Reviewed by Owen Bush.

Finn came to his demise in a youthful, beautiful and well-written way last episode – and after hating his frustrating opinions for so long, I re-evaluated my thoughts on him after his death, realizing that he was a little misunderstood. However, I was still happy to see the character go, as it felt like the right time for someone who has had issues throughout the season. What I really didn’t enjoy about this episode, titled the clichéd Remember Me, was the amateur, silly and rather annoying glimpses of Finn that ruined the beauty of his end. Nevertheless, this mid-season premiere did have some excruciatingly tense moments that made up for the dull moments with Finn; and we were slapped with plenty of plot expansion, which was much-needed after the mid-season finale’s self-contained, character building approach.

Brutally, Clarke faced some challenges this week, starting off by not being able to get Finn’s blood off her hands (damn you, Finn!). Leaving the jokes behind, Clarke was in an abyss of confusion as she battled the demons that caused her to kill Finn previously. Her mind was rambling, and once again Eliza Taylor proved her worth as the show’s main character, the emotions almost tumbling off her face and really connecting with the audience. This is why we didn’t need the hints of her once love, because seeing the reaction from Clarke personally would have made out to be much more sincere and subtle, rather than once again throwing the love story into our face. It’s over – leave it at that!

The connections between Clarke and Abby once again flowed truthfully and brilliantly. It wasn’t overdone and it felt incredibly real; the troubled relationship even boiled brutally during the second half as we really noticed the pain between them. Ultimately, the mentions of Clarke’s dad haven’t been regular, so it was nice to see a brief mention as tensions arose between the pair, and it really clarified the distinct difficulties between Clarke and Abby. We waited so long to see them join together again, and the reaction from that has definitely been worth the wait as the emotions explored have been in depth whilst being subtle.

Jasper’s team of Bond spies continued to conquer the concepts around them in Mount Weather, and after no signs of them last week, it was refreshing to return to their life of death, torture and secrets (poor Team Jasper). They formulated yet another plan, hoping to succeed in creating a radio broadcast to those at Camp Jaha. The character development for everyone in the group (bar one who I still don’t know the name of) has been splendid, especially Jasper, who originally was a rather dull, annoying and generic character but now has turned into a trustful friend and mostly a significant leader of the group. However, that might not be a good thing, knowing the procedures taking place at Mount Weather – eek!

As they moved towards Finn’s burial, a short bruising moment was left lingering distastefully in my mouth as Bellamy perceived the opportunity to go to Mount Weather and become an inside man. Luckily, Clarke rejected him due to the recent deaths of her friends but of course, she changed her mind as she noticed her errors in judgement and the words spoken by Lexa. We can only hope Bellamy finds some sort of sanctity at Mount Weather, but it’s unlikely. On the theme of Bellamy, it’s unusual that his character seems to have gone unnoticed and possibly ignored during Season 2. Hopefully this sub-plot will regain the spark from the end of Season 1 – the fighter, who made tough decisions because he had to.

Moments became considerably dangerous as some of Camp Jaha faced the Grounders. Understandably, both of them have lost a great deal and perceiving who is worse only is destroyed in comparison to that of Mount Weather. It’s staggering to see the comparison between Season 1 and Season 2 between the groups – Season 1 saw brutality, a lack of understanding and a loss of life that was nothing compared to the torture at Mount Weather happening now, whilst Season 2 saw redemption and friendship, especially between the two powerful female leaders who fight for the rights of their people.

Things really started to become surreal, as Clarke spoke the words of the Grounders and Kane offered gifts of friendship and kindness (even if it was alcohol). All was happy until poison drenched that of peace, murdered the opportunity for friendliness and destroyed even the chances of life for many of our favourite characters. It was an interesting turn of events, something I definitely was not expecting as we reached the sanctity between characters. As I looked at Raven, I actually was challenging the thoughts of her NOT doing it – she was angry and upset, the one she had loved had died but surely she couldn’t do it?

It made the audience think about really how both sides have trust issues, and how we should never trust the obvious, for the truth can sometimes lurk deeper and closer to you, as the scenes suggested that Lexa’s right-hand man was the real culprit. We didn’t find that out till we had to painfully watch Raven’s body being slashed as she paid the price – poor Raven, she really hasn’t had much luck in life, has she? The scenes were really well-executed (punny) and gruesome as usual – this season has definitely been a lot darker than Season 1, really aching for those spine-tingling moments that we all crave for.

Things heated up as the plan became reality; Jasper and co moving into understanding about how to contact their friends, family and loved ones. After a crucially lovely moment with Jasper and Maya, (everyone say “aw!”), things seemed to be going smoothly until Monty took a dangerous toil into the unknown as he pretended to do checks to snoop around and send the message to Camp Jaha. It was all looking well and the message was sent, but as the music moved into overdrive, Monty was revealed as a fraud, and we all know things go bad from there. Monty is a favourite character for me personally, as he’s very real and easy to like and understand – I would have originally never expected him to take this route in the story and this suggests the real brilliance of writing on The 100. Although we had hiccups like Finn, the moments with Monty totally made up for it.

As the episode concluded, another excruciating cliffhanger rose above us – although it wasn’t as shocking due to the build-up, it was even more heart-wrenching, as Monty has grown on the audience well, and being locked up in a cage ready for torture isn’t the best place for a likeable character to be.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Bruising, painful and tense, Remember Me saw an incredible amount of development on all sides but the episode focused too much on those already gone, with the title even reflecting the recent death, making the episode too focused on something that should have been subtly stunning, rather than once again, overdone.