'The 100' Season 7 Episode 11: Does Bellamy's changed loyalty mean bad news for a Bellarke happy ending?
Spoilers 'The 100' Season 7 Episode 11 'Etherea'
Before the seventh and final season of The CW's post-apocalyptic show, 'The 100' premiered, the season's trailer worried fans over the lack of Bellamy Blake's (Bob Morley) presence. It was later revealed that Morley had requested time off and the final season was written around this request. Since the season premiere, we have been on a waiting game, wondering as each week went by where in the world (or rather, universe) Bellamy was. More than halfway through the season, we were finally given our answer when the promo for the 11th episode, 'Etherea' aired, which showed that Bellamy was alive -- though perhaps not well -- and was trapped in another part of the universe.
While we were more than ready for Bellamy's return, we certainly did not expect the events of the episode to unfold the way they did. On Etherea, Bellamy ended up working with one of the Disciples, referred to as Conductor (played by Jonathan Scarfe from 'Van Helsing') to get off Etherea. Along the way, Bellamy chided the Conductor's belief in the Shepherd, whom we know to be Bill Cadogan (John Pyper-Ferguson), who was the leader of the Second Dawn cult.
When Bellamy and the Conductor are trapped in a cave during their trek to the peak where the anomaly stone is situated, they encounter three sources of light in the shape of people. According to the Disciple's Bible, this is the Cave of Ascent and the three sources of light were people who "ascended." In the beginning, Bellamy was still skeptical. However, months into their time in the cave, he humors Dustat and joins in on the prayer.
When he prays, he ends up hallucinating himself in the same cave -- sans the noise, the long hair, and the facial growth -- and sees Cadogan. Cadogan leads him inside, where we see Bellamy's mother, Aurora Blake (Monique Ganderton) who leads him to the light. When he wakes up, he and Dustat are looking outside. It turns out, the first time that Bellamy prayed coincided with the abatement of the storm, as the Conductor's and Bellamy's belief in the Shepherd grows.
This belief also comes into play when the Conductor nearly loses his life as they were climbing the steep side of the mountain. Together, Bellamy and the Conductor recite the Shepherd's prayer as Bellamy pulls him up to safety. A Bellamy from earlier seasons may not have saved the Conductor -- the latter had copied the symbols needed to get to Bardo on the book and slipped it into Bellamy's coat.
When the two get to the anomaly and take a literal "leap of faith," they end up back in Bardo, to be welcomed by Cadogan himself. The first thing Bellamy does when he sees him is kneeling to him. Cadogan leads Bellamy to his quarters where Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) and the others are under house arrest. Bellamy soon proves his loyalty to Cadogan when he tells him that Clarke is not, in fact, the key and that the Flame (aka the Key) was destroyed.
Now, this was a completely unexpected turn for one of the OG 'The 100' characters and it is completely new for 'The 100'. The only time we saw a main character become slightly antagonistic was when Clarke kind of turned on Bellamy and the others when she wanted to protect her adopted daughter, Madi (Lola Flannery) in the fifth season. But even then, Clarke had never turned to the villains' side. Take even Octavia Blake's (Marie Avgeropoulos) turn into Bloodreina, though the character was given redemption -- which was particularly explored this season -- over the past two seasons. But with just five episodes of the season left, do we even have enough time for Bellamy to earn his redemption? Whoever thought that we would have a season of 'The 100' where Bellamy is the bad guy and John Murphy (Richard Harmon) is the good guy?
Any scenario we might have expected for the ending of 'The 100' would have always had Bellamy and Clarke working together as they always have. But with Bellamy now completely under the influence of Cadogan, Bellamy has just become another obstacle to saving his friends and people, whom Bellamy may completely forsake now. This means that there is very limited time for Bellamy to change back to his old self and it is quite likely that fans will not get the "Bellarke" ending they have been waiting on for seven years. In fact, it is quite likely that Clarke's "test" would be to take down someone she loves and deeply cares for so she can save her friends. Clarke, Octavia and Echo (Tasya Teles) might be forced to sacrifice someone who has been very important in this journey -- 'The 100' would be completely different without Bellamy Blake. This could even perhaps be "the test" that Jordan Green (Shannon Kook) was talking about.
Platonic or not, such an ending for Bellamy and Clarke's friendship aka relationship will not sit well with viewers. Such an ending would very much lack the closure we need and at this point, we are not sure how 'The 100' will end with a satisfying ending. We just hope that the showrunner, Jason Rothenberg, does not pull a 'Game of Thrones' on us.
'The 100' airs on The CW on Wednesday nights at 8/7c.