I know it’s a bit of a salty joke going round right now, but other than Abby’s asinine ‘I know’ – there is a reasonable excuse why Niylah would be so intimate with Clarke about Lexa:

They talked about it before sex.   

Much of the ark has been destroyed, it’s chaotic, everyone is tired, feeling more hopeless than ever.  Niylah sees Clarke upset, not knowing what to do, takes her away, offers her a shoulder to cry on – and that’s when it happens, it all spills out, the last few weeks, everything they’ve gone through – it’s like a rushing flood that won’t stop.  Niylah is probably one of the most observant and understanding characters we’ve ever come across in this universe (well, she’s written that way) and she takes the initiative to comfort Clarke however she can.  Their post-coital conversation is a reflection of it.  Niylah doesn’t refer to Lexa as ‘The Commander,’ because Clarke didn’t.  Niylah knows because she paid attention to Clarke – and Clarke shows her gratitude with shared gentleness and a plea for Niylah to stay.

The scene was nothing but the aftermath of a need for comfort.  Is it questionable for Clarke to take up with someone so soon after Lexa’s death?  I don’t know. Never been in that situation, but I don’t think this was anything but a physical outlet for so much heartache and hopelessness.  Some people do deal with grief in such ways – they want to feel anything but.   

Does it mean they had to have this scene?  Couldn’t they have shown Clarke, alone in her room, without the implication of having been with Niylah?  Of course – but it’s clear *someone* thought this represented Clarke in some way – that she  would take physical release with a near-stranger to deal with her heartache.  I can’t say it isn’t unrealistic, but if we look at it from the lens of the straight male writer trying to present a bisexual female character’s inner turmoil being dealt with in this manner (vs. going out and murdering an innocent group of people, say) – we have our usual representation problem, but not necessarily a problem in character development. 

Honestly, of all the things to complain about in this episode, I think the part where Clarke – who is being written like she doesn’t know how to read anyone anymore – tries to comfort Bellamy by saying Octavia will come around ‘and see how special you are.’  What?

Octavia’s anger is valid (not necessarily the actions that result from it, though). Lincoln was shot dead for no reason and Bellamy stood by (something this episode rather grotesquely reminds us of).  Bellamy murdered innocent people. Clarke should know better. She lost a lover due to his participation in genocide, too.  Clarke never calls Bellamy on this.  There is much in the narrative this season that suggests Bellamy might finally get what is coming to him (or offer him a moment of ‘heroic’ sacrifice) – but this scene defeats me and is an uncomfortable echo of the scene in Hakeldama where he gaslit her, blamed her for everything, for his own faults and then cuffed her to take her to Pike (who might have killed her). She was meek and submissive to him in that scene (albeit trying to manipulate a dangerous man) and they’ve been writing her as no challenge to Bellamy ever since.  

Clarke will not challenge Bellamy over his behaviour or his actions.  This is a Problem.  If they’re doing it to ease the way for a future romance in series 5, it will be over Clarke’s broken and defeated persona that no longer fights back but waits, as she more or less did here, for Bellamy to deliver his ‘hero shot’ – because…he’s ‘special.’ 

Also: why was Clarke on that trip and not Monty? You know, useful Monty who can actually help Raven?  Maybe some other science-y engineers we don’t know about?  People who might be able to assess whether Becca’s 12 level (isn’t it?) lab might be suitable as a shelter?  I don’t know…the whole let’s take this shiny old rocket in space to make Night blood is so convoluted…Becca’s lab clearly had (artificial) gravity, so…what was so special about making the stuff in space?  When you’re on a space station you are in a ‘freefall’ not a zero-g environment.  Could it be done underwater, in a tank?  It’s just an insane story development and, yes I went off on another tangent.  

Asdjlaksdjflk as the kids say.