'The 100' Season 7 Episode 15 Review: Stakes are high as Clarke strives to save the day one last time amid loss
Spoilers for 'The 100' Season 7 Episode 15 'The Dying of the Light'
We are finally at the final 2 percent of The CW's most popular post-apocalyptic show 'The 100'. The past few episodes may have irked viewers in the way that it brushed off one of the OG main characters and how it brushed away his death without acknowledging our pain and mourning. But never matter. We have been a part of the journey from the beginning — or from in between — and it is up to us to see this journey through.
At this point, Madi Griffin (Lola Flannery) had decided to sacrifice and tag herself to send her to Bardo, straight to the hands of Bill Cadogan (John Pyper-Ferguson) because she could, in fact, have the key. She did so when Sheidheda (JR Bourne) had followed them to Earth to take her to Cadogan, or rather kill her so he could still keep reigning over Sanctum.
It would seem then that the deaths of Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley) at the hands of Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) and that of Gabriel Santiago (Chuku Modu) at the hands of Sheidheda were, in fact, absolutely pointless.
Let's take a look at the events of this week's episode and what it means for the very final episode of 'The 100'.
Despair to begin with
We begin right where the last episode had ended. After the Disciples sent through a bomb in the anomaly, thanks to some quick thinking from Nathan Miller (Jarod Joseph), the bomb was thrown into a compartment. The aftershocks of the explosion caused the bunker to collapse in on itself.
We see that John Murphy (Richard Harmon) is fine but as he calls for Emori (Luisa D'Oliveira), he realizes that she is caught under the rubble. Soon, Eric Jackson (Sachin Sahel) and Raven Reyes (Lindsey Morgan) come running and help Murphy find Emori. Unfortunately, while she seems okay, there is a beam that goes right through her stomach. The others manage to saw through the beam and pull Emori out, but she is bleeding profusely from a wound on her thigh.
Jackson becomes the MVP at this point in the episode when he immediately sets to cauterize her wound, which makes Emori scream out loud in pain and Murphy is in pain along with her. Jackson, Raven and Murphy plan to find the stone and go to Bardo so they can surgically remove the rest of the beam in Emori. This is a nice moment — Emori thinks Sanctum is the first time she mattered, but here are her friends who are forsaking everything else (including finding their friends) to get her to Bardo quickly to save her.
As Jackson tends to Emori, Raven and Murphy are busy digging away frantically to get to the stone. However, Jackson asks Raven to talk to Emori because recovery is psychological as much as medical. Raven goes to talk to her and we get a really nice scene, something that is very fitting to be a part of this final journey. Emori asks Raven to choose saving everyone else over saving her, but our girl is stubborn and tells her that she will save Emori and everyone else. They also acknowledge their time on the ring (between Seasons 4 and 5) and trust us when we say this is only one of the first moments that might bring tears to your eyes.
However, just at this moment, Emori loses consciousness. As the stone is freed and activated, Jackson is on Emori, pumping her chest to keep her alive. Together, the four of them rush into the anomaly to get to Bardo.
Meanwhile, in another area of the bunker, Clarke immediately makes the plan to take the nanopill brought over by Sheidheda and go to Bardo. Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos) says she will take the second pill so Clarke has an "inside man". Unfortunately, the pills don't work — they need someone in Bardo to pull them through.
Not being able to do anything, Clarke gets frustrated as the others begin strategizing. While Indra (Adina Porter) thinks they should kill Cadogan, Gaia (Tati Gabrielle) counters that faith cannot be killed. At this point, Jordan Green (Shannon Kook) speaks up and talks again about everything being a test — that the next step in human evolution involves a purpose to everything, something he wishes he could have told Bellamy before he died.
Clarke gets upset and storms away and says that there is no last war or test, yelling that Bellamy died for that crap. Gaia runs after her and tries to comfort her, telling her that Madi did just what Clarke always does. Clarke then despairs if this was how her mother felt. Gaia then offers to help Clarke still her mind and while it does not work as well, the two bond over their mutual love for Madi.
Madi puts up a brave front
Meanwhile in Bardo, Cadogan walks Madi to the M-Cap room where Levitt (Jason Diaz) is waiting. Levitt speaks calmly to her, reassuring her as she takes her place in the M-Cap machine. Cadogan is in the room as well and tells Levitt that he trusts him. When Cadogan begins speaking of the Last War, Madi tells him he is wrong and says that Jordan had studied the texts and interpreted it as a test — Cadogan is interpreting a war, because he wants a war. Levitt gets intrigued at this point, but he continues.
