Let’s hold up glasses of our favorite drinks and toast to the final season that could’ve been. Ah, how you will be missed.
“The 100” season seven, episode 14 “A Sort of Homecoming” aired Wednesday, Sept. 16 on The CW and it was a big ol’ let down for me.
I wanted to like this episode because Jessica Harmon (Niylah on “The 100”) directed it and because our characters went to Earth for the first time since season five. However, I’ve lost hope for this show. It’s incredibly difficult to give a show the benefit of the doubt when the showrunner has gaslit fans for years.
I do want to compliment Harmon’s directing though. There was an eerie silence throughout the episode with the occasional dutch angle (oh how I love dutch angles) that added intensity to the scenes. Drunken, happy moments felt off-kilter. It felt like I was watching a horror movie, and in many ways I was.
The plot was pretty boring and the character moments didn’t make sense.
This episode had the foundation of being potentially OK. Our main characters were back on Earth surrounded by landmarks/places of some of their biggest mistakes, and Gaia made a surprise(?) return to our home planet.
Echo was in Polis where she used to be an Azgeda spy. Octavia was in the Second Dawn/Wonkru bunker where she reigned as Blodreina. Miller was in the bunker where his dad sacrificed his place there in order to save him.
Indra, Gabriel, Niylah, Jackson and Jordan were all there to act as therapists for the characters’ backstories. Clarke had the important task of chasing Madi down the entire time.
Also, we’re back on Earth and “all the people we care about are here!!” (allegedly)
However, all these supposedly happy, character-driven scenes of them diving into their individual, emotional turmoil were all on the heels of Bellamy’s death. They weren’t really affected by it, which is an extremely odd reaction for characters to have after the male lead was just murdered by one of their pals.
Nothing about the episode made sense to me. None of the characters acted like themselves besides Gabriel (wanting peace, fighting for those he cares about and choosing his morals above anything else) and Sheidheda (wanting to kill people, plain and simple). It was boring, and I honestly don’t feel anything anymore.
I’m numb. I’ve become desensitized to all the de-characterization and shock-value the writers have tried to throw our way this season. I didn’t even shed a tear when a fan favorite (and one of my personal favorites) died. That’s wack.
Here’s my star rating for “The 100” 7×14 “A Sort of Homecoming”:
SPOILER ALERT:
What’s up with all this racism?
I’m going to jump into this review by addressing the racism-shaped elephant in the room.
Racism is a common underlying theme in “The 100” and it has been since Wells’ death in season one, episode three. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone when this was a large topic of discourse in “The 100” fandom after Gabriel’s brutal death by Sheidheda. It was unnecessarily brutal.
Gabriel was murdered in 7×14 protecting Madi. He put himself between Madi and Sheidheda to allow her to run away to safety and was stabbed multiple times in the stomach.
It was bad enough to watch him die, but we had to watch him die three times: 1. When he was initially stabbed in the back by Sheidheda; 2. When he jumped in to save Madi and was stabbed multiple times in the stomach; 3. When he died after our kru found him bleeding out on the floor.
Octavia and Hope were the first ones to his side, cried, consoled him and gave him the Traveler’s Prayer (“May we meet again”). He took his final breaths, ready to die after over 100 years of living.
“Death is life.” – Gabriel
I went into this season predicting Gabriel would die. He’s lived over a hundred years because of the morally, unethical body snatching method he came up with, but he broke away from them. He was ready to die a while ago but was involuntarily placed in Xavier’s body. In order for Gabriel to live up to his “wanting to do better” mindset, he couldn’t live any longer in a body that wasn’t his.
I expected him to go out in a blaze of glory, saving as many people as possible. I always hoped he would find peace and go out as a hero. That’s not what happened though. He sacrificed himself to save a girl who gave herself up to the bad guys anyway.
We’ve had to watch three popular male of color (MOC) characters die at the hands of white people three episodes in a row now, and all their deaths feel for naught.
Nelson was shot in the head by Sheidheda in 7×12 for not bending the knee to a dictator. Bellamy was shot in the heart by Clarke in 7×13 for holding a sketchbook she didn’t pick up anyway. Gabriel was stabbed in the back and stomach by Sheidheda in 7×14 to save a girl who gave herself up. All of these deaths were pointless.
It is 2020, and it matters how characters die. Death means something, and it’s incredulous to see a show still treating its people of color (POC) characters as throw-away plot devices to further white characters’ story arcs.
Gabriel was dying on the floor and Clarke just stood off to the side busy explaining next week’s plot and couldn’t be bothered to care about the man who gave up his life to protect her adoptive daughter (who she killed her “best friend” to protect in the previous episode). Real Clarke would never.
We are in the midst of one of the biggest civil rights movements the world has ever seen. Having a show justify the deaths of POC characters at the hands of white people is an incredibly disgusting message to have and feels unnaturally out of place.
What’s up with these characters?
