The nature of The 100 is such that the title of this episode made me wonder if they were really going to wipe out about half of the remained Exiled that was featured in the first season.  I’m not even sure how many of them made it to the end of the premiere; that’s the kind of commitment to body count that the writers maintain.  Other than Clarke, I don’t know that any of the Exiled are a lock to survive the series!

 

As seen in the first season finale, Mount Weather has a population of its own, and they have taken custody of a number of the Exiled in addition to Clarke.  This society is made up of survivors that never acclimated to the radiation of the post-nuclear Earth, and so consider the outside world a lethal mixture of Grounders and contamination.  Minor quibbles with science aside, such as the notion of becoming acclimated to radiation over time, it fleshes out the world that the first season introduced.

 

Anyone with a hint of genre experience knows that any society that seems well-adjusted in a post-apocalyptic world has to have a seriously bad secret agenda, and it’s just a matter of time before the folks at Mount Weather reveal what that is.  The fact that the Exiled are prevented from leaving means that they are “guests” in only the most general sense, and should they learn that there are survivors from the crash of the Ark, the desire for reunion will only drive the tension even higher.

 

In fact, it’s such a trope of post-apocalyptic storytelling that I’m hoping there is an actual reason for President Wallace to keep the Exiled within Mount Weather, and he’s just terrible at communicating with anyone outside of their little world.  After all, it’s been 100 years!  The audience could be seeing things through Clarke’s perspective, which would be an interesting twist.  Going with the “totally evil” option, though, has its clear advantages from a storytelling perspective.

 

The Exiled have been through so much in the space of a few weeks that it’s going to be very interesting when they are reunited with their supposed adult leaders.  The Exiled were already considered mavericks and criminals, after all, and I doubt Kane is going to adjust his ultra-pragmatic approach to survival just because everyone is on the ground.  Just the presence of the Grounders will serve to underscore his point of view, I imagine!

 

The 100 proved to be the exception to the watered-down, teen-romance fare that everyone expected, especially when Star-Crossed was falling over itself to fulfill every bad CW trope imaginable.  The second season premiere deftly continued along the same vein, providing at least some degree of assurance that the series will continue to excel.