Sheralyn Pratt's Blog, page 3
January 3, 2017
YOU Did This!
Writing is fun. And it only gets more fun when people like what you've written.
Not everyone, obviously. We all know no one can please everyone. Not even a deity can do that, so why ask it of ourselves, right? But all that is a tangent to the fact that in 2016 I put out 3 books:
Pimpernel
King of the Friend Zone
Walk of Infamy
Then you guys did things like nominate them for awards and put the books on your yearly list of favorites.
For example, all 3 of 2016 titles are nominated for Whitney Awards and you voted for them on the Swooney Awards list.
You all did this, and if I win any awards for 2016, it will be because of you all.
Thank you!
And here's to a 2017 filled with just as many, if not more, great books!
Not everyone, obviously. We all know no one can please everyone. Not even a deity can do that, so why ask it of ourselves, right? But all that is a tangent to the fact that in 2016 I put out 3 books:
Pimpernel
King of the Friend Zone
Walk of Infamy
Then you guys did things like nominate them for awards and put the books on your yearly list of favorites.
For example, all 3 of 2016 titles are nominated for Whitney Awards and you voted for them on the Swooney Awards list.
You all did this, and if I win any awards for 2016, it will be because of you all.
Thank you!
And here's to a 2017 filled with just as many, if not more, great books!
October 25, 2016
Happy (My) Birthday to Us All!
This year, I decided to give myself the birthday present of FINALLY COMPLETING the last book in the Rhea series.
And guess what? Mission Accomplished!
This means you get to celebrate my birthday (Halloween) with me by seeing the final Rhea book appear on Amazon, ready to purchase. The ebook will be available ON my birthday with the physical book coming out shortly thereafter for everyone who has the physical books from the rest of the series.
This is definitely the last book in the Rhea series, although the word is still out on whether it can be read as a standalone novel. (Pimpernel fans, I'll let you know when reviewers who have not read the rest of the series let me know, since this book may be one you like if it truly stands alone.)
The cover looks like this:
The synopsis goes like this:
Rhea always knew she worked for a powerful men, but she didn’t understand the full scope of their influence until she quit her job—or tried to.
The clandestine group that calls themselves The Fours doesn’t accept two-week’s notice from employees. Instead, they’re demanding Rhea perform a final task of their choosing to earn a life free from their demands.
Rhea knows whatever The Fours ask of her will be unlike any challenge she’s ever faced. She’s prepared for the worst, but what she’s about to learn is that groups like The Fours are a secret for a reason.
Because no one gets to walk away from them. Not even Rhea.
I've been warning y'all for a while now that this final book in the Rhea series is a rough ride. That said, I hope you still LOVE it!
Content warnings: Mild language and much more violence than Rhea would prefer.
And guess what? Mission Accomplished!
This means you get to celebrate my birthday (Halloween) with me by seeing the final Rhea book appear on Amazon, ready to purchase. The ebook will be available ON my birthday with the physical book coming out shortly thereafter for everyone who has the physical books from the rest of the series.
This is definitely the last book in the Rhea series, although the word is still out on whether it can be read as a standalone novel. (Pimpernel fans, I'll let you know when reviewers who have not read the rest of the series let me know, since this book may be one you like if it truly stands alone.)
The cover looks like this:
The synopsis goes like this:
Rhea always knew she worked for a powerful men, but she didn’t understand the full scope of their influence until she quit her job—or tried to.
The clandestine group that calls themselves The Fours doesn’t accept two-week’s notice from employees. Instead, they’re demanding Rhea perform a final task of their choosing to earn a life free from their demands.
Rhea knows whatever The Fours ask of her will be unlike any challenge she’s ever faced. She’s prepared for the worst, but what she’s about to learn is that groups like The Fours are a secret for a reason.
Because no one gets to walk away from them. Not even Rhea.
I've been warning y'all for a while now that this final book in the Rhea series is a rough ride. That said, I hope you still LOVE it!
Content warnings: Mild language and much more violence than Rhea would prefer.
July 22, 2016
A Totally, TOTALLY Overdue Update
Okay, it’s WAAAAY past time for an update from me, right?
So here’s a little self-Q&A of all the things you need to know to be totally up to date.
Question: What’s the next book that will be coming out?
Answer: King of the Friend Zone on September 1, 2016.
Now if you’re thinking, “Hey, it was supposed to be Walk of Infamy,” you would be correct. So what happened? Well, I writing King of the Friend Zone as part of the awesome Power of the Matchmaker series, and one of the other authors asked to switch months for release dates, so I had to stop Walk of Infamy (which is very, very close to done, I assure you) and put both feet into getting King of the Friend Zone ready first.
SUPER sorry for the bait-and switch. The good news is, it’s very possible you’ll get two books very close together. So yay for that?
Question: What’s King of the Friend Zone about?
Answer: Happy you asked! Here’s a synopsis:
Esme Taylor has an amazing fiancé, a lifelong best friend, and a problem. The problem stems from the fact that her best friend is named Hunter and, well. . .he’s kind of (totally) hot. It’s hate at first sight when her fiancé, Jon, and Hunter meet. Jon’s convinced that Hunter is in love with Esme, and that Hunter must be out of the picture if their upcoming marriage is to succeed.
Esme thinks Jon is paranoid.
The truth is, Jon’s not that far off. Hunter is in love with his best friend and always has been. What Jon has wrong, however, is that Hunter never had any plans of ruining Esme’s happily ever after. Hunter wants what’s best for Esme, even if that’s not him.
When Jon pushes hard to end Esme and Hunter’s friendship, opposition comes from the most unlikely of places. It’s an eccentric lady with a cookie cart who suggests a different solution to Esme’s problem: Hunter and Esme should give each other a chance.
They’ve both thought of the possibility over the years—of course they have. But with a ring already on Esme’s finger and a heap of hurt feelings and broken trust in the mix, there hasn’t been a worse time to explore the depths of their feelings for each other.
Both Esme and Hunter think it’s time to move on and leave childhood crushes in the past. The question is: Can one woman and the taste of one cookie change their minds?
Question: What are the other books in the Power of the Matchmaker series?
Answer: It’s so crazy to me that 7 of the 12 Matchmaker books have already been released, and #8 will be released in a matter of DAYS.
Next is #9: September. Me. *gulp* (I hope you like it!)
But if you want to check out the other books in the series up until now, they are all up with tons of reviews to help you find your perfect fit! They are all different genres and all stand alone novels that can be read in any order.
Check them out.
January: Broken Things to Mend
February: Not Always Happenstance
March: If We Were a Movie
April: Love is Come
May: Four Chambers
June: O'er the River Liffey
July: Chasing Fireflies
August: Between Heaven and Earth
September: King of the Friend Zone
October: To Move the World
November: How I Met Your Brother
December: The Reformer
And here's a look at all the covers so you know what they look like.
Got any other questions? Ask away in the comments, and I'll try to be a good author and answer them all in the next post.
How about that? :D
So here’s a little self-Q&A of all the things you need to know to be totally up to date.
Question: What’s the next book that will be coming out?
Answer: King of the Friend Zone on September 1, 2016.
Now if you’re thinking, “Hey, it was supposed to be Walk of Infamy,” you would be correct. So what happened? Well, I writing King of the Friend Zone as part of the awesome Power of the Matchmaker series, and one of the other authors asked to switch months for release dates, so I had to stop Walk of Infamy (which is very, very close to done, I assure you) and put both feet into getting King of the Friend Zone ready first.
SUPER sorry for the bait-and switch. The good news is, it’s very possible you’ll get two books very close together. So yay for that?
Question: What’s King of the Friend Zone about?
Answer: Happy you asked! Here’s a synopsis:
Esme Taylor has an amazing fiancé, a lifelong best friend, and a problem. The problem stems from the fact that her best friend is named Hunter and, well. . .he’s kind of (totally) hot. It’s hate at first sight when her fiancé, Jon, and Hunter meet. Jon’s convinced that Hunter is in love with Esme, and that Hunter must be out of the picture if their upcoming marriage is to succeed.
Esme thinks Jon is paranoid.
The truth is, Jon’s not that far off. Hunter is in love with his best friend and always has been. What Jon has wrong, however, is that Hunter never had any plans of ruining Esme’s happily ever after. Hunter wants what’s best for Esme, even if that’s not him.
When Jon pushes hard to end Esme and Hunter’s friendship, opposition comes from the most unlikely of places. It’s an eccentric lady with a cookie cart who suggests a different solution to Esme’s problem: Hunter and Esme should give each other a chance.
