Previously on The 100: “I think we deserve a fresh start…no Madi, you can’t go to school;” No one’s going to find out about my Night Blood, geez; It’s my great honor to turn Delilah into Priya7 (HBHN); The Children of Gabriel are ruled by some ol’ man; If Diyoza kills him, King Russell will let her baby live in peace; I miss my daughter, hey, let’s get her back tonight, mkay? “I’ll prep for insertion;” Clarke dies, screams, then wakes up as Josephine!
Y’all, I don’t know how Clarksephine is going to go down but I am so here for it. Yes, Clarksephine is a thing now.
Open with Kaylee, whom I didn’t recognize because she’s still in fancy dress from the Naming Day Ceremony. King Russell and Queen Whatsername have some bad news: Rose is dead. But, good news: they were able to bring Jade back. *Shows handful of blue rocks* I have no idea what they are, but Kaylee wants them. But, she’s got to answer for her crime of “running away” when they boarded the Earth ship before she gets the pretty blue rocks. Kaylee, incredulous, denies running, but Clarksephine shows up to call her out and tell the truth about her proclaimed “best friend.” They discuss finding bodies while throwing lots of shade…in subtitles! Sanctumese — sounds like a cross between Mandarin and Klingon. And thank the Primes that Queen Whatsername asks for them to argue in English. There are words, and Clarksephine takes Kaylee out with a butcher knife! Seems Kaylee’s was the last face she saw, therefore she killed her? Message: don’t mess with Clarksephine.
And now she needs to take a shower and get out of the hideous dress. Aw. I liked the dress.
We now pan in to Clarksephine dancing to French techno-pop and painting a portrait of herself. Either Josephine was also an artist, or her body has retained some of Clarke’s artistic tendencies. King Russell and Queen Whatshername interrupt her dance routine to tell her that the Earthers could have more Night Bloods among them. Clarksephine’s mission, should she choose to accept it, is to find out how many and who they are. She’s not interested. She wants to run the breeding program, so they’ll produce more Night Bloods for them to possess. Russell and Clarksephine argue long enough for me to figure out that Russell wants to do things humanely (um, if you can call inserting themselves into someone’s body humane), and Clarksephine pooh-poohs that. “Peace and love for the grace and glory of Sanctum. Consent is key, blahdy-blah.”
Clarksephine astutely points out that they didn’t get Clarke’s permission for insertion, but Russell points out the Earthers are dangerous. “If they find out we killed Clarke, they will burn this world down just like their last one.” Dude, truer words have never been spoken. I cannot wait to see what Abby does, nay, what Bellamy does when they find out Clarke is gone forever.
Bodyguard Jade shows up and pledges to protect Clarksephine. Clarksephine pledges to not wear Clarke’s fugly boots, but the scene ends with Clarksephine accepting the undercover mission after all.
Jordan appears to present Priyah7 (HBHN) with daisies because they were her favorites. She thanks him for remembering, but blows him off. Next, over in the pub Murphy and Bellamy have a chuckle at Jordan’s expense because he swears Delilah told him Calla Lilies are her faves, not daisies. Something is amiss, boys. Bellamy: Play it cool. Murphy: Maybe don’t get flowers for a one-night-stand. Primes, I love you, John Murphy.
Clarksephine appears and goes over her Spark Notes on all the Earth people before she engages. Madi* bounds in and, again, asks about school. Clarksephine blows it within two seconds of being Clarke and says, sure, why not? Gaia’s hackles go up. I mean, what if Madi gets a paper cut and starts bleeding black? Clarksephine saves her story by saying the Primes insisted Madi go. Bellamy comes over and there’s some small talk ending with Clarksephine telling Gaia to “Chill out.” Yes, she said that. Bellamy is confused too. But he chalks it up to Cute Doctor Cillian making her happy with his…stethoscope. Clarksephine insures Bellamy that it will be a long time before Cute Doctor Cillian recovers from their night. “Damn girl.” This is in Bellamy’s head, of course. But he walks away from her literally scratching his head and rethinking his life choices.
