Episode 5x02: "The Red Queen"

Hello and welcome back to a much grimmer and bloodier Meta Station than the one we all enjoyed last week! Claire and Erin and joined by our friend Crystal (@wordyblerd on Twitter), a freelance writer/TV critic formerly of Black Girl Nerds, to scream at the top of our lungs about “The Red Queen,” which shot straight to the top of our all-time series fave lists, for a whole host of reasons: from the small (Miller sparring! Niylah sass! Ovid references! Ark backstory! THE CHANCE TO YELL ABOUT BILL CADOGAN AGAIN!) to the huge (Octavia gets her best episode yet, but R.I.P. Thelonious Jaha, listen to our whole conversation about his storyline here – https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/take-me-to-wells-yu-gonplei-ste-odon-thelonious-jaha).

Along the way, we get the origin story of Blodreina and her scary murder pits, Gaia becomes perhaps the most terrifyingly powerful person in the bunker while Indra starts to have second thoughts, Mackson is everything and we’re emotional about it, we get a new morally gray lady to fall in love with, neither of us can quite pronounce “metamorphoses,” and Kane and Abby face the dark side of every life-or-death decision they’ve ever made (though they do it while handcuffed together and gazing lovingly at each other, because Jason Rothenberg has ABSOLUTELY been reading Claire’s fanfic).

Anyway remember last week when Clarke’s new home was colorful and pretty and had ribbons and fruit and decorations and a cute lil’ family YEAH WELL WE’RE NOT IN SHALLOW VALLEY ANYMORE, TIME FOR BLODREINA TO FUCK UP SOME HARDCORE SHIT, SLAP SOME RED PAINT ON YOUR FOREHEAD AND LET’S GO DOWN TO THE MURDER PITS WHERE ALL THE FUN IS HAPPENING AND LET'S DO THIS THING
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0:00 – Hello and Welcome to Our Special Guest, Crystal!
0:01 – From the Ashes of the Show's Many Octaviae, Rises Blodreina
0:07 – The Indra-Miller-Octavia Family Unit Is a Gift We Didn't Know We Needed
0:23 – NIYAVIA RISING: It’s So Nice That Octavia Has a Friend, But Also, We Ship It With Our Entire Hearts
0:26 – Metamorphosesisizeses
0:35 – Power Dynamics, the Mythology of “Blodreina”, and Indra’s Journey
0:38 – CADOGAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN
0:42 – Life Is Death Is Creation Is Destruction: Jaha and Gaia's Ultimate Insight
0:50 – We Love Bunker Power Player Gaia and Are Also TERRIFIED OF HER
1:02 – Blodreina Is the Culmination of Every Facet of Octavia's History
1:08 – Hoo Boy It Is Time For Kane and Abby to Clear the Air, and We’re Here For the Angsty Reckoning
1:18 – Kabby, Mackson, Madi: Love as a Force in How People Make Decisions
1:25 – Kara Brings All Kane and Abby’s Chickens Home to Roost
1:37 – We Stan Kara Cooper, Reluctant Rebel
1:48 – Pike, Kara, and Farm Station: The Ethics and Politics of Subsistence
1:52 – The First Rule of Octavia’s Fight Club Is WE AREN’T SURE TBH WE STILL HAVE A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS
1:57 – Indra, You Have Created a Monster
2:05 – Eligius! Cannibalism! Madi! It’s Time For Our Favorite Pastime, Wild Flailing Season Speculation!