I know it’s early but I think this season is going to be my favorite! So many questions to be answered! Let’s get into it!
King Russell!!! At last we meet Russell. I have been fascinated by this guy since the first trailer dropped! He’s a smoldering charismatic leader with a bit of a sinister undercurrent. He definitely has hints of the original Russell in him (Note: the press has indicated that Josephine’s father’s name was Russell). Russell is as friendly to our heroes as a leader who just returned home to find a bunch of potentially threatening strangers can be. He chooses to lock them up in a tavern of all places! At the dinner, he is friendly to Clarke until the subject of her body count comes up. I noticed on my rewatch that he was triggered by the words “second chance”. I think that dog story was a cover and he actually has memories of the original Russell’s psychosis. Side note: His dad is a sorry pet owner for not taking care of those food aggression issues early! Anyway, he looked genuinely conflicted about his initial decision to kick Clarke and co out of Sanctum. He seemed to connect with Clarke and I’m interested to see how that dynamic evolves over the course of the season. My hope for Russell is that he’s not just a charismatic leader with sinister motives. I want to see someone with complexity and inner conflict much like Ezekiel in 3%!
Jordan’s first romance. Clarke and co meet Delilah when she brings them “Jo Juice” and she is immediately attracted to Jordan. At first he doesn’t know what to do when she smiles at him but he picks up quickly. This budding romance is interesting because it is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on The 100. The romances on this show are not cute and fluffy…at all! There is an innocence to Jordan and Delilah’s interactions that we don’t see in any other (potential) romance. Ironically (or not depending on how you look at things), Delilah wants to sleep with Jordan much to his bewilderment. She tells him flat out that everyone is bad at it the first time. The attitudes towards sex seem to be extremely liberal in Sanctum!
Jordan’s big mouth. In his quest to connect, be friendly, and maybe impress, he told Delilah ALL the stories! Wanheda, irradiating Mt Weather, everything! Of course, Delilah told her mom who told Russell and Simone which results in Russell saying they must go. Clarke was quite blunt with Jordan when he realizes it was him that ruined it for them (temporarily). He felt so bad! I could say he was distracted by the sexy but I think he was mostly really excited to talk to someone that wasn’t mom, dad, or the people he grew up hearing stories about. Jordan likely doesn’t understand the importance of holding back certain pieces of information when meeting new people. He hasn’t had to meet new people. In a way, his full disclosure may have been a good thing because it would have come out later. If not him, then maybe Raven would have spilled the beans out of anger. Who knows? At least everything is out in the open!
Murphy’s predicament. So I’m giving myself partial credit on this one. He was bitten by the snake but it was the cure rather than the disease. The seaweed in the water was the cause of his illness. Russell mentioned that Murphy was going to wish he stayed dead. When Murphy came to, he was shaken by some vision indicating that he’s going to hell. Did he meet the devil? Did he see himself being burned for all eternity? I’m interested to see what this vision actually was and how it changes him. I suppose he’ll keep his immunity to the psychosis under wraps lest they think he is the devil. Speaking of the devil…
Gabriel=Satan. The Sanctum folks rebuke him in the name of The Primes! Russell refers to him as “the demon who believed he could walk on water…”. The tone he uses sounds like a preacher when he talks about the devil. Gabriel is like the 13th Prime but he probably had issues with original Russell that led to him leaving with his group of followers. More fodder for my theory post!
Bellamy ices Octavia. Bellamy, I know you’re pissed at your sister but did you really have to leave her out there alone like that?!?! That was ice cold!! It felt so final which is very sad. She’s done some things but she’s also been through some things. Bellamy’s forgiveness (or at least a glimmer of hope for that) is something Octavia could have really used to begin the climb out of the darkness that consumed her. Oh well. He was clear. She needs to find a way back on her own. She might have found some people who can help with that in…
Grounders 2.o aka The Children of Gabriel. Roll credits! Their mantras include “Death to Primes” and “Death is life”. We learn that “the harder you fight, the faster you die” guy is named Xavier. They mention trying to get back in the good graces of the “old man”. Who could that be?! Gabriel maybe? Also, was this particular group shunned for some reason? Did they fail this old man one too many times? I’m interested to know what the deal is with that.