* Thanks to subtitles on the convo between Clarksephine and Maddie, I now know I’ve been spelling Madi wrong. Sorry about that. Anyway, M-a-d-i, Madi is happy Clarke changed her mind about the school. (I swear, this girl better make the freaking honor roll after all this.) Meanwhile, Jordan is still moping and asks Delilah’s mom about the process of becoming Priyah7 (HBHN). She confirms Delilah is gone now, but Jordan, Bellamy, and Gaia don’t seem to pick up on it fully. Jordan is not giving up on Delilah and pretty much shuts Bellamy down, when Bellamy tries to placate him.
I dig this Jordan guy so much. He may be number two on my list behind Murphy.
Motorcycles in the woods! It’s like I’m back in my hometown and we’re skipping school! Anyway, Child of Gabriel has led Octavia and Diyoza into a clearing. They get stuck in something that sounds like “oocrucible” but it’s basically quicksand! “The harder you fight, the quicker you die.” Well, that’s not good for them.
Back over in the village, there’s some medical speak between Abby and Jackson. They all want to save Marcus, okay? Clarksephine tries to lend a helpful Night Blood book written by Josephine to Abby, presumably trying to discern if Marcus is a Night Blood. Abby finds the book on “Oblation” horrifying and isn’t a fan of the author. Abby notices Clarke isn’t left handed anymore and Clarksephine deflects by finding a viable solution to Marcus’ kidney issues. It works to distract Abby because she cares more about Marcus than Clarke, clearly.
In the Pub: Bellamy has a map! But Murphy doesn’t want to be a pioneer. He recites a number of narrow scrapes he’s been through when he’s gone explorin’. Bellamy, though, is just looking for a home for the 400 people he’s stashed back in cryo on Elegius IV. Also: they’re invited to Rose’s funeral. And you know Murphy will want no part of that. He suggests Bellamy take Jordan to get him over being dumped. LOL, that’ll help! Bellamy coerces Murphy into helping him look for Jordan. Clarksephine spies, then takes off in pursuit.
They end up in King Russell’s sooper sekrit chamber/closet, now with 100% more skeletons. (Murphy hates dead people, by the way.) They find Jordan there investigating. Bellamy questions Jordan, and he sasses that investigating Delilah’s weirdness is exactly what pre-PrimeFiya Bellamy would have done. “Heart over head. That was my favorite Bellamy.”
Same, Jordan. SAME.
Gaia shows up, and Murphy tries to bail. Clarksephine arrives and shames them for being in a sacred place. Bellamy’s all, What now? Gaia discovers the Mark of the Flame and connects it all to the commanders. There’s twelve of them, plus kids. Clarksephine talks about familial love being a powerful motivator. Jordan discovers tracks on the floor, which mean…HIDDEN DOOR! Open Sesame! The door leads to an…”operating room attached to a crypt. Really?” That’s a direct Murphy quote.
Inside the Insertion Chamber, Jordan recognizes Delilah’s things, and the Scooby Gang works it out after they find a gruesome research video spelling it all out for them: they’re inserting people into other people. Dun dun duhnnnn. Now we know all. Well, we know a little bit.
Jordan works out they murdered Delilah, but Clarksephine points out that it isn’t murder if the person submitted willingly. She claims the Primes are not a threat, but Bellamy figures out the truth: the Primes are letting them stay for their Night Bloods. Gaia freaks and wants to run to protect Madi. Clarksephine is nonplussed by it, but fakes it enough to fool everyone. She wants them to stay out of it and let them have their creepy weird religion(ish) stuff.
Murphy agrees: this isn’t their fight. Plus, he kinda likes the idea of immortality. I’m thinking that it’s too bad for him that he’s not a Night Blood because I want Murphy to live forever.
Over in the quicksand, as they slowly sink, Diyoza pontificates on why Bellamy abandoned Octavia. “You’re a hurricane leaving a path of destruction in your wake,” she says. Octavia says, “Shut up.” Good comeback, O. Diyoza offers to put Octavia out of her misery with a gun. Octavia’s fine wit’ it. Then Diyoza gives her a pep talk…? And then the bad guy shows up and asks about Night Bloods. They choose to stay tight lipped. For the moment anyway.
