There’s nothing like the last stretch of the story to bring around a bottle episode.
But in case fans didn’t notice that this Game of Thrones-inspired night before the big battle episode was focused on containing storylines, all the bottles scattered around made it clear as day.
The 100 yet again lost itself in an effort to wrap up characters and start last-minute points of conflict.
There are now only two episodes left, and the show has never been more lost in the direction of its story.
During The 100 Season 7 Episode 14, Clarke appears on Earth right after killing Bellamy. Even though there is a way out, she kills it and creates the Obstacle of the Week. Everyone ends up trapped in the bunker waiting for Raven to fix their way out, and that is when Cadogan sends Sheidheda to find Madi.
After a useless scattered chase around the bunker, Gabriel ends up dead, and Madi ends up in Bardo anyway.
“A Sort of Homecoming,” written by Sean Crouch, was an episode that continued the entire season’s stagnant pattern. Coming off a horrific ending from The 100 Season 7 Episode 13, the story took the long way to the next exit and wasted everyone’s time in the process.
It rushed through some of the most crucial moments instead, focusing on presumably tying up stories for the less prominent characters. At the same time, the danger was all about Sheidheda again, a move that became overkill half a season ago. And the emotional beats of all the scattered pair-offs didn’t blend well side by side, making impact matter less when it matters the most.
The main male lead who died a second ago deserved better.
The last-minute rewrite that made Bellamy’s death happen also took over the entire episode, making a mess of everything along the way.
It feels like an understatement to say The 100 is unrecognizable when that was the issue this entire season. At this point, the show doesn’t even know what it is anymore, which is very disappointing in the very last episodes of the series.
Make This Mess Make Sense
For the remaining episodes, it might just be the perfect time to introduce a new section. Because as we get further into the conclusion, everything is making less sense and is creating a bigger mess.
Explain to me how Earth was meant to be gone for thousands and thousands of years, only to return fully furnished in a little more than a hundred. It blew up, and yet somehow, it managed to reappear exactly as it was?
This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to common sense going missing this season.
But it is also worth mentioning that Earth, in general, was a storyline that deserved more time in the sun.
If it was always the plan to return to Earth, then this is a twist that should have started much earlier. Why was so much time wasted in Sanctum then?
At the same time, it is like The 100 doesn’t understand the value of this setting. The show was all about everyone coming down to the ground, and now that they are back there, it is like it doesn’t matter.
The nostalgia isn’t there because The 100 doesn’t seem to remember what it is anymore, let alone where it came from.
Then comes the useless way that Clarke ruins their chance to leave with just one smash. If it is so easy to create conflict for a single episode, why isn’t it easy to find answers? Why did this entire episode waste our time if Madi was going to make the decision to go to Cadogan anyway? What was the point?
For example, the trackers that we first saw when Hope tagged Octavia are suddenly everywhere. They weren’t around for easy access all season, and now three were used in one episode.
It is wonderful how The 100 conveniently drives the story when it wants to and then hits pause for weeks on end when it doesn’t.
Speaking of hitting pause, the way that The 100 treated Bellamy’s death like a burden that they needed to shake off their shoulders as quickly as possible was embarrassing, to say the least.
One scene where everyone forgives Clarke, and it is like Bellamy never existed.
How is it possible that Octavia spent a whole scene mourning her past behavior and never once mentioned her brother?
How is it possible that Clarke cried once about what she did, and now it is like it never mattered?
How are all of these people that Bellamy dedicated his whole life protecting allowed to treat him as an afterthought?
Gabriel was a joy but he wasn’t from the Ark, so he didn’t know or deserve the Traveler’s Blessing as his goodbye.
You know what Bellamy Blake got as his goodbye? Nothing.
Bellamy Blake Should Have Been There
To be realistic though, the only place Bellamy Blake actually should have been is Earth.
He deserved to have his body brought back to the place that he fought so hard to get down to so many times. Earth was his home, and he deserved to find peace there.
Instead, his body is left on the cold Sanctum floor, and if he is lucky, Cadogan had enough respect to have him buried. But as much as Nakara is better than Sanctum, it still isn’t Earth. And while everyone else is back wasting this opportunity, it becomes apparent that only Bellamy deserved to find this small moment of happiness there.
No one else valued life and love the way that Bellamy did, and look where that got him.
Bellamy didn’t deserve for the 100 to not even wait until his body got cold to villainize him again.
The 100 Season 7 spent all the time that Bellamy wasn’t around trying to paint his actions and his memory in a bad light. From Hope judging the women willing to risk it all for Bellamy to Jackson antagonizing Bellamy’s role in Madi’s past to now the complete rewrite of who the show’s soul was.
It was a general assumption that when Bellamy Blake died on The 100, so did the show’s heart, but this episode made that a stark reality.
Clarke, a character everyone found time to judge, was now someone that the others were rushing to comfort. The burden of what she did was quickly waved away by people like Octavia and Echo, who spit on the last memory of the person who they claimed mattered so much to them.
Instead, he became a stranger trying to find peace, and as a result, he deserved to be slaughtered in cold blood over a book.
Octavia didn’t mourn Bellamy the first time that he died, and now it was like she never had a brother. She wrote off a man who got lost for a couple of days; meanwhile, she talked about how far she came from her six-year run as a bunker dictator in the same episode.
Echo criticized the essence of Bellamy’s character, a person who was trying to find some peace for his people, even though she spent an entire season committing genocide in his name. If he was gone a long time ago, then why were you willing to blow up Bardo just a few days prior?
It was a nauseating sequence that disrespected the character that connected most of these people. It was horrible to have him beat up by the plot season after season, only for there to be no respect for his memory either.
The fact of the matter is that almost no one deserves to be considered Bellamy Blake’s friend (or family member) if they will twist his memory to excuse Clarke. No matter how much their relationship mattered in the narrative and how out of character her choice was, it was still her who pulled the trigger.
Clarke was just a host for the show’s overarching plot decisions, but that doesn’t mean the narrative can excuse those actions.
It also doesn’t mean that Bellamy’s memory deserves to be taunted by quotes about how he deserved it or how it wasn’t even him that Clarke shot.
Bellamy spent all of the previous season going to the ends of Sanctum to get Clarke back. He never once stopped believing in her or in her ability to exist. But he has an experience that shakes his faith in senseless death, and all he gets is murdered.
And not only that, the show then decides that his seven years mean nothing, He is painted to be a villain, and his memory is nothing more than a passing thought.
The only person who seemed to care about this loss was the person for whom Clarke killed Bellamy. Madi always viewed Bellamy differently compared to Clarke’s other friends. It was like she developed an unconscious understanding and protectiveness of him.
Madi saw how much Bellamy mattered to Clarke, so he was held to a different standard. She was always the one to hold Clarke accountable for how she interacted with Bellamy, so it was actually no surprise that the weight of this death really pulled Madi away. It was like she was the only one thinking clearly while the others tried to pretend everything was okay.
Even if Clarke forgot, Madi still knows what this means and the gravity of this situation.
But that is the thing, everyone else seems to have forgotten. None of them want to remember who Bellamy really was until the very end. None of them want to remember how many times Bellamy risked his life to save theirs. None of them want to remember that Bellamy deserved more than what all of them gave him.
It might be more of a reflection of how little The 100 seems to care, but that doesn’t let the episode off the hook either for not delivering what they should have. The show might not know what emotions look like anymore, but the audience can spot the bad effort to recreate it.
It completely erases how much The 100 depended on Bellamy Blake for this long. At the same time, it proves how much the show is sinking when they don’t prioritize Bellamy (or their leads in general).
It was a joke of a scene that reflected how little the show knew about what brought value to it lately. It molds the characters to fit the version of the story where Bellamy gets mentioned the least amount of times, and the lack of emotion has never felt more real.
There is really nothing left to do but laugh.
Gabriel’s Final Scene Stealing Presence
Speaking of senseless deaths, Gabriel Santiago was yet another victim who didn’t need to be taken out the way he was.
First though, it is important to thank Chuku Modu for everything he brought to the role. He took Xavier and turned him into Gabriel, an absolute dream of a character to spend time with. In fact, all he ever made us want is more time with him.
But Bellamy and Gabriel were both killed, only for Madi to end up in Bardo with Cadogan voluntarily. It is an unsettling pattern on The 100, where the stakes hold no weight when there is absolutely no meaning to any conflict.
Bellamy was killed because Clarke had to protect Madi by keeping her sketchbook safe. It was the same book that she then left behind, only for the information to get to Cadogan anyway through the book and through Sheidheda.
Then Gabriel ended up getting stabbed, coming back to life for one last attempt to save Madi, and then permanently dying all for someone who still found her way to danger.
It wasn’t Madi’s fault; in fact, she was the only one watching all of this unfold and tried to stop it. She didn’t want to let all these people die to keep her safe, a sentiment not shared by everyone around her. But she refused any more acceptable losses, which isn’t something The 100 is familiar with these days.
Regardless, Gabriel’s end was unfortunately easy to predict once he asked Sheidheda whether Russell suffered. Gabriel not only knew his time was coming, but he was also becoming aware that he was ready for this to be his last journey.
He deserved to actually see what the Anomaly was all about and experience the final war that answered it. Still, it felt like Gabriel’s real mission was to find a place of peace.
Gabriel wanted to atone for the mistakes that he made all those years, and destroying the flame and protecting Madi accomplished that for him.
If there was one bright light in all of this, that was Gabriel Santiago. Nothing short of spectacular, Gabriel was the gift that kept on giving.
He distracted us when everything is falling apart. He made us believe in more, even when we lost it along the way.
Now if only his death didn’t follow Nelson and Bellamy’s, two men of color that were short-lived on a show like this. It was brutal to have Gabriel stabbed graphically in the back, only to get up and save Madi at the expense of another stab marathon.
Only then does he pop up a third time, bleeding out in front of everyone as he tries to find the ending he is finally ready for.
