The 100: The Complete Second Season starts right where Season One left off, where a giant rocket fuel bomb under the dropship made by Raven (Lindsey Morgan) seriously leveled the playing field, taking out 300 Grounders, but not without losses to the Hundred as well, since Bellamy (Bob Morley) and Finn (Thomas McDonell) were still outside when the ship's door was sealed. The last thing we saw when the Hundred emerged from the ship following the blast was a group of oddly-suited men who knocked them out with a red gas. Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), essentially the Hundred's leader, awakens confused and in a sterile white room. She will soon learn that she, along with all of the others except for AWOL Bellamy and Finn, have been taken inside of Mount Weather, the nuclear war holdout they were originally supposed to locate when they first landed on Earth.
Mount Weather seems too good to be true, with its opulent art and clothing and scrumptious food and drink, but while Clarke is skeptical, the rest of the kids can't believe their good fortune and are just happy not to be fighting for their lives.
Meanwhile, the Ark stations have crash-landed onto Earth and the survivors, which include Dr. Abby Griffin (Paige Turco) and de facto Chancellor Marcus Kane (Henry Ian Cusick, Lost), are busy setting up a protected camp. Abby wants to set off to find the kids, since communication was lost with them recently, but she and Kane clash on what is best for the group, something they did on the Ark as well.
Before long, Clarke makes her escape from Mount Weather and connects with the other Arkers, but unfortunately Finn (Thomas McDonell) and Murphy (Richard Harmon) will make some serious enemies of the Grounders while they fruitlessly search for Clarke, since they believe Grounders took her. An accidental (overzealous) massacre at Lincoln's (Ricky Whittle) village causes the Grounder Commander, Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey, Fear the Walking Dead) and her army to wage war with the Arkers, unless Finn is delivered to them for a torturous death.
Clarke realizes that the Arkers, her friends held in Mount Weather, and the Grounders all have a common enemy - the "Mountain Men" of Mount Weather. She must make some very difficult decisions for the greater good, including a very uneasy alliance with the Grounders, in order to free her friends and save their lives, because life is definitely not the party it appeared to be inside of the mountain.
The season finale ends with some resolution to the Mount Weather chapter, and new beginnings for Clarke, Murphy and the Chancellor, Thelonius Jaha (Isaiah Washington), who you'll remember, chose to stay in space with the Ark remnants, so the others could have a chance at making it to Earth.
A lot of action is packed in The 100: The Complete Second Season, including a complete transformation for Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) as she joins with her Grounder love, Lincoln, and becomes the protege of a fierce Grounder warrior named Indra (Adina Porter, True Blood). Clarke also goes through many changes, as she becomes a leader and warrior herself, having to make the difficult choices she once blamed her mother for while still in space. Additional new characters include President Dante Wallace (Raymond J. Barry), his conniving son Cage (Johnny Whitworth), Maya (Eve Harlow, Bitten), a Mount Weather resident who falls for Jasper (Devon Bostick) and helps the Hundred in their efforts to escape, and Wick (Steve Talley), an engineer who might be a love interest for mechanic Raven.
Special features include two featurettes, one specifically focused on Mount Weather and the other highlighting stunt setups for fight scenes, the 2014 Comic-Con Panel, a gag reel and deleted scenes. All are interesting to watch, but my favorites were the gag reel and the Comic-Con Panel.
The 100: The Complete Second Season is an action-packed, thrilling, visceral experience with its fair share of drama, romance and heartbreak. I love the directing style and the photography choices, where some scenes are color-soaked to highlight the Earth's untouched natural beauty and, at times, others are desaturated, so that only the red blood of the scene is obvious. It's a very stylized show and completely gorgeous. I watched it on DVD, but I can only imagine what the Blu-ray must look like, with the visuals jumping off the screen in high def. If you plan on purchasing the series, get it on Blu-ray because this would be one show worth the extra few dollars to see it in high def. Highly recommended.
