The 100: Hesperides (7.04) Things of Note

Things are heating up now! Let’s jump in!

10 years. The episode started with a nice montage of Hope’s time with Dev. Of course, Hope was suspicious of Dev at first, scaring him away any time he got close to the cabin. She softened when he got sick after eating the poison paint berries. She brought him into the cabin where he revealed that it would be 10 years before anyone was coming back. I wonder what his transgression was. Anyway, Dev taught Hope to fight and he developed a plan to ambush the Disciples. They would take the suits and go to Bardo to rescue Diyoza and Octavia. Things went awry when Hope didn’t attack and Dev was stabbed in the back by one of them. Hope did manage to put on a suit and get to the Anomaly/Bridge. I’m interested to see what happened when she got to Bardo.

Catching up. Clarke and the Sanctum group finally figure out that Bellamy, Octavia, and Echo are missing. They don’t know about Hope and don’t seem to care about Gabriel. I don’t think his “children” care either. Nelson leads them now. Anyway, Captain Meredith rang the proverbial doorbell and asked for Clarke. He told Clarke that their leader thinks she’s key to winning the “last war that mankind will ever wage” but provided no details about said war. None. I guess we get those later. Clarke agreed to go but not right away which gave both sides time to come up with a battle plan.

Haunted. Raven was still rattled by her decision to sacrifice Hatch and his crew for the survival of everyone else. I appreciated the moment between Raven and Clarke at the reactor. Clarke could tell Raven wasn’t coping and although Raven wasn’t receptive to Clarke’s advice, it was solid. Remembering all the people she saved has helped Clarke over the years. Raven saw Hatch in the face of the Disciple and was unable to focus on the suit. Jordan came in and decided it would be a good time to reminisce about their first moment together when they discovered Alpha was a moon. He also mentioned that he got stabbed which Raven didn’t know. Jordan is awkward but he tries. He may low-key resent that no one came looking for him when things started to go south with the Primes. Not that they necessarily could. Raven figured out that the suit was controlled by thoughts. I think the discovery and playing around with the suit’s features were a brief respite from the guilt and the grief she had been feeling. She was actually enjoying it. Jordan was like a little kid wanting a turn. Of course, the joy was shortlived once they found out Clarke was to be renditioned to Bardo.

Make him love us. Hope, Gabriel, and Echo are an interesting group. They didn’t really know each other and yet they had to depend on each other. To lure in Orlando and get him to help them off Skyring, they made every effort to look like one happy family. The idea was to endear themselves to him so that he’ll help them. It’s what Hope did with Dev. They tended the garden together and they ate together. A few months later, Echo was tending the garden when Orlando came looking for Hope. It’s interesting how he cared about her and yet she didn’t know him at all. I’m sure he would have heard all about her because of what happened with Dev as well as her time on Bardo. Maybe the isolation madness was driving how he saw her. They nearly had him but Gabriel showed up which scared him away. Maybe it would have gone better if he hadn’t pummeled Orlando earlier. Echo then got the brilliant idea to have Hope pretend she’s drowning. Orlando “saved” her and then accepted their invitation to dinner. Jellyfish étouffée was Diyoza’s specialty which prompted Gabriel to make a bad joke which revealed her past to Hope. Orlando knew Diyoza was a Navy Seal so he was likely privy to all of the information the Disciples were extracting from Diyoza and Octavia. Gabriel scared him off yet again with his questioning of the Disciples and their decision to send Orlando to prison for not resting.

Level 12. Hope said Orlando was a Level 12 Disciple which is “hardcore”. Level 12 was also the highest level in Second Dawn. Coincidence? I think not! Either some Second Dawn members were embedded into one of the Eligius mission teams or they had their own ship. “The Shepherd” could be Cadogan or some successor. I’m excited to learn about their origin story. I also think that the prequel will be linked to them in some way. Anyway, Echo challenged Orlando to a sparring match and lost. She bet the cabin so they had to sleep outside. Gabriel was none too pleased. Eventually, Gabriel was able to convince Orlando to train them with a little speech questioning whether The Shepherd or any other “god” would condone torturing or sending the devout to prison. Gabriel sure has a way with words! He also called Bellamy, Octavia, and Diyoza his friends which is interesting. I guess they are the closest thing he has to friends now. Everyone else he’s ever known is either dead or done with him. Five years later, Hope, Echo, and Gabriel are “Level 12s”. Orlando had become quite fond of them in the ensuing years. None of his past trainees had been as dedicated as them.