Flame equivalent. When the adults of Sanctum first rolled up on our heroes, their first thought was to “protect the hosts”. What?!?! It turns out that not all of the Sanctum people have nightblood. Those that do are considered royalty and very important much like they were with the Grounders. Delilah and Rose are both nightbloods which is why Grounders 2.o were interested in kidnapping them. Delilah is set to undergo a “naming” ceremony and become Pria VII. Being with Jordan made her wish that she could put it off. There is probably more to this than just a simple name change then. I’ll dive into this more on this week’s theory post but in short, consciousness transfer is probably a thing. That would also explain the obsession with the bodies because they need something inside of them (an AI maybe?) to do the ceremony. There won’t be another Victor, Faye or Daniel Prime now. Also, Russell now knows Clarke is a nightblood which was probably a huge motivator in reversing course and letting them stay. They also need her to get Rose back and fight Grounders 2.0.
Sheidheda. So, the scary commander is a Grounder commander. So much for my theory about him being a product of an alteration of the chip! Anyway, we didn’t get much about him in this episode other than he’s the dark commander and that Madi should resist him. I’m interested to see what makes him the dark commander and how he’ll play into Madi’s story.
Other things. Is there anything Diyoza doesn’t have a tactic for? She knew how to fake being hit with paralytic darts perfectly! She can’t escape her reputation as a terrorist though because Russell throws her out immediately. She’ll definitely be meeting up with Octavia, Xavier, and his merry band of Grounders 2.0 later in the season. The reasoning for the hijacking was simply that Kaylee and her family ran out of time to get to the Sanctum shelter before the eclipse. Lame! I was hoping there would be more to it. There still could be but I doubt it. I really liked the moment when Bellamy apologized to Murphy for trying to kill him. Although the psychosis seemed to indicate that Bellamy had lingering issues with Murphy, there is also a care and concern as a good friend. Miller, Jackson, Emori, and Raven were background characters in this episode. You almost forget that Raven is even there! Hopefully we’ll get more from them in the next few episodes.
And that’s my take! Until next week!
This was such a full episode again, wow! First of all, good call with Ezekiel and 3%, I LOVE that show and I totally agree with you! Oh where even to begin with this. I think you’re totally right about Jordan- yeah he was distracted by D, but would he have done anything differently if she’d been some ugly old dude? Probably not, because I imagine that as awesome as Marper were, they wouldn’t have thought to mention all these little daily nuances of human existence that we all take for granted. I love that they showed it, too, and I hope it comes into play even more this season. And you know, I think you’re right about it better being out in the open. I hate the whole “lies of omission” trope, and that’s how it would have ended up!
I LOVE your theory about the dog story being a cover for Russell 1.0! THAT would be epic. These people are so messed up! Like- they obviously know it’s messed up since they know enough to LIE about it and cover it up to outsiders. And this was way before they’d have imagined Clarke being a natblida!
I REALLY want Sheidheda to have some connection to Becca or Cadogan or both. I feel like that story is NOT over. Otherwise, why would we have seen the Becca/Cadogan scene last season?
I was so mad about Bellamy at first, but then… I think O DOES need to figure this out alone, but also, I think he did it more to protect Madi than to shut out O, so it makes it a little less awful for me. Still sad, of course. Diyoza is such an MVP hahha I cannot WAIT to see more of her. Seriously cannot WAIT for tonight’s episode! Great post! 😀
Thank you! Jordan probably would have spilled the beans to anyone who took an interest in him. When the “lies of omission” trope is done, there’s so much focus on “when are they going to find out?” that other parts of the story get a little lost. I wonder how much the common folk of Sanctum really know about what really happened with Gabriel. I’m almost certain that Russell is keeping a lot of things from them and in turn is keeping them from our heroes. At the same time, I think there might have been a part of him that really wanted to tell Clarke everything but he decided against it.
Good point about the Becca/Cadogan scene. I think Sheidheda might be some disciple of Cadogan or even Cadogan himself. If it is Cadogan, I wonder if he was actually the second commander. Becca was the first so subsequent commanders would have good and evil side by side. Some go towards Becca, others go towards Sheidheda.
Side note: The new season of 3% is coming to Netflix on June 7th!