The 100: A Little Sacrifice (7.10) Things of Note

There’s a ton so let’s just hop right into it!

Madi meets Russheda. Somehow, as Murphy and Emori were immersed in the aftermath of the massacre, Russheda escaped through the secret passage. Knight had peaced out as well. Russheda needed to neutralize Madi because, as a former Commander, she was a threat to his reign. She was in the tavern along with a few of the Sanctum folks. The room was only lit by candles; perfect lighting for Russheda! As he sauntered in, the Sanctum folks bolted leaving Madi and Picasso alone to face the evil. Russheda spoke Trigedeslang immediately but it took a minute for Madi to put it together. Picasso growled but then walked right over to Russheda when he offered her a piece of bread. Golden retrievers don’t scare him. He’s not Dean Winchester. He felt betrayed by Madi because she chose weakness (love) over him. Russheda wanted to kill her but he knew he couldn’t because of Indra. So, he took her face in his hands and offered a variation of his favorite deal. Either she kneeled before him or he would cut out the hearts of everyone she loved and feed them to Picasso. Seriously evil! Madi kneeled and Russheda was like “Good talk” and rolled out. Everything about this scene from the lighting to the acting was spectacular! I can’t say enough about how awesome JR Bourne is this season! He definitely left it all out on the floor! I would love to see the takes where he went even bigger because that would be something to behold. Lola Flanery was also fantastic in this scene! She really got Madi’s fear across.

Indra vs Sheidheda. The hunt for Sheidheda continued until Indra heard him reciting the Commander lineage. He “Groundered up” in order to look more like his original form. He named two Commanders (Maffei kom Boudalankru and Kemji kom Trishankru) before Lexa and then Madi with the qualification that she did not win a Conclave. I’m guessing Sheidheda came right before Maffei. We also learned that Sheidheda’s real name is Malachi. He’ll always be Sheidheda to me. He vowed to defend Grounder traditions and his people. It’s Sheidheda so his people are those who kneel before him. He loves kneeling as much as Zod! He just cannot skip the kneeling! Before anyone could kneel, Indra burst in and challenged him to single combat. At dawn, Wonkru, some non-Faithful, and a random Eligius prisoner were gathered to watch the battle of the century. They were evenly matched for a while until Indra knocked Sheidheda’s sword into the water. Sheidheda charged tackled her, took her sword, and struck her. Indra got up, grabbed a knife, and jabbed him in the shoulder. Sheidheda slapped her down and posed his favorite ultimatum: Kneel or die. Indra refused to kneel. Before Sheidheda could deliver the final blow, Madi jumped up behind him. As he turned, she took out his right eye (again!). His “Indra problem” was over so he was ready to kill Madi when Indra agreed to kneel if he spared her. As he relished in his victory, both Madi and Indra disappeared. How did they manage that? I guess the crowd was too fixated on Sheidheda to notice. Or some of the crowd helped them escape. Anyway, that fight scene was spectacular! Kudos to JR Bourne, Adina Porter, the stunt coordination team, and the director, Sherwin Shilati! Apparently, they shot this all in one day.

Dawn of Sheidheda’s Sanctum. With Sanctum conquered, Sheidheda’s first order of business was to tie up loose ends. He sent a group to hunt for Madi and took a group to hunt down the Faithful. Only dead bodies were left in the temple so Sheidheda ordered Knight to find out who they are and kill their living relatives. Knight asked if that included the children. In Sheidheda’s mind, the children will be a threat to him eventually because they’ll grow up vengeful. Sheidheda expects to rule for a long time. Knight had reservations but he buried them. I think that could be the first glimmer of Knight seeing the light in regards to Sheidheda. Sangedakru admires their champion so kneeling and being loyal to him isn’t as much of a problem for them as it is for the other 11 clans. Still, a reign of terror is a reign of terror. Maybe Sangedekru will eventually realize they deserve better and will join the eventual rebellion.

Protector Murphy. Murphy might be the second-most evolved character on the show behind Octavia. If you would have told me after season 1 that he would be talking someone through a panic attack, I would have laughed! He helped Madi through hers with care and reassurance. That was a great scene. Anyway, Murphy started out only caring about his own survival. It didn’t matter who he hurt as long as he survived. He has grown into a person who cares about people and wants to protect them. He has become more willing to risk himself to do so. Once Murphy realized that Sheidheda would move to end the rest of the Faithful, he hid them all in the reactor anteroom. Murphy reassured Jeremiah and his son that he would keep them safe. The Faithful had been sneering at Murphy and Emori and calling them liars earlier. Murphy managed to inspire confidence and they believe in him now. Emori was proud. I have a theory that Murphy will be the one to take back Sanctum. Playing chess against Sheidheda has given Murphy a lot of insight. He used it when he figured out that Sheidheda would want to kill the rest of the Faithful. I could see him using it to plan a rebellion. Or, there will be a chess rematch.

