'The 100' Season 7: While show seems to be preping for a Clarke-Gaia endgame, Bellarke shippers are not happy
It's not easy being a fan of 'The 100' on The CW, especially if you ship Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) with Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley). Most "Bellarke" fans have felt that they have been baited with a potential Bellarke endgame, only to be fooled every season. The closest it got somewhere was in the last season, when Bellamy fought tooth and nail, forsaking everyone including his own girlfriend, Echo (played by Tasya Teles) to save Clarke and bring her back in control of her body.
The Season 6 finale saw Bellamy urging Clarke to fight to come back to life. However, whatever hope that may have been built up by the Season 6 finale seems to be dashed by recent developments. Soon after the Season 7 premiere of 'The 100' was aired, it was revealed that Bob Morley took some time off during the filming for the final season, leading to Bellamy Blake disappearing in the first few minutes of the episode.
The first episode of Season 7 saw Clarke spending quite some time with Gaia (Tati Gabrielle) over their mutual concern for Clarke's adopted daughter, Madi (Lola Flannery). Clarke is concerned whether Madi is adjusting to a post-Flame life while Gaia wants to keep her safe from WonKru members who still worship the Commander.
As viewers, you may not have seen anything more than that — two women mutually concerned about the girl they care about deeply. However, all hell seemingly broke loose when the official Twitter account for 'The 100' writers released parts of the script for the first episode. One part featured the scene where Gaia and Clarke interact after the latter came back from dealing with issues on Sanctum.
A couple of sentences stood out, while the script showed that a deeper understanding was forming between Gaia and Clarke. One read, "Beyond moved, Gaia holds Clarke's gaze for a moment..." Another read, "Just when it's clear that their mutual love and concern for Madi is deepening into something more personal..."
Another sentence says, "Clarke and Gaia separate slightly. Indra senses something but moves past it." Towards the end of the available portion of the script, it says that Clarke is touched by Gaia's concern for Madi.
Scripts are much more revealing than the final scenes we see on screen and it's clear that Jason Rothenberg, the showrunner for 'The 100' and who wrote the script for the season premiere, is possibly interested in pursuing a more meaningful relationship between Clarke and Gaia. Whether that relationship will be romantic or just platonic remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, many fans were upset by what they learned. One fan tweeted, "WHAT WAS THE POINT OF SEASON SIX??? MAKING IT ALL ABOUT HOW BELLAMY COULDNT LOSE CLARKE WHILE GAIA AND EVERYONE ELSE DIDNT GIVE A F**K BELLAMY WAS THE ONE THAT FOUGHT FOR HER AND BROUGHT HER BACK."
Another wrote, "WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR BELLAMY PUTTING HIS PEOPLE'S LIFE AT RISK INCLUDING HIS OWN GIRLFRIEND JUST FOR A CHANCE OF GETTING CLARKE BACK OR FOR CONSTANTLY PARALLELING BELLARKE TO ROMANTIC COUPLES FOR SIX SEASONS WHILE CLARKE AND GAIA BARELY SAID 2 WORDS TO EACH OTHER."
However, some came to understand why a "Claia" ship might make sense. A fan tweeted, "Gaia and Clarke as a friendship im here for. the female friendship had disappeared from this show for Clarke." Another tweeted, "like I said, Bellarke's trash. Gaia and Raven and both are POC too. so what's their excuse to favoriting Bellamy now? cuz he's a man. they forget the show is ELIZA'S, and if Clarke befriends Gaia, THEY SHOULD BE HAPPY ABOUT IT. NOT UPSET BECAUSE CLARKE'S NOT WITH BELLAMY."
One wrote, "Clarke and Gaia have been working together raising Madi since Season 5, with Gaia being one of Clarke’s few allies from Wonkru. In Season 6 Gaia was the only one who told Clarke she would ensure Madi’s safety during the finale. Ultimately it does make sense imo." 'The 100' airs on The CW on Wednesday nights at 8/7c.
