“How We Get to Peace” is episode eight of season five of The 100.
In the previous episode, “Acceptable Losses”, Echo managed to get Monty’s program into the dropship’s computer, but only by taking what Raven had told her about Shaw being the one to disable the ship’s missiles in “Shifting Sands” and telling Diyoza the truth. Raven was not totally happy about this.
Now Monty has control of the mothership’s systems remotely, but they haven’t told Octavia as yet. Monty had read Jasper’s letter, in which Jasper said that all they kept doing was making the same mistakes over and over again, with more death and destruction. Now Octavia is planning to unleash the sand worms on Shadow Valley. So Clarke decided to contact Diyoza and see what she would accept in order to share the valley. This turned out to be total surrender. Something that Octavia would never be willing to do. So Clarke wants to take out Octavia.
Madi had also entered training and Clarke had told her to pretend to be worse than she was. Gaia had also realised that Madi was a true Nightblood, and offered to show Madi how to fail better. Unfortunately, Madi had reacted badly to the jeers of her fellows, and shown everyone just how good she is. Octavia has made Madi her second.
Kane gave Abby an ultimatum; her pills or him. She said she was so close to a cure. Diyoza had also revealed to Abby that she was pregnant; it did seem odd that she was the only person continually wearing armour. Presumably this was to disguise her pregnancy.
The episode opens with Clarke still talking to Diyoza. Diyoza wants Octavia dealing with, one way or the other. Bellamy naturally doesn’t want Octavia killing. He says that they should leave in the rover, but Clarke says that she can’t get Madi. So, how to stop the war? Monty says that his algae can make the hydrofarm viable again.
At this point Octavia enters and discovers that Monty has gained access to the mothership. Monty says that Diyoza still has an eye in the sky, and the process of defeating it is complicated. Unfortunately, Cooper explains how to do it. So Octavia says to load the worms onto the rover and mobilise the troops.
Diyoza is talking to Kane when Murphy contacts her using a walkie talkie. Murphy and Emori had captured McCreary in “Exit Wounds”, and Murphy offers to exchange McCreary for Raven. Or he will kill McCreary. Diyoza is perfectly happy for Murphy to kill McCreary though. She says that with McCreary dead her internal problems will be solved, and with the Red Queen dealt with, so will her external ones. Kane tells her, from his personal experience, that the ends do not always justify the means, and that Diyoza risks being as bad as Octavia.
Shaw is being tormented by the others, but Echo tells Raven that they can’t kill him, because he’s their only pilot. Then Echo realises what she’s said, and says that she and Raven have to kill Shaw. Because he’s their only pilot.
Octavia and Bellamy speak to Indra, wanting to know if Octavia will stop the war if they kill the worms. Of course, it won’t be that easy. Abby thinks she’s found a cure for the illness affecting the former prisoners, but her addiction is out of control.