Meanwhile on Bardo…

Plan in motion. Echo, Octavia, and Diyoza had just revealed themselves as “Disciple soldiers”. Cadogan insisted that they weren’t prisoners so he told them they were free to go. Echo told Clarke and co that they had a war to fight and walked off. Octavia and Diyoza exchanged looks before walking off as well. Clarke ordered Cadogan to tell Anders and the soldiers to clear out. Anders started to object but Clarke looked at him with daggers in her eyes and he acquiesced. Clarke has that effect on adversaries. With the room clear and Cadogan against the wall, Gabriel told the group about Octavia’s M-Cap sessions. Raven thought it was kind of cool. She did enjoy playing around with the suit so she might enjoy messing with the M-Cap too. Anyway, they put it together that Octavia didn’t tell the Disciples that Clarke doesn’t have the Flame anymore. Nilyah, Jordan, and Gabriel stayed behind to guard Cadogan while Clarke, Miller, and Raven went to find Octavia, Echo, and Diyoza. Meanwhile, Hope was waiting to go to Penance when Echo and a Disciple guard walked in. Hope rushed at them and the Disciple guard tried to subdue her. Echo killed the guard and then told Hope she had a plan. I knew she was just pretending to be devoted to the cause! Hope and everyone else believed she was serious. Her acting was just that good. She had “convinced” Levitt to do something but she didn’t say what. All she told Hope was that she had an hour to get their people of Bardo. At that point, I figured out that Echo had tortured Levitt to get the Gem9. My pre-east coast airing prediction was that Hope had done it but she’s definitely too impulsive to pull off a well-thought-out plan like this.

Gabriel is the truth! Callie Pramfleimkepa was so brave and revered that her enemies wept when she died. Cadogan was wistful, almost humbled by that. Regardless of what had happened, he still loved Callie. This humbled Cadogan caught Gabriel off guard. The Cadogan he remembered was the opposite. Exalting “transcendence” sounds more like Caodgan. Cadogan found commonality with Gabriel through their experiences of being worshiped although Gabriel views it as losing his way. Cadogan was famished so, despite the guns pointed at him, he just strolled on out to lunch. Gabriel actually pulled a similar move on Diyoza last season when she figured out who he was. Anyway, Cadogan and Gabriel sat down to a Hipster Millennial Dream Meal of avocado toast and kombucha among other things. The writers have Gabriel as GenZ so he was likely born right before the cutoff (2012-2013). Cadogan is an early Millennial (born in 1987). Anyway, they continue the conversation about being worshipped. Cadogan insisted that he doesn’t believe in God and instead believes that he was “chosen”. I think that’s the same thing as being worshipped as a god. He still puts himself up on a pedestal. He makes his people believe that he’s a special snowflake that will lead them to greatness. Gabriel served Cadogan some home truth when he let him know that joining him would mean giving up love, family, and emotions. These things are the soul of humanity and without them, humanity isn’t really humanity. You can’t save the human race with an inhuman army. Cadogan countered this by asking Gabriel if he had ever done anything for someone he loved and regretted it. He didn’t answer but the look on his face said he was thinking of Josephine and the resurrections. Cadogan also told Gabriel that being betrayed by someone you love is the worst hurt. He was thinking of Callie when he said this. He probably built the foundation of the Disciples’ “emotional control” because of what happened with Callie. Ironically, it’s because of emotion that this society exists.

Reunions and meetings. Clarke and co found Octavia and Diyoza in their room debating what Echo was thinking with deciding to stay. Clarke and Octavia shared a long hug in their grief over Bellamy. Miller was still unsure about Octavia. He stood up to her last season even though it was the wrong time but the trauma of Blodreina is still fresh. So, when Octavia went to hug him, he didn’t return it at first. She asked him to hug him back and after a moment he did. It’s a start to repair their relationship. There was definitely a missed opportunity to add more depth to Miller there as following Blodreina had an effect on him. Anyway, Octavia was banking on Clarke showing up eventually which is why she didn’t tell the Disciples that Clarke didn’t have the Flame anymore. She still doesn’t know it has been destroyed. Once the question of Echo’s whereabouts came up, Hope appeared. Not knowing her from Adam, Clarke and co pointed their guns. Diyoza introduced her as her daughter which confused Clarke and co. Time dilation is a wonderful thing. Hope recognized Clarke, Raven, and Miller even though she only knew of them from Octavia’s stories. My 10th grade English teacher would be so pleased with such perfect descriptions! Diyoza looked proud that Hope escaped from being sent to Penance but there was no time to explain. They needed to get off Bardo pronto. Time out! Where’s Echo? Octavia figured out she was getting revenge for Bellamy. Diyoza ordered Hope to spill but all she knew was that Levitt helped Echo do something. Instead of heading to the Stone Room, Octavia led the group to find Levitt. He was bound, gagged, and beaten in (his?) room. Octavia looked visibly sad to see him hurt. In addition to torturing him physically, Echo killed two Disciples in front of him which “convinced” him to help her get Gem9. Echo’s plan was to put it into the central humidification system so it would become airborne. Levitt begged Octavia to untie him so he could get help. Wrong thing to say as Anders would surely have Echo killed if they’re able to stop her. As much as it pained her, Octavia re-gagged Levitt and they left to find Echo.

