“Heavy Lies the Crown” is episode two of season four of The 100.
In the previous episode, “Echoes”, it was discovered that what Alie had claimed about the nuclear reactors was true – they were melting down. The reactors had been designed to withstand anything – including nuclear war – and to keep on ticking for a hundred years. Which are now pretty much up. Roan life was saved and Clarke has given him the Flame to keep until he chooses a new Nightblood, should one be found. He is as a result ruling in Polis. His reign is unstable, though, and the oncoming threat is being kept secret. Abby, Kane and the others are remaining in Polis to help keep Roan in charge, and therefore keep Skaikru alive, whilst Bellamy and Clarke go and see if they can fix the problem. The episode ended in Egypt (this could be told by the pyramids) which were then enveloped in a radioactive storm that literally ripped to shreds a Grounder watching. Unless an explanation is made for this, it currently looks as if someone has got ‘nuclear reactor meltdown’ and ‘nuclear bomb exploding’ a little confused.
This episode starts nine days prior to previous events with a woman fastened to a sheep pen. She’s being told to take the Key by her son. When she refuses, he cuts the throat of her other son, who has presumably already taken the key. Their father appears to be already dead. Next he threatens to cut his own throat, but before he does Alie disappears when Clarke hit the kill switch in “Perverse Instantiation: Part 2”. The mother dies but, prior to that, asks her remaining son, Ilian, to avenge her death. The question is, who will he blame? Alie is no more.
In Polis, Kane and Abby have finally cemented their relationship with each other. Ilian is in the city below the tower, and he is blaming Skaikru for the death of his family. He’s not the only one unhappy with Roan’s protecting Skaikru Ilian’s new ambassador, for Trishanakru, says he will challenge the king and kill him. Echo is also not entirely happy with Roan’s behaviour, but she thinks he should rule more with an iron fist. Octavia heard the Trishanakru’s plan to challenge Roan, and she and Kane suggest he gets someone else to fight on his behalf – someone without a still-healing bullet hole. Octavia is rather less subtle, but Roan says if he doesn’t meet the challenge, or gets someone to fight on his behalf, the clans will lose faith in him. Kane wants to postpone the meeting, but Roan says the Ice Nation needs to stop ruling through force alone, or the clans will unite against them, depose Roan, kill Skaikru and then everyone will die when the plants overload.
The plan to stop the meltdown isn’t going well. Raven says that the time to stop the reactors passed months before they even found out about it, and that they need to find shelter to ride out the radiation instead. They need to tell everyone, so that the Grounders will be able to say if there are more places like Mount Weather that will be able to take everyone, Grounders and Skaikru alike. But is everyone is told, the coalition will fall, Roan will die, and Skaikru will die. Monty comes up with an idea for somewhere to ride out the storm – the old pieces of the Ark itself. However, Alpha Station, Arkadia, is not enough by itself. So they need to go to Ice Nation, where Farm Station fell, because they need the hydro generator. Monty wants Jasper’s help, but the latter is not really interested. He’s no longer suicidal – what’s the point after all? Bellamy is leading that expedition whilst Clarke remains behind – Arkadia will only save Skaikru but Clarke promised to save everyone, so she’s still going to try and find a solution. Raven will concentrate on fixing Arkadia, although she needs help. Jaha offers to help, as he was trained as an engineer. Raven is not that happy.
Bellamy’s expedition runs into problems; not everyone in Ice Nation recognises Roan’s rule – and they have slaves from Farm Station. You just know things are going to get tense. In Polis, Roan still isn’t really in condition to fight, but he won’t let anyone fight on his behalf, nor will he betray Skaikru. So he tells Echo just what is going on. She doesn’t believe it. Kane tries to defuse the situation with the Trishanakru ambassador. Clarke is struggling to come up with a solution to save everyone – they do need more help but they’re afraid of causing a panic.