The 100 Episode 7×15: The Dying of the Light

And here we are, at the penultimate The 100 episode. I am very not okay, guys. I had actually planned to do a pretty long post on what this show meant to me, but after everything that’s gone down this season, I just didn’t have it in me. Perhaps someday. But trust that it meant a lot, and it being over… it’s incredibly hard, no matter how rough the season has been. 

 Just a reminder, spoilers galore!! Like ALL the spoilers- proceed with caution! 

Aftershocks

We knew from the trailer that Emori was clearly injured, and Murphy was mostly unscathed, so we open on his frantic search for her. Jackson and Raven join the search, and she’s fairly easy to find. Murphy is beyond ecstatic when he finds her, only maybe she isn’t as uninjured as he’d hoped.

They eventually get her out of the rubble, but it isn’t easy, and Jackson notices that it’s worse than he thought. Raven finally has eyes on the Stone, but it’s going to require some digging. First, Jackson must cauterize Emori’s wound, because The 100 lives for cauterization. She’s naturally scared, so she wants Murphy to distract her. He does, regaling her with memories of when they played Primes.

Remember in Murphy’s Law when he chased a little girl off a cliff? I do not know this man. I love him so much, there are no words, and I am so glad that he has gotten here. Raven locates the Stone, which is interestingly buried under a rogue Azgeda symbol (under Gabriel’s piano, I sob).  So, the gang starts digging, but Emori starts losing blood, and fast, so Jackson goes over to help. Emori is pretty certain that she’s going to die, even absolves Jackson, but he is having none of it. He also has no idea how to help her through this, so he tags Raven in. Good choice, sir. Good choice.

If you’ll excuse me, my eyes appear to be leaking.

Their friendship is one of the most beautiful damn things to come out of this show. And I will not allow Raven to lose Emori, you hear that Jason universe? Raven is done losing people she loves. And in Emori’s defense, I do understand her reasoning for wanting Raven to leave her and head for Bardo. Emori doesn’t want Raven to save her, she wants Raven to save everyone. But it’s Raven, she can absolutely do both.

Everything about this interaction is just gold.

But just as Raven thinks she’s gotten through to her, Emori crashes and Jackson’s back on CPR. He figures, if he can just keep her heart beating until they get to the OR on Sanctum, she has a chance. So Raven and Murphy unearth the Stone, and off the team goes, to Sanctum.

The Season 7 Duo I never knew how much I needed.

How Does This End?

Over in the Rotunda, the gang finds themselves completely trapped. They can’t get to the stone, nor can they get to their comrades. There is one way out left: The two Magic Pills™ that Sheidheda left behind. Clarke wants to nom them and run, but Octavia convinces her to let her come along. But they don’t work when they take them, and O (correctly) assumes that they need someone to pull them over. So they wait.

Everyone asks the question on all our minds: What’s next? Some of our crew thinks maybe the “war” is inevitable, as all wars on The 100 seem to be. Indra wants to take out Cadogan, full stop. Which I do approve of, but Gaia reminds her what would happen if one commander or one Fleimkepa dies: new people step up to replace them. Faith doesn’t just quit when the leader dies. O says maybe they fight the war and transcend. But Jordan is just done with the wars. And I feel him! Must we keep fighting over everything? Even/especially now, when we haven’t a clue what we’re fighting for or against? What even is “transcendence”!? Seriously Bill, maybe it sucks!

Hope is a whole ass mood.

Then Jordan gets a little… weird, and starts talking about not only does he know it’s a test because of Korean, but because of his exposure to the red sun toxin when he was being “adjusted”.  And okay, that is very throwaway, in that it seemed like the writers just didn’t want that weird plot to be throwaway. But it was anyway, sorry.

Meanwhile, Gaia is trying to help a very agitated Clarke to calm her mind. I mean, I get it. How could she at this point? So that’s nice of you Gaia, but I don’t think it’ll take. (Also, are they seriously still trying to shove Clarke and Gaia down our throats? They are blossoming buddies, that is all now stop it.) That is when the room starts to ripple, and O and Clarke know that they’re off to Bardo!

Heroes and Hypocrites

Madi is scared, obviously, of being in M-Cap. Levitt is there, which is nice, because we are hopeful he won’t hurt a child, right? And Cadogan is there because he is a nosy asshole I guess. Levitt has Madi look at her drawing of Callie while trying to pinpoint the “memory”, but it isn’t in Madi’s cortex, where memories are usually stored. Madi tries to explain that it’s because they aren’t memories but literally Bill only cares about seeing more Callie. And Becca, eventually, but I think she’s secondary.

Finally, Madi starts to see what Levitt is pulling out, and she sees why Becca doesn’t want Bill to have the code, and why Callie has to take the Flame far away, and she loses it, obviously. She is trying her damnedest not to give in to him, but she’s strapped in a chair and like, half his size, so. Cadogan dismisses Levitt because Levitt wants to not kill an innocent child, and then Cadogan proceeds to act more like a child than anyone.

He really has become that villain, attacking little girls. Good look, assface.

Levitt, though, is free to pull Octavia and Clarke into Bardo. Bummer though, they moved the bridge, so when Clarke and O bop in, they bop into the middle of a literal army. Whoopsie! They’re promptly taken to prison, where Sheidheda has been regaling the folks of Bardo with his own rendition of  “The Grounder Anthem”, and when I realized what he was singing… it was kind of everything.

