TELEVISION EPISODE REVIEW: The 100 S5 Ep03 'Sleeping Giants'

Who are the mysterious prisoners that landed in Eden last episode, and what will happen when they catch Clark and Madi? Will the Ark crew make it to the prisoners’ ship, and what awaits them if they do?

The 100 – “Sleeping Giants”, Season 5, Episode 03
Airdate: May 8^th, 2018
Director: Tim Scanlan
Writer: Jason Rothenberg
Based on the Book by Kass Morgan

What You Should Know:
It is six years post-Praimfaya and our survivors are scattered. Octavio and Wonkru still occupy the bunker, Clark and young Madi lived in the only inhabitable piece of Earth left, and Bellamy and company on the Ark. When a mysterious prison ship arrived on the horizon and launched a drop ship for Eden, Bellamy and company decided to attempt to reach the ship. The passengers of the dropship land, are identified as mostly former prisoners, and swiftly encounter Clark and Madi. Four members of this new crew are killed, and the hunt for Clark is on.

What You’ll Find Out:
This episode focuses on two converging storylines. The Ark, featuring Bellamy, Harper, Monty, Emori, Murphy, Echo and Raven, load up their remaining fuel and set course for the newly arrived ship hoping to find a fuel reserve to get them down to the ground. There are bumps along the way, but they make it onboard the Eligius IV, a mining ship missing one engine. While the ship does not run on the right type of fuel, Raven finds a stash of the right kind and some of the crew goes to retrieve it.

Concurrently, Monty discovers a comms system strong enough to listen in on the ground, only to hear the prisoners on the ground hunting a female. The crew seems to be in agreement that the woman is most likely Octavia, given that none of them thing Clark could have survived. In the process of fuel recovery, the crew comes upon a large bank of cryo-pods, 300 in total, mostly filled with violent criminals. It is later revealed that there was some sort of mutiny in response to the prisoners discover the meaning of “Order Eleven” over 100 years ago.

Following a brief encounter with a remotely released prisoner named Kodiak (in response to a tripped alarm), the crew debates what to do about the criminals on board and whether to head for the ground and finally settles on using the prisoners as a bargaining chip to broker a treaty with the ones on the ground. Raven stays behind to man the console, citing that there is an escape pod she can use if things go wrong (there isn’t), and Murphy, thinking there is a pod, also stays behind just in case.

While of these events are happening, Clark is swiftly captured, although Madi escapes, and the majority of her role in the episode is through a resistance and interrogation sequence that enables us, as viewers, to get to know some of the prison crew a little better. Until Madi is threatened, Clark remains silent as we see the three-way power struggle between Colonel Diyoza (the leader and apparently a former SEAL), Lieutenant Zeke Shaw (a pilot and non-violent criminal), and Paxton “Graveyard” McCreary (a psychopathic mass murderer). Upon the threat of losing Madi, however, Clark opens up and explains the events that led to the end of the world—both times.

All seems to be going well until Diyoza’s people encounter the Ark crew after landing, causing Diyoza to doubt Clark’s honestly about her and Madi being alone. The Ark crew is rescued by Madi, who then leads Bellamy to Clark to broker the treaty, citing that he would trade the lives of the 283 prisoners for the life of Clark.

What Just Happened?

Numbers always seem to be a crucial element in this series, so for those keeping count, if we assume all of those who came to the ground were prisoners (not a certainty), that means sixteen landed (because Kodiak was killed on the ship). Clark and Madi killed four before Clark’s capture, bringing them down to twelve. In her rescue of the crew, Madi kills two more, reducing their numbers to ten. Why is this important to follow? On the surface, it simply means that Diyoza’s crew does not have a significant numbers advantage. But within the larger framework of the series, we bear witness to survival instincts evolved to an extremely high level. Clark and Madi, lightly armed, and Madi but a child managed to eliminate nearly 40% of a heavily armed team of the most violent criminals of their era. I like to believe that says something about the capacity to evolve and survive, and certainly does not bode well for the remaining prisoner crew.

The mining ship, the Eligius IV, does bring to light some interesting revelations. It is mentioned by Shaw, upon seeing Clark’s nightblood, that augmented blood was something used on Eligius III, something I imagine will come up again. That also implies a minimum of four mining ships named after the patron saint of engineering and coin collecting, a name also associated with the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency phenomenon we are currently experiencing. I fully expect, as the season progresses, to learn more about the world as it was 100+ years ago, prior to A.L.I.E.’s attacks. How long these mining ships were in operation prior to the destruction of Earth is still unknown. Also, the presence of a mining ship bodes well for our buried bunker buddies.

Rating: 8/10
Final Thought: Overall, this was a good episode, but the alternating format between Eden and the Bunker can be frustrating for viewers. Although it provides a more clear and concise balance of narrative, the time away from each story-arc makes it harder to stay engrossed in either. Now that Bellamy and Clark are close to reuniting, though, the Eden story should prove a bit more unified moving forward.