Written by Avani Goswami
The 100 Season 7 Episode 12 entitled “The Stranger,” brings us the question: is Bellamy redeemable? And with only four more episodes left, it seems the tensions on Sanctum will never be resolved.
At first, we see Murphy (Richard Harmon, The Age of Adeline) and Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira, Channel Zero) on Sanctum, confronting Sheidheda (JR Bourne, Teen Wolf). He’s telling everyone to kneel or die again, and Nikki (Alaina Huffman, The Perfection), leader of the Eligius prisoners, is prepared to do what she must to let her and her people live. Nelson a.k.a. Sachin (Lee Majdoub, Sonic the Hedgehog) is not so willing, which leads to Sheidheda killing all of the
Children of Gabriel, including Nelson. Well, almost all. Luca (Dylan Kingwell, A Series of Unfortunate Events), a young boy who previously befriended Madi (Lola Flanery, Home Again) survives and plays dead long enough for Indra (Adina Porter, American Horror Story) to get him out and to the nuclear reactor, where Murphy and Emori are keeping people safe from Sheidheda.
It seems reliable for now, but Nikki finds out about the reactor, which leads to Emori knocking her out in order to make sure she can’t go back to Sheidheda or kill any of them. It’s an especially worrying issue because Sheidheda has Madi’s notebook of drawings and seems to know the anomaly stone, likely because of the Flame. And then Knight (Xavier de Guzman, Take Two), one of Sheidheda’s loyal followers, ends up giving him an anomaly stone. Which, yikes. Then, Sheidheda figures out they’re hiding something in the reactor and threatens Murphy to open it, but Emori says if Sheidheda hurts Murphy, she’ll blow the reactor. They say they have nothing to lose either way.
Going back to our friends on Bardo, things are not looking much better. Bellamy (Bob Morley, Home And Away) seems firmly loyal to Bill Cadogan (John Pyper-Ferguson, Suits), but tells Bill that he thinks they can find the Flame and repair it, and thus find the code for the last war. Bill says he’ll let them leave if this is true, but it seems like a pretty big ask. Bellamy’s loyalty is solidified in his conversation with Raven (Lindsey Morgan, General Hospital) and Echo (Tasya Teles, Prison Break). Raven’s rightfully angry, and he sends her to M-Cap to extract answers from her. Before leaving, she says, “So much for family.” Ouch. Echo is upset, distressed that Bellamy isn’t the person she loved and confused as to how he could do this to their family members.
Bellamy only goes further with his loyalty to the cause he believes in, saying he’s doing it for all mankind like the Shepherd preaches, and thinks this belief is worth more than his bonds with his friends. He eventually goes to see Clarke (Eliza Taylor, The November Man) and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos, 50/50), who are bonding over their love for their children. This moment between the friends is really cute, until Bellamy comes in and begins arguing with them. Clarke says she doesn’t even recognize him, but the heaviest blow is when she finishes with “Go float yourself.” Probably because Bellamy keeps asking where the Flame is, even though she clearly has no desire to answer. And then he sends her to M-Cap too, which made me wildly upset. First Raven, now Clarke. How many of his closest friends is he going to turn on?
Clarke pushes against the M-Cap, until she eventually says she’ll bring them to the Flame if they let her friends go safely. Well, Bill agrees, but doesn’t send his friends to Sanctum, and also doesn’t let Gabriel (Chuku Modu, The Good Doctor) and Raven go because they know how to work the anomaly stone and Bill wants Clarke’s friends confined to a certain place until she follows through.
Then, all of the people left in the Stone Room use the anomaly stone and travel to Sanctum. Clarke asks the very valid question of what happened on Sanctum, and truthfully I’m not certain anyone knows exactly how they got to this point. But it seems they are finally tying the Sanctum and Bardo storylines, so that’s something to look forward to!
There are some other sweet moments I enjoyed in this week’s episode, like the bonding between Jordan (Shannon Kook, The Conjuring) and Hope (Shelby Flannery, As They Fade), or the moment between Madi, Luca, and a few of the other kids who are trapped in the reactor. Each of these conversations focuses on sharing similar past experiences and brings together characters who all need someone to rely on and someone who understands them.
Overall, this episode is a little underwhelming compared to what I expected. I was hoping we’d see more of Raven and Clarke’s M-Cap experience and get references to the older seasons, but we don’t see any of that. I am also unsure about where Bellamy’s character is headed, because we are so short on time and he barely hesitated before sending Raven and Clarke to the torture chamber.
Still, I am excited to see the confrontation between Sheidheda and Bill Cadogan and see where all of our favorite characters end up. Hopefully there’s enough time to give Bellamy a redemption and figure out where in the world Gaia is. The 100 is taking another break until September 9th, so it seems we’ll have to wait in suspense until then!
The 100 Season 7 Episode 12 is now streaming on the CW app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0lgnu0cqY8