They’ve both thought of the possibility over the years—of course they have. But with a ring already on Esme’s finger and a heap of hurt feelings and broken trust in the mix, there hasn’t been a worse time to explore the depths of their feelings for each other.
Both Esme and Hunter think it’s time to move on and leave childhood crushes in the past. The question is: Can one woman and the taste of one cookie change their minds?
Question: What are the other books in the Power of the Matchmaker series?
Answer: It’s so crazy to me that 7 of the 12 Matchmaker books have already been released, and #8 will be released in a matter of DAYS.
Next is #9: September. Me. *gulp* (I hope you like it!)
But if you want to check out the other books in the series up until now, they are all up with tons of reviews to help you find your perfect fit! They are all different genres and all stand alone novels that can be read in any order.
Check them out.
January: Broken Things to Mend
February: Not Always Happenstance
March: If We Were a Movie
April: Love is Come
May: Four Chambers
June: O'er the River Liffey
July: Chasing Fireflies
August: Between Heaven and Earth
September: King of the Friend Zone
October: To Move the World
November: How I Met Your Brother
December: The Reformer
And here's a look at all the covers so you know what they look like.
Got any other questions? Ask away in the comments, and I'll try to be a good author and answer them all in the next post.
How about that? :D
May 9, 2016
Book 4 in Power of the Matchmaker: Love Is Come
Being on the road and walkabouting has thrown a wrench in me giving a timely shout out to the awesome Heather B. Moore and her release of Love Is Come. This book is the fourth book (although they can be read in any order) of the Power of the Matchmaker series (12 months, 12 books, 12 authors).
The series' matchmaker, Pearl, is certainly proving that she can handle every pairing that comes her way in this series.
In Love Is Come, by Heather B. Moore, we are treated to the gentle romance of two souls who a bit kinder than the world around them—so kind, in fact, that they threaten their own happiness by letting the stronger voices around them call the shots.
Nelle is an only child with a bit of privilege going for her and Mathew is the handsome farmer who has every intention of proposing to her cousin, Alice. Their paths never would have crossed except for the fact that tragedy strikes Nelle’s family and she is forced to go live with her aunt for the summer.
I like this book because it makes me think of all the times in life when we think that if something is meant to be that it will just fall into place. I thought about that a lot as I read this book—that fine balance between waiting for what fate serves up and going out and carving your own fate. But whatever side of the that philosophical question you may stand on, it's pretty clear that Nelle and Mathew are meant to be.
The question is: Will everything come together in a way where they actually get together?
If you’re in the mood for a sweet ride with two characters with hearts of guileless gold, Love Is Come is the book for you!
Content: Squeaky Clean
Buy the book and read more reviews here.
May 8, 2016
COMING SOON: Walk of Infamy
Some of you are about to fist-pump the air while saying, “It’s about time!”
Others of you are going to be hearing about the Rhea Jensen series for the first time and not be sure if it’s worth getting excited about.
Either way, it’s official: the next book of mine to hit digital shelves will be Walk of Infamy—the final book in the Rhea Jensen series. And while this is Book 6 in the series (Book 7, if you count The Avenues novella), Walk of Infamy is a STANDALONE NOVEL. This means you can read it whether you’ve read any of the other books in the Rhea Jensen series or not.
What I can tell you is that if you loved Pimpernel, you’ll definitely want to pick up Walk of Infamy; and if you like the Rhea Jensen series, then buckle up. Things are about to get real.
What’s Walk of Infamy About?
Rhea Jensen has a date with destiny. A powerful, multi-national group calling itself The Fours considers her a threat. She doesn’t know why The Fours think this, only that they will destroy her life and the lives of everyone she loves if she doesn’t do as she’s asked.
Rhea knows where to be, when to be there, and that the odds are not in her favor for a happy ending. That’s it. What she’s about to learn is that the past seven years of her life were not what they seemed, and there is a 99.9% chance she will not live to see another day. Her date with destiny is rigged to become a date with infamy.
The question Rhea must ask herself is: Is she going to die on her terms, or on The Fours terms?
Her life, and the end thereof, has just become a game for the rich and powerful to watch play out live, and they’ve played this game many time before with other people more skilled than Rhea. The rules are designed so that the House wins every time. Rhea knows she can’t win—not without a miracle. But if she’s not going to get what she wants, well then, neither are The Fours. The clock is running, though, so whatever Rhea’s going to do, she needs to do it quick.
My Thoughts About the Book
Walk of Infamy is a total ride that keeps on moving and will be a bit intense for some people. Yes, it is a standalone novel, but those of you who have read the rest of the series know that there’s a lot to tie in and tie up, and none of it is for the faint of heart.
While Walk of Infamy is a clean read and is PG as far as outright content, thematically this book is easily PG-13 and there are triggers in it for sensitive readers. I like to be upfront about that, because I know that while some readers love intensity, others like their reading time to be a trigger-free escape. Walk of Infamy has some triggers along the way, so if you have any concerns about whether or not this book is for you, feel free to use the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon to start reading before you buy.
All that said, I’m so excited to finally get this book out there. Those of you who have been waiting for it know that it’s taken me quite a while. I adore Rhea and her story, but this last book is pretty rated-R in my mind and it took a while to figure out how to tell Rhea’s final chapter in the right way.
So…Rhea fans and Pimpernel fans? This one’s for you! Buckle up, and get ready for a serious ride in 2016, because Walk of Infamy is coming your way!
Look for it coming this June. :)
March 7, 2016
Walkabout #3
Those of you who know me know that I am prone to walkabouts--trips where I get in my car and just start driving. My first walkabout was (coincidentally) 40 days and 40 nights while the second one measured out to two weeks.
April 1st marks the beginning of Walkabout #3, and I think it would be way fun to bring you all along in some fashion. I will definitely be posting on Twitter and Instagram, but I'm wondering if there's something else I can do to bring you along.
Personally, I never listen to podcasts but I understand that they're a thing. It got me wondering if that might be a cool thing to do on the road. I always meet amazing people with great knowledge and skills that teach me things I inevitably use in my writing.
But what if I officially interviewed them and shared these writerly facts with you?
I can't promise any specific topic. You never know who you're going to meet on the road and where their area of expertise lies. It's all a bit of a grab bag, but a mixed bag that fascinates me, personally.
The question is: Does it fascinate you, or at least interest you enough to check it out a time or two?
Sound off below and share any ideas you have in the comment section. I'd love to have you along for the ride :)
Are you interested in a podcast of randomly interviewed subject matter experts I meet on the road? P.S. Apparently some browsers aren't allowing voting in the poll. BOO! But if that's the case for you, please feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Also, I will spending most of this walkabout in the western United States, so if you want to connect with me, please feel free to reach out and DEFINITELY follow me on Twitter and Instagram to stay in touch.
April 1st marks the beginning of Walkabout #3, and I think it would be way fun to bring you all along in some fashion. I will definitely be posting on Twitter and Instagram, but I'm wondering if there's something else I can do to bring you along.
Personally, I never listen to podcasts but I understand that they're a thing. It got me wondering if that might be a cool thing to do on the road. I always meet amazing people with great knowledge and skills that teach me things I inevitably use in my writing.
But what if I officially interviewed them and shared these writerly facts with you?
I can't promise any specific topic. You never know who you're going to meet on the road and where their area of expertise lies. It's all a bit of a grab bag, but a mixed bag that fascinates me, personally.
The question is: Does it fascinate you, or at least interest you enough to check it out a time or two?
Sound off below and share any ideas you have in the comment section. I'd love to have you along for the ride :)
Are you interested in a podcast of randomly interviewed subject matter experts I meet on the road? P.S. Apparently some browsers aren't allowing voting in the poll. BOO! But if that's the case for you, please feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Also, I will spending most of this walkabout in the western United States, so if you want to connect with me, please feel free to reach out and DEFINITELY follow me on Twitter and Instagram to stay in touch.
March 5, 2016
Off Topic: Ramblings on Episode 3X07 of The 100
If you don’t watch The 100 on the CW, you can skip this post. Seriously. It's long. Skip it.
If you do watch The 100 and are all caught up through episode 3X07, you can probably understand why I need to do a massive write-up on the episode to purge my brain so I can keep working on my current WIP (that still needs a cover and title reveal, I know...Sorry). I need to free up the real estate this show takes up in my brain so my own characters can live there instead.
