“The Dark Year” is episode eleven of season five of The 100.
In the previous episode, “The Warriors Will”, Monty had stopped the death match between Gaia, Bellamy and Indra by revealing to the rest of Wonkru that the hydrofarm was working properly again, and that they didn’t need Shadow Valley because the surrounding wasteland could be restored in the same way. Which meant that Octavia wouldn’t get the war she so badly desires and would no longer be Red Queen. So Octavia torched the hydrofarm so that no-one had a choice in the matter. This looks to be the behaviour of a really bad leader, putting her own needs and desires above those of her people. Unrest is stirring; a substantial portion of Wonkru is ready to depose Octavia and put Madi in charge.
Vinson had helped Abby get the drugs she needed, or wanted – it’s unclear which is true – killing two of McCreary’s people in the process. The last bit being Vinson indulging himself in his own drug of choice. Clarke and Madi had arrived to find Abby slumped on the floor; she may have overindulged in the drugs.
This episode opens with Clarke forcing a tube down her mother’s throat whilst Madi holds a funnel connected to the other end. Saline is poured into the tube to cause Abby to vomit. At which point McCreary shows up with some men – and wants to know how Clarke and Madi got there.
In the dropship, Clarke demonstrates the loop that disabled the eye in the sky and McCreary wants it fixing. However, he’s a bit short of people with technical knowhow. The coughing of McCreary and the others, and their general sickly appearance, makes Clarke realise that they are all sick, and that’s why they needed Abby.
McCreary tells one of his men to give more drugs to the junkie. Clarke also didn’t know that her mother was addicted to the drugs. She does say that if her mother is given any more, she will die. McCreary says, given that Clarke clearly knows some medicine, that she has 24 hours to get her mother back on her feet, and curing the prisoners, or both Clarke and Abby will watch their daughters die.
Those who escaped from McCreary are in a cave, and it looks as if Diyoza isn’t in charge. Raven is fixing something, causing Shaw to ask if there’s anything she can’t fix and Murphy to make a few jabs at Raven. Echo comes in and they want to know if the antenna is in place to talk to Polis, but Echo says that there is bad news. That McCreary’s people are no longer looking for them. Diyoza says that this means that Wonkru is on the march again.
Echo says that without the element of surprise, it will be a massacre. So she contacts Bellamy, speaking Trig so they can’t be understood (well, understood easily; bits can be figured out) by McCreary’s people. Echo warns Bellamy that McCreary know they are coming and that they need to turn back. Bellamy says they can’t, and that in five days they will be out of rations. So Echo and the others have that long to figure out an alternative. Clarke is believed to be working for McCreary, which she kind of is, but Clarke also doesn’t know about the food problem. It also looks like Raven is becoming close to Shaw.
Abby agrees with Clarke that she can’t take any more drugs, as her system is too compromised. Clarke says that a regular detox will take too long. Abby has medications allowing a rapid detox in her bag. The potential side effect of these is stopping her heart, at which point it will need restarting.
During the detox, Abby has flashbacks to the Dark Year. There have been references to the Dark Year multiple times during this season, and cannibalism has seemed the most likely thing that it is referring to. The flashbacks start with a meeting between the leaders in the bunker.
It’s two years in and Octavia is saying that she was told that the hydrofarm would provide food for five years. There’s been a fungal infection, which Cooper says has been confined to the soy beans, but it will be a year before the crop recovers enough. Why is this a problem? Well, soya is one of the very few sources of vegetable protein. There are others (many of them being nuts), but if soy beans are all you have to hand (which is likely, as it’s a lot easier to grown than nuts; mushrooms are another but if you don’t have them…), being without protein is a problem.
Abby says that 10% of calories need to come from protein. A year without protein will cause everyone to starve to death. Abby also says that they know what the answer is. She doesn’t come right out and say it, but it is cannibalism. Indra suggests the fighting pits. There are several flashbacks to this time, and Octavia was a different person then. The Dark Year would appear to have broken her, and broken or damaged many others, causing her to make poor choices in the present having had to make hard ones in the past.
Bellamy and Indra approach Octavia on the march, and tell her that McCreary knows that they are coming. As they can neither stop nor turn back, and there are only three ways in to Shadow Valley, Bellamy congratulates Octavia on having killed her people.
Diyoza believes that Octavia will win, but that there might not be much left of the valley afterwards. Madi feels that Clarke is on the wrong side, but Clarke is not so much on McCreary’s side as on the side of Madi living. This is causing friction.