacrifice and encouraged children to fight to the death. But when Raven and Kane come up with a plan to destroy the Nightblood serum, she volunteers to help.
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I Won’t Let You Die
Josephine has a nasty seizure in the forest and tells Bellamy she needs to go home. The Children of Gabriel, she says, won’t help him; instead, they’ll cut off her head, killing her and Clarke. They don’t have long to wait for that claim to be tested, since they run into the Children and are captured almost immediately.
Bellamy and Josephine are interrogated, and despite Bellamy’s attempts at negotiation, they’re chained up. When Josephine figures out they’re communicating with Gabriel, her demeanor changes. “I’ve been in love with Gabriel for the past 236 years,” Josephine says, “The past 70 of which, he’s been trying to kill me.” They realize Clarke can hear them, and Bellamy tells her, “I won’t let you die.”
Giving Up Control
As they sit in chains, Jo and Bellamy talk about the complexity of the Bellamy-Clarke bond. “Now, you and Clarke,” Josephine says, “that’s a weird relationship.” When the Children return Jo is nearly executed, but she gives Clarke control of their shared body in order to escape certain death. Clarke kills their captors, and at Bellamy’s urging, she leaves to find Gabriel—but not before giving him the keys to his handcuffs. As she runs away, he smiles.
Clarke runs through the forest, right into some Sanctum officials. All of them but Josephine’s bodyguard ride away, and Clarke kills her and takes her motorbike. Suddenly, she can see Josephine, which is a bad sign for their brain. Nonetheless, she keeps pressing on, riding (thanks to Josephine’s ability to do so) to Gabriel’s cabin.
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How We Get Our Humanity Back
Kane’s grand plan, as it turned out, was to float himself with the remaining Nightblood serum, destroying it. Though he’d wanted her to remain with the captured Simone and the Sanctumites, Abby talks Raven into letting her out… where she’s able to talk to Kane one last time. As she does so, she sees him not as Gavin, but as Marcus from earlier seasons, which is a neat nod for fans who knew the character as Henry Ian Cusick since the show began.
She can’t change his mind. He tells her he loves her, and that if he’d had the chance to get her back in the way she did to him, he probably would have done the same. But if he continues on in Gavin’s body, he insists neither of them could live with it. “This is how we get our humanity back,” he says.
The Traveler’s Blessing is said, Indra, emotional, says his fight is over. Then Marcus Kane, like so many before him, like Abby’s husband, floats out the airlock.
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Other Observations
- Well, I didn’t see that coming. I thought Gavin-Kane was here to stay for at least the season! This makes me wonder if Henry Ian Cusick’s schedule only lined up for him to film for “What You Take With You,” and not the previous episode, since I wonder… what was the point of bringing Kane back if the plan was always to kill him off this season? At least we got a moving final scene with Cusick, who played Kane as moralistic, kind-hearted and empathetic until the end. May we meet again.
- This does provide some interesting material for Abby, who has now lost yet another man she loves to an airlock because he was trying to do the right thing, but she was on the wrong side of the right thing (once with Jake and trying to convince Thelonious to talk to him rather than floating him, now with Kane and trying to bring him back in Gavin’s body). Now that Octavia’s well on her way to redemption, is it Abby’s turn to head back toward the light? Will the whole Clarke-Josephine plot be resolved without Abby ever knowing Clarke had someone else in her head?
- Bringing back Pike to be the angel to Blodreina’s devil was absolute brilliance. The line “We are what we’ve done, and what’s been done to us,” gave me chills, and it sums up pretty much every character arc on this show. And how great was it to see Mike Beach again?!
- I’m excited to see where Clarke’s storyline goes from here (and her responding with “Boo-hoo” to Josephine’s lament about Gabriel was a riot). It’s been quite some time since she’s really interacted with Octavia outside of them scheming against each other. And not only that, but Gabriel will be seeing Josephine again, which should make for some excellent television.
The 100, Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW
