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The 100: The Blood of Sanctum

"Tell me it was worth it."

I'm dying to know what got left on the cutting room floor. The episode felt like there was enough story for at least another hour.

They couldn't have crammed more threads together if they tried.

Alas, another season is over and per usual we are left with more questions than answers. But come on, we wouldn't have The 100 any other way.

Clarke and Bellamy are finally able to walk away from a war without the weight of making impossible choices. They did better. But now they're saddled with a different weight entirely. They have to live with the what ifs. What if they had ridden in guns blazing? Would Abby be alive and Octavia not whooshed away into anomaly purgatory? They each suffered great loss for their good deed and Clarke is already questioning that decision. Once she and Bellamy come together in their mutual anger and loss, who will be the voice of reason? Is Monty's memory strong enough to keep them on the 'doing better' path? I don't think Jordan's going to be able to carry that weight. Dude's not looking great clutching those mind drives like an addict looking for a fix.

The blood. Ick. The culty religious overtones were getting a bit much. The robes, the sacrifices, the fire. I wish we could be done with this already, but Jordan's smirk says we have a ways to go still. For a second I thought that we were watching the death of religion of sorts, but no. More trucks. Raven pulled the plug on commanders only to have Sheidheda, the last commander, slink off. Many moons ago there was a movie on The Disney Channel called Smart House. The house eventually got too overprotective and locked the family inside. Then the house got pissed off when the family didn't appreciate her. Whacky hijinks ensued while the family tried to escape. I can't remember if they eventually pulled her plug or taught her not to be so overbearing. I thought something similar was going to happen with Wonkru on the ship with Sheidheda on the ship's computer. But no. Where did he go?? And if that wasn't bad enough, the cult prime religion didn't die either. Russell is the last prime and he has acolytes at his disposal. Is it possible that Sheidheda jumped into Russell's mind drive? Oh no.

Clarke has watched both of her parents get floated. Talk about your traumas. Putting a gun to your own head after that might feel like a cake walk. As for the real MVP, I have to give Lola Flannery the gold stars this season. In an exceptional cast it'd be easy to get lost in the shuffle talentwise. Not her. She extremely effectively played the evil Sheidheda, the commanding commander Madi and beloved innocent daughter in the space of a minute. I am very, very impressed.

We couldn't leave the season without one more field trip to scary woods. Is anyone curious what visions Echo and Bellamy would have in the extra scary woods? Anyway, the anomaly is the last leg in a triad of religions that live on to see another day. This has been Gabriel's religion... trying to understand the moon. Deciphering the anomaly and the metal swirly that magically sits under the green swirly. He's spent decades upon decades trying to make sense of something in order to cope with the guilt of murder. Probably projecting a need for order and logic to something chaotic as a surrogate for fixing the chaos in his conscious. He thought he finally had answers, poor thing. I sort of hated seeing the Blakes smiling and back together just to have them ripped apart. I also don't love the idea that Octavia wasn't being genuine with her brother all this time that she's been back. I might have latent trust issues with her still because her whole reaction to seeing Hope and letting Hope stab her and the weirdness of it all made me kind of mad at Octavia? It took me a second to piece together that what I was feeling was distrust.

What we don't (exactly) know:

-- Jordan isn't on our side anymore. Is he savable?
-- If he's still influenced, then we can bet there are others. The prime resistance probably isn't over yet. Damn.
-- Is Octavia dead? Where did her body go? Was she lying about not remembering? Who is 'he?'
-- What is the anomaly? Is it a purgatory type limbo space? Gabriel said that Octavia is the only one to ever come back out. How many people went in? Are they all still alive inside?
-- If Sheidheda went into the ship like I assumed, why did he let everyone off that ship? He must have jumped the wifi and gone somewhere else. Or something. Right?

3 out of 4 unanswered questions
I feel like they could've benefited from an additional episode.

Bits and pieces

It's official. Season 7 will be the last. Whatever Jordan and Sheidheda and the swirly have in store, it'll hopefully be wrapped up in a single season.

