‘The 100’: The Red Sun Rises in Sanctum—And A Fan-Favorite Character Falls (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The 100 Season 7 episode 13, “Blood Giants.”]
We’ve had first Red Sun, yes, but what about second Red Sun?
That’s about all the levity we can muster for this episode, which saw a second Red Sun rising over Sanctum, bringing one character back from the dead—and, in its final moments, delivering a fan-favorite to their grave in a scene that’s sure to stick with fans for quite a while. Let’s break it all down.
Red Sun Rising, Again
When Clarke and friends—and enemies—arrive in Sanctum, they realize pretty quickly Russell’s not Russell. Bill (John Pyper-Ferguson) has no time for the Dark Commander’s antics, and as such, he takes out a gaggle of Sheidy’s followers in one fell swoop. He then goes after Sheidheda, having one of his soldiers stab him—and then bargaining for their safe passage to the Key for saving his life. It’s blunt, but effective.
They then head for the Key, which comes with establishing that Bellamy’s definitely, really, for real on the Dark Side. Murphy’s surprised to see that. “Tell me he’s not serious,” he says to Raven and Clarke (unfortunately, he really is serious). And Clarke’s angered when Bill changes the deal at the last minute: he’s staying in Sanctum and keeping Raven and Murphy there, as assurance that Clarke will hold to her end of the bargain.
At the palace, Gabriel (Chuku Modu) patches up Sheidheda as best he can… and he starts hallucinating Josephine. It’s Red Sun time!
Saving The World
On the Sanctum grounds, Bellamy and Cadogan have a chat. The Shepherd tells him he’s not like the others; he didn’t grow up in the Disciples’ faith, and as such, he knows the love between individuals. Bellamy expresses that he feels he’s failing Cadogan and that his friends think he’s crazy… so he’ll just have to save everyone, for all mankind. “Your friends will understand, eventually,” Cadogan reassures him. Yeah—we wouldn’t hold our breaths on that one.
In the reactor, everyone’s hungry—and Sheidy’s people are trying to get in. Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira) and Nikki have a standoff, which ends with Nikki unconscious and the power off in Sanctum. That means the shield is down, and the bugs can get in (yikes!). Bellamy knows this, Raven knows this and Murphy knows this, but Cadogan doesn’t know this, which is why he’s still stubbornly insisting they wait for Clarke to return with the Key.
Bellamy convinces his leader to seek shelter, and Raven heads for the reactor to get the power back on. Meanwhile, in the palace, Gabriel keeps hallucinating and goes for the antitoxin, but there’s not much left, so he and Jackson (Sachin Sahel) have to make more. While Jackson gets to work, Josephine tries to convince him to take the Flame and take the test. “What better way to make up for all the things you did in this life than to save the world?” she asks.
The Enemy of My Enemy
The Clarke and Cadogan groups meet up at the reactor, and she tells him if he gets his people to open the door, she’ll give him the Flame. The Shepherd takes the deal, and Clarke gets a moment of happiness as she reunites with Madi (Lola Flanery). Raven and Emori share an emotional hug, too. Clarke does hold to her end of the bargain, and she hands Cadogan the Flame. “For all mankind,” he says, holding it and smiling.
The reactor team gets the power back on—but the reactor springs a leak again. Raven fixes it, but Nikki confronts her and makes her confess what she did, threatening to kill her as soon as she does. She cries as she says she was a coward, and she should’ve died instead of Patch. “If it’ll bring you peace,” Raven tells Nikki, “do it.” Nikki doesn’t do it; Instead, she tells Raven she should live with what she’s done. Clarke, Emori and Murphy find her sobbing on the ground, and they comfort her.
