“God Complex” is episode eight of season four of The 100.
In the previous episode, “Gimme Shelter”, the black rain struck, killing at least a few people who were caught out in it. Bellamy took a couple of the deaths pretty badly, because he had failed to save them, and Harper did for another for similar reasons (and is taking it quite badly). Octavia and Ilian were also caught out in the rain, but found a cave. Octavia finally had enough and would have walked out into the rain to die if Ilian hadn’t stopped her. What happened next was not unexpected, and it looks like Octavia may be on the way to healing, and being less focused on killing. Abby is running an experiment on a man, Baylis, who broke into the house on Alie’s island who had a really poor history with Emori to see if he can be made into a Nightblood. A way of testing the process without using it on anyone they actually care about.
This episode opens with Baylis being placed in the radiation chamber. He has already been injected with Luna’s bone marrow and he seems to producing Nightblood. Most are not too happy about doing the experiment; Murphy isn’t bothered and it seems unlikely that Emori is.
Baylis doesn’t show visible effects from the radiation at levels where they would be seen in someone who isn’t a Nightblood. Everything seems to be working. There’s bound to be a problem though. And there is. Although Baylis had appeared to be at least somewhat resistant, he is eventually affected by the radiation and dies quite unpleasantly. Which means that they still lack a solution.
At Arkadia, a funeral is being held for 18 people who were caught outside in the black rain and died as a result. Jasper is still showing an utter lack of concern about, well, anything. Bellamy tells him not to go out without a chemtent for protection, but Jasper’s opinion is that Bellamy has one, so they will be fine. So Bellamy ends up having to go with Jasper to reduce the chance of him dying. During their journey, Jasper tries to get him to see what he sees now, stop being so concerned over the things he has done and actually enjoy what’s left of their lives.
At the funeral, Harper overhears Bree saying a prayer over the bodies and asks her to translate it. Jaha hears the translation and recognises it and asks where Bree knows it from. It’s something the Flamekeeper says over the bodies of the dead. In “The Four Horsemen”, Jaha went looking for a bunker belonging to a doomsday cult called Second Dawn. The bunker was found but it was useless. What Bree was saying is connected to Second Dawn, which makes him believe that there is another bunker. So he wants to speak to the Flamekeeper – Indra’s daughter, Gaia. Finding her might be a problem; Polis has gone to pieces and is really dangerous. Jaha isn’t looking for a fight though. One of the people he picks is Monty. When they get to Polis, Indra isn’t terribly happy to see Kane and Jaha after Arkadia made peace with Ice Nation. The chance of saving everyone does help, and they find a clue to Second Dawn. However, Indra has a massive (and justified really) hate on for Ice Nation which doesn’t help matters.
On the island, Abby says that there may still be a way for Nightblood to work. But it will require more tests, and the last test killed the person being tested. At least some of them are less than happy about this idea. Abby isn’t exactly enthused herself and would really like another option. Then it turns out that the man they killed wasn’t the man they thought it was. Emori lied about his identity for some reason. So Roan thinks that she will make an ideal next test subject. They also can’t go out into the storm to find another subject. Luna refuses to let them take any more of her blood. Which causes more problems. People are definitely divided over what to do and Raven does point out the similarity to what Mount Weather did. Clarke especially is worried and Roan gives her some reassurances. Which he admits isn’t exactly his strength.