‘The 100’: Bellamy’s Definitely on the Dark Side—And Murphy’s a Hero (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The 100 Season 7 episode 12, “The Stranger.”]
If you showed someone who’d only watched the first two seasons of The 100 this episode, they’d be totally baffled by the changes in two major characters: Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Bellamy (Bob Morley). Namely, the fact that the guy who couldn’t spell “die” is now a hero who everyone from Emori to Indra is proud of… and Bellamy’s standing by while Clarke (Eliza Taylor)’s tortured in front of him. Good for you, Murphy! What the heck are you doing, Bellamy?!
On Bardo, Bell makes a deal of sorts to save his friends—too bad no one wants to go along with it. And, on Sanctum, Sheidheda’s seeing success in taking control of Sanctum, while Murphy’s proving himself a true leader.
A New Plan
It seems Bellamy’s about 95% on the Disciples’ side, and 5% worried about his friends. At a lunch meeting with Cadogan (John Pyper-Ferguson), he bargains for their safety by saying he thinks the Flame could be repaired: they just have to find it. Cadogan’s more than okay with that—although he doesn’t say so, it seems like he’s eager to converse with his daughter and discover how his son died—so that’s what they go with. If he can get it, if it can be fixed, and if it contains the key to the last war, his friends will be free. That’s a whole lot of “ifs!”
That plan means some of Bell’s pals have to end up in m-cap. He goes to get Raven (Lindsey Morgan), who tells him, “so much for family” (ouch). He then has a tense conversation with Echo (Tasya Teles), and, when pressed, he tells her The Shepherd’s teachings are more important than their relationship—he wholeheartedly believes Cadogan can end war, death and destruction for all time, and to him, that’s worth sacrificing their feelings for. Understandably, that breaks her heart.
Go Float Yourself
Across the holding rooms, Jordan (Shannon Kook) and Hope (Shelby Flanery), and Clarke and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), bond over their similarities. Octavia has Hope to protect, Clarke has Madi (Lola Flanery). O feels plenty of regret about how “messed up” Hope has become, and she starts to talk about it, but Bellamy comes in. He explains to his sister and his friend what happened to him and why he believes in the Shepherd. “I know how it sounds, but it’s real,” he says. Even after his speech, Clarke’s not willing to help Cadogan start a war, so she refuses to disclose the Flame’s location: “Go float yourself,” she tells Bell. Everyone in the room ends up crying, and an emotional Bellamy orders Clarke be taken to m-cap.
And taken to m-cap, she is. She fights it and fights it until she’s close to hemorrhaging, but it takes the threat of sending one of her friends to Penance to get her to make a deal. She’ll take Cadogan and the Disciples to the Flame as soon as her friends are safe. “It didn’t have to be like this,” Bellamy says. “I guess it did,” Clarke says, and once Bell leaves, she breaks down crying.
Everyone’s Proud of the Cockroach
Meanwhile, on Sanctum, Sheidheda’s chugging right along with his whole “kneel or die” thing. Nikki and the Eligius crew kneel, so they live; Murphy and Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira) do, too, but they get kicked out of the palace and wind up living in the machine shop. The Children of Gabriel, though, won’t bow to another false god… so Sheidheda kills them all, Nelson (whose real name is Sachin) included. Or at least that’s what it looks like. As it turns out, one of the Children of Gabriel survived—Indra (Adina Porter) sees him moving and tells him to play dead, then removes him from the scene.
Murphy and Emori are still hiding the surviving faithful, giving them medicine, clothing, etc. They’re considering kneeling to Sheidheda, but Murphy talks them out of it. “I was right to believe in you,” one of them says. Look how far Murphy’s come! Indra brings the survivor to him and tells him that Sheidheda’s looking for Madi: if he finds her, he’ll kill Murphy, too. “I’m aware,” Murphy says. She leaves, Emori takes the survivor to the safety of the reactor, and Murphy gets an unwanted knock at the door—Nikki.
Holding him at gunpoint, she demands he open the reactor door. They go inside and she sees Madi, but Emori knocks her out. Problem solved, right?
