Guys. GUYS.

In the season 3 finale when we see Clarke entering the City of Light, her hair is pinned back and clean and shorter (a.k.a. Clarke with the Good Hair was back).

In these scenes, she looks VERY similar to her in S1. Her hair, the jacket, the Henley tee, it’s all the same as what we see through the entirety of the first season.

But here’s the thing. When we see Clarke take the flame, she’s not wearing either of these. Her hair is still in those god awful dreads that symbolized her desire to run from her people, her desire to hide amongst the Grounders.

Clarke’s version of herself in the City of Light is a reflection of how she sees herself, a simulated version of who she understands herself to be. Which means that Clarke knows that her attempt to assimilate into Polis was not true to who she is. She knows that she was not meant for intricately braided hair, for black war paint, for leather corsets and metal spikes lining her shoulders.

She knows that the real Clarke Griffin belongs in a leather jacket from the Ark, hair tucked from her face so that she can see the world around her, eyes sharp and ready to protect those she loves most. Clarke knows that she is Skaikru, has always been Skaikru, and that will never change no matter how much she tries to run from them.

Now here’s where I start having a lot of feelings. Throughout the entire third season as we learn more about the COL, ALIE continually expresses the idea that once they take the chip, there is no more pain, no more sadness. The City of Light is essentially a computer simulation of the essence of a person’s most free and happy memories.

Take Jasper, for example. When we see him in the City of Light, he’s carrying an ice cream cone with a smile as he crosses the street:

Note that he is NOT wearing the same clothes as season 1 (no goggles, no leather jacket, etc.), but rather the same clothes that fit in the metropolitan setting. So it’s clear that people in the COL are not limited to the clothing they have in reality.

So then it begs the question: why is Clarke wearing clothes she already owns in a place where everything else is new?

I think the answer to that question lies in the concept of the City of Light itself. Again, bear in mind that the COL was created to represent the user’s abstract idea of happiness, of freedom.

Clarke’s attire is notably different from everyone else around her in this scene. It is exceptionally different from what we had just seen her donning just a scene beforehand. Which means that if she’s wearing an outfit and hairstyle that is pointedly different from that which she went in with, one that is almost identical to her daily attire during her time at the Dropship, it means that Clarke’s happiest memories are from that time.

It means that Clarke Griffin’s idea of happiness and freedom is tents, campfires, a hundred delinquents, and co-leading with Bellamy Blake.