Before I begin, allow me to extend our best wishes for a lifetime of happiness and love to The 100 stars Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley, who were recently married (OFF SCREEN PEOPLE).
Previously on The 100: They’re convincing people to give up their bodies; We can get our baby girl back tonight; Dad? Josephine! Once the host is implanted, the person is gone; How many Earth people have night blood? Toss us the rope and we’ll tell you; In my dreams, I see a Commander who frightens me; Josephine Lightborn, nice to meet you; You’re not Clarke; How would you like to be immortal too?
We open with Murphy giving Clarksephine the rundown on all things Clarke, so she can play her convincingly enough fool Abby. He schools her on which cards to play during certain Abby scenarios, proving what we all know: he’s smart, observant, and manipulative.
Plus, he wants to be immortal.
Clarksephine, for her part, is a quick study, answering all of Murphy’s quiz questions. Then Madi screams off-camera, and Clarksephine is put to the test. Or as Murphy puts it, “a dress rehearsal.” She immediately botches the Clarke-as-Mommy biz by pulling Madi out of a Commander dream which is a big no-no, according to Gaia. She thinks Clarksephine could’ve damaged Madi’s mind by waking her while she was communing with the Dark Commander, AKA ShadeHeda. They argue, then Madi goes teenager on them and throws them both out. Clarksephine goes back to Murphy as Gaia raises an eyebrow to camera so we know she is suspicious. It’s for good reason, though, as we soon watch Madi start hallucinating ShadeHeda.
After the opening credits, Echo, Raven, and Emori come in, wondering where Bellamy is. Echo is distraught that she can’t find him, but Clarksephine is there to provide the cover story: he’s out with a foraging party. After the trio of ladies leaves, Clarksephine comes clean to Murphy: Bellamy’s not foraging — he got in her way because he figured out who she was. Murphy? He’s clearly bothered about the possibility of Bellamy being dead. (Aww. I’m telling you, he has a heart!) Clarksephine tells him to chill and gives Murphy until 2nd moon to convince Bellamy to join the side of the “angels” — meaning, them. I’m just going to call them Team Live 4ever!
Murphy fakes being captured and has himself “thrown” into Bellamy’s cell-slash-room. (Because this thing is suh-weet and not at all cell-like.) He tells Bellamy about a deal Josephine wants to make and says he didn’t take it. He knows Clarke’s dead and, while she’s not his fave of late, she was “one of theirs.” Bellamy tells him Clarke cared about him. And I am almost crying now thankyouverymuch, Bob Morley. Bellamy thinks Clarke is dead and I cannot. CAN. NOT.
Bellamy wants to fight their way out of this thing, kill all the baddies, and save the people, but…here we go y’all. Murphy drops a comment about needing Bloodreina (Octavia) to do it. The scene cuts away, but all I can do here is think that Murphy is doing exactly what he was teaching Clarksephine to do earlier: play the right card to shut someone down. “Go for the kill shot,” he’d said. If there’s a kill shot for Bellamy, it would be Octavia. Guh. Murphy. So bad. So good.
Speaking of Bloodreina… Diyoza and Octavia discover a beautiful bio-luminescent forest. Also: a Child of Gabriel, who quickly determines Octavia’s funky looking hand was exposed to the flare last episode. She’s hurting and dying, but he might be able to save her. It just has to be within the next four hours before the time dilation reaches her brain. TIME. DILATION. REACHES. HER. BRAIN! Yeah, I don’t know where that came from either. Where ya going with this one @The100WritersRoom? Anyway, they tell him they’re looking for “the old man” Gabriel, he laughs, and then they all set off straight into Plot B.
Meanwhile “I’m Going On A Bellamy Hunt” Echo finds the foraging party, sans Bellamy, and also finds a guy crying out for mercy as he is, literally, being swallowed by vines. Look:
Echo is about to mercy kill him when Jade, who’d been sent by Clarksephine, stops her. She tells Echo he got himself into this mess… so… Seems he’s the guard that lowered the shield to let our kru inside the radiation boundary in the first place and blames himself. Echo, because she’s Echo, easily bests Jade and puts Vine Guy out of his misery. His fight is over.
Back inside Bellamy’s cell/room, Murphy reminds Bellamy that Clarke is gone and she wouldn’t want a revenge killing to take place in her honor. (John Murphy: Button Pusher Extraordinaire.) But our Bellamy is smart, yo. He figures out Murphy’s game and calls him out. Murphy comes clean (ish). He doesn’t mention he’ll get to live forever, but he makes a strong argument for this being the only way to save all their people still cryo-sleeping on the Elegius IV. When he doesn’t seem to be doing much good, Murphy casually namedrops Monty, and I am DONE.
So is Bellamy. He argues and fights back (as far as his chains will allow him). And I swear to the Primes that this scene here is what I would submit for consideration for Bob Morley and Richard Harmon to receive all the awards. ALL of them. The tension and emotion are pretty much characters in the room with them. Their chemistry is amazing and every tiny detail is showing how conflicted they both are. I’m swooning with awe. Anyway, Bellamy tells Murphy to leave and he goes, but not before he tells Bellamy, “Don’t worry. I’ll do my best to make sure they only kill you.”