Levitt manages to attack some guards to get into the prison section, and frees Clarke and O, the latter of whom is very pleased to see her “inside man”.  They formulate a plan to use Sheidheda as a distraction while they slip into M-Cap to rescue Madi.

Sheidheda sure makes a splash luring the guards away, basically killing people for funsies. As we knew he would. Levitt is a bit upset because these are people he has known his whole life, but frankly, he’s made his choice and is no longer one of them. And for that, we love him even more. But when they get into M-Cap, it’s eerily empty. Madi is alone on the chair, and at first, it seems like she’s unconscious. But upon further analysis, she’s suffered a severe stroke, and is what Levitt refers to as “locked in”. He says it isn’t fixable, and that while she has use of her mind, she cannot control her body in any way.

This is horrific, made even worse by the fact that Clarke and O can’t exactly stay there and care for her, or ensure her safety. Clarke goes for her gun. It’s positively gutting, the whole scene, there’s no other word. Octavia steps in though, and won’t allow Clarke to do it.

I love when they bond but… this isn’t it.

And while Octavia prepares herself for this unimaginable task and burden, Clarke talks to Madi, even humming the same tune she hummed to Atom when she killed him in Earth Kills. But at the same time as that brutal callback, Levitt realizes something worse: before her stroke, Cadogan was able to retrieve the code from Madi’s brain. I guess euthanasia is off the table again, because they make plans to go stop Cadogan, and Clarke tells Madi that she will be back for her. Levitt is all-in, no questions, and now Clarke will stop at absolutely nothing either.

Clearly, the dude murdering little kids shouldn’t be the one representing mankind, I think we all agree there.

Random Thoughts:

• Let’s unpack Madi and Clarke.  Okay, this was obviously a wildly unpopular plotline among fans. In part because of Eliza’s personal loss, and how awful that moment must have been for her to film, but also because people saw it as ableism and murder. And look, this is a lot, and it’s very emotionally provocative in many ways. I can’t claim to know how Eliza felt about it, so that I feel like just isn’t our place. Maybe she was asked if she could handle it and said she could, maybe not, but I can’t fully comment on that without facts, so I am leaving that alone. As for the other part, sure, by definition it is ableism, I concur. But we also have to take into account the world they were in. These people clearly would not hesitate to hurt Madi, given the opportunity. And it isn’t like Clarke could have given her proper medical care, safety, protection. So looking at it from the eyes of our technology and world, sure it’s cruel. But looking at it from this world, where Clarke had no choice but to leave Madi at the hands of these bastards in order to try to stop Cadogan from killing everyone, including Madi, I can understand why she’d consider it. I was glad she didn’t, too, as I think Madi could still possibly be saved. Or at least, I very hope. Because I cannot wrap my head around how the same writers who gave us such beautifully emotive scenes with the other characters cannot seem to even land close with Clarke’s scenes.
  
  I know people are upset that the show would go there. I am too, frankly. I know that no matter how Madi’s story ends, we can never undo that she saw her mother figure about to end her life. But I also think that Madi would understand partly why, especially considering that she had just seen what Bill and his cohorts were capable of. The show is over now, so it no longer needs to be concerned about the messages it’s sending (and it’s clear it isn’t concerned whatsoever), but I fully agree that this is one they should have thought through much better. While I can understand some of the choices from a logic perspective (of Clarke and O, not the writer’s decisions), the message is clearly a bad one, I don’t disagree. That Clarke couldn’t somehow fight Cadogan and be a mother is absurd, and if they wanted Madi out of the way of the war, there were other ways to achieve that (hell, lock her in the bunker with Niylah, whatever!) But ultimately, this is something I will have to reserve full judgement on after it all plays out, but euthanizing disabled kids is obviously never going to be a great call.
• Honestly though, no one knows what “transcendence” means in this context. How do we know it’s good, and not just… The City of Light, Redux? I’d need something in writing, tbh ?‍♀️
• Where is Grounder Anthem Singer? I know girl made it to the bunker, we saw her singing Wonkru Anthem!! Maybe she and Brell are hanging out on Sanctum, drinking Jo Juice, happy and oblivious. That’s my headcanon and I am sticking to it. You’re welcome.
• Speaking of missing characters, where’d Echo and Niylah get to? Hey maybe they’re also blissfully unaware somewhere! Echo could use some happiness, I approve. 
• Certainly interesting that Chuku remained in the credits when Bob was removed immediately. Look, I want Chuku Modu to be in the credits for everything I ever watch for the rest of both our lives, so I am not mad about him being still here, obviously. But it’s just further evidence of some damn shenanigans. I genuinely wonder if we’ll ever know the tea, but regardless, it is a bad look.

Episode 7×16: The Last War

How… how is this the last The 100 trailer we will ever see? Goodness, I am not okay. Turns out, no matter how hard this season was to get through, I still can’t seem to let this show go. 

• This looks… dare I say… good? Like. I had a lot of feelings and yes some tears and chills. Please don’t let me down, show.
• Sheidheda chanting “jus drein, jus daun” gives me life! I have missed it, frankly.
• I hope Jordan does find a way that makes Monty proud. Okay my heart is in shreds I am going to need to stop.
• I really had hope that Madi would survive, but I feel like I might be wrong after seeing this. Can’t Raven toss her into an ice bath or something? ?
• Also high key terrified for Levitt, please don’t do this to Octavia! Do they want us to beg? I’ll beg! I am begging, see! ?

I am so very not ready for this to be over. I never will be, of course. What did you think about everything? Will Madi or Emori be okay? Let’s chat!