'The 100' season 2 finale recap: 'Blood Must Have Blood, Part Two'

How does one even begin a recap an episode like that? Last week's "Blood Must Have Blood, Part One" started chipping away at what we were expecting in a finale—and "Part Two" just blew up those expectations completely. Everyone had theories about what might happen with the Sky People/Mountain Men confrontation, and some of those came true. But if you foresaw THAT ending coming, well your name must be Jason Rothenberg. And we all bow down to you. This was exactly what a season finale should be—shocking, but not just for shock value—there was character growth, deaths, and deep revelations that will carry us into season 3—which I already can't wait for. But before I get carried away, let's talk "Blood Must Have Blood, Part Two."

Octavia, being left in the tunnels by Jackson and Indra, is still just waiting. It doesn't seem like she has a plan, but she is excited when she hears the chute open … until she sees it's Fox. Naturally, she prepares for the Reaper who's coming to claim the body. Except it's Clarke—and unhinged Clarke: She starts banging on the Harvest Chamber door and trying to shoot the keypad. Octavia tells her to pull it together: "Everyone is always counting on you." But the leader is basically out of options: "I am doing the best I can."

Lucky for her, Bellamy opens the door just a moment later. He, Monty, Jasper, and a Hazmat-besuited Maya come out. Clarke gets them up to date on the no-longer-an-alliance situation. As they're known to do, the gang makes a few game-time decisions: Bellamy, Clarke, and Monty will go seek help from Dante. Octavia, Jasper, and Maya will sneak into Level 5 to get Maya more oxygen, as hers is depleting fast.

Level 5 is where the Undergrounders have all gathered in the mess hall, but also where the dorm-turned-makeshift-harvest-chamber is—and the two rooms are juxtaposed against each other so well throughout the episode. In the "dorm," the Mountain Men have tied up all the Sky People, including Raven and Wick. Emerson comes in with four more Sky People he rounded up. It's Monroe, Miller's dad (reunion alert!), Kane, and Abby. Cage tells Abby he's sorry it had to come to this. But are you really Cage? Because you seem to enjoy bloodshed a little too much. I mean did you ever think of ASKING the Sky People if they could help you get to the Ground? They're generally nice people when you're not trying to kill them. Abby is a doctor. I'm sure they could have figured out a way.

Anyway, Cage doesn't have time to think of rational ways out of this situation. He just needs to drill, baby drill, and he picks Raven as his next subject. As they're strapping her to the table, she bites off part of a guard's neck. It's disgusting—and at the same time amazing to see how far these people are willing to go to save themselves. Cage should have taken this as a sign.

Cut from Raven's screams to a shot of Goya's Saturn (also known as Saturn Devouring His Son—ah the symbolism!) in Dante's room when Clarke, Monty, and Bellamy arrive. He doesn't seem surprised at all that Clarke has already infiltrated Mount Weather, but he is angry with her for risking his people's lives by cutting the power; she's angry for obvious reasons. "We're the good guys here—not you," Clarke says.

As they take Dante to the Control Room, Clarke asks why he isn't with his people. He says: "After what I've done, they can be free. I can't. Deliverance comes at a cost; I bear it so they don't have to." And in that moment Bellamy realizes that Dante was the one who called the truce, not Cage. It's almost as if no one is angry about it, though; they just understand he was doing what he could do free his people—exactly what they're doing now.

Once in the Control Room, Monty boots up the power so they can view the cameras on Level 5. They see Raven tied to the table and that Abby has been captured as well. This just became more than Clarke saving her people; now she's saving her mother. She radios Emerson and asks to speak to Cage. She lets him know she has his dad, who she will kill if her people aren't released. It's a scene charged with emotion—the most we've seen from Cage ever. He listens through the walkie-talkie as Clarke cocks the gun. The distress on his face is apparent, but he refuses to stand down: "Dad, I'll take care of our people," he says as his way of saying no.