Jordan’s time to shine. Cadogan showed Gabriel, Niylah, and Jordan the Bardoan text about the Last War and said that it would lead to evolution and transcendence of the human race. Jordan called BS because war is the worst of humanity. “The answer to all this violence isn’t just more violence.” While Cadogan and Gabriel were at lunch, Jordan studied the translation of the Bardoan text. Monty had taught him some Korean when he was young and he saw similarities in the structure of the Bardoan text. Korean letters are stacked into blocks of syllables which can be mistaken as characters. Jordan thinks that Cadogan may have done this when translating Bardoan into English. When Jordan corrected the translation, the words “preparation” and “judgment” replaced “Last War”. The first words out of Becca’s mouth when Cadogan asked her what she saw was “Judgement Day”. Chances are good that Jordan’s translation is more correct than Cadogan’s. Based on Jordan’s translation, the silent code initiates a test to be taken by the person who enters it. It was fun to see Jordan relish his moment of genius. It finally feels like his character wasn’t a waste. Anyway, Gabriel came back into the room and made the point that Cadogan should not be representing humanity in this final test. Becca made that same assessment. As she said, in the right mind, the Flame would save the human race. I think Clarke will end up being the one to take it. As the figurehead for her group and the show, it makes sense. She has done and experienced the good and the bad many times over. I think part of the test will be about whether she has learned from her experiences and mistakes and by extension, whether humanity has. My theory is that Earth will be restored once Clarke passes the test. I have it in the back of my mind that this will go the way of Divergent and Clarke will sacrifice herself to save humanity.

Echo’s Mt Weather…averted. With the hour up, Echo opened the Gem9 and prepared to inject it into the central humidification system. Clarke and co arrived before she could. Octavia tried to talk her down first. She lost Echo when she said there were good people (read: Levitt) there. Echo turned that around by putting all the blame for Bellamy’s death on Levitt because of the M-Cap. Echo implied that Octavia was disrespecting Bellamy’s memory by having a relationship with Levitt. The writers actually released the script pages for this entire scene and in them, Echo refers to Levitt as Octavia’s boyfriend. Clarke tried next and told Echo that she could learn to live with the grief but wiping out a whole society would stick with her. That didn’t reach Echo either because she was wiping out the Disciples for pure vengeance rather than to save people. Clarke tried again by saying that Bellamy wouldn’t have wanted this. Echo screamed, “You have no idea what Bellamy would have wanted!” and said that he would be right where she was herself, Octavia or Clarke were killed. Raven stepped up and said that the Bellamy who aligned with Pike would be but the Bellamy Echo fell in love with wouldn’t. Spacekru is a family and Echo is Raven’s sister. Echo of Spacekru wouldn’t do this. Echo finally broke down when Raven threatened to stay and be killed if Echo deployed the Gem9. Raven embraced her as she cried. A segment of the fans took issue with Echo telling Clarke that she doesn’t know what Bellamy would have wanted. People seem to discount the time that Spacekru spent together. Just like Clarke made a family with Madi during those six years, Bellamy, Echo, Raven, Emori, Murphy, Monty, and Harper became a family. They all changed and Clarke wasn’t around for that. I think the problem is that much of that development occurred offscreen. Spacekru would have benefited from having their own flashback episode during season 5 for sure.