He shows Madi the picture of Callie Cadogan (Iola Evans) she drew and asks her to focus on it while he finds which part of the cortex houses the memories from the Flame. However, he finds that those particular memories are not stored where memories are usually seen and cautions that he has to go deeper and that it is extremely dangerous. Cadogan eggs him to continue.
When Cadogan pressures to go further after a memory of Callie briefly appears, something Levitt does must have worked. Madi suddenly accesses more of her Flame memories and tells Cadogan that she is done helping him. She is adamant now and grows more agitated so Cadogan decides to do it the hard way. Levitt disagrees and he is dismissed by Cadogan.
Well, that's too bad for Cadogan, because Levitt goes back to what he was when we first met him -- he becomes a rebellious hero. First, he tricks a Disciple into activating the nanopills, therefore bringing Clarke and Octavia to Bardo. Unfortunately, the bridge has been moved to a "strategically advantageous location" and they are met with a hoard of soldiers, who then arrest them.
But don't worry, Levitt is not done just yet as he heads to the lockup rooms and takes down more Disciple soldiers to free Clarke and Octavia. That's about all he has and leaves the rest to Clarke and Octavia, who decide to use a locked up Sheidheda as a distraction.
Unfortunately, when Clarke, Octavia, and Levitt get to the hallway where a bunch of Disciple soldiers lay dead -- giving Octavia a moment to tell Levitt that this is the reality of war --, and reach the M-Cap room, they see Madi alone in the room, lying still. It would seem that Cadogan did everything he could to retrieve the code -- even destroy the areas of Madi's brain responsible for voluntary movement, leaving her in a vegetative state.
There is no recovery from this and Clarke knows it. She eyes her gun and when she moves to take it, Octavia tells her that she could not let Clarke live with it, and that she will do it. As Clarke speaks to Madi and sings to her, Octavia gets ready to shoot Madi. Just before she does, however, Levitt tells them that Cadogan has the code. Knowing that he cannot be the one to activate it and take the test representing humanity, they go after him. Here, Octavia's maturity shines through when she asks Levitt if he is sure because the Last War is his "whole life." Levitt sweetly says that his life started when he met her.
Final thoughts
This week, 'The 100' felt like 'The 100' again and it was much needed given the hell most fans have been put through in the last two episodes. Admittedly, Bellamy's death is still senseless, but seeing that final scene where Clarke cries over Madi's motionless body was too heartbreaking. After everything she did, her coming to this moment knowing she failed -- we cannot imagine what Clarke will do next but we see that she will still keep going to save the day.
There's a reason why 'The 100' felt like the show we grew comfortable with and it is because we got so many emotional scenes between characters. There was the Murphy-Emori scene where he tells her that she has always mattered to him; there is the Raven-Emori scene where they acknowledge how they got close on the Ring and how much they matter to each other. It was not just this -- here's Jackson, knowing that his boyfriend, Miller is stuck in the bunker doing everything he can to save Emori, even going to another planet.
Emori stepping up to tell Raven to choose everyone else over her was an important scene. It shows us that Emori -- who is and always has been a supporting character -- is so much better attuned to her humanity than Cadogan is, and therefore, so much more qualified than he is. This week, Emori also acknowledged Bellamy's death in the way viewers had wanted to see, the mourning he deserved.
We see that Cadogan is no better than Sheidheda -- but we have always known that. This episode just proved how far he was willing to go. Madi's interpretation that he wanted war was bang on. He is selfish -- something that made his own daughter turn away from him in the prequel episode that we saw earlier this season. There is no telling what Cadogan might do if he is faced with the test for humanity.
While things are moving at a fast pace on Bardo, we must remember that many of the central characters are still stuck in the bunker on Earth. Indra, Gaia, Miller, Jordan, and Hope Diyoza (Shelby Flannery) are all together and safe as we saw. But we did not even see Echo (Tasya Teles) or Niylah (Jessica Harmon), leaving us to wonder what their fate is going to be.
The pacing for the final season of 'The 100' has been quite sloppy. There have been action-packed episodes and there have been episodes which did not move the plot along as much. Will one last episode be enough to close out this season and this series? We just have to wait for one more week to find out.
'The 100' airs on The CW on Wednesday nights at 8/7c. The series finale will air on September 30.