Home Reviews

The 100 Review: “Earth Skills” (Season 1, Episode 2)

The 100 doesn’t skip a beat going into its second episode, the aptly titled Earth Skills. Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and her merry band of survivalists have managed to escape their riverside predicament and made it back to camp. In their mad dash for safety, they also discovered that Jasper wasn’t killed by the spear to his chest (at least not yet) and while they were distracted by a pesky thing called self-preservation, he was promptly being kidnapped. Not bad on the action front, and all before the first commercial break, too.

the-100

the-100
So far, we’ve seen no indication of a third eye or an extra set of arms, but if the skull Clarke found is any indication, human evolution has been set off course, at the very least. It must be a little weird knowing that there is a race of people parallel to your own that are watching you, and that they have the home team advantage. Yet, this realization hasn’t quite sunk in with the masses just yet.

Recommended Videos

I like the idea of being proactive and going on the defense with the wall, but if these guys can’t even manage to agree on not agreeing, how are they going to fend off the mysterious locals? It seems like the only thing Bellamy and his followers have going for them now is a decent last meal. Other than that, what can he really offer except for a lot of heftily delivered words? He’s already proven that he’s willing to put himself and his rules on a pedestal with his punishment of Atom (Rhys Ward) for canoodling with Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), so how much farther is he really willing to go? Would he really have let Clarke fall, possibly to her death, if no one else had been around?  It’ll be interesting to see how he traverses the forum of public opinion after his latest decision – or maybe even more importantly, how he explains it to his sister.

Creepy locals aside, the way that the story is developing leaves the show up to a lot of directional possibilities. Will Abby literally jump ship and come down to help Clarke and the others survive? Will Kane lead the humans further towards extinction? Will Clark and Bellamy be able to co-exist or will eventually one completely overrule the other? Good thing we still have plenty episodes of The 100 left this season to find out.