Let's Talk About Episode 3X07 & Lexa's Death, Specifically
Personally, I don’t know many people who watch The 100 and I don’t blame people who don’t. It’s not feel-good television where black is black and white is white and we all know who the heroes and the villains are.
In The 100, everyone is a hero and everyone is a villain in someone's story. It just depends on what time you look at your watch on any given day. This is a show about people fighting for survival—and frequently losing. It makes you care about characters on a pretty core level…it makes you relate and align, only to then force you watch your alliances fail and your friends and heroes die in their fight.
This is not fun TV.
"How not fun can it be?" you ask. After this most recent episode, the showrunner of The 100 lost over 10,000 Twitter followers in 24 hours while some cast and crew posted encouragements to fans not to self-harm. Tumblr, which usually blows up with fan gifs within an hour of any episode ending, became an endless wall of text posts this past Thursday—almost all concise, distraught, and defeated—of girls who had lost their stunning champion to a death that was 100% avoidable at the same time being the EXACT mode of death they’ve seen for people like them over and over and over on TV.
Unrequited love of a gay character followed by the hope of a happy ending followed by a seemingly senseless death to inspire the true hero of the story to move forward and save the day? That’s what fans of Lexa saw: their hero, needlessly wiped off their television screens to free Clarke up for bigger and better things.
At first glance, it looks like the show took the most compelling and wise character in their character rolodex and turned her into a springboard trope for the main protagonist to rise to a call to action. And the only argument against this claim by the showrunners is the call to “Just. Keep. Watching.”
For some, such a call after blindsiding betrayal is not enough because part of them literally broke on Thursday night.
A Lesson Writers on Cliffhangers
Cliffhangers are standard in episodic storytelling, but what this last episode of The 100 did is a case study for all writers in the fact that there is a line that can be crossed in creating such cliffhangers—especially when you are dealing with phenomenal actors.
The lines that were crossed in episode 3X07 of The 100?
Killing a beloved character in a trope-like fashion that fully distracted from the groundwork the show had laid across several episodesLeaving your audience (many of them teenagers) with the final image of your main protagonist legitimately shattered and likely suicidal and forcing them to wait 3 weeks for resolution
If a trope had not been used to kill Lexa, and if we would have had any final image of Clarke looking like her only coherent thought might be Ai gonplei ste odon, viewers invested in the Clarke-Lexa storyline might have had a bit more of a rational response when the screen faded to commercial for the last time on Thursday night.
As it stands, much of the audience reaction is not rational because of how rich the storytelling has been between Clarke and Lexa up to this point. It’s the equivalent of JK Rowling killing Hermione at the end of the 5th Harry Potter book while leaving Harry paralyzed and inconsolable before forcing teenage readers to wait until the next book for resolution while telling them, “Trust me. Just. Keep. Reading.”
A storyteller can make the choice of how to tell a story, but the storyteller doesn’t get to choose who is ready and capable of handling the story they deliver—especially when delivered episodically with large gaps of time between explanations and resolutions.
And with everything the storytellers delivered in 3X07, a system overload is a completely reasonable reaction to viewers invested in Lexa—and especially in LGBT teenagers. And it kind of feels like the adults running the show kind of forgot about that and assumed that all their viewers were watching from a safe emotional place in their homes and were equipped to treat afictional hero dying as just something that happened on TV.
Gosh, that sucks, right? But it's not real, right? Stories aren't real...right?
Well, for some, they are more real than others so let's not wait 3 weeks to talk about what happened or see a path forward, shall we? Let's talk about the importance of Lexa dying right now.
Clarke & Lexa’s Vision
Since the day they met, Clarke and Lexa have been two allies fighting for a better world. They might not have always been on the same page in this fight or always sure-footed about how much they could trust each other, but their respect and love for each other by the time they reach episode 3X07 is unquestionable. It’s them against the world, and not even their closest friends have their backs (yet). Everyone wants war. Everyone wants revenge, and only Clarke and Lexa are able to see past the divide between war and peace when they look at each other. It's a connection neither of them asked for, but it's there.
Jus nou drein jus daun. Blood must not have blood.
This is their call to their people. There CAN be peace. We CAN coexist without killing each other over every slight and disagreement. This cry falls almost entirely on deaf ears even as Clarke and Lexa fight for it to live in a world where they are not forced enemies.
Then, suddenly and quite unceremoniously—and in a move of utter senseless violence from her closest advisor, Clarke is forced to watch Lexa die, be mutilated post-mortem, then carried off without any closure or mourning period for her soul mate. It happens fast and without warning. And Clarke, visibly shaking and alone, looks like this is the last hit she can ever take in this life as she stands in shock in the spot where Lexa's life ended, broken beyond repair.
Should TV be this intense? Some would argue not. Especially when killing off a hero to a very vulnerable part of the real-world population.
Yet Death is Truly Not The End-of-the-Line Here
I might be wrong about what happens next, but as a storyteller, my brain is very aware that we’re just over 1/3 of the way into the story, which makes Lexa’s death a beat. An important beat.
So let’s talk about it and what her death means to the entire world of The 100.
Lexa’s Last Hour
In episode 7, Lexa has just had the most life-altering experience of her life. After months of loving and hoping to be loved in return, Lexa has discovered the impossible to be true. Clarke loves her. Not the Commander. Clarke loves Lexa. The girl who has spent her entire life acting and being treated like an institution has finally had someone see the soul underneath the mantle and love that vulnerable and very human soul.
This has not happened to a Commander since Becca returned to earth 97 years earlier.
Clarke has seen all sides of Lexa and accepted them fully—the broken, the beautiful, the powerful, the vulnerable. All that is Lexa, is safe and whole in Clarke’s hands—even in times where they are in conflict. Clarke never exploits or leverages Lexa's love against her. Of everyone on the planet Lexa could love, she could do no better than Clarke Griffin when it comes to finding a mate who is loyal, true, honest, kind, and faithful.
In an utterly unsafe world, Lexa is safe with Clarke. And the last hour before her death is very likely Lexa the first time she's experienced peace, joy, and utter contentment since joining the nightbloods.
We know that Lexa had a relationship with Costia before Clarke, but what we can also deduce after seeing Lexa’s reaction to Clarke is that the Lexa-Costia relationship was not a full-hearted meeting of equals. There was likely infatuation and passion, yes, but not a meeting of soul mates who both fully saw the other’s flaws and loved them more for them.
With Clarke, Lexa has touched a whole new state of awareness of what can exist between two people. Her soul has mated irreversibly, as has Clarke's. What happened between them in their last hour together was not just sex. Their souls are bound now, and that is a big, big deal.
What Lexa’s Death Means in the Bigger Picture
The trope of giving a lesbian a sniff of happiness before removing her from the story (usually to catalyze the protagonist) seems to be in full swing in what plays out next—especially since the episode does the rapid fire of: sex…death…"tune in next time," all within ten minutes. And I will confess that if Lexa didn’t have an AI implanted in her that will be passed on to the next Commander, her death would be the worst lesbian death on TV ever.
But Lexa DOES have an AI implanted in her that has been designed to learn from each of its hosts and adapt to creating the ideal human leadership in a transmigrational symbiotic relationship with mankind.
The fact that Lexa’s last moments were the absolute high of fully reciprocated love, completely rewarded trust, and selfless compassion matter greatly not only to her, but to the future of all humanity on The 100.
The last two people Lexa speaks to before she dies are her killer/mentor and her soulmate. And what happens with each of them is going to create Lexa’s true legacy.
Lexa's True Legacy
Lexa's last action with Titus (her killer) is to reaffirm the policy that had made Titus fearful to the point that he ended up taking her life.
“Blood must NOT have blood.”
Ever since humanity rose out of the apocalypse, humans having been chanting that "blood MUST have blood"—demanding an eye for an eye in the name justice and keeping the peace. Titus, the biggest defender of this tradition, has just murdered Lexa trying to get her to return to the old mantra and turn away from her new peace-seeking ways.
In response, Lexa looks straight into his eyes, forgives him, makes him swear to never try to harm Clarke again (whom he just tried to kill), then instructs Titus to do his job and mentor the next Commander.
Titus is forgiven by Lexa. Completely. Blood must NOT have blood is the cry of peace Lexa has been trying to get people to hear, and the AI implanted in Lexa just heard her loud and clear. It’s experiencing everything Lexa is and knows the peace Lexa is feeling as she forgives the mentor who betrayed her as she accepts her own death fearlessly.