King Takes Knight
Wrong. While they restrain Nikki, Sheidheda gets his hands on the anomaly stone—and he gets some good news. Nikki was being followed by another member of team Sheidy, which leads a larger team of his followers straight to the machine shop. Murphy goes to meet them, telling a worried Emori, “I’ve got this. I’m coming back.” (Those are very “not-coming-back” words, Murphy!)
Thankfully, this isn’t the moment where the cockroach meets a can of Raid. Sheidheda and Murphy end up at a stalemate, since Emori threatens to blow the reactor if he opens that door. Sheidheda, never to be outplayed, declares that “king takes knight” and takes Murphy prisoner.
Back to Sanctum
In the stone room, Clarke’s friends are rounded up and freed from their restraints. They’re sent through the anomaly… but to a different place. Bellamy doesn’t even know where they are, although he did seem to know about The Shepherd’s plan, which upsets Clarke. “I don’t trust you,” Cadogan tells her, “But I do trust the love you have for your friends.” He says they’re all free to fight with him when the last war starts, but if they don’t, he’ll save them anyway. For all mankind.
As the episode ends, Clarke winds up back on Sanctum in the middle of Sheidheda’s throne room—a very different Sanctum from the one she left. “What the hell happened here?” she asks.
Other Observations:
- I honestly can’t believe this is Shelby Flanery’s first big acting gig. Her expressions and delivery during the scene with Jordan were just incredible. And Jordan was right; he and Hope do have quite a bit in common, so a friendship there just makes sense.
- What doesn’t make sense is Bellamy sitting around and watching Clarke be tortured. Last week, I felt his turn to the “dark side” was realistic, but this week, I’m waffling. Then, he was just relaying information—he wasn’t watching bodily harm come to the people he cares about. It’s hard to accept the Bellamy Blake who fought so hard to bring Clarke back would stand by and watch her scream in pain. Yes, there’s in-story precedent for this. We’ve seen Bell follow Pike, and we’ve seen him make questionable decisions before. But he regretted those decisions. He hated himself for the part he played in Lincoln’s death. If Bellamy survives the season and comes to his senses, will he be able to forgive himself for what he’s done? Or is it more likely he dies a heroic death, at this point?
- Also, was a scene cut where Bellamy talks to Niylah (Jessica Harmon) and Miller (Jarod Joseph)? There were promotional photos released of him with them, but that scene wasn’t part of the episode. That’s a bummer, because Miller is one of the original 100, and it would’ve been great for him and Bellamy to interact.
- It’s a bummer that we didn’t see anything where Clarke’s m-cap was concerned. It would’ve been interesting to see which moments have stuck with Clarke since the beginning and what effect it might’ve had on Bellamy for him to witness them—after all, he wasn’t there when she was on the ground during Priamfiya or when she suffered some of her worst losses—but alas, it wasn’t to be.
- Murphy is terrifying me with his new self-sacrificing streak. Since screeners weren’t sent out for this episode, I was half-convinced he wasn’t making it out of the machine shop when Sheidheda came knocking. I’m happy to see the cockroach skitter on, at least to another episode, but I’m still not convinced he’s living through to the final end credits.
- I’m almost 100% sure that Clarke’s friends are either 1. On Earth, judging by the title for episode 14 (it’s called “A Sort of Homecoming,” which probably applies to Clarke and Sanctum but could totally also apply to Earth) or 2. With Gaia. Both could be possible. It’s more probable that they’re with Gaia, because we have four episodes left and she’s nowhere to be found.
- This weeks-long break is going to be torture now that the storylines have merged and it appears we’re getting another Red Sun. That was one of my favorite Season 6 episodes, so I’m looking forward to seeing it again in Season 7.
- Rating: 3/5 stars. There were some definite bright spots here—the Jordan and Hope scene, Clarke’s emotional confrontation with Bellamy, Murphy’s heroic moment—but it still feels like the show is spinning its wheels. I keep waiting for things to “come together,” for there to be big moments between the original characters or significant forward movement in the plot, and it’s just… not happening. It feels like most of these episodes could have been the first half of the season.
The 100, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
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