Change of plans. The plan was simple. Knock the Disciple soldiers coming for Orlando’s absolution unconscious, take their suits, and bring him along as a “hostage”. Things changed when Hope killed a soldier who was trying to kill Echo. The orders for Echo and Gabriel might have changed from “rendition to Bardo” to “kill on sight”. She did kill three of them after all. Orlando recognized the fallen soldier immediately which made Echo believe that he couldn’t be trusted. She decided that the best course of action was to kill the remaining soldiers and leave Orlando on Skyring. Although Orlando had genuinely bonded with Echo, Hope, and Gabriel, he is still a Disciple and is still loyal to their cause. As Echo said, they are not his people. There was a lot of debate about her decision. Some say it throws character growth out the window. Rothenberg “agreed” with her logic. My thought is that I sort of see where Echo was coming from. She had experienced a version of this with Ryker last season. Even though Ryker disliked most of his “family” and disagreed with their whole premise, he ultimately stayed loyal to them because they were his people. Lexa made a similar decision when she cut a deal with Mt. Weather to save her people but left Clarke’s behind. Echo is determined to save Bellamy so she isn’t willing to take any chances. She has tunnel vision. Still, that was harsh! He was their friend and they betrayed him. Plus, Orlando could have been useful since he knows his way around Bardo and could get them to where Bellamy is being held. Echo may have unwittingly made things worse for Clarke and everyone else too. The Disciples didn’t seem that interested in killing anyone except for Hope. Orlando left a note for his fellow Disciples and ended it all. Technically, he betrayed them and then was betrayed by people he thought were his friends. He was heartbroken.

Jordan and Raven to the rescue. Captain Meredith and his crew built a chainlink fence around Gabriel’s outpost. Clarke arrived with Miller, Gaia, and Niylah staked out in the woods, ready to shoot Captain Meredith if necessary. Captain Meredith was prepared too. His troops were surrounding Clarke and company in ghost mode. They did their homework so they knew Clarke would not sacrifice her friends. They also were getting real-time updates because Captain Meredith had Orlando’s note and knew that Gabriel, Echo, and Hope had left Penance (Skyring). Either Clarke tells them everything or they extract everything (Capt Meredith loves putting emphasis on words containing “ever”) they need to know. She fought off getting mind-wiped by Josephine so she’ll fight memory extraction too. Just as the standoff was getting tenser, Jordan showed up. It was his first time executing a plan like this so he was a little nervous. He told Clarke to get down which signaled Raven to take out all the Disciples. I think Jordan was glad to contribute substantially, violent results damned. Raven, however, was distraught but I’m not so sure she would have been as affected had it not been for the nuclear reactor situation. That incident was still fresh in her mind and for someone that isn’t often responsible for deaths, having to take lives to save lives again is hard to swallow. Had the nuclear reactor incident not happened, I think she would have been less distraught over killing the Disciples because they were a potential threat.

Off to Penance…or not. Clarke and company make their way to the Anomaly stone. The suits don’t recognize the name of the planet so Raven had to guess. Too bad they don’t know that Penance is the ringed planet. One of the planets was “offline”. Maybe that one is not survivable. Clarke gave everyone a chance to back out which no one was going to take until Gaia pointed out that the Disciples would send more troops. She elected to stay behind to warn everyone else and watch out for Madi. Miller couldn’t wait to get off Sanctum! I think Jordan was eager to be part of the group. It was obvious that Raven didn’t choose Penance but she didn’t pick Bardo either which would actually be better. Bardo is where Bellamy, Octavia, and Diyoza are and where Echo and Gabriel are headed. Or it could be worse because they could end up captured/killed right away. Instead, they end up on the one with vast frozen tundra. With no Anomaly stone in sight, it looks like they will be staying a while.

Power down. Before Gaia could even get up the ladder, a Disciple knocked her out. Someone was waiting in the wings. They think of everything! Anyway, as Gaia was waking up the Disciple was initiating a power-down sequence. Gaia was kidnapped and the Anomaly stone fell to the ground. I’m guessing they just took Sanctum offline to prevent more people from coming. Now that they have Gaia, I’m wondering if they’ll extract her memories and find out about the Flame.

Other things. The Disciples take rest day very seriously! Imagine going to prison for not resting! The memory loss appears to only apply when getting off Skyring or maybe Bardo. When Clarke and company arrived on the icy planet, their memories were intact. Hope has not disappointed as a character this season! We’ve learned more about her in four episodes than we learned about Jordan all last season. It’s been fun to see Gabriel quip and attempt to make jokes since OG Gabriel didn’t have much of a personality. Watching him get mad at Echo while they were attempting to train was hilarious! The next episode is titled “Welcome to Bardo” but the promo was 99.9% Sheidheda. Were they trying to avoid spoilers with that? Either way, Sanctum is about to get a whole lot worse.

Until next time!