The 100 - Welcome to Bardo

Discussing Ep. 7.5

This episode kicked ass, and it's for a couple of reasons.

First, no Clarke, so we didn't have to endure her asinine decisions.

Secondly, with no Clarke around, it fell on the bad ass Indra to assume control.

This was awesome. With an Indra-centric episode, you can't go wrong! What I loved about it was that she was cool under pressure, but you could also tell that she was tormented inside about certain things. It was all about the look on Indra's face. Especially when she was saw that that Sanctumite woman was going to set herself on fire. Indra looked real concerned. But she also maintained her edge throughout the episode, especially when challenged by Nelson. I had to laugh because when she asked if he was challenging her and he asked what she would do without an army if he were.....DAMN! The look on her face and the look on his face said it all! You do not want to mess with Indra!

And yet she was able to provide some levity, even though she didn't mean to. I really wish that Indra and Murphy had more scenes together. They couldn't be more dissimilar in terms of personality and experience and yet, when Indra had the idea to have Murphy pose as a Prime and they went to the tent where all the Faithful were gathering, she told him she'd have his back. Murphy hesitates to go knock on the door and Indra just gives him this look that the photo above just doesn't do justice. I fucking laughed when she gave that look and Murphy was "Alright, alright!" as that look alone was all she needed to say! 

I will say that it was really fucked up how the Faithful were willing to not only set themselves on fire as a means to force Indra to release Russell, but that they were going to light up children also! That was absolutely insane and shame on that father for letting them do it. I don't care how faithful he was, you don't let anyone do that to your children! Thankfully, Murphy saw it and intervened though I knew that he was going to get found out. The minute that guy asked him to recite the four pillars and he couldn't, I knew he was done for.

 

Enter Indra with Russell/DC and Emori in tow. I have to say, I loved this particular scene for a number of reasons. First, I love Dark Commander's style. He did what I would have done. Just go and slap the taste out of the mouths of your dimwitted followers for questioning your authority and for planning to light themselves and their children on fire! His whole demeanour was so damn dictatorial, it was impressive. "Kneel or die!" I think this personality fits the actor, JR Bourne, so much better than Russell Lightbourne did because it's just so much fun playing an evil guy! There are no moral chains and I could see that being quite liberating as an actor.

Then you had bad ass Indra realize the truth. I'm assuming DC's use of the phrase "Kneel or die" is what set off alarm bells for Indra, or at the very least confirmed what she had already suspected, and that was that Russell was somehow different. Because of course he was...he was all about peace and harmony before and now he's choking out his own followers and slapping the shit out of them and demanding that they kneel or die. I thought it was incredibly clever how Indra spoke that line in Trigedasleng as a means to test her theory, and Dark Commander fell for it. Fucking brilliant! I honestly thought that DC was going to order the Faithful to rise up and kill Indra then and there but thankfully that didn't happen.

I loved the little backstory they gave here, about how Indra's parents were given the choice to kneel and her father did but her mother did not. So there is a sort of history between Sheidheda and Indra and I think that she's made a very dangerous enemy of him now. Having him endure that surgery without any anaesthetic so that he would feel every bit of pain.....that look he gave her at the end told me that she's in his sights now. It will be very interesting to see where this all goes since Indra and all of them know Russell's true identity and how he plans to circumvent all of that to reclaim authority is a mystery.

On the other side of the wormhole, we got the backstory to Octavia and Hope's journey through Bardo (which I'm curious why it's called that). I had to admit, it was somewhat confusing keeping the timeline in mind as they were going back and forth, back and forth. At the very least, they answered a lot of questions but brought up a slew more. They were able to determine who everyone was thanks to the reading of Octavia's mind. I have to say, that was rather impressive technology they were wielding. It seems with every new civilization that The 100 crew encounter, the technology factor goes up as well. 

Apart from the Indra/Murphy scene, this one made me laugh out loud too. Levitt was essentially binge watching The 100 from Octavia's memory! Although, to be fair, I don't think he got the full extent of what happened. He's only seeing it all through Octavia's point of view, which would be biased, obviously. It was interesting, if not touching, how Octavia named Bellamy as the one whose hand she would reach for when Levitt presented her with that odd scenario. Of course, various faces popped up including Lincoln, Clarke and others. There were a few questions arising from Levitt's sessions that made me go "what the fuck?" I have to admit that I found it a bit too convenient that Levitt would be such a sympathetic person as to be so inspired by Octavia's journey that he would volunteer to assist her at the risk of his own life. A tad too convenient.