This is new.
In 97 years, the AI has not experienced this and has thus never assimilated forgiveness as a possibility for humanity. The AI understands survival. It understands a people forced to live hard lives as it struggled to survive nuclear fallout. It understands utalitarian love and vengeance required by authoritarian leaders, but this?
Again. This is new.
After forgiving Titus, Lexa’s very last moments are spent staring into the eyes of Clarke—someone she loves very specifically. Selflessly. Wholly. And Clarke is looking right back, devastated and willing to do anything to stop the inevitable. Anything. At yet, when the inevitable becomes clear, Clarke Griffin becomes a safe port that gently and sweetly leads Lexa across the portal of death. Her words are filled with love as is her final heartbroken kiss.
The AI, maybe for the first time since it became aware of humanity, is simultaneously experiencing and witnessing the devastation of specific loss of two people in love.
Before Lexa, all the Commanders had the charge of loving "the group" over "the one." Titus tells Lexa earlier (when he is trying to get rid of Clarke) that the role of the Commander is a lonely life, and that’s how it must be. Any Commander who loves endangers those they love, which is maybe one of the reasons Lexa is so obsessed with protecting Clarke. Lexa has actively protected Clarke in life—going to great extremes to save her even when the love was seemingly unreciprocated. Now, in death, Lexa makes Titus swear to protect Clarke even as she swears that the Commander’s spirit (i.e., the AI) will protect Clarke when it reaches the new Commander.
And it will. But not for Clarke's sake. For humanity's.
Thanks to Lexa, The New Commander is a Changing of the Guard
Poor Ontari has no idea what she’s walking into in all this.
I’m going to make the bold assumption that she wins the conclave, not Aden. (Poor Aden…maybe he lives?)
Either way, when Ontari gets the AI in her neck, she’s going to experience something no other Commander before her has experienced before. She’s going to inherit the mind and experiences of Lexa. She’s going to have access to her predecessor and an AI that has updated to the fact that Jus nou drein jus daun is a possibility for humanity.
In fact…Jus nou drein just daun is an upgrade to be aspired to. Because, man…it feels GOOD!
Ontari's also going to be in the position of sensing at least an echo of Lexa’s passionate impulses regarding Clarke, all while being about to walk up and speak to a devastated Clarke Griffin.
(Side note: Seriously. Is there a single character on TV more traumatized that Clarke? Can even Katniss Everdeen relate to what Clarke Griffin has been through in the past five months of her life? That’s the worst kind of competition to have between two teenage girls, but I seriously think Clarke wins it.)
When we leave Clarke at the end of 3X07, she is the embodiment of shock and loss, and torpedoing down a one-way path to breakdown town. Her soulmate is dead because Titus aimed at Clarke and missed.
If only Clarke had left earlier, Lexa would still be alive. If only she had never gone to Lexa’s room…if only she hadn’t kissed Lexa, and just left straight away with Octavia.
If only…Lexa would still be alive.
Keep in mind that this show has been very diligent about killing everyone Clarke has opened her heart to. If Clarke’s made love them, they’re dead. (Sorry, Niylah…she kind of used you, so you just got a beatdown for touching her.) Another cinematic trope, yes, but it’s literally been five minutes since Clarke climbed out of bed with Lexa, and now her lover is dead. It’s the second lover Clarke has kissed goodbye to in less than four months. And while she loved Finn, Lexa was a soul mate.
Who is equipped to lose that kind of love within an hour of accepting it?
I honestly believe that this final image of Clarke, portrayed flawlessly by Eliza Taylor, is what left fans so devastated at the end of the episode. Yes, Alycia Debnam-Carey gave us maybe one of the most heartwrenching death scenes on film, but her partner in crime in creating the award-winning performance is Eliza Taylor, who goes down-down-down into some core place actors rarely go to leave us with the final image of a shattered Clarke whose mind literally cannot wrap itself around what just happened.
When we leave Clarke, she is a ship that just blew up at sea who is now nothing more than a floating wreckage. She’s done—except for the fact that her body is somehow still alive and perfectly healthy while the rest of her is shattered and scattered.
This is how Ontari will find Clarke.
Clarke Going Forward
If I were writing Clarke when we next see her again, she would be self-destructive and maybe trying to throw herself on the execution block to take the punishment for Lexa’s death, because she would want death herself.
It would be Ontari, with the updated AI, who would stop Clarke from self-destruction. After all, everything that was Lexa is now uploaded into Ontari's mind, along with all the previous Commanders, and Lexa is going to have very specific instructions when it comes to handling Clarke.
She is to be protected. She is to be trusted in all ways and in all things. She is to be given every opportunity to save her people. She is special.
Also, the AI is going to view Clarke as a key to moving humanity forward and be invested in protecting that key.
I don’t know if Ontari has ever been in love before, but I think she’s about to get a crash course in how it changes one’s perspective on things. The ruthless assassin, mentored and trained by the Ice Queen to be loyal to the Ice Nation and their agenda, is about to get a whole new look on life. The girl who was raised to hate and usurp Lexa is going to be the one who goes on to be the one who fulfills Lexa’s vision.
And to do that, she’s going to need Clarke.
It's Time for Clarke to Officially Come Out of Hiding
So far this season, Clarke has been much of a spectator while others, like Lexa, made the big moves. Clarke has had no desire to lead since her experience at Mount Weather, but I think Ontari is about to give our girl a kick in the pants. This is just speculation, of course, but I think it will be Ontari who looks Clarke in the eye and tells her that it’s time to step up and deliver on all the lines and propaganda she sold to Lexa.
If Lexa hadn’t believed Clarke, Lexa would be alive today. So it’s time to make Lexa’s sacrifice mean something.
Clarke has to finish what she started.
All that belief that peace was possible? That there is more to life than surviving? It’s time to prove it. Clarke came to Lexa is season 2 and said that they had to work together to save their people. Now I think Ontari is going to deliver the same words back to Clarke.
If there is to be more of humanity in the future than just surviving, they must work together and show their people, both collectively and separately, how such a world is possible.
But Let’s Not Forget ALIE—the AI 1.0
The main problem in all this? ALIE 1.0.
The original AI that blew up the world in a nuclear holocaust is out of her bunker, recruiting, and actively seeking her upgrade. She doesn’t know what it is, only that mommy dearest made it. Some may think ALIE wants to destroy this upgrade, but I think she thinks like a computer. I think she wants to assimilate it. I think she wants to grow, which means once she finds out it’s in the Commander, she’s going to want to get it out of the Commander.
Ontari…I don’t want you to die, but I think you just might. If nothing else, you’re about to get your neck cut open and have the “Commander’s spirit” ripped out of you so ALIE can have it.
I truly believe that ALIE 1.0 will get her hands one ALIE 2.0 and digitally merge the two the worlds. This will put digital Lexa and all the other Commanders in ALIE’s world in a way ALIE is not designed to assimilate.
Becca designed ALIE 2.0 as an upgrade, and I think the battle for that upgrade to take hold is the final battle of the season.
ALIE 1.0's Agenda for Mankind
The worlds people have to choose from when they take Jaha’s communion to join ALIE 1.0's City of Light is a black-and-white choice.
Pain, fear, violence and basic survival of the real world vs. peace, joy, unencumbered minds, and a constant natural high of the City of Light.
With options like this, getting people to drink the Kool-Aid isn’t all that hard, and I think even the grounders are going to start doing it. The armies that are about to surround Arkadia to attack? I think ALIE 1.0’s pills are going to start making it to them. And I think that’s how ALIE is going to get ALIE 2.0 out of Ontari. I think Ontari’s own people will cut her open and remove it for ALIE.
Maybe even Titus will do the honors.
I can’t decide if he takes the pill he confiscated from Murphy himself (to escape the grief of killing Lexa) or if he gives it to Clarke, but one of those two options is very likely in my opinion. So maybe it’s the Flamekeeper himself who gives ALIE 1.0 what she wants.
We’ll see. Either way...
LOVE is the Secret Weapon This Season
In the end, I believe that the power of love will determine the fate of humanity in season 3 of The 100.
Lexa’s love for her people; Lexa’s singular love for Clarke. Clarke’s love for her people; Clarke’s forgiveness and love for Lexa. The AI bearing witness to all this and Ontari’s shared remembering layered on top of any love she’s felt in her own life. All of this being assimilated into ALIE 1.0, who has her own programming that will want to erase this new road…but can she?