Clarksephine meets with King Russell and Queen Whatshername and tattles on the Earthers’ sleuthing inside the Insertion Chamber. They confab about the rights and wrongs of them “jumping line” to resurrect Josephine before her time, especially because she killed Kaylee. (But, KAYLEE KILLED HER FIRST, MOooooOOOM! Ugh.) Anyway, Clarksephine wants to kill the Earthers before they find out who she is and burn Sanctum to the ground, but Russell denies her. She pouts a warning: “This is what happens when you try to cook an omelette without breaking eggs.”
Group meeting! What to do? Stay on Sanctum and condone their behavior or go back into space and wait who knows how long to find another sustainable planet? Going back into cryo sounds dreadful to me, because can you imagine, the crick you’d have in your neck after sleeping decades? Bellamy wants to build their own compound/radiation shield. Murphy doesn’t like the sound of all that work. Clarksephine “agrees with John,” which immediately puts him on the defensive. One, because Clarke never agrees with him, Two: she called him John and not Murphy. He reacts with his face.
There’s debate about religions, mortality, past sins. Priyah7 (HBHN) is onlooking, and Jordan just will not take it anymore. He goes after her, and Bellamy has to pull him back. There’s confrontation, and Jordan outs that they know all the things and he’s not cool with any of it. While this is happening, Clarksephine walks out. Bellamy pursues, because he’s her puppy. He hopes they’re not on different sides of the issue, but they are. Clarksephine fights for them doing their own thing. Bellamy judges himself for what he’s done. He says, and this is so good, y’all, “I see the faces of the people I’ve killed when I dream, …not in the mirror.
Uh-oh, Clarksephine, you cannot fool Bellamy. He knows you are not “his” Clarke. She balks, he confronts, she stabs him in the neck with a needle. So, ya know, just another day at the office for The 100 writers.
I’m surprised to come back from commercials with more show. That felt like a good ending. But, nope. I forgot about Octavia and Diyoza and bad guy waiting for their answers. O’s about to go under when a loud noise erupts. Some kind of flare. Bad guy proves he may not be all that bad, when he tosses the rope to Diyoza, who I think he’s crushing on. Octavia tells her to save the baby. She does, but promises to come back. Off she goes, and then Octavia hides in quicksand while the flare bursts around her. Later, Diyoza does, in fact, come back for her. She’s saved, but covered in goo and weird stuff now. But hey, that’s when Octavia is her prettiest: covered in muck and grime. It’s what Lincoln loved. Aww. I miss Lincoln so hard. (Love to Ricky Whittle.)
Back in the compound: Jackson and Abby are working on Marcus’ recovery, but it’s going to be a fifteen-hour surgery. Sadly, Marcus only has ten minutes left to live after he’s taken out of cryo. Clarksephine is outside listening intently to Abby’s emotional breakdown about her love, Marcus. Clarksephine leaves and Jade questions her because “isn’t the mother, the key?” Yes, she is. She’s the whole ball game, “the Super Bowl,” if you will. And of all the human things to have survived hundreds of years, the Super Bowl is one of them? Wow. Anyway, Clarksephine needs a better coach for this Super Bowl. And, I really hate sports analogies.
Close-up on Murphy, who gets another drink at the pub. Clarkesphine offers a penny for his thoughts, but Murphy, being from hundreds of years from now, has no clue what a penny is. That’s okay, Clarksephine explains it. She fills in the blanks and calls him John again, and I knew he’d get it from that. He knows she’s not Clarke. But before he goes and kills her, she offers him a golden ticket to immortality. Murphy? He’s listening.
Great episode! Eliza Taylor is killing it as Clarksephine, and you know I’m loving having Murphy fully living in the gray area between right and wrong again. I predict that Abby will turn to insertion/immortality to save Marcus.
Tune in next Tuesday 8/7 central on The CW to find out if I’m right. Until then, I’ll be dancing to French techno-pop and contemplating immortality.