The 100 – Stealing Fire

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

The following post will be about a pretty important plot point that occurred during season 3 episode 9 of The CW’s “The 100”, titled “Stealing Fire”. If you haven’t watched it yet/don’t want to hear about it…then you’re shit outta luck.

Lincoln’s death means a lot for “The 100″…and pretty much none of it’s good.

I say this with extreme love in my heart for “The 100″ and absolute support for the cast and crew, but the show’s treatment of people of color has been preeeeeeetty atrocious. The character arcs and storylines given to the actors of color are sub-standard. They are presented as archetypes instead of people and are rarely the centers of their owns storylines, instead acting as background characters for the white leads.

Lincoln, a character viewers have been with since almost the very beginning, was killed off tonight. It didn’t come as a shocker to most fans, who were already aware that the actor playing Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) had taken a lead role in the upcoming television version of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”.

This death comes on the heels of the tv death heard ’round the world. Just 2 episodes, guest-starring Alycia Debnam Carey’s Commander Lexa was killed off. Even though she was never a part of the main credits, Lexa didn’t lack for screen time, character development or storyline. And thinking about her death now in comparison with Lincoln’s only points out the glaring differences. Remember how she died? In the arms of her lover? Does anyone remember how long and drawn out her death was, as she slowly bled out from being gut-shot? How she was given time as a character for a last few words to be remembered by? To share some moments of tenderness with the person most important to her? How many close-ups of her face there were? How many opportunities there were to appreciate her character as she lay dying? The viewers and Lincoln got NONE of this. Lincoln got shot in the temple. Bam. Point blank. With the exception of a zoomed-out shot of Lincoln’s body toppling over and laying in a puddle…we got nothing. No warmth. No tenderness. No commemoration. It was a strangely unfeeling way to kill a character who was such an integral part of the show’s story and success and so important in the hearts of fans everywhere.

Did anyone else notice the peculiar absence of J Roth on twitter during the east coast/central viewing? As someone who has been accused more than once of bullying people of color, he was strangely silent during Lincoln’s death.

All in all, it was a slapdash, shitty way to go and Lincoln deserved better.

And I’ll end with this: Where the hell is Raven?!