So let's address the blonde elephant in the room. Through Octavia's memories, they came to learn of Clarke's existence, and this is what prompted Anders (the guy with the white hair) to determine that she was the key to ending the last war that humanity would ever fight. Seriously?!? I'm going to be very interested to see how they turn Clarke into this messiah of sorts because it sounded like a whole lot of bullshit to make her the Neo of The 100 series. The other thing was the focus on Murphy in Octavia's memory. Levitt made it a point to specifically ask about Murphy and I can't help but notice that this is the second time that someone has asked specifically of Octavia about Murphy (the first being Hope when she was little). I don't know if there is any real significance to this or if they're playing to the Murphy fans on Twitter but if it's the latter, they better cut that shit out because it's getting annoying. I like Murphy but there's no need to highlight him like that.

In a lot of ways, I'm glad that this is the final season as it seems like the writers are running out of ideas and reusing the same character template over and over again. Anders is like the third guy in a white robe who is in charge of a small community of people who devote their lives to him and regard him as some kind of infallible and charismatic leader. There was President Wallace at Mount Weather (and to some extent, his son Cage), there was Russell Lightbourne and the Primes on Sanctum and now there's Anders on Bardo. Hell, you could even include Jaha on The Ark as being of the same ilk. How many of these types of characters are we going to run into? 

So we get to the here and now and a lot of questions came up for me. First off, as Baby noted in the last review, not only did they cut Hope's hair but they also dyed it blonde. How? Seriously....how? I can see them fashioning a pair of scissors and maybe some razors so as to give a proper haircut....but how the fuck did they dye her hair blonde using nothing but what you find in nature? It's not like they had bleach handy or even hydrogen peroxide, let alone a L'Oreal Preference hair colouring kit! Secondly, why did they cut her hair? Why did they cut Echo's? There were plenty of women on Bardo who had long hair that was tied up in a tight bun, so it's not like it was the norm for women to cut their hair short, military style. 

Thirdly, during the flashback, they explained that when Hope and Octavia were to go through the wormhole and return to Sanctum, they would lose their memories of Bardo and would arrive on the other side not knowing anything but what they remembered before they entered Bardo. Why? Why does it only work when leaving Bardo? Why doesn't that work when leaving Sanctum or Skyring or any other planet that they jump from? And my last question was....

....who is this guy? He looks familiar.

So we finally see the elusive Bellamy after all this time. But it's for such a brief blink-and-you-miss-it moment that I wonder what the point was in the end. Well, I think I know what the point was and it was stupid. Of course Bellamy isn't dead. I'm willing to bet that the explosion that Disciple set off pushed Bellamy and that conductor into wherever it was that Anders had programmed into the wormhole. Somehow, I don't think it's Sanctum and I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Clark and Co. find Bellamy on Planet Frozen sometime down the road. Or perhaps Gaia will find him in whatever world she got transported to.

But it seems that all this was set up so that Echo would go batshit crazy. I'm beginning to think that with that Karen haircut, she somehow inherited the Karen personality, so much so that not only did she speak to the manager about her complaints....she fucking killed him! I think Orlando unwittingly unlocked Echo's Karen Level 12, otherwise known as Karen Beast Mode! This was insane and it didn't help matters than neither Hope nor Gabriel bothered to stop her. The most they did was tell her to stop, almost halfheartedly. They made no real effort to stop her from killing that guy who had nothing to do with the explosion or with Bellamy's fate. They had ample opportunity as Echo was just wailing away on the guy's face, and then when she reached up for that metal rod, there was no question as to what she was planning to do. They had time to stop her but they didn't so as far as I'm concerned, they're all implicit in that guy's murder. 

So now the questions that arise for me are: where did Bellamy go to? How will Hope, Echo, Octavia and Gabriel get out of Bardo? How will Sheidheda get out of the situation he's in right now? How will Indra manage the rest of the Faithful along with those Wunkru members who have seemingly lost respect for her? And how in the world does Clarke become the Neo of The 100?

I guess we'll find out!