Long live Josephine Lightbourne.
Filled with twists and an amazing performance by Eliza Taylor, The 100 continued its season six journey with another bold episode.
The Clarke we all have gotten to know over the course of the series run is no more and is now replaced by the sociopathic leaning Josephine Lightbourne.
At one point in this episode, I texted my friends saying how I didn’t even recognize this show anymore. When I think of how far this show has come since season one, it truly becomes difficult the remember where we started.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. When a show reaches its sixth season, you must begin to question how it can continue to move forward without becoming redundant. And so, when I say I don’t recognize this show anymore, that is a testament to how brilliantly The 100 has been able to stay fresh and compelling despite hitting almost one hundred episodes.
Clarke Who?
If you take the complete opposite of Clarke, that’s who Josephine is.
She is carefree, without any worry about hurting other people to get what she wants. At least when Clarke killed everyone at Mount Weather, she felt bad about it.
Josephine is one of the original Primes and one of the first successful flame transplants (yes, that’s what I’m calling it). In case it wasn’t clear at the end of the last episode what exactly happened when they put the flame looking device in Clarke, they gave us even more insight into the exact process. Essentially, once the host is killed, the personality and memories of whoever’s flame it is takes over.
Supposedly, up until Clarke, these flame transplants that happen during Naming Day have all been consensual (apart from the obviously nonconsensual test subject in the video). The big problem is that this process can only happen to nightbloods – and they haven’t produced one in a while.
They have been doing it for years in an attempt to preserve the lives of previous Primes. And they show no signs of stopping anytime soon. They further go on to explain that they need to do this in order to prevent extinction. The how isn’t exactly clear. I suppose we will get more into that as the season progresses and especially in the next episode.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
My new favorite duo, Octavia and Diyoza, were up to their usual shenanigans of trying to hurt/kill people while also not getting along themselves.
Even though Octavia doesn’t want to hear Diyoza’s words of wisdom, a lot of what Diyoza says to Octavia makes sense. As long as Octavia is still breathing, she has time to make amends to the people she has hurt. She can still become the woman we all know she is deep down.
Will Diyoza be able to break down her walls and finally get through to her? Probably not. But she does make a valiant effort in trying to tell Octavia that this isn’t the end just because she has burned a few bridges in her past. It’s nice to see Diyoza go out of her way to give Octavia some much-needed advice.
Of course, in the midst of her encouraging words, they also happen to be in the grips of quicksand thanks to Xavier.
I am going to go out on a limb and assume the Children of Gabriel aren’t exactly bad people. Sure, that’s what they’re labeled in the eyes of Sanctum’s citizens, but that doesn’t carry much weight coming from the people who willingly let their children be mind wiped to be taken over by someone else. While we don’t exactly know what the mission of the Children of Gabriel is, something tells me that they might just actually be the good guys in all of this.
But there are no good guys, right?
You’re A Pioneer
It’s about time someone finally brought up the fact that there are still hundreds of other people still stuck in cryosleep.
Yeah, that’s right – there are still a bunch of other people who still need some sort of home whenever they are allowed to wake up. Honestly, you would think the whole world consisted of just Bellamy, Clarke, Murphy, and Jordan sometimes.
Fortunately, Bellamy hasn’t seemed to forget the over four hundred people that weren’t promised sanctuary and is exploring their options of leaving Sanctum and finding their own bit of civilization. That probably isn’t that bad of an idea considering the longer they stay in Sanctum, the more discoveries about their cryptic and murderous practices are revealed.
Murphy, however, doesn’t exactly agree with Bellamy’s idea of finding their own plot of land outside Sanctum to call home. And I totally get his hesitation. He spent most of last season either being tortured or shot at, so it is not a huge surprise to assume that he just wants a little peace and quiet.
Josephine takes notice in Murphy’s eagerness to survive and reveals herself to him. Hoping to get him on board, she offers him the same immortality she has. If Murphy actually decides to go along with her and aligns himself with the Primes it will practically erase multiple seasons of character development in Murphy.
Murphy has made a lot of great strides into proving he is more than just the cockroach everyone thinks he is. He may have a strong sense of survival, but he still cares – even about Clarke. Choosing to side with the people who killed her would set Murphy back years in terms of development. And that would not only be tragic but almost a disservice to the character.
All Hail Bellarke
The real MVP of the hour goes to Bellamy. Despite the fact that Clarke was acting odd to literally everyone including her own mother, Bellamy was the only one who could really figure out that she just wasn’t herself.
I honestly thought that no one would catch on to Josephine being Clarke for at least a few episodes. And that’s too bad because it has been fascinating watching Eliza Taylor play Josephine trying to pretend to be Clarke (someone that she doesn’t even know).
Then again, I should’ve known better than to think that Bellamy Blake himself wouldn’t be able to tell the real Clarke from the phony. There is a bond between Bellamy and Clarke that even her potential death cannot shake. It is a relationship that was underestimated by the Primes of Sanctum and one that might end up costing them their upper hand.
When Bellamy starts to suspect that Clarke may be just a tad bit off, he confronts her. I’m not going to lie, my heart was racing throughout that scene if only from just the absolute terror and sadness I could see creeping into Bellamy’s eyes as he slowly discovered that Clarke was not Clarke anymore.
I don’t think we have seen the end of Clarke Griffin, not just because I can’t believe the show would ever continue without her, but because I don’t think Bellamy would ever give up on finding a way to bring her back. And what an interesting journey that is going to be.
The 100 airs at 9/8c on The CW.
READ ALL OF OUR SEASON SIX REVIEWS –
- ‘The 100’ 6×01 Review: “Sanctum
- ‘The 100 6×02 Review: “Red Sun Rising”
- ‘The 100’ 6×03 Review — The Children of Gabriel
- ‘The 100’ 6×04 Review — The Face Behind the Glass
- ‘The 100’ 6×05 Review: “The Gospel of Josephine”
- ‘The 100’ 6×06 Review: “Memento Mori”
- ‘The 100’ 6×07 Review: “Nevermind”
- ‘The 100’ 6×08 Review: “The Old Man and the Anomaly”
- ‘The 100’’ 6×09 Review: “What You Take With You”
- ‘The 100’ 6×10 Review: “Matryoshka”
- ‘The 100’ 6×11 Review: “Ashes to Ashes”
- ‘The 100’ 6×12 – “Adjustment Protocol”
