'The 100' Season 7 Episode 8 Review: 'Anaconda' sets up an exciting potential prequel as Callie mirrors Clarke
Spoilers for 'The 100' Season 7 Episode 8 'Anaconda'
There are many exciting aspects of 'The 100' on The CW and the prequel backdoor pilot that aired this week exceeds viewer expectations and makes us impatient for a series that has not yet been ordered by the network. However, based on early social media reactions it might be safe to say that the prequel series could be an absolute certainty.
This week, we met Calliope 'Callie' Cadogan (Iola Evans), a revolutionary activist, Bill Cadogan's (John Pyper-Ferguson) daughter, and more crucially, potentially the first Commander. We also met Reese Cadogan (Adain Bradley) and August (Leo Howard). While the focus was on Callie, we are excited to see what Reese and August could bring the viewers.
To say that the prequel backdoor pilot was a treat for fans might be a bit of an understatement. The episode served many clues as to the Disciples' and Cadogan's intent. It also had many, many easter eggs that explained the mythology of the Grounders. Let's take a look at all the events from this week's episode, what we learned and how it sets up both the second half of the final season of 'The 100' and the potential prequel series.
Callie kom Trikru
We don't know where to start with reviewing Callie's story, but let's begin by looking at what sort of person she was. She was a protester who believed in taking down fascist systems, ready to quit MIT even at the risk of earning her father's ire. She was actively involved in protests, often got beaten up by law enforcement and disagreed with her father's and Second Dawn's principles. Callie is guided by her values of what is right and wrong, and we assume she is a socialist given what she wanted to do with Becca Franco's (Erica Cerra) nightblood, a term coined by her friend August for Becca's serum that helps fight radiation.
When her father tells her mother, "Anaconda", the code word for "the missiles are in the air", Callie's life is upended. She is forced to leave behind her friend Lucy and go with her mother to the Second Dawn bunker — the same bunker where WonKru lived for six years after the second Praimfaya. She is upset at her father's policy of keeping people out and would have helped August bring in his girlfriend had they not been interrupted by Reese.
Callie's brother, Reese, starves for his father's affection and attention, often ready to do questionable things just to please his father. It could explain many of his early actions, but we doubt whether Reese continues to do so after the events of the episode. For one thing, he is not on Bardo with his father in the show's current timeline.
While Callie is thinking about saving more people, her father is preoccupied with the "space ball", or what we now know is the anomaly stone. Cadogan found it in Machu Picchu and brought it back with him to study it. As it is now, he believes that the stone can be used to save the people. This also clues us in on the fact that the early Bardoans who went extinct could have been humans as well, having used the anomaly stone to get to Bardo in ancient times.
We also know that Callie is a huge admirer of Becca, so much so that she dressed up as Becca one Halloween. When Becca lands on Earth two years after the first Praimfaya, it's the Cadogan siblings who intercept her and take her to Cadogan. Becca, who has embedded ALIE 2, or as she likes to call it, the Flame in herself has heightened abilities thanks to the AI chip. She is able to hear harmonic music from the stone and is able to configure it. Cadogan immediately realizes that Becca is useful and keeps her around.
His plans are thwarted later. When Becca is studying the stone, she presses seven symbols that make no sound, causing the stone to glow in a white sphere. She disappears into it as Callie looks on. When she comes back, she is shivering and is certain that whatever is on the other side could wipe out what's left of the human day — "judgment day" as she calls it. This does not deter Cadogan. It's Becca's refusal to tell him the code that prompts him to burn her at the stake.
What Cadogan did to Becca angers Callie, but since she was told about the Flame by Becca before her death, Callie is determined to get it back, so much so that she shoots her brother. Callie, August and a group of the Second Dawn members revolt, and having taken Becca's nightblood serum, they leave the bunker. Reese was also given the nightblood serum and tells his father that he will get the Flame back. What we see next is Callie and the others enjoying a bonfire. In another shot, we see Cadogan lead what's left of the Second Dawn members into the anomaly.
What we learned from the episode
There are quite a few things we learned this week, including that Callie learned Latin when she was a child to create her own language — which we now know is the Trigedasleng, the language used by the Grounders. Becca personally entrusted Callie with the Flame and we think, given that Callie knows about some of its secrets and the chance to potentially "see" Becca again, Callie could have been the next bearer of the Flame. Also given that Cadogan thinks Callie is "in there", this is almost certain. We also got goosebumps when Callie said "your fight is over" in her language as the missiles wiped out the surface.
In 'The 100', Trikru is an alternate name for the Grounders who live in what used to be Washington DC. As we learn from 'Anaconda', Trikru was a protest movement of which both Callie and August were members of.
What it means for 'The 100'
We know now why Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) is referred to as the key. As we predicted, it is because she had the Flame. However, it looks like Cadogan thinks Clarke still has the Flame, something Clarke seems to pretend is the truth as well, possibly to protect Madi (Lola Flannery). Cadogan wants the Flame to know the code Becca entered for "transcendence". It would seem that Cadogan is obsessed with always reaching for the next level, even when that level is fatal to humanity. His hero complex wants him to be the savior of the human race, and bringing Second Dawn to Bardo doesn't seem to have been enough.
Given that Cadogan was willing to sacrifice his family for this "transcendence", we don't know what lengths he might go to in order to get the Flame. If he learns that the Flame is destroyed, he may be intent on using the M-Cap machine on either Clarke or Madi. Since Madi seems to be drawing images of the stone, she may know more about what Becca saw, which potentially sets up another season of Clarke going to any lengths to save her adopted daughter.
We also saw that Clarke learned that Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley) is dead and we see her put aside her own grief to comfort Raven Reyes (Lindsey Morgan). She also demands to see her other friends — Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos), Echo (Tasya Teles) and Charmaine Diyoza (Ivana Milicevic). She doesn't know of Hope Diyoza's (Shelby Flannery) existence yet. What happens next surprises Clarke. Octavia, Echo, and Diyoza are now Disciple soldiers, though it may just be a ruse to escape.
The story also potentially sets up either a showdown or an agreement between Cadogan and Russheda (JR Bourne). Perhaps Russheda will give his memories of the Flame to help Cadogan, or perhaps he will use that knowledge for himself. The mission for Clarke now is to save the human race from whatever Cadogan has planned and it may not be an easy feat. Right now, her people are in a disarray on Sanctum and without unity among them, Cadogan and the Disciples may succeed.
What it means for the prequel series
So far, The CW has not ordered the prequel yet, but it's looking more and more like it could be. There are also rumors that the prequel series could be called 'Second Dawn'. We are yet to learn about what happened after Callie, August and the others stormed out the bunker and how that led to the birth of the Grounders. We also are yet to learn what happened to Reese, given that he wasn't among the party that went to Bardo.
There's so much left to learn about the events just after the first apocalypse, and we hope we get to see that.
Final thoughts
This week's episode is eerily prescient in today's climate given Callie's protests and the brutality she faced from law enforcement. 'Anaconda' could not have come at a better time and perhaps that may be why it resonates so well with viewers. We are excited to see how Callie can take over the mantle from Clarke and we are certain that she is a worthy successor.
Now that we are at the halfway mark of the series, viewers could expect things to get more dangerous. We have been lucky so far since none of the characters we know and love have died yet, but that may soon change. In the quest for survival, there are casualties, something that the fans of the show know very well by now.
'The 100' airs on The CW on Wednesday nights at 8/7c.