‘The 100’ 7×12 Review: “The Stranger”

We’re in the final stretch of The 100 and in “The Stranger” things are only getting worse for the people of Sanctum and Bardo.

For starters, now that Bill (aka The Shepherd) knows that Clarke doesn’t have the flame, he is on a mission to figure out what to do next. Luckily, he has his new ally, Bellamy, to help with that.

Honestly, I roll my eyes every time Bellamy says “my Shepherd” because it frustrates me to no end. The Bellamy I thought I knew and loved would never betray his family, especially after what happened years ago when he blindly followed Pike. Now you expect me to believe he’d do the same thing all over again just with another irrational leader? Think again.

Can’t believe it took two episodes to make me rethink my love for Bellamy Blake yet here we are.

But you know who hasn’t done anything wrong this whole season? John Murphy. He’s busy dealing with Sheidheda who I’m pretty sure needs to kill at least one person a day in order to survive. He procured a throne made fo skeletons for crying out loud.

Anyways, this episode did a great job of continuing to set the stage for what I know will be a killer showdown in the final episodes. Let’s dig into why.

For All Mankind

Remember when I was wishing all season long for the return of Bellamy? Well, this isn’t what I was asking for.

Watching Bellamy fight and betray everyone he loves gutted me. To see the pain in both Bellamy and Clarke’s eyes as they debated on who is right broke my heart. It’s season three Bellamy all over again and I don’t like it.

We already spent most of this season without Bellamy. Now that we have him back, we’re supposed to watch him be at odds with everyone for the remainder of the season? Come on.

The sad part is, I understand where he is coming from. While I still don’t get why he loves Bill so much already, I can see why he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win this final war.

Bellamy has seen first-hand how awful war can be. He’s seen the bloodshed and the aftermath war causes. It really doesn’t come as a surprise that he would then be okay with doing everything he can to make sure war won’t ever happen again. The Shepherd is promising just that.

To Bellamy, torturing and betraying Clarke and Raven in order to find the flame is doable because it may result in no more death. The ends justify the means to him.

What doesn’t make sense to me is that Bellamy claims to be a full supporter of The Shepherd yet he clearly prioritizes his people. He is doing whatever he can to make sure his friends aren’t executed. Doesn’t that contradict the teachings of The Shepherd? Perhaps I’m getting things confused which is a strong possibility because everything about this season confuses me. Especially their decision to take this route with Bellamy in the first place.

When everyone Bellamy loves keeps telling him that he’s wrong and that helping these people is not the answer, how long will it take for him to finally listen?

Honestly, this whole mess is only the fault of the people of Bardo as they couldn’t have chosen a worse way to go about things. They chose to abduct Diyoza and Octavia from Skyring. They decided to threaten to throw Hope on Penance as a punishment. And it’s these decisions that ultimately made them untrustworthy.

There’s a stalemate on Sanctum and there’s one on Bardo as well.

Conversations

One of the nicer parts of the episode was the little heart-to-hearts some characters got to have.

In particular, Octavia and Clarke’s bonding over their surrogate daughters was one of the highlights of the episode.

I’ve always loved Octavia and Clarke’s relationship. They weren’t necessarily ever close but there was always a sort of understanding between the two. The two of them had a desire to protect the grounders back in the day, they both are extremely loyal to their people, and both have a love for Bellamy.

Their understanding is even more evident now as Octavia admits herself. Now that she has Hope, she sees why Clarke acted the way she did with Madi.

Both women are beyond powerful and have kicked a lot of ass in their day. Now they both know what it’s like to put a child’s needs before theirs.

Elsewhere, two people that never have even shared a room before had a surprising connection. That’s right – Jordan and Hope. After the death of her mother, Hope is smack dab in the middle of the grieving process. I imagine that’s a hell of a lot worse when you’re locked up as prisoners.

Despite the fact that they have never met, Jordan is able to reach Hope to help her process her mother’s death. Diyoza’s death meant more than just saving the people of Bardo – it meant saving Hope her soul in what would undoubtedly be crushed if she went on to commit genocide.

It was a tough conversation to have, as were all the other conversations. But out of all the talks shared between our favorite characters, I’d say the best one involved the classic line, “go float yourself.”

Take a Knee

RIP the Children of Gabriel.

While Emori and Murphy decided to kneel before Sheidheda, the Children of Gabriel opted to take a stand. Sadly, it ended in Sheidheda massacring all of them. However, thanks to Indra, one boy survived and was taken to a safe haven that Murphy and Emori are running.

I feel like I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again – Murphy and Emori are the true MVPs of this season. Risking their lives to save others just shows how much growth they have had. Sheidheda is a terrifying figure and so the bravery they have is unmistakable.

Personally, I think what’s going on in Sanctum is the better plotline of this season. JR Bourne as Sheidheda continues to amaze me and I have loved seeing Indra, Murphy, Madi, and Emori work together to try to stop him. While they know they will eventually need Clarke and their friends to help defeat him, they’re doing whatever they can to make sure there are even people to help when they return.

While Emori and Murphy are fake loyal to Sheidheda, others are fully supporting the sociopath.

Nikki and the other Eligius prisoners have taken a knee. Makes sense that one group of killers would follow another.

In support of Sheidheda, Nikki follows Indra in the hopes that she will lead her to Madi. Lucky for her, she stumbles upon Murphy and Emori’s underground operation. And because even Sheidheda doesn’t trust Nikki, they had her followed and therefore they too discover what Murphy and Emori have been hiding.

Emori, like the badass she is, decides to up the ante. She tells Sheidheda that if they so much as hurt Murphy or force their way into the bunker, she will set the reactor off, killing everyone on Sanctum. It was quite a genius move on Emori’s part.

While it really doesn’t solve anything long term as they can only hide in the underground bunker for so long, it’s still a great way to last a little bit longer. Besides, right at the last second of the episode Clarke, Bill, and the Disciples have finally landed on Sanctum as Clarke agreed to take them to the flame.

Specifically, they landed right in front of Sheidheda and his army.

This should go well.

The 100 airs on The CW on Wednesdays at 8/7c.