'The 100' Season 7 Episode 12 Review: Bellamy turns his back on Clarke as Bardo and Sanctum stories converge
Spoilers for 'The 100' Season 7 Episode 12 'The Stranger'
This week's episode of 'The 100' was presumed to be a big one — for the first time during the seventh and final season of The CW's post-apocalyptic show, no reviewer got an early look at the episode, which probably meant that something big was set to happen. Given that this is the episode after the Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley) centered one, where he ended up believing in the Shepherd aka Bill Cadogan and betrayed Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor), we thought it would be something related to either of the two characters. Nevertheless, the excitement was high as we went into the episode blind along with everyone else.
Sanctum
The episode starts with the aftermath of Sheidheda (JR Bourne) taking control of Sanctum. It seems his soldiers have found John Murphy (Richard Harmon) and Emori (Luisa D'Oliveira) who kneels for now and asks for the machine shop — Murphy quickly placates by telling Sheidheda by saying that Emori is a good mechanic who can keep the reactor running.
Next, the Eligius prisoners and the Children of Gabriel are brought in led by Nikki (Alaina Huffman) and Nelson (Lee Majdoub). While Nikki and the other Eligius prisoners kneel, Nelson aka Sachin and the Children of Gabriel don't, which means Sheidheda immediately kills them. Sheidheda has an immediate mission for Nikki. When Indra (Adina Porter) is cleaning up bodies — during which she whispers to Nelson aka Sachin, "your fight is over" — she notices one boy from the Children of Gabriel is alive. As she smuggles him to the machine shop, Nikki follows her.
While the boy — who is Madi's friend — is taken to the hiding place, Nikki comes snooping. So far, Murphy is doing impressively this season. He is able to lead the Sanctumiites who are hiding — including the ones who think they should kneel as Murphy tells them that Sheidheda will just kill him. And so, Murphy is well respected in this episode, with both Emori and Indra telling him they're proud of him and one of the Faithful saying he was right to believe in Murphy.
Thankfully, even though Nikki holds Murphy at gunpoint demanding to be led to where they're hiding the others, Emori had seen her on the surveillance cameras. When Nikki thinks she hit the jackpot on spotting Madi, Emori knocks her out. While they have her tied up and Murphy tries talking to her about being on their side, she is plotting her escape.
However, Sheidheda's soldiers had Nikki followed, and when she disappeared, they inform Sheidheda — whom they have just presented with a throne made of skulls and the anomaly stone. Sheidheda goes to the machine room where Murphy makes Emori hide in the reactor room with the others. Emori threatens to blow the reactor up if something happens to Murphy, so Sheidheda leaves, but takes Murphy with him.
Bardo
In Bardo, Cadogan is disappointed that they are back to square one as he speaks to Gabriel Santiago (Chuku Modu). When Bellamy comes in, Gabriel is led away. The former came to speak about his friends that he still worry about. Cadogan says that they should pay for all their crimes, but Bellamy asks if they could find the Flame and repair it, whether Cadogan would spare them.
So, Bellamy first approaches Echo (Tasya Teles) and Raven Reyes (Lindsey Morgan), asking the latter where the Flame is since she helped Eric Jackson (Sachin Sahel) destroy it. She refuses to tell him, so he forces the Disciple guards to take her to the memory-extracting M-Cap machine.
Then, Echo and Bellamy have a tough conversation, with Echo feeling betrayed in more ways than one that Bellamy spent all his time away forgetting her, his friends, and his family. She tells him she scarred her face so she would not lose herself while the Disciples played with her mind. But it is clear now that the "Last War" and transcendence is more important to him as he leaves Echo in tears.
Later, he goes to see his sister Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos) and Clarke to ask them about the Flame -- who were having their own heart-to-heart talking about their wards, Madi (Shelby Flannery) and Hope (Lola Flannery). Clarke confronts him about his betrayal and it is clear that though Bellamy is desperate to save them, he is staunch in his new beliefs. He pleads to Clarke to believe in him, that he is the same person who brought her back from the dead (Season 6 callback and one of the greatest Bellarke moments).
Clarke refuses to cooperate, so Bellamy gets the Guards to take her to the M-Cap machine. Clarke resists and is close to hemorrhaging, so Cadogan makes up his mind to send everyone to Penance. Then Clarke tells him that she will take him to the Flame if he lets her friends go. We also see Jordan Green (Shannon Kook) trying to comfort Hope after her mother's death. These two are the only ones who are the "next generation" and he tells her that her mom died — not to save her life, but to save her soul.
As Clarke is walked into the stone room, she is upset to see that everyone else is restrained. Nathan Miller (Jarod Joseph) and Raven are seemingly upset about Clarke's deal. The stone is activated and each of Clarke's friends steps through the anomaly one by one until Gabriel, Raven, and Clarke are left behind. Ravel tells Clarke that Cadogan did not send them to Sanctum — Cadogan still does not trust Clarke and will only free them if she gives him the Flame to be repaired.
The episode ends when the anomaly stone in Sanctum is activated as Clarke and some of the Disciples, including Cadogan, reach there to retrieve the Flame. As she asks what happened when she sees Sheidheda in charge, Murphy asks, "Where to begin?"
Final thoughts
While the episode did not have a big death that we feared — we were 99 percent sure at one point that Murphy was definitely not going to make it --, it was still a big one. For one, seeing the new Bellamy interact with everyone was certainly weird, as it would be for longterm 'The 100' fans. Clarke telling Bellamy, "go float yourself," certainly felt like the end of an era on the show. We hoped for more interaction between Octavia and Bellamy — that big reunion we were all waiting for — and perhaps that is yet to come.
Murphy remaining alive cements our belief — and fans' — that he should be the one to take the test and represent humankind. As Emori noted, he has been thinking of everyone else except himself, and while we do keep saying this, it's a testament to the show that a character like Murphy went from one of the most hated ones to one of the most beloved ones.
With Clarke now in Sanctum, both the Sanctum and Bardo storylines are starting to converge. If Sheidheda reveals to Cadogan that Madi drew the anomaly stone after the Flame was taken from her, she could be in more danger than she already is. We have been wondering for a while now who among Cadogan and Sheidheda would be the one to fear, but the answer should come soon.
'The 100' airs on Wednesday nights on The CW at 8/7c.