'The 100' Recap: Raven's So Not Raven

Episode 11, appropriately titled “Nevermore,” focused largely on Raven (Lindsey Morgan) and the battle to free her from the clutches of Alie (Erica Cerra), the malevolent A.I. that’s taken up residence in her brain.

After Jasper (Devon Bostick) steals a rover, busts her out of Arkadia and picks up(/almost runs over) Clarke (Eliza Taylor) along the way, they head to the cave to meet up with Sinclair (Alessandro Juliani), Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) and the others.

When they arrive, Jasper fills them in on Raven’s condition: Raven’s not so Raven anymore. He lets them in on the plan that Raven had to get rid of Alie before she took over her entire brain/body: use the wristbands the 100 had when they were sent to Earth to fry Alie without killing her.

This would be an easy fix, but turns out that Jaha (Isaiah Washington) & his merry band of City of Light zombs destroyed all of the wristbands. No worries, though — Clarke knows where they can get one: her old friend/flame Niylah (Jessica Harmon).

Niylah doesn’t exactly welcome them with open arms, but they manage to use her place to keep Raven semi-subdued long enough to work out a plan to reverse the current in the wristbands and generate an EMP. Needing a part from the drop ship, Monty (Christopher Larkin) and Octavia strike out on their own to find it, while the others grapple with a fair amount of psychological warfare from Alie-Raven, who’s willing to do anything (including but not limited to killing Raven) in order to keep her dastardly plan on track.

Monty and Octavia run into trouble at the drop ship in the form of Monty’s mom, who’s been full-on indoctrinated and is another walking Alie bot. When she attacks Octavia, Monty makes an impossible choice and shoots his mother to save Octavia’s life. They rush back to Raven and the others, where he and Sinclair fire up the EMP and successfully fry Alie.

Only problem is, Raven’s not waking up.

It doesn’t take Clarke long to spring into action, though — they need to get the A.I. out of Raven and she’s seen that done before. With Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey), remember? Mimicking Titus’s (Neil Sandilands) actions, she makes a small incision in the back of Ravens neck and in a few moments, Raven’s Alie-free.

As they’re leaving Niylah’s, we find out exactly why Alie was willing to kill Raven. She knows how to stop Alie for good, and it has everything to do with the second A.I. that Clarke’s carrying: the Flame.

The standout element of this episode? Lindsey Morgan’s performance. It’s hard to feel like Raven ever gets enough screen time, and in this episode, Morgan proved that we should absolutely be seeing more time dedicated to her character.

We’ve talked before about how dark this show is getting, and tonight’s episode saw it delve once again into darkness, with the death of Monty’s mother and the very sobering confrontations with Alie-Raven. But seeing Raven return to the land of the living was such a welcome relief that it brought back a heavy wave of nostalgia for the strong characters we saw and loved in Season 2.

Raven is still every bit the character we want to root for, and it feels like she and Octavia just might be the keys to giving this show its heart back.