Is ALIE 1.0 equipped to override what ALIE 2.0 has dowloaded from Lexa? That is the question.
I know that this whole analysis is very Lexa/Clarke centric and I don’t want to ignore all the other characters in this amazing cast who are also seeking to protect love over survival. If blood must not have blood, then EVERYONE in the cast must choose Clarke and Lexa’s path for a coherent society to form. This requires forgiving others and forgiving self. Not everyone will be able to do that. This is the danger of the path, and why ALIE 1.0 will reject it as a plausible option. Clarke and Lexa's path is just far too prone to fail, leading humans to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Yet ALIE 2.0 experienced the change within Lexa, and now agrees that there is more to life than just survival of the human race. Lexa loved something/someone more than survival, allowing her to forgive and granting Lexa sublime experiences that made one hour of life far greater than the experience of years of surviving.
This comprehension in ALIE 2.0 and the digital consciousness of Lexa still staying in the fight will be what determines how things play out with the City of Light, where every human who enters is lobotomized into happiness.
To ALIE 1.0, this is the best way. But ALIE 2.0 not only knows that to be false, it can now sense the absolute hollowness of the sensation ALIE 1.0 is drugging people with and it's not a fraction of the joy experienced within Lexa.
ALIE 1.0 is outdated and the City of Light should be destroyed. Without Lexa, ALIE 2.0 might not come to this conclusion. But with her, it will. And it will fight to erase ALIE 1.0.
Lexa & Clarke's Legacy
The journey of love is not easy. Fear and retribution are much, much easier to embrace, and that is the message of this season. That is why showrunners are saying “Just keep watching.” Because while they slayed one of the most pivotal characters on the screen, her spirit and influence are about to become more influential than ever.
How Does the Season End?
The obvious answer to this is: I don’t know. I wish I was a writer on this show, but I'm obviously not. But I do know that Clarke and Lexa’s fight is not over, because as long as ALIE 2.0 is operational, everything that was Lexa is still in play.
So is it wrong that I want ALIE 2.0 to survive this season and continue down the line of Commanders? Destroying ALIE 2.0 is truly killing Lexa, so I’m on the team of REALLY hoping that Ontari is not the end of the Commander line.
If I wanted to go into a Happily Ever After place with everything, I would have Clarke (maybe with her mom’s help) steal the implant back from ALIE 1.0 and implant ALIE 2.0 to join the fight. We don’t know for sure if the black blood of the Commanders was developed to protect from radiation poisoning or a requirement to host ALIE 2.0 based on the Becca flashbacks yet. It’s tradition that nightbloods host the AI, yes, and Becca had the black blood that helped her survive radiation. But is the black blood a physical requirement at this point? Can the technology link to and survive in any human host at this point?
I don’t know. But I think, in a pinch, Clarke would risk her life to get both feet into the fight against the City of Light, which has stolen so many of her friends and turned them into complacent puppets.
And, happy bonus, connecting to the AI would connect her to Lexa again and digitally imprint them both onto the same server forever. And that would just make me happy. Clarke may go on without Lexa out in the real world, but somewhere they would be together and mentor future Commanders together.
And that would mean something to viewers (like me).
This kind of resolution might just be too nice of a scenario to happen within the world of The 100. Happy endings aren’t their things, but I choose to hold out for the possibility that they maybe-maybe-might give digital versions of their heroes a happy ending, even if the people staying on the screen are still living out an utter suck-fest.
Fingers crossed?
Mine are.
Lexa: Naratively Not Totally Dead
So, yes, Lexa is physically dead on The 100, but her influence is not. Her vision is not. Her fight is not. Her power is not. Her compassion is not. And her love, along with all its fruits, is not.
The fact that Leksa kom Trikru loved with all her heart and was fully loved in return is going to change The 100 world. The connection between Clarke and Lexa is going to serve as a catalyst for the evolution of mankind from war-based survivalists to a people who start to live for something more.
So, no. Lexa is not dead. And the first thing she needs to do in the wake of episode 7 is convince Clarke—paralyzed, catatonic, broken Clarke—that what they have/had is still worth fighting for. I don’t know how Ontari is going to do that, but it will be delicate dance between inspiring Clarke and breaking her grieving brain to get her on the right track.
I’ll “Just Keep Watching”
I watch The 100 because it’s like a free weekly master class in writing. And while I was completely unprepared for Lexa to die the way she did (I knew it was coming, I just thought her death would be less…trope-ish in its execution—sorry, writers, but I did) and utterly sucker punched at the end of episode 7, I will keep watching because I see a long game here that is potentially a very worthy journey.
Do I think the journey will hurt? Yes.
Do I worry that the show will kill Lexa twice by destroying ALIE 2.0 and leaving humanity to self-govern without Becca's inventions? Yes.
Do I think killing Lexa twice would break some viewers to the point where they won’t come back for a season 4? Yes.
Do I believe that I will feel nearly all the feels a human can feel in the remaining 9 episodes of this season? Yes.
And once I'm done feeling the feels, I’ll decide if I’m up for a season 4. Because, as I said at the beginning, this show is a rough ride. It’s like going to the amusement park and getting in the line for a rollercoaster that is going to throw you around, bruise you, and leave you with whiplash you feel for days. You have to be a bit of a masochist to climb aboard.
So, for now, I’ll take the bruises and the pain, because those hard knocks are teaching me. But this season has been insanely brutal, which means I may not want to sign up for another season of watching people trying to Humpty Dumpty their souls back together again while still getting hit at every turn. It’s a rough ride and I’m honestly reaching the point where I can’t imagine Clarke Griffin surviving many more hits—especially without that AI chip in her brain or a digital Lexa in her back pocket.
Clarke NEEDS something to live for. She just does. And this season needs to deliver big on that if I’m expected to believe that she’s going to rise up and champion her people for yet another season.
So I’ll “just keep watching.” Because, narratively speaking, Lexa is not dead and that is VERY important. So important. And I can’t wait to see how The 100 uses that going forward.
If you do watch The 100 and are all caught up through episode 3X07, you can probably understand why I need to do a massive write-up on the episode to purge my brain so I can keep working on my current WIP (that still needs a cover and title reveal, I know...Sorry). I need to free up the real estate this show takes up in my brain so my own characters can live there instead.
Let's Talk About Episode 3X07 & Lexa's Death, Specifically
Personally, I don’t know many people who watch The 100 and I don’t blame people who don’t. It’s not feel-good television where black is black and white is white and we all know who the heroes and the villains are.
In The 100, everyone is a hero and everyone is a villain in someone's story. It just depends on what time you look at your watch on any given day. This is a show about people fighting for survival—and frequently losing. It makes you care about characters on a pretty core level…it makes you relate and align, only to then force you watch your alliances fail and your friends and heroes die in their fight.
This is not fun TV.
"How not fun can it be?" you ask. After this most recent episode, the showrunner of The 100 lost over 10,000 Twitter followers in 24 hours while some cast and crew posted encouragements to fans not to self-harm. Tumblr, which usually blows up with fan gifs within an hour of any episode ending, became an endless wall of text posts this past Thursday—almost all concise, distraught, and defeated—of girls who had lost their stunning champion to a death that was 100% avoidable at the same time being the EXACT mode of death they’ve seen for people like them over and over and over on TV.
Unrequited love of a gay character followed by the hope of a happy ending followed by a seemingly senseless death to inspire the true hero of the story to move forward and save the day? That’s what fans of Lexa saw: their hero, needlessly wiped off their television screens to free Clarke up for bigger and better things.
At first glance, it looks like the show took the most compelling and wise character in their character rolodex and turned her into a springboard trope for the main protagonist to rise to a call to action. And the only argument against this claim by the showrunners is the call to “Just. Keep. Watching.”
For some, such a call after blindsiding betrayal is not enough because part of them literally broke on Thursday night.
A Lesson Writers on Cliffhangers
Cliffhangers are standard in episodic storytelling, but what this last episode of The 100 did is a case study for all writers in the fact that there is a line that can be crossed in creating such cliffhangers—especially when you are dealing with phenomenal actors.
The lines that were crossed in episode 3X07 of The 100?
Killing a beloved character in a trope-like fashion that fully distracted from the groundwork the show had laid across several episodesLeaving your audience (many of them teenagers) with the final image of your main protagonist legitimately shattered and likely suicidal and forcing them to wait 3 weeks for resolution
If a trope had not been used to kill Lexa, and if we would have had any final image of Clarke looking like her only coherent thought might be Ai gonplei ste odon, viewers invested in the Clarke-Lexa storyline might have had a bit more of a rational response when the screen faded to commercial for the last time on Thursday night.