That Hope moment was quite sweet, and it was nice that at least someone got to be surrounded by love and respect.
Bellamy Blake can’t relate.
And that is the thing. So many of these characters, specifically MOC, are under constant threat on the show. It is a choice to spend three weeks killing off the MOC on the show and not allowing them to make it to the end.
It is a pattern that way that Wells, Ricky, Pike, Jaha, Ilian, Monty, and more characters are turned away. And when they are finally explored, it is only to die at the very end. Then they are brutally murdered and never heard from again.
Gabriel deserved more time. His fans might be taking up all their time monitoring Bellamy’s memory, but he still deserves more.
One last look at Earth before he went should have been enough, but just like this episode and this entire season, it just wasn’t. Gabriel never got closure with his people; it doesn’t even seem like he knew what happened to the Children of Gabriel.
It was also not fair that Sheidheda, a white man, gets unlimited lives while those around him get one or two at max.
But what matters most is the memory that Gabriel leaves behind. He was a kind, caring, trusting, and hopeful human. He deserved so much more time.
If he can’t have it, then it is up to us to fulfill the one thing he wanted: getting answers about the Anomaly.
Stray Thoughts
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Since no one else had the common sense to give Bellamy Blake a proper goodbye, we will do it for them. For all of them, because none of them showed up when it mattered.
In peace, may you leave this shore.
In love, may you find the next.
Safe passage on your travels, until our final journey to the ground.
May we meet again. —
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Everything else might be a constant storm of disappointment, but at least Eliza Taylor delivers with her acting yet again.
Now if only Clarke was allowed to show any emotion for longer than two seconds on the show.
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My soul is exhausted.
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Clarke could at least pretend to be hurt by it the way, she was with everyone else and that was the perfect time.
But the Bellarke fans really don’t deserve anything, the sound of broken dreama.
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I am one of the biggest critics of the “it was all a dream/stimulation” twist ending but at this point just do it. Anything will be better than having this be the reality.
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Hope and Jordan are obviously going to get together, if only the show cared about investing in them a little more. The potential is there but there is no time or effort placed into exploring them.
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It isn’t fair for Clarke to constantly put the weight of what she does to protect Madi on her. Madi isn’t wrong when she said she didn’t ask her to do any of this for her.
Clarke was already written like a mom running around the mall looking for her missing child this entire episode. To then tell your child that all this death is happening to protect them is almost as bad as putting a shock collar on them.
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I miss the Bellarke we used to have. I miss the Bellarke it could have been. I miss the Bellarke that never was.
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Speaking of Madi, there is something really wrong about her exit from this episode.
Having her stab herself, or self harm, in order to save her loved ones from more pain was too much to put on a child. But when has The 100 learned how to even write around a child?
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One of the biggest issues in this episode was how split up everyone was and how that extended to different emotional beats with each paired off group.
Jumping around from room to room didn’t provide a consistent stream of emotion, and it was so easy to forget the other characters as soon as they were out of your sight.
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I miss Picasso.
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Emori missing Bellamy? She is one of few who deserves rights.
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Did no one really think that maybe the invisible villain isn’t sticking in the room to hang out with all of you but is out looking for trouble?
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The way Gaia said her disciple spent their whole fight scene telling her all the Bardo secrets.
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It was nice to see a second more of Miller and Jackson, but where was this energy during the last three seasons? Now that the show is ending, they suddenly see some screentime? Something makes me think we might not see them again since they got all this focus already.
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Niylah’s secret left a little more to be desired, but then again, Echo’s secret wasn’t that surprising either. Bellamy and Echo had to break up, and then he literally had to die, only for the first words out of her mouth to be the secrets she kept from him the whole time they were together.
Couple goals, right? Wait until your significant other is gone and then start telling the truth.
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The way that Season 6 made such a big deal about how Clarke wouldn’t put her daughter above her other family, only for her to do exactly that. Does The 100 even know its characters anymore?
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It looks like next week Emori and Murphy will be mirroring a scene we have all already experienced before. But they wouldn’t spoil a death in a trailer so at least Emori will probably be fine.
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Monty Green would be disappointed in so many of them.
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So Madi obviously has memories from the flame, but why doesn’t Sheidheda. He also had it and yet has nothing to offer Cadogan? Why is the show still so hung up on keeping him alive?
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My love for Bellamy, Gabriel, and Nelson knew no bounds. All I wanted was for them to meet again and here we are. Never ask for nice things and you will never see it ripped away from you.
Who else is over all of this? Is anyoen else as annoyed as I am? What are you most over? What are you actually curious about?
Did we place our bets? Who thinks will see the last war soon and who doesn’t care that much? Was anyone else hearbroken by Gabriel’s passing? He was a second close favorite and he deserved better.
Who else thought the others should have been more sad and angry? Who is excited about where this all would go? Is anyome else just over all of it?
Let us know what you think below!
Stick around for more interviews, features, slideshows, and reviews of the upcoming season, and watch The 100 online right here on TV Fanatic.
Yana Grebenyuk is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.