“A Sort of Homecoming” felt like the Game of Thrones episode before the Battle for Winterfell. All our characters felt their plot armor slipping away for a shock ending and an emerging war (which “The 100” still hasn’t fully explained yet with just two episodes left).
Clarke “mourned” Bellamy for a couple minutes while she defended his “necessary” murder to the ladies in his life — both of whom completely understood that Clarke “didn’t have a choice” and had to kill Bellamy. He was on a different side than them after all. It’s not like any of the characters have ever had different beliefs or anything *coughs angrily*.
Octavia and Echo embraced Clarke with a ‘lil hug and shed some tears. To help the plot, Octavia conveniently forgot the fact she spent 10 years trying to get back to Bellamy to let him know she understands all he’s done for her, and Echo forgot she spent five years on a prison planet trying to save Bellamy and almost committed genocide to avenge him. Now that it’s Clarke who pulled the trigger, everyone’s like ‘Nah, it’s all good. We didn’t even like his new outfit anyway.”
I can’t explain how upsetting that was to me. Bellamy doesn’t deserve this.
He never had the chance to live for himself — or at least he never chose to. His heart (and the writers) always led him to protect those closest to him, up until the point he was living to save all of humanity from themselves.
His life was never about himself and neither was his death.
Not even an hour after his death, his sister and girlfriend forgave his murderer and justified what Clarke did. The first scene on the ground played similarly to the empowering speeches Bellamy used to give to the delinquents in season one. However, instead of Bellamy inspiring his people to live, it was his people inspiring each other over why he deserved to die.
The entire “moment” was incredibly awkward to watch. I was simultaneously angry, cringing and laughing over the out-of-character dialogue. In season one, Clarke said that being on Earth was “the dream,” but this entire episode felt like a nightmare.
After the show’s obligated three minutes of “mourning” Bellamy, Gabriel played the piano, Jordan and Hope had a ~moment~ while they slow danced (I do like them together even if it feels out of the blue), Niylah got drunk from her hidden stash of Monty’s moonshine (such a mood) and Clarke chased after Madi to save her from invisible-Sheidheda (what was the point?).
People were drunk and merry and those who weren’t made Bellamy’s death about themselves, insulted his character or explained how his death was his own fault anyway.
(Me: *flashes back to all the times showrunner Jason Rothenberg said Bellamy and Clarke were the heart of the show, falls backward from all the gaslighting*)
What’s up with this plot?
Ah, what would a failing season be without plot holes to accompany it?
I love that we finally got a nice Miller and Jackson scene. It was beautiful (I love them both so much). Unfortunately, a plot hole came with it.
“I told Bellamy, I’d forgive him.” – Miller
I was confused when I heard this. I didn’t remember when Miller told him this, but then my mind sparked with a memory.
Almost half of the promotional photos for two episodes before this, 7×12, were of Bellamy and Miller at Bardo. Sadly for the fans (and embarrassing to the show’s crew), this scene was cut from the episode. This scene must’ve been when Miller told Bellamy he’d forgive him.
There was so much emphasis in “A Sort of Homecoming” on a conversation that was literally cut from the show. This final season is a mess y’all.
If the show was planning on concluding with such a nihilistic message, it should’ve just ended with Clarke stranded alone, dying on Earth in the season five premiere or just season four in general.
“The 100” has lost all impact on me. I can no longer be “surprised” or “sad” by the plot, because I no longer care about the characters it’s affecting. I’ve run out of tears to give. I’m just tired.
(When I say this, I mean this season’s characters who haven’t been acting like themselves and have been so clearly manipulated by the producer)
Plot only impacts the audience when there are characters they’re afraid it’s going to harm. All the main characters have either been killed off or have been (almost comically) not acting like themselves at all. It’s like they’ve all been bodysnatched by the writers and showrunner, and they’re walking around pretending to be alive when we already know the heart of their characters died after season six.
Last week, I was mourning Bellamy Blake and this week I’m mourning the show. It’s not what it used to be. It backtracked on everything it tried to build. What stage of grief is laughing hysterically?
What’s up with this season?
What was the purpose of Bellamy’s death? Sheidheda and Cadogan both ended up with Madi’s sketchbook anyway. Madi just gave herself over to Cadogan because she didn’t want anyone else to die keeping her safe. That’s a beautiful sentiment, but I’m just confused. I’m upset.
I have many questions:
- What’s the point in talking about a show, getting emotionally invested in it and predicting it if none of the characters act remotely like themselves in the final season besides a select few?
- What’s the point of a show spending seven years developing characters just to sideline them in the final season?
- What’s the point of killing Bellamy Blake over a sketchbook if the sketchbook is just going to end up in the hands of both villains anyway?
- Why even continue watching the final season when the writers and producers act like they forgot the story of the show and are just writing whatever they want instead of following the natural progression of their main characters’ arcs?
- Why does this final season even exist at all?
- What’s the point of any of this??
There are just two episodes left and I no longer have hope for “The 100.” Please don’t let it get worse…