RIP Diyoza. I knew Diyoza wouldn’t make it as soon as I saw the shot of Hope up against the glass in the trailer for the season. I have mixed feelings about getting that one right. On one hand, I still want my prize for predicting almost the entire plot point! On the other hand, I’m sad. Anyway, Diyoza had taken the Gem9 and they were all ready to roll out when Anders showed up. Clarke tried to invoke the deal she made with Cadogan but that was off because Echo had killed three Disciples and tortured Levitt. Diyoza tried to be diplomatic and handed over the Gem9 to “call it even”. Anders was disgusted, a rare show of emotion. Miller shot a look that said, “Yea, you disgust us too.” Anders called them selfish primal beasts who don’t deserve “The Shepherd’s mercy” because they’re too immersed in their feelings. Diyoza was able to suss out that there were ghost Disciple soldiers in the room. The soldiers appeared and were ready to fire lasers. Not a good idea with Gem9 in the room. Fine. Echo can do 20 years on Penance instead. Hope wasn’t having that so she sliced Anders’s throat, grabbed the Gem9, and put a drop of it into the humidification system. Before it could hit the water, Diyoza caught it in her hand. She closed the tank and the crystallization began. Hope started screaming and Octavia rushed to pull her away from Diyoza. The rest of them were just standing there, apparently too stunned to move. Diyoza had to tell them to leave the room before Gem9 got them too! Her last words to Hope were, “Don’t waste this, Little One. Be better than me.” It’s what she’s always wanted for Hope. Poor Hope. Not only did she lose her mom but she caused her death. She’ll have to live with that. I think this could be a turning point for Hope. Maybe she’ll finally understand what Diyoza meant when she said that killing (innocent) people for a cause won’t fill the hole in her heart. Diyoza sacrificed herself to save Hope physically and spiritually. I’m going to miss Diyoza. She turned out to be an amazing character. Motherhood gave her a complexity she wouldn’t have otherwise. Diyoza was supposed to be more like McCreary and die at the end of season five but Ivana Milicevic’s pregnancy changed that. It turned out to be an amazing change! As sad as it was, Diyoza came full circle. For a long time, her defining moment was committing terrorist acts in the name of fighting against fascism. In death, she prevented Hope from making a similar mistake and having to (potentially) live with it.

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Two sides of the same coin. On the surface, they are different but Cadogan and Sheidheda are actually quite similar. Both have this idea in their mind that love is a weakness and a flaw. Cadogan thinks that love is everything wrong with humanity and will prevent transcendence. Sheidheda thinks it’s an inconvenience for amassing power. Both enjoy being worshipped but for different reasons. Cadogan likes to be admired and revered for his “great works”. Sheidheda relishes being feared and having total dominion. Both of them think that their way is the only way. They prize single-minded devotion to themselves and their cause above all else. The main difference between them is that Sheidheda is full of passion while Cadogan carries himself as a more “matter of fact” type. Sheidheda embraces his anger and rage while Cadogan aspires to be an emotionless drone (Anders had him beat there). Still, both are representative of the sins of humanity and neither one of them should take the Final Test.

Is the Levtavia boat sunk? I didn’t go all-in on Levtavia initially because I wasn’t sure Octavia was actually into Levitt. I changed my tune after Nakara but now we have even more evidence that she cares about him. Although the main reason to find him was to find out what Echo was planning, a part of her was worried about him. It was written on her face when they found him. She quickly moved to untie him before Clarke stopped her. She looked genuinely sorry that she had to leave him. He “screwed up” when he said he’d go “get help” if she untied him though. He’s still a Disciple which was also made clear when he looked up at Clarke and “rejoiced” in the landing of The Key. I think Octavia’s hands were tied even if he would have offered to come with them. That wasn’t an option for two reasons. One, Echo hated all of the Disciples so having Levitt there when they’re trying to talk her down would have only made things more difficult. Two, it would be seen as a betrayal and Levitt would surely be sent to Penance. Leaving him would have been an escalation of their whole “punch and run” theme. So, now, Levitt has experienced both the good and bad of caring about someone. Chances are he feels betrayed by Octavia so Cadogan will seize on that. He’ll emphasize that feelings are bad and life is better without bonds and attachments. If Cadogan is able to fully pull him back, I think the Levtavia boat is sunk. If not, it might be because Levitt understands why Octavia had to leave him. He looks to be the first person to find out that Bellamy is alive so there is hope for the boat if he’s the one to tell Octavia (or at least wants to). I hope the boat stays afloat because I’m really invested in it!

Other things. Jordan’s lines are odd sometimes. When he started explaining his theory to Gabriel, he said “My father’s side of the family was Korean. Now, look at these…”. Having Korean heritage doesn’t automatically equal knowing the language. Something like “I learned Korean from my father, and these look…” would be better for giving Gabriel context. The script pages for the final scene had Miller trying to talk Echo down using reverse psychology. It’s a shame that part didn’t make the final cut because Miller and Bellamy were close too. Another missed opportunity to make Miller more than a hired gun. Oh well, I’ll still enjoy Miller’s one-liners and side-eyes. The non-Faithful just go where the wind blows at this point. We got some creative line splicing in the promo for this episode. They took Sheidheda’s line, “I’d like to see you bleed” and made it “I’d like to see you die” by looping in the “die” from “If you don’t kneel, you die.” The whole episode was brilliantly acted and directed but that final act was something else! Every actor in that scene was on point, especially Tasya Teles and Shelby Flannery. The score was brilliant as was the use of slow motion.

Next time on The 100…

Show: Surprise! Bellamy’s alive.

Fandom:

6 more episodes to go! Until next time!