‘The 100’ 6×12 – “Adjustment Protocol”

In the season’s penultimate episode, we said goodbye to a character who has been with us since day one.

Abby Griffin – an integral character over the past six seasons – met her end in a heroic death that confirmed just how much of an impact she had on her family and those around her. It will be hard to imagine the show moving forward without her, but this wouldn’t be The 100 without some causalities especially as the war against Sanctum continues.

Of course, Abby’s death was just one part in an episode that has set us up for an intense and epic conclusion to the season. Let’s breakdown what happened and where exactly everyone stands as we go into the finale next week.

May We Meet Again

It’s as if Abby knew she would be dying because she sure did a great job of fixing everything beforehand.

She and Jackson had a nice heart to heart. She opted to become a nightblood so that her bone marrow could be taken instead of Madi’s. But more importantly, she and Raven finally made amends.

It has been a long time coming, but watching Raven and Abby reconcile was really one of the highlights of this season. I have always been a fan of these two together – ever since Raven and Abby joined forces to help the hundred on the ground back in early season one. Raven was truly like a daughter to Abby which is why it was such as shame that their relationship spiraled the way it did.

But that hurdle only added complexity to their relationship because it paralleled to Raven’s relationship with her own mother. That’s why it was so hard for Raven to watch Abby succumb to addiction – she couldn’t bear that the two maternal figures in her life both suffered from the same disease. Unlike her mother, however, Abby was able to right her past wrongs before it became too late.

That’s what makes Abby such a tragic character. It’s when she begins to find happiness – or at least find some sort of stability – that things begin to unravel for her. She finally understood Kane’s last words and made peace with the people she loved, but it was all cut short because of Russell. Now she is just another host.

One way to look at it though — she and Kane are (hopefully) now back together again and are at peace while looking down on the ones they leave behind.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Despite the sadness I feel from Abby’s death, I am at least happy she died knowing that her daughter is still alive and is continuing to fight to save their people.

And I have to say — hats off to Eliza Taylor for giving another stellar performance. Something of which she has been doing all season long as she portrays Clarke, Josephine, and Clarke as Josephine.

It can be quite difficult to try to convince a murderous leader that you are his daughter. What is even harder is trying to do that in front of your own daughter. And just when I thought that was hard to watch, what was even harder was watching Clarke find out (while still having to pretend to be Josephine) that her mom was murdered. God, that was brutal. But one of the reasons I love Clarke so much is because no matter what, she powers through and does whatever she can to save her people.

Clarke spends practically the entire episode running around Sanctum trying to find a way to take down the shield that would allow the Children of Gabriel to enter Sanctum. All the while, she knows that her daughter is endangered from both the flame and Russell.

What I’m sure gets her through it is knowing that the people she cares about is in good hands. Raven is trying to find a way to remove the flame from Madi before it gets even worse, Bellamy is ready to jump in once the shield is down, and her mother is doing what she can to stop Russell. We also can’t forget Murphy and Emori who are willing to be hosts to save innocent people.

However, once they learned of Abby’s fate, they quickly change their minds. It was that tiny moment shared between Clarke, Murphy, and Emori that really caught my attention. Honestly, any scene between Clarke and Murphy is always a real treat to watch, but the moment Murphy realized it was Clarke and not Josephine definitely had me choked up.

The Glory and Grace of Sanctum

With all these different plans in motion, it’s no wonder that Sanctum is spinning out of control.

What adds even more fuel to the fire the arrival of Gabriel, who breaks away from Bellamy and their plan to try to stop Russell on his own. It doesn’t go too well even though Gabriel literally had a gun pointed at Russell and could have ended everything right then and there.

While I understand that the whole point of the movement of the Children of Gabriel is not to continue to murder people, part of me thinks that Russell had it coming. I mean, what exactly was Gabriel’s plan? Did he think he would be able to talk Russell out of his diabolic plans? That, to me, sounds a little far-fetched.

His people chant “death to Primes” yet Gabriel himself is unable to kill the man who continues this murderous tirade. Good for Gabriel for sticking to his morals, but I sure hope it doesn’t lead to even more loss.

But with Russell in power, death looks to be like the eventual outcome especially as he releases the red sun toxin on the people of Sanctum. With everyone now wanting to kill each other, it puts the fate of literally everyone there in jeopardy. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to see who exactly in Sanctum will make it out alive.

Looks like we will start the finale right where it all began – on the Mothership. Russell, Clarke, and Simone (now in Abby’s body) are attempting to storm and take the ship for themselves, but they have to get through Indra first. And I don’t see that happening.

The 100 airs on Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.