You don't want to feel empathy for Cage, but at the same time, it's true what Dante says: "None of us has a choice here, Clarke." "I didn't want this," she says. "Neither did I," he says as she shoots him. They both were out of options and it had to happen this way—even though neither wanted it. (And I honestly hate to lose Dante as a character.) But Clarke doesn't stop there—she tells Cage to let her people go or else she'll irradiate all of Level 5. She wants him to stop the drilling so they can find a way to get everyone out alive. But shooting his father to prove she's serious probably isn't the best way to get that message across, so Cage goes "blood for blood" in his own Undergrounder way. He heads to the "dorm," where he asks Raven to be taken off the table and Abby to be put on.

NEXT: Octavia reminds everyone she's a Grounder now

Meanwhile, Maya, Octavia, and Jasper make it to Level 5 just in time for Maya to get oxygen and she goes off to find Sergeant Lee, the guard who helped Bellamy last episode. When she returns with him, he pulls his gun on the "outsider," Octavia. After Jasper defuses the situation —"She isn't an outsider," Jasper says. "Yes, she is," Octavia says—he hatches a plan: He'll go as a prisoner with Sergeant Lee to the dorm, then kill Cage from there. He kisses Maya goodbye, and they say their I love you's—which is never a good sign.

Not long after they leave, a young couple looking for a make-out spot sees the "Grounder" and Maya, and the couple takes off screaming through the halls. Octavia quickly takes out two guards (in a very badass Grounder Octavia way), but more are on the way. The pace of the episode builds so much from here it's almost hard to keep up—but in a good way. Lee brings Jasper into the dorm; Emerson is outside the Control Room door ready to blow it up; Maya and Octavia get captured in the mess hall; and Monty is ready to go on the irradiation. All that's left is to pull a lever.

Earlier Bellamy was warning Clarke that this is a move they can't come back from—innocent children and people will be killed—but now that his sister is captured, he's ready to make that move. He puts his hand on top of Clarke's on the lever. And just like that Level 5 is taking in outside air.

Jasper has his cuffs off and is going for Cage when the guards around him start melting. Cage runs away; and the three Sky Kids watch from the Control Room as everyone in the mess hall starts to die…. everyone including Maya. Jasper runs there just in time. He cries out, "She was innocent," but her last words are "None of us is innocent." (This is basically the show's mantra.)

Bellamy, Clarke, and Monty have to walk through the mess hall on their way to the "dorm." Jasper is still there holding Maya. He angrily tells them that he was going to end it all by killing Cage, but Bellamy tells him it never would have stopped—which is probably true, but there's no way to know, and they're all going to have to live with that.

In the "dorm," everyone is reuniting: Harper and Monty hug, Miller and his dad reunite, even Kane gives Bellamy a nice shoulder pat. But the best is the mother-daughter reunion.

Clarke: "I tried … I tried to be the good guy."

Abby: "Maybe there are no good guys."

And before Octavia can say "Where's Cage?," we see him running through a forest, a place that was foreign to him just weeks ago. A wild animal named Lincoln (who escaped with the help of Indra) is running out of the fog toward him, about to take him out, until Cage pulls out his kryptonite: a tone generator. Then Cage pulls an injection of the Reaper juice from his pack. Lincoln fights the urge to accept the drug and instead chops off Cage's hand, which is (no longer) holding the generator. Then he takes the injection and jams it into Cage's neck. "The first dose is the worst," he says. Mic drop: Lincoln. I don't generally like death, but man this felt so good.

The gang walks into Camp Jaha to a Raign version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (specifically recorded for this finale). It's a bittersweet moment. They're finally coming home—Wick is carrying Raven, and Jasper is reunited with his goggles. But not everyone can go home again. This scene was one of my favorites of the season and deserves to be shown in full:

Bellamy: "I think we deserve a drink."

Clarke: "Have one for me."

B: "We can get through this."

C: "I'm not going in."

B: "Clarke, if you need forgiveness, I'll give that to you…. You're forgiven. Please come inside."

C: "Take care of them for me."

B: "Clarke."

C: "Seeing their faces every day is just going to remind me of what I did to get them here."

B: "What we did. You didn't have to do this alone."

C: "I bear it so they don't have to."