Last week Clarke and Murphy got to bury the hatchet and this week Clarke got to make good with Raven. I think everyone has forgiven her now. Nice.

Will Russell want to stay immortal now that most of his family is gone for good?

Sheidheda isn't the swirly, right?

Murphy's reaction to getting a smooch was great. Emori's blase 'don't worry Murphy you can stay back and babysit' attitude to Murphy not wanting to help rescue people was really, really great.

Bellamy, Echo and Octavia kicking ass against three times the people was super cool. Sometimes I forget that our guys don't just make the hard decisions. They can throw punches, too.

Again – excellent casting choice. Hope looks so much like Diyoza. And yay, Diyoza is alive!

Some dude: "Whoah, where did you learn to code like that?"
Raven: "City of Light Community College."
Would anyone in this world have any reason to know what a community college is?

Echo: "I guess it's time to do better."

Clarke: "Fight, Madi. You have to fight."

Clarke: "I tried to do better. I did. And then I lost my mom. Tell me it was worth it."
Bellamy: "We did do better. I have to believe that was worth it."

4 comments:

  1. Interesting finale, but I wasn't quite on board. Other than the strong scene where Clarke had to float Abby's body, I'm not sure I'm really following what is going on with the anomaly. Maybe we're not supposed to.

    Thank you so much for another season of reviews, Laure!

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  2. I have to agree, Billie. I thought it was fine but I didn't get that edge of the seat, did that really just happen excitement level that I'm used to. Not up to the regular standards of a 100 finale.

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  3. The 100 is usually very good at reinventing itself. But this time I am not sure. I'd hate it if the final season will be Octavia centered. She is my least favourite character and sometimes I just can't stand her.

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  4. Weird season.

    The first half was strong, and it looked like the season would be up there with seasons 2 and 4 as series finest. But many elements were not developed as much as they should have been and it became a mess in the end. I didn't really care for the people in Sanctum nor for the children of Gabriel. It was like Mount Weather and the Grounders, with the main characters caught in between, but not as well executed.

    The culty religious overtones were getting a bit much.

    Yes. They should have introduced those elements earlier or toned it down in this episode.

    Kind of a mess of a finale, really. Why didn't Clarke take out Russel when she revealed she wasn't Josephine? Why did she even take the Primes to Eligius? I wasn't following her strategy.

    Sheidheda was meh. His spooky dining table, a scar on his face, the hoody. Nearly a literal demon inside Madi's mind. He was a dark shadow, never a character. Just... Ugh. This story got mildly interesting in the end, but it was never what it could have been. They should have written Sheidheda with more nuance. Have we lost the Flame? Too bad.

    Ok, what they did right: the mythology of body snatching was very cool. I liked how they explored pretty much all possibilities with it: a battle of minds (Clarke vs. Josephine), a dying main character getting a new body (Kane), a main character being killed and having her body snatched (Abby).

    I really liked Kane 2.0 and wished he had stayed a bit longer. I wonder if that's what they had in mind and the story got cancelled? Kane had a point in sacrificing himself, but why not ensure first that the Primes would be defeated and then end his second go at life?

    Paige Turco did good work as Abby, but I didn't buy her Simone. She wasn't selling it for me and it took out a bit of the power of that story. Still, poor Abby, what a terrible way to go. I liked that they softened her final moments with flashbacks to happier times, and that the last people she saw meant a lot to her. And poor Clarke. Loved that she wasn't dumb and asked a question Simone wouldn't be able to answer.

    Kane got floated in someone else's body. And Abby's body was floated. Kind of a tragic full circle for them.

    Echo had a nice arc this season, so did Octavia. Not enough Indra. Loved Dyoza, when do we get her back? Loved Clarke and Bellamy back as the strong duo as they used to be.

    All in all, season 6 had a great first half, then it kind of fizzled, never building up to a solid climax. Still, points for intent. I liked that we left the "us versus them" territory and that the characters tried to do better this time.

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