As it stands, much of the audience reaction is not rational because of how rich the storytelling has been between Clarke and Lexa up to this point. It’s the equivalent of JK Rowling killing Hermione at the end of the 5th Harry Potter book while leaving Harry paralyzed and inconsolable before forcing teenage readers to wait until the next book for resolution while telling them, “Trust me. Just. Keep. Reading.”
A storyteller can make the choice of how to tell a story, but the storyteller doesn’t get to choose who is ready and capable of handling the story they deliver—especially when delivered episodically with large gaps of time between explanations and resolutions.
And with everything the storytellers delivered in 3X07, a system overload is a completely reasonable reaction to viewers invested in Lexa—and especially in LGBT teenagers. And it kind of feels like the adults running the show kind of forgot about that and assumed that all their viewers were watching from a safe emotional place in their homes and were equipped to treat afictional hero dying as just something that happened on TV.
Gosh, that sucks, right? But it's not real, right? Stories aren't real...right?
Well, for some, they are more real than others so let's not wait 3 weeks to talk about what happened or see a path forward, shall we? Let's talk about the importance of Lexa dying right now.
Clarke & Lexa’s Vision
Since the day they met, Clarke and Lexa have been two allies fighting for a better world. They might not have always been on the same page in this fight or always sure-footed about how much they could trust each other, but their respect and love for each other by the time they reach episode 3X07 is unquestionable. It’s them against the world, and not even their closest friends have their backs (yet). Everyone wants war. Everyone wants revenge, and only Clarke and Lexa are able to see past the divide between war and peace when they look at each other. It's a connection neither of them asked for, but it's there.
Jus nou drein jus daun. Blood must not have blood.
This is their call to their people. There CAN be peace. We CAN coexist without killing each other over every slight and disagreement. This cry falls almost entirely on deaf ears even as Clarke and Lexa fight for it to live in a world where they are not forced enemies.
Then, suddenly and quite unceremoniously—and in a move of utter senseless violence from her closest advisor, Clarke is forced to watch Lexa die, be mutilated post-mortem, then carried off without any closure or mourning period for her soul mate. It happens fast and without warning. And Clarke, visibly shaking and alone, looks like this is the last hit she can ever take in this life as she stands in shock in the spot where Lexa's life ended, broken beyond repair.
Should TV be this intense? Some would argue not. Especially when killing off a hero to a very vulnerable part of the real-world population.
Yet Death is Truly Not The End-of-the-Line Here
I might be wrong about what happens next, but as a storyteller, my brain is very aware that we’re just over 1/3 of the way into the story, which makes Lexa’s death a beat. An important beat.
So let’s talk about it and what her death means to the entire world of The 100.
Lexa’s Last Hour
In episode 7, Lexa has just had the most life-altering experience of her life. After months of loving and hoping to be loved in return, Lexa has discovered the impossible to be true. Clarke loves her. Not the Commander. Clarke loves Lexa. The girl who has spent her entire life acting and being treated like an institution has finally had someone see the soul underneath the mantle and love that vulnerable and very human soul.
This has not happened to a Commander since Becca returned to earth 97 years earlier.
Clarke has seen all sides of Lexa and accepted them fully—the broken, the beautiful, the powerful, the vulnerable. All that is Lexa, is safe and whole in Clarke’s hands—even in times where they are in conflict. Clarke never exploits or leverages Lexa's love against her. Of everyone on the planet Lexa could love, she could do no better than Clarke Griffin when it comes to finding a mate who is loyal, true, honest, kind, and faithful.
In an utterly unsafe world, Lexa is safe with Clarke. And the last hour before her death is very likely Lexa the first time she's experienced peace, joy, and utter contentment since joining the nightbloods.
We know that Lexa had a relationship with Costia before Clarke, but what we can also deduce after seeing Lexa’s reaction to Clarke is that the Lexa-Costia relationship was not a full-hearted meeting of equals. There was likely infatuation and passion, yes, but not a meeting of soul mates who both fully saw the other’s flaws and loved them more for them.
With Clarke, Lexa has touched a whole new state of awareness of what can exist between two people. Her soul has mated irreversibly, as has Clarke's. What happened between them in their last hour together was not just sex. Their souls are bound now, and that is a big, big deal.
What Lexa’s Death Means in the Bigger Picture
The trope of giving a lesbian a sniff of happiness before removing her from the story (usually to catalyze the protagonist) seems to be in full swing in what plays out next—especially since the episode does the rapid fire of: sex…death…"tune in next time," all within ten minutes. And I will confess that if Lexa didn’t have an AI implanted in her that will be passed on to the next Commander, her death would be the worst lesbian death on TV ever.
But Lexa DOES have an AI implanted in her that has been designed to learn from each of its hosts and adapt to creating the ideal human leadership in a transmigrational symbiotic relationship with mankind.
The fact that Lexa’s last moments were the absolute high of fully reciprocated love, completely rewarded trust, and selfless compassion matter greatly not only to her, but to the future of all humanity on The 100.
The last two people Lexa speaks to before she dies are her killer/mentor and her soulmate. And what happens with each of them is going to create Lexa’s true legacy.
Lexa's True Legacy
Lexa's last action with Titus (her killer) is to reaffirm the policy that had made Titus fearful to the point that he ended up taking her life.
“Blood must NOT have blood.”
Ever since humanity rose out of the apocalypse, humans having been chanting that "blood MUST have blood"—demanding an eye for an eye in the name justice and keeping the peace. Titus, the biggest defender of this tradition, has just murdered Lexa trying to get her to return to the old mantra and turn away from her new peace-seeking ways.
In response, Lexa looks straight into his eyes, forgives him, makes him swear to never try to harm Clarke again (whom he just tried to kill), then instructs Titus to do his job and mentor the next Commander.
Titus is forgiven by Lexa. Completely. Blood must NOT have blood is the cry of peace Lexa has been trying to get people to hear, and the AI implanted in Lexa just heard her loud and clear. It’s experiencing everything Lexa is and knows the peace Lexa is feeling as she forgives the mentor who betrayed her as she accepts her own death fearlessly.
This is new.
In 97 years, the AI has not experienced this and has thus never assimilated forgiveness as a possibility for humanity. The AI understands survival. It understands a people forced to live hard lives as it struggled to survive nuclear fallout. It understands utalitarian love and vengeance required by authoritarian leaders, but this?
Again. This is new.
After forgiving Titus, Lexa’s very last moments are spent staring into the eyes of Clarke—someone she loves very specifically. Selflessly. Wholly. And Clarke is looking right back, devastated and willing to do anything to stop the inevitable. Anything. At yet, when the inevitable becomes clear, Clarke Griffin becomes a safe port that gently and sweetly leads Lexa across the portal of death. Her words are filled with love as is her final heartbroken kiss.
The AI, maybe for the first time since it became aware of humanity, is simultaneously experiencing and witnessing the devastation of specific loss of two people in love.
Before Lexa, all the Commanders had the charge of loving "the group" over "the one." Titus tells Lexa earlier (when he is trying to get rid of Clarke) that the role of the Commander is a lonely life, and that’s how it must be. Any Commander who loves endangers those they love, which is maybe one of the reasons Lexa is so obsessed with protecting Clarke. Lexa has actively protected Clarke in life—going to great extremes to save her even when the love was seemingly unreciprocated. Now, in death, Lexa makes Titus swear to protect Clarke even as she swears that the Commander’s spirit (i.e., the AI) will protect Clarke when it reaches the new Commander.
And it will. But not for Clarke's sake. For humanity's.
Thanks to Lexa, The New Commander is a Changing of the Guard
Poor Ontari has no idea what she’s walking into in all this.
I’m going to make the bold assumption that she wins the conclave, not Aden. (Poor Aden…maybe he lives?)
Either way, when Ontari gets the AI in her neck, she’s going to experience something no other Commander before her has experienced before. She’s going to inherit the mind and experiences of Lexa. She’s going to have access to her predecessor and an AI that has updated to the fact that Jus nou drein jus daun is a possibility for humanity.
In fact…Jus nou drein just daun is an upgrade to be aspired to. Because, man…it feels GOOD!
Ontari's also going to be in the position of sensing at least an echo of Lexa’s passionate impulses regarding Clarke, all while being about to walk up and speak to a devastated Clarke Griffin.