*sigh*
In the forest: Child of Gabriel tells Diyoza that Gabriel is “the” OG Gabriel and has had a “moral awakening,” in that he no longer believes in immortality. He offers Diyoza redemption, and she isn’t interested, even when she learns her child will be considered worthless. He also points out that she’s helping Octavia. But you know our Diyoza — she doesn’t want to talk about that. She does want to talk about the weird tree Stonehenge, especially when he taps the tree for some sap that instantly cures a cut on Diyoza’s wrist. (Will Amazon ship this stuff? I have one hell of a paper cut between my fingers right now.)
Meanwhile, Gaia has to comfort Madi, who’s seeing ShadeHeda in every reflective surface. Gaia wants to perform the “Separation Ritual” and luckily, she has Becca Primeheda’s journal to tell her how! (Always read the instruction manual, folks!) Here, we learn there is a dream space where she can summon all the former commanders for help, and oh my Heda, are we going to get a glimpse of Lexa in a minute? Gaia tells Madi to hold on to a good memory. Madi, naturally, chooses meeting Clarke. Anyone else think this is going to go horribly wrong?
As predicted, it goes horribly wrong. First of all, ShadeHeda is blocking us from Lexa and then starts talking smack about Gaia and wants Madi to kill her. Madi wakes and finds herself bound in chains to the bed.
In the village: Clarksephine confronts Abby. Poorly. But recovers by offering Abby a cure for Kane: turn him into a Night Blood! Srsly. All she has to do is make Kane a Night Blood and insert him into someone else, then boom! Then she proceeds to do what Murphy said: push all the buttons, including the kill shot — Dad. And it works.
Next, Clarksephine convinces Queen Whatshername to wipe the Lee family out of existence so she can have the disc space for Kane. After all, if Abby turns everyone into Night Bloods, then everyone can be a part of Team Live 4Ever! Bye Bye Lee family, we didn’t even know ye.
In the forest, Echo questions tied-up Jade about Bellamy. She figures out that Clarke isn’t Clarke anymore. Jade saves herself by telling Echo Bellamy isn’t dead. But she stays tied to that tree, okay? I wonder if this is the last we’ll ever see of Jade.
While….Clarksephine visits Bellamy to plead her case. Only to be interrupted by King Russell and Murphy! Did Murphy double cross Clarksephine? Yeah, he did! Russell confronts Josephine and apologizes to Bellamy. He guarantees safety for their people, but Bellamy is almost putting his fingers in his ears and lalala-ing at this point. Murphy tells Bellamy he can trust Russell and also that Abby is off in the shuttle to go make some Night Bloods! Bellamy is not okay with any of this and warns Russell that he’ll have to kill Abby too, once she finds out about Clarke. Clarksephine, in a surprise move, cuts Bellamy free at the right moment. He goes after Russell as Clarksephine gives him the okay to kill him with her statement: “Eye for an eye.” Seems she just wants more Night Bloods and doesn’t care about her Daddy.
Bellamy is about to choke Russell to death, but then he has an attack of conscience and lets him go. I, naively, think it’s over, but oh no, kru, it is not. It’s then that Clarksephine hands over the chips to Murphy. That was the plan all along. So, he was playing Bellamy, playing Russell, and playing me, evidently. *Bows down to Richard Harmon*
I am so pumped about Murphy I have to rewatch the next scene twice. Anyway, over in the forest: Child of Gabriel pours sap on Octavia’s hand, but while it magically cured Diyoza, it’s only slowing down the effects of the flare’s time dilation on Octavia. She has 1-2 days before old age gets her. Octavia offers to pull a Jaime Lannister (or Luke Skywalker, or Phil Coulson… there are numerous one-handed people in Sci-Fi/Fantasy, so take your pick) and cut off her hand to get rid of the problem. CoG becomes perplexed when Octavia’s hand starts moving. He gives her a rock and tells her close her eyes. She draws a spiral-looking thing shape which turns out is not just a tremor, but a message from the source of the temporal flares. Say, what now? Oh, the anomaly is calling her. Just like it called the CoG before. *Shows same spiral pattern on his tattoo* Diyoza opens her sketchbook, showing the same shape and declares that they need to find out what the anomaly wants. #agreed
So, Echo comes home and finds Bellamy crying about Clarke.
She wants to attack. Bellamy says nope. He wants to do what Clarke would’ve done: survive. Then Madi comes down, and he has the awful job of telling her about Clarke. I am so thankful we only get a wide shot and no dialogue in this part of the scene.
Later, he cries a lot more about Clarke. So does Madi. She blames Gaia and is mad at Bellamy for not wanting revenge. Madi, driven by the voice of ShadeHeda, commands that Gaia is now banished. She also commands that ShadeHeda shut the hell up with his ominous whispering, and tell her how to kill them all right this very minute!! Grieving teenager bent on revenge. Look out, world.
Finally, we find Clarkesphine relaxing in her silk pjs and listening to “Alone” by Aelos. As the scene starts to fade, we’re abruptly taken inside her head…where we find sketches of all our fave kru.
Oh.
Okay.
Clarke’s still alive inside there.
Wow. I feel relieved to know Clarke’s Supernatural-flavored dead instead of dead-dead. Getting her back out of there should prove to be interesting, and I will predict right now that Bellamy will play a big role in it.
This episode wore me out in the best way. Again, not only do I admire the writers of this show for unimaginable twists and unique world building, but I have to shout out again to Bob Morley, Richard Harmon, and Eliza Taylor for bringing their A+ game this season. I can’t wait to see what happens next week.
Tune in with me, kru, 9/8 central Tuesday on The CW. Until then, I’ll be here pouring sap on my wounds and sketching spirals.