“Shifting Sands” is episode five of season five of The 100.
In the previous episode, “Pandora’s Box”, the Second Dawn bunker was opened up with the help of the prisoner from the Eligius 4. Shaw, the sole member of the original crew of the Eligius 4 to still be alive, was attempting to hack his way back into the ship, so that Bellamy’s threat against the prisoners still in cryosleep wouldn’t work. Raven had managed to stop up but Shaw, on Diyoza’s suggestion, opened up the ship’s doors. So Murphy told Raven to open the cryopods as well.
This resulted in Shaw closing the doors again, but Murphy and Raven are now on a ship with the best part of 300 not very nice people. This also meant that Bellamy’s threat against them was no good. Diyoza took Abby, and she insisted that Kane came too, so Octavia wouldn’t kill him, and took off. Octavia is now not very happy, especially when one of Diyoza’s people tried to kill her (McCreary then shot him after the lifted off, but the damage was already done).
Clarke is talking to Jackson about her mother and life in the bunker. He’s avoiding the question when Clarke sees Miller. Octavia is preparing for war and Miller is being sent, together with another man, to scout out Shadow Valley in preparation. Clarke says if they are going to the valley, they need her help, and explains why. So Miller takes her to see Octavia.
Octavia is not that willing to listen to others, or change her plans; it seems she has possibly been what looks like an absolute ruler for a bit too long. The only person she appears to have been willing to listen to is Gaia, and some of what Gaia has been preaching is not good. Indra is glad that Bellamy is there for his sister; it’s not clear yet whether Octavia feels the same way. Octavia’s rigid mind set ends up costing quite a few lives.
Both sides want the valley – and Diyoza is not willing to fight over the last scrap of inhabitable land on the planet inside it. So she wants control of her missiles again; Shaw had told her that Raven had locked them out. If Shaw can’t hack his way back in, Diyoza wants McCready to torture the method out of Raven. Although something seemed off about how the missiles didn’t work.
Diyoza is not happy about how her people are behaving now that they are out of cryosleep. Not that they are really the best material to work with – something she already knows. Abby appears to have a bit of a drug problem, which already nearly got Kane killed as a result, and finally it’s shown why a doctor is needed by the former prisoners (apart from their previous one being dead of course).