(Side note: Seriously. Is there a single character on TV more traumatized that Clarke? Can even Katniss Everdeen relate to what Clarke Griffin has been through in the past five months of her life? That’s the worst kind of competition to have between two teenage girls, but I seriously think Clarke wins it.)
When we leave Clarke at the end of 3X07, she is the embodiment of shock and loss, and torpedoing down a one-way path to breakdown town. Her soulmate is dead because Titus aimed at Clarke and missed.
If only Clarke had left earlier, Lexa would still be alive. If only she had never gone to Lexa’s room…if only she hadn’t kissed Lexa, and just left straight away with Octavia.
If only…Lexa would still be alive.
Keep in mind that this show has been very diligent about killing everyone Clarke has opened her heart to. If Clarke’s made love them, they’re dead. (Sorry, Niylah…she kind of used you, so you just got a beatdown for touching her.) Another cinematic trope, yes, but it’s literally been five minutes since Clarke climbed out of bed with Lexa, and now her lover is dead. It’s the second lover Clarke has kissed goodbye to in less than four months. And while she loved Finn, Lexa was a soul mate.
Who is equipped to lose that kind of love within an hour of accepting it?
I honestly believe that this final image of Clarke, portrayed flawlessly by Eliza Taylor, is what left fans so devastated at the end of the episode. Yes, Alycia Debnam-Carey gave us maybe one of the most heartwrenching death scenes on film, but her partner in crime in creating the award-winning performance is Eliza Taylor, who goes down-down-down into some core place actors rarely go to leave us with the final image of a shattered Clarke whose mind literally cannot wrap itself around what just happened.
When we leave Clarke, she is a ship that just blew up at sea who is now nothing more than a floating wreckage. She’s done—except for the fact that her body is somehow still alive and perfectly healthy while the rest of her is shattered and scattered.
This is how Ontari will find Clarke.
Clarke Going Forward
If I were writing Clarke when we next see her again, she would be self-destructive and maybe trying to throw herself on the execution block to take the punishment for Lexa’s death, because she would want death herself.
It would be Ontari, with the updated AI, who would stop Clarke from self-destruction. After all, everything that was Lexa is now uploaded into Ontari's mind, along with all the previous Commanders, and Lexa is going to have very specific instructions when it comes to handling Clarke.
She is to be protected. She is to be trusted in all ways and in all things. She is to be given every opportunity to save her people. She is special.
Also, the AI is going to view Clarke as a key to moving humanity forward and be invested in protecting that key.
I don’t know if Ontari has ever been in love before, but I think she’s about to get a crash course in how it changes one’s perspective on things. The ruthless assassin, mentored and trained by the Ice Queen to be loyal to the Ice Nation and their agenda, is about to get a whole new look on life. The girl who was raised to hate and usurp Lexa is going to be the one who goes on to be the one who fulfills Lexa’s vision.
And to do that, she’s going to need Clarke.
It's Time for Clarke to Officially Come Out of Hiding
So far this season, Clarke has been much of a spectator while others, like Lexa, made the big moves. Clarke has had no desire to lead since her experience at Mount Weather, but I think Ontari is about to give our girl a kick in the pants. This is just speculation, of course, but I think it will be Ontari who looks Clarke in the eye and tells her that it’s time to step up and deliver on all the lines and propaganda she sold to Lexa.
If Lexa hadn’t believed Clarke, Lexa would be alive today. So it’s time to make Lexa’s sacrifice mean something.
Clarke has to finish what she started.
All that belief that peace was possible? That there is more to life than surviving? It’s time to prove it. Clarke came to Lexa is season 2 and said that they had to work together to save their people. Now I think Ontari is going to deliver the same words back to Clarke.
If there is to be more of humanity in the future than just surviving, they must work together and show their people, both collectively and separately, how such a world is possible.
But Let’s Not Forget ALIE—the AI 1.0
The main problem in all this? ALIE 1.0.
The original AI that blew up the world in a nuclear holocaust is out of her bunker, recruiting, and actively seeking her upgrade. She doesn’t know what it is, only that mommy dearest made it. Some may think ALIE wants to destroy this upgrade, but I think she thinks like a computer. I think she wants to assimilate it. I think she wants to grow, which means once she finds out it’s in the Commander, she’s going to want to get it out of the Commander.
Ontari…I don’t want you to die, but I think you just might. If nothing else, you’re about to get your neck cut open and have the “Commander’s spirit” ripped out of you so ALIE can have it.
I truly believe that ALIE 1.0 will get her hands one ALIE 2.0 and digitally merge the two the worlds. This will put digital Lexa and all the other Commanders in ALIE’s world in a way ALIE is not designed to assimilate.
Becca designed ALIE 2.0 as an upgrade, and I think the battle for that upgrade to take hold is the final battle of the season.
ALIE 1.0's Agenda for Mankind
The worlds people have to choose from when they take Jaha’s communion to join ALIE 1.0's City of Light is a black-and-white choice.
Pain, fear, violence and basic survival of the real world vs. peace, joy, unencumbered minds, and a constant natural high of the City of Light.
With options like this, getting people to drink the Kool-Aid isn’t all that hard, and I think even the grounders are going to start doing it. The armies that are about to surround Arkadia to attack? I think ALIE 1.0’s pills are going to start making it to them. And I think that’s how ALIE is going to get ALIE 2.0 out of Ontari. I think Ontari’s own people will cut her open and remove it for ALIE.
Maybe even Titus will do the honors.
I can’t decide if he takes the pill he confiscated from Murphy himself (to escape the grief of killing Lexa) or if he gives it to Clarke, but one of those two options is very likely in my opinion. So maybe it’s the Flamekeeper himself who gives ALIE 1.0 what she wants.
We’ll see. Either way...
LOVE is the Secret Weapon This Season
In the end, I believe that the power of love will determine the fate of humanity in season 3 of The 100.
Lexa’s love for her people; Lexa’s singular love for Clarke. Clarke’s love for her people; Clarke’s forgiveness and love for Lexa. The AI bearing witness to all this and Ontari’s shared remembering layered on top of any love she’s felt in her own life. All of this being assimilated into ALIE 1.0, who has her own programming that will want to erase this new road…but can she?
Is ALIE 1.0 equipped to override what ALIE 2.0 has dowloaded from Lexa? That is the question.
I know that this whole analysis is very Lexa/Clarke centric and I don’t want to ignore all the other characters in this amazing cast who are also seeking to protect love over survival. If blood must not have blood, then EVERYONE in the cast must choose Clarke and Lexa’s path for a coherent society to form. This requires forgiving others and forgiving self. Not everyone will be able to do that. This is the danger of the path, and why ALIE 1.0 will reject it as a plausible option. Clarke and Lexa's path is just far too prone to fail, leading humans to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Yet ALIE 2.0 experienced the change within Lexa, and now agrees that there is more to life than just survival of the human race. Lexa loved something/someone more than survival, allowing her to forgive and granting Lexa sublime experiences that made one hour of life far greater than the experience of years of surviving.
This comprehension in ALIE 2.0 and the digital consciousness of Lexa still staying in the fight will be what determines how things play out with the City of Light, where every human who enters is lobotomized into happiness.
To ALIE 1.0, this is the best way. But ALIE 2.0 not only knows that to be false, it can now sense the absolute hollowness of the sensation ALIE 1.0 is drugging people with and it's not a fraction of the joy experienced within Lexa.
ALIE 1.0 is outdated and the City of Light should be destroyed. Without Lexa, ALIE 2.0 might not come to this conclusion. But with her, it will. And it will fight to erase ALIE 1.0.
Lexa & Clarke's Legacy
The journey of love is not easy. Fear and retribution are much, much easier to embrace, and that is the message of this season. That is why showrunners are saying “Just keep watching.” Because while they slayed one of the most pivotal characters on the screen, her spirit and influence are about to become more influential than ever.
How Does the Season End?
The obvious answer to this is: I don’t know. I wish I was a writer on this show, but I'm obviously not. But I do know that Clarke and Lexa’s fight is not over, because as long as ALIE 2.0 is operational, everything that was Lexa is still in play.
So is it wrong that I want ALIE 2.0 to survive this season and continue down the line of Commanders? Destroying ALIE 2.0 is truly killing Lexa, so I’m on the team of REALLY hoping that Ontari is not the end of the Commander line.