In the palace, everyone starts falling apart under the influence of the toxin… including Indra (Adina Porter). Sheidheda tries to bargain for her help, and she’s just barely willing: “first I kill the enemy of my enemy,” she says, “and then I kill my enemy.” But right now, the enemy of her enemy is her friend, and while Sheidy distracts the guards, Indra breaks free. He even saves her life, telling her to kill the last invisible guard. That’s worth enough for Indra to stop short of killing him once Gabriel and Jackson arrive with the antitoxin: as she says, he’s dead anyway. So she’s not killing him, but she’s not saving him either. TK
I Lost You
Everyone converges in the throne room. Indra demands to know where her daughter is, and it’s decided that Cadogan’s going to help them. Gabriel offers to fix the Flame, and he starts to do it, but he shoots the Flame at the last moment, destroying it. Clarke puts a gun to Cadogan’s head and tells him to enter the code to get to Gaia, and he does. Raven, Murphy, Emori, and the rest of the group head through the portal, but Clarke tells Bellamy to hang back.
“I said I wouldn’t lost anyone else, but I lost you,” Clarke says. “But that doesn’t matter to you, does it, Disciple Blake. So much for together.” She turns to leave, too, but as she starts through the portal, Bellamy gets his hands on Madi’s sketchbook. He realizes she has fragments of the Flame in her mind, and Clarke realizes that he knows, which would put Madi in incredible danger if Cadogan finds out. So they have a standoff—at gunpoint.
She’s crying. He’s crying. “I have no choice but to share this,” he says, expressing his belief that this is how “they do better.” Left with no choice, she pulls the trigger, appearing to shoot him in the heart. He collapses, the book tumbles to the ground, and she steps through to the other side, sobbing.
Other Observations
- I predicted Bellamy wasn’t going to make it to the end, but I didn’t see his end arriving this way. Jason Rothenberg appears to have confirmed that was Bellamy’s final death on Twitter, so it seems he’s gone-gone. Never to return. I’m genuinely stunned, and more than a little disappointed. Why am I disappointed? That was a strange way to end Bellamy’s arc, to say the least—I had thought the rest of the season would see him journey back to his friends and himself, only to sacrifice himself to save them. That would’ve honored “the heart” he always was. Having him give his life for the Disciples feels hollow much in the way Daenerys Targaryen’s descent into madness and subsequent death did.
- In fact, there are many parallels one might draw between Dany and Bellamy; throughout their shows they’d cared for his people so deeply, and both died suddenly after having oddly out of character moments. Having Bellamy go out as an echo of himself, a traitor to his friends rather than a hero, is upsetting. They Daenerys Targaryen’d him.
- Also, as it stands, Bellamy is dead, the sketchbook is still around (Clarke didn’t hide it take it with her), and there’s a good chance Cadogan will find out about Madi. So… what did Bellamy die for? Is Clarke going to lose her daughter, too?
- Bellamy dying without Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) there feels wrong. The Blakes never really got to have another conversation after Bellamy converted to the Disciples’ side, and I had hoped they would at least have another heart-to-heart, during which O could express that she understood what he did for her all those years, and that she loves him.
- I’m also now wondering if Clarke survives until the end, and I’d be willing to bet she won’t. For one thing, how will she live with herself after pulling the trigger on her best friend? And for another, “the head and the heart” has been a theme of the show and the Bellamy-Clarke relationship, and as Gabriel said, “once the head stops telling the heart to beat, it’s over.” Clarke shooting Bellamy (in the heart, no less) seems an awful lot like telling the heart not to beat. It’d follow that she might die, too, without her “heart.”
- That scene with Raven was plenty emotional, and how sweet that we got a scene of some of the main characters interacting and comforting her. That was probably the best thing about this episode, although undoubtedly, this is an installment that’ll be remembered for its final minutes.
- I had hoped the Red Sun would bring back more that Josephine (although it was cool to see her again). This was a plot element I thought the show would play up a little more, maybe resurrecting a few dead characters to mess with people’s heads. Instead, it was just an inconvenience for Gabriel.
- Rating: 1.5/5. The scenes with Raven in the reactor and Indra’s hallucinations at the palace were interesting, but the lack of story for the Red Sun toxin was a bummer. More significantly, the way this episode concluded Bellamy Blake’s character arc was odd, and inconsistent with his character. It’s almost impossible to see where the show, and Clarke especially, goes from here.
The 100, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
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