Written By Avani Goswami
The 100 Season 7 Episode 7, entitled “The Queen’s Gambit,” is all about relationships and is directed by The 100’s very own Lindsey Morgan, who plays Raven Reyes.
From the start, we see Emori (Luisa d’Oliveira, Channel Zero) and Murphy (Richard Harmon, The Age of Adaline) step into leadership roles as Kaylee and Daniel Prime. I miss Indra (Adina Porter, American Horror Story), but it’s great seeing more of Emori since we rarely see a storyline focused around her. Murphy first goes to Russell, who’s actually Sheidheda (JR Bourne, Teen Wolf), to give him his meal, where a devoted follower snuck in a note about the unification ceremony. That’s the ceremony that Emori hosts to reunite the “nulls” with their families.
She has a personal connection to this initiative; because of her hand, she was often called a “frikdreina,” which means someone with deformities or mutations. Since she never belonged and longs to see her family again to prove them wrong, she hopes to do the same for “nulls,” like Nelson (Lee Majdoub, Sonic the Hedgehog). Emori brings Nelson’s parents to meet him, and while his mother accepts him, his father calls him an abomination which is heartbreaking. Nelson’s dad chokes him, but Nelson is able to stab him before he can finish the job.
Murphy is supposed to attend the ceremony, but Sheidheda doesn’t want him to go to the ceremony because his own secret plan is underway. So, he challenges Murphy to a game of chess where he gives him a really long talk about power, heroics, and survival. Murphy even brings up how everyone loved Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey, Fear the Walking Dead), which is a treat because it’s been a while since they made a Lexa reference. This makes Sheidheda angry and he threatens Murphy, before we find out the only reason he was keeping Murphy there was so that he doesn’t go to the ceremony and so Sheidheda’s plan can succeed.
Nikki (Alaina Huffman, Smallville) interrupts the unification ceremony with guns and arms the Children of Gabriel, who are now working with the prisoners. It’s not looking so great for their enemies like Emori and Murphy, and I can see Wonkru aligning with the prisoners and the Children of Gabriel in the next few episodes, which will only make things worse.
Back on Bardo, things are getting intense. Gabriel (Chuku Modu, The Good Doctor) turned in his friends last episode, and he is told to work with the team unlocking the stone. He says he’ll do it after barely any persuasion and I don’t know how to feel about his character anymore. We get a flashback to Bellamy (Bob Morley, Home and Away) and Echo (Tasya Teles, Prison Break) up in the ring, where they share a personal conversation and a kiss. Honestly, if they did a flashback, I was hoping it would be of the others on the ring too. But also I wish they showed this flashback earlier in the season to make us root for Bellamy and Echo more, since their relationship seemed so random at first. Still, it was wonderful to see Bellamy again. Then we see Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos, Wonder Woman: Blood Lines) and Echo locked up in a cell together, where they share a nice scene mending their relationship. I thought the “you’re my family too,” came a little soon in terms of their development, but it was very emotional and I’m glad they bonded.
Hope (Shelby Flannery, As They Fade) and Diyoza (Ivana Milicevic, Running Scared) also share some emotional scenes, in which Hope slips up and admits she knows Diyoza was a killer. They have a really deep conversation about their relationship as mother and daughter, before Hope says she wants to fight an entire army. Diyoza says that’s not smart and says to fight her to see how good she really is. Basically Diyoza beats Hope, and they both admit that they miss the way things used to be. Then, we cut back to Echo who is scarring her face like the Azgeda warriors used to do. She tells Octavia that they seem to be recruits for an army instead of prisoners, and Echo tells them that they will fight. Anders (Neal McDonough, Arrow) lets all four of the women out and informs them that their training will begin the next day. An army with Octavia, Echo, Diyoza, and Hope is one I would not want to fight, so I’m excited to see how their training goes and what happens with them next.
Then there’s a three month time skip, as Clarke (Eliza Taylor, The November Man), Raven, and the others come through the anomaly to Bardo. Gabriel is there, and has been working on the stone for that entire period of time, while the others must have been training for the army, which we unfortunately didn’t get a glimpse of. Gabriel fills them in on who’s in Bardo, but mentions that Bellamy’s dead, and the look on Clarke’s face is exactly how I felt. I don’t think he’s actually dead, though, so I’m hoping for their reunion soon.
Finally, we see Anders going up to the thirteenth floor, where he says words reminiscent of the familiar saying, “from the ashes, we will rise.” There is even a shot of the Second Dawn bunker symbol, which is incredibly confusing but also intriguing. He opens up some kind of chamber to reveal William Cadogan (John Pyper-Ferguson, Suits) himself, the man who talked about the doomsday bunkers in season four. He seems to be the shepherd, and Anders tells him that Clarke, “the key,” is now in Bardo.
The 100 Season 7 Episode 7, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ definitely established a lot of what’s to come. The war on Sanctum is building, but how will it play out and how will it connect to the anomaly? Will it leave the planet inhabitable like so many others? Probably. I can’t wait to find out how the Second Dawn storyline ties into Bardo, but I have a feeling that season five wasn’t the last we saw of Earth.
The 100 Season 7 Episode 7, The Queen’s Gambit is now steaming on The CW Network app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L5XBb1Pi0k