If I wanted to go into a Happily Ever After place with everything, I would have Clarke (maybe with her mom’s help) steal the implant back from ALIE 1.0 and implant ALIE 2.0 to join the fight. We don’t know for sure if the black blood of the Commanders was developed to protect from radiation poisoning or a requirement to host ALIE 2.0 based on the Becca flashbacks yet. It’s tradition that nightbloods host the AI, yes, and Becca had the black blood that helped her survive radiation. But is the black blood a physical requirement at this point? Can the technology link to and survive in any human host at this point?
I don’t know. But I think, in a pinch, Clarke would risk her life to get both feet into the fight against the City of Light, which has stolen so many of her friends and turned them into complacent puppets.
And, happy bonus, connecting to the AI would connect her to Lexa again and digitally imprint them both onto the same server forever. And that would just make me happy. Clarke may go on without Lexa out in the real world, but somewhere they would be together and mentor future Commanders together.
And that would mean something to viewers (like me).
This kind of resolution might just be too nice of a scenario to happen within the world of The 100. Happy endings aren’t their things, but I choose to hold out for the possibility that they maybe-maybe-might give digital versions of their heroes a happy ending, even if the people staying on the screen are still living out an utter suck-fest.
Fingers crossed?
Mine are.
Lexa: Naratively Not Totally Dead
So, yes, Lexa is physically dead on The 100, but her influence is not. Her vision is not. Her fight is not. Her power is not. Her compassion is not. And her love, along with all its fruits, is not.
The fact that Leksa kom Trikru loved with all her heart and was fully loved in return is going to change The 100 world. The connection between Clarke and Lexa is going to serve as a catalyst for the evolution of mankind from war-based survivalists to a people who start to live for something more.
So, no. Lexa is not dead. And the first thing she needs to do in the wake of episode 7 is convince Clarke—paralyzed, catatonic, broken Clarke—that what they have/had is still worth fighting for. I don’t know how Ontari is going to do that, but it will be delicate dance between inspiring Clarke and breaking her grieving brain to get her on the right track.
I’ll “Just Keep Watching”
I watch The 100 because it’s like a free weekly master class in writing. And while I was completely unprepared for Lexa to die the way she did (I knew it was coming, I just thought her death would be less…trope-ish in its execution—sorry, writers, but I did) and utterly sucker punched at the end of episode 7, I will keep watching because I see a long game here that is potentially a very worthy journey.
Do I think the journey will hurt? Yes.
Do I worry that the show will kill Lexa twice by destroying ALIE 2.0 and leaving humanity to self-govern without Becca's inventions? Yes.
Do I think killing Lexa twice would break some viewers to the point where they won’t come back for a season 4? Yes.
Do I believe that I will feel nearly all the feels a human can feel in the remaining 9 episodes of this season? Yes.
And once I'm done feeling the feels, I’ll decide if I’m up for a season 4. Because, as I said at the beginning, this show is a rough ride. It’s like going to the amusement park and getting in the line for a rollercoaster that is going to throw you around, bruise you, and leave you with whiplash you feel for days. You have to be a bit of a masochist to climb aboard.
So, for now, I’ll take the bruises and the pain, because those hard knocks are teaching me. But this season has been insanely brutal, which means I may not want to sign up for another season of watching people trying to Humpty Dumpty their souls back together again while still getting hit at every turn. It’s a rough ride and I’m honestly reaching the point where I can’t imagine Clarke Griffin surviving many more hits—especially without that AI chip in her brain or a digital Lexa in her back pocket.
Clarke NEEDS something to live for. She just does. And this season needs to deliver big on that if I’m expected to believe that she’s going to rise up and champion her people for yet another season.
So I’ll “just keep watching.” Because, narratively speaking, Lexa is not dead and that is VERY important. So important. And I can’t wait to see how The 100 uses that going forward.
March 2, 2016
Release Date Update
Some of you may have noticed that I've changed the order of books being released this year in the header. The reason for this is simply because the order of books being released in the Power of the Matchmaker series just changed from releasing
King of the Friend Zone
from a November to a September release.
The good news is that Hunter Chase (the guy in King of the Friend Zone) will receive Pearl's help in landing his lady love two months earlier than originally planned. And let me tell you, he has no problems with the updated timeline whatsoever. Hunter needs all the help he can get in landing his lady love. Pearl has to bring out the big guns with this dude. Trust me...you'll see what I mean in September.
In the meantime, I'm currently writing the book that will be coming your way in Spring. There will be a lot more news and a cover reveal coming soon. If you've signed up for my newsletter, you'll see it there first.
Thanks for reading and for all the reviews!
The good news is that Hunter Chase (the guy in King of the Friend Zone) will receive Pearl's help in landing his lady love two months earlier than originally planned. And let me tell you, he has no problems with the updated timeline whatsoever. Hunter needs all the help he can get in landing his lady love. Pearl has to bring out the big guns with this dude. Trust me...you'll see what I mean in September.
In the meantime, I'm currently writing the book that will be coming your way in Spring. There will be a lot more news and a cover reveal coming soon. If you've signed up for my newsletter, you'll see it there first.
Thanks for reading and for all the reviews!
Book 3 in The Power of the Matchmaker series: If We Were a Movie
It's March, which means there's a new book out in the Power of the Matchmaker series. Pearl is at it again, and this month she has her eyes set on two NYU students. It's a bubbly, fun ride.
Male POV romances don't happen enough, in my opinion. Kelly Oram writes this romance entirely from the guy's side, and it totally works. If you like to laugh out loud while you read and cheer for two people who are truly meant to be, this is your book. It's sweet, it's funny, and it's painful from time to time. The bright spot of this book is always Jordan in her totes-adorableness. I loved watching her ride the silver lining until she tripped into love. (Since this is a guy POV, he doesn't catch on to her journey or sense when, exactly, his girl moves from intrigue to crush to love. But readers will see what he doesn't see and understand why Pearl put these two together from the start.)
Also, loved Pearl in this. Our matchmaker has a good amount of sass in her, which is just how I like her. :)
Check out the book here, and happy reading!
February 2, 2016
Book 2 in Matchmaker Series: Not Always Happenstance
It's a new month in 2016, which means there's a new book out in The Power of the Matchmaker series! Book 2 is Not Always Happenstance, by Rachael Anderson, who is one of the people I always try to sit by whenever I go to any type of writerly event. Love her!
I just started the book myself, but if you want to read along with me, please pick it up and support one of my favorite people!
From the Power of the Matchmaker series:
Lani has lived in Hana, Hawaii for five years. She's learned to surf, fish, dive, and manage her grandmother's bed and breakfast. She's also learned to take one day at a time the way it should be taken—relaxed and unrushed, savoring every moment.
But, like a large wave on the brink of breaking, her life is about to crash out of control. A proposal of marriage, a conniving grandmother, a cryptic Asian woman, and a handsome guest, and suddenly everything calm begins to churn, everything clear becomes confused, and all that was normal segues into peculiar.
As Lani struggles against the current to hold her ground, she realizes that she can either continue to fight and eventually lose, or take a take a leap of faith, hold her breath, and ride the wave wherever it takes her.
What people are saying:
Loved it! A great escape and like always a lovely story that drew me in and wouldn't let go until the very end. Highly recommend! —Kathy, Goodreads.com
A very quick and beautiful read that made me want to move here and live among the locals. —Maureen, Goodreads.com
NOW AVAILABLE AT
AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE, iTUNES, and KOBO
I just started the book myself, but if you want to read along with me, please pick it up and support one of my favorite people!
From the Power of the Matchmaker series:
Lani has lived in Hana, Hawaii for five years. She's learned to surf, fish, dive, and manage her grandmother's bed and breakfast. She's also learned to take one day at a time the way it should be taken—relaxed and unrushed, savoring every moment.
But, like a large wave on the brink of breaking, her life is about to crash out of control. A proposal of marriage, a conniving grandmother, a cryptic Asian woman, and a handsome guest, and suddenly everything calm begins to churn, everything clear becomes confused, and all that was normal segues into peculiar.
As Lani struggles against the current to hold her ground, she realizes that she can either continue to fight and eventually lose, or take a take a leap of faith, hold her breath, and ride the wave wherever it takes her.
What people are saying:
Loved it! A great escape and like always a lovely story that drew me in and wouldn't let go until the very end. Highly recommend! —Kathy, Goodreads.com
A very quick and beautiful read that made me want to move here and live among the locals. —Maureen, Goodreads.com
NOW AVAILABLE AT
AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE, iTUNES, and KOBO
