Can the Sky People and the Grounders really get along? That's the big question as Clarke and her friends get ready to move on Mount Weather. But before they can rescue their people, they have to deal with intrigue, betrayal, and Clarke's own sense of guilt — all of which culminates in a particularly brutal death.
When last we saw Clarke, she was sparing Finn the pain of 18 deaths by giving him one clean death with a knife. Some of the Grounders are pissed that they were cheated out of their ritual torture, but Lexa shows a sort of perverse empathy for the Sky People. After her time observing Jaha and Kane, she understands that the Sky People don't have the same views on death and killing that the Grounders do. She'll take her justice out on Clarke's soul if she can't take it out on Finn's body.
Lexa seems to rather like Clarke — or, at the very least, she likes the idea of Clarke as a strong leader. She's willing to listen to Clarke when Clarke begs her number two to stop beating a villager whose wife and child Finn killed — because Clarke offers a practical reason for the beating to stop. And while she may view Clarke's guilt as a sort of justice, she also offers her some words of wisdom that might very well help the Sky People survive in the Grounders' world. She tells Clarke that her grieving for Finn is weakness, to which Clarke counters, incredulous, "Love is weakness?" The truth is, Clarke having love for individuals might not be the best thing for her survivor tribe; she has to have love for her people as a whole.
But first there's the alliance to deal with. Lexa's lieutenant is suspicious of the deal, worrying that it threatens the coalition of Grounder tribes. Kane gives Lexa a celebratory gift of booze, and Lexa, in turn, offers to share a toast with Clarke. Too bad that, when Lexa's poison taster sips from her cup, he keels over.
Naturally, Clarke and Raven get into it when Clarke accuses Raven of trying to poison Lexa. Raven, after all, is devastated by Finn's death and furious at Clarke for killing him and not Lexa. But when Clarke starts talking to a specter of Finn, everyone realizes that she's mad with grief and guilt. Unfortunately for Raven, the Grounders are pretty sure she was responsible for the poisoning. They tie her to a post and start slicing her with sharp things.
It's not exactly a ritual disemboweling — and more vengeful than honorable — but Grounder punishment involves a lot of piercing, stabbing, and slicing, it's own little seppuku, ending with a final killing act of mercy. And when it turns out that it was Lexa's lieutenant who poisoned her cup in order to break the alliance, that lieutenant is subjected to the whole bloody ordeal. As Raven witnesses the torture, she realizes that Finn escaped the same fate only thanks to Clarke. And Clarke finds her confidence in her leadership restored. She says goodbye to spectral Finn and sends Bellamy ahead to Mount Weather, realizing that she can't worry about her favorite people if she wants to rescue the 47. She's ready to be more like Lexa, although that's a change her mother might not be willing to accept.
And the 47 are in dire need of rescuing. Although they manage to get a radio message out to their compatriots outside Mount Weather, things are not looking good for the underground survivors and their sweet, sweet blood. Monty gets caught sneaking around and finds himself in a kennel with Harper weeping above him. And there are 45 other cages waiting to be filled.