With a kiss on the cheek and a hug from Bellamy, a little bit of knowledge from the people she killed and fought alongside, and a "May we meet again," Clarke walks away from the home she fought for all season.

NEXT: Out at Sea, or How We Learn About Season 3

Interlaced throughout the Mount Weather story, we got the "conclusion" of Jaha and Murphy's pilgrimage story, which is clearly season 3 game plan. The episode started with the continuation of them following the drone, except they lost it at this point and are just in the middle of the ocean—four men in a tiny boat. And suddenly there is something out there: They can see land, with a lighthouse. They're so excited, but like a scene out of Jaws, something hits the bottom of the boat. Richards drops the oar and when he tries to grab it, he gets pulled into the water and dragged away. Murphy's arm is ripped up from whatever attacked Richards, and Craig is just freaking out. So Jaha grabs Craig and throws him over for sea monster bait. Murphy—in a complete 180 of his character since season 1—tries to save him, but Jaha just tells him they have to row away.

When they do get to shore, Jaha shows that he really hasn't changed that much from his Ark days: "We sacrificed a few to save the many," he tells Murphy. As Murphy falls down (he's lost a lot of blood), another drone flies overhead. Jaha runs after it alone, promising that he'll return for him.

At some point Murphy wakes up on the beach; he starts to head inland when he uncovers yet another solar panel, and it causes music to turn on in the lighthouse. He finds his way in there and it's a bunker filled with groovy furniture and every possible amenity. (Guys, a bunker.) He finds what I can only assume is lembas bread, along with some whiskey—this is basically Murphy's own Promised Land.

He decides to turn on the TV and a video starts to play: It's from 5/10/2052 (the year of the nuclear war). It's a man describing how he lost control, how "she" got control of the launch codes, and "it was her." Then he apologizes and shoots himself.

Cut to Jaha coming up over the ridge to find an estate surrounded by hovering drones. He enters without knocking (as one does in the post-apocalyptic world) and suddenly there's a woman in a red dress appearing out of nowhere. (Be honest: How many of you immediately thought of this?) She knows his name and has been waiting for him.

It doesn't take long for him to realize she's not really there, that she's not real. But "define real," she says. He's not having it; he's come too far to play games with an A.I.—but she assures him this was his destiny. She knows it because he brought her a gift… and then she leads him to a ballroom with a nice shiny piece of furniture: the missile he rode to earth along with a nuclear warhead. "We have work to do," she says.

And so do The 100 writers for next season, but based on how they took Clarke in a white room with a tiny circular window and turned that into all that is season 2, I—like Jaha—have faith.

And we're back to ALL THESE QUESTIONS:

• What team is Indra on? And what about the Reaper who caught her eye last episode—who was that?
• Where is Clarke going to go!? Fingers crossed for the Ice Nation.
• Are the Sky People really going to live in their hunk of metal that is Camp Jaha? I know of a giant underground community that doesn't have any residents. (Too soon?)
• And what will they do with their time now that there's no one to fight?
• Am I crazy or were their old TV remotes in the sand near where Murphy woke up?
• Which Thelonious is he: Lord and Ruler? or Tiller of the Earth?
• Who created Ali? What exactly does she want to do with that nuke?
• AND WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN IN SEASON 3?

And a few answers:

No, that is not the same water monster that attacked Octavia in the series premiere. But Jason Rothenberg did tell me that they jokingly call this sea monster the "mama" to Octavia's river monster.

He also told me about Lexa:

"Obviously she's among the living, so you know we still have opportunities to play those stories and that relationship out into 3."

And about that "mutant" I've been wondering about from the season 2 premiere:

"That was—well, I hate to call them 'mutants'—deformed Grounder I guess is a better term for what he was. We established pretty well that there are those who are born with deformities as a result of the radiation. They're sort of cast out by their societies, left to die…. He was one of them; he was just an extreme version. I imagine we'll probably meet him again at some point."

Be sure to check out my full postmortem with Rothenberg before you go, and I'll see y'all back here next fall—hopefully we all will have recovered by then.