The 100 - The Queen's Gambit

Discussing Ep. 7.7

It was a rather mixed bag of an episode, with a welcome focus on Emori and a rather unnecessary further degradation of Echo, with a battle of wits between Russell/DC and Murphy.

The Emori storyline, though a welcome focus on the beauty that is Emori, felt a bit weird. Suddenly, Emori is enjoying the attention and worship from the various Faithful, to the point that Jackson, Murphy and even Sheidheda feel like it's going to her head. I don't know if they're going anywhere with this and it felt like a rather contrived element to introduce into her character. If there is no pay off or any kind of development from this, then I don't get why they're introducing it at all.

Because speaking of elements introduced that seemingly went nowhere, Emori mentions that "the way out of Hell is paved with good deeds," which raises an eyebrow from Murphy that prompts Emori to tell him that there is no Hell. I found it odd that they're bringing this up again when it went absolutely nowhere last season. They mentioned it a couple of times but then it was never mentioned again. Will it go somewhere this season? I'm hoping it does and that both elements of Murphy's fear of Hell and Emori's ever growing sense of narcissism does contribute to something bigger. At the very least, that they both contribute in some way to the final arc of the season.

The Unification storyline really felt like filler and was used to accomplish two things. First, to get both Emori and Murphy into place so that they could be betrayed. And two, to get Nikki and Nelson on the same side, which is ultimately Russell/DC's side. So I guess it actually accomplished three things. But I will admit that I did like the psychological development that accompanied the various players. We got a better insight into the motivations behind Nikki (which we always knew was that of a criminal and someone who was out for revenge) and behind Nelson (who seemed to want to find his parents). I do wonder had his father not been a complete and proper prick if Nelson would have betrayed Emori the way he did. But I also wonder if Nelson could perhaps be the wild card in the scenario, given that he did seem to make a connection with his mom and was genuinely hurt by the actions of his father. It means, at least to me, that he has some motivations to do good if he perhaps sees a point to it.

Speaking of psychology, my favourite parts continue to revolve around Russell/DC. The chess match between him and Murphy was fucking glorious, if only to prove the point that I made before: only Indra could possibly match wits with Sheidheda. Murphy, for all his sarcasm and cocky attitude, was out of his element. What was cool was that their scenes together truly did feel like a chess match, with Murphy getting in some good moves that led the audience to believe that he had a chance at coming out of their encounter unscathed. The way he was able to get DC off his game by reminding him how Lexa united the tribes and not him was rather good. But in the end, DC was always in control, pointing out how Indra knew instantly what Murphy had to learn with time: that DC was always looking to seek control again.

What I will say that I didn't like about these scenes was both the timeline and how Sheidheda seemed to know too much. It was sloppy writing, in my opinion, to have Emori reveal how her people regarded her as a freak of nature, Freakdraina (or whatever they called her), and discarded her as such. Then here's Sheidheda, referring to her with the exact same nickname to throw Murphy off his game. How did he even know her nickname? And why bring it up now? Then there's his place in Trikru history. I was always under the impression that DC was a commander from long ago, that he was a legend from history. But it's revealed that Lexa usurped him and the Keepers of the Flame united to take him down. So how old is Sheidheda? From what time period does he come from? Indra made it sound like he was a Commander from her parent's era, not necessarily her own (she must have been a child when Sheidheda was around). So now I'm all confused. Maybe Baby can map it all out because I'm lost!

From there we go to Echo and her memories of Bellamy (before the beard...he looked weird to me now without it) and her on their time on The Ring. This was the time when she had beautiful hair and she wasn't a complete nutter! But it served to show the hypocrisy of these characters, which I'm assuming is the point. I had said before that I felt that Bellamy would not approve of Echo's tactics in trying to save him by killing all those innocent people. His line of "loyalty is a weakness when it causes you to do something you know shouldn't" went and proved my point. Echo going all nuts and killing people out of love and loyalty to Bellamy is wrong.

The other point of hypocrisy was the discussion between Hope and Diyoza. First off, I hated the fight scene between them. That was just all kinds of bullshit. Hope could best Echo with ease. She trained with both Dev and Orlando for a number of years in specific hand-to-hand combat techniques. And yet, she couldn't best Diyoza? Bullshit! Not knocking the Navy SEALS in the slightest, but I do know that hand-to-hand combat is actually quite low on their list of priorities in terms of training. So Diyoza shouldn't be that good! And it further highlights how shitty a fighter Echo is when everyone seems to be better than her! Secondly, Diyoza saying how "doing the right thing the wrong way isn't doing the right thing" flies in the face of what she continues to do. Maybe that hypocrisy is on purpose but it's more funny than anything else.

Speaking of funny shit, that scene between Echo and Octavia where Octavia hugs her.....what the fuck was that?!? I will say that in a sense it was touching, but fuck me! That was just all kinds of pathetic acting by Tasya and I felt NOTHING but annoyance by the whole scene. I guess I liked how Echo pointed out how she was made to be the villain in Octavia's bed time stories to Hope, but the way that Octavia forced reconciliation upon her was just....it just didn't do it for me. I know what they were going for and if other viewers got the feels from it all...great! I just didn't feel anything!

Further adding to my annoyance was Echo carving her face up like a fucking Jack-O-Lantern! I suppose I get the idea that Azgeda warriors would cut themselves up at some point as some warrior tradition. My question is....why didn't she do this before? She was loyal to Roan pretty much all her life. Wouldn't she have taken this step prior to this point? What I will give credit for is that they gave Echo the honour being the one to figure out why they were being kept together and were being treated well. It was as a means to recruit them into service, to fight in this war that would apparently lead to humanity's highest evolution.

So we get the big reveal at the end that it is indeed Bill Cadogan who is the Shepherd. It'll be interesting to see how it is that he survived for so long and why he needs Clarke. I still assert that Becca will play a role in this somehow but I'm probably wrong about that. I cannot possibly fathom why Clarke is considered "the key." Unless it means that they're going to kill her....then maybe I'm alright with it. But what has she done or her family have done to warrant her being the key?

Also, will this drawing have anything to do with it? They're getting into Manifest territory here with Madi drawing all these images that don't necessarily mean anything to her but will no doubt be prophetic in some way. Is this image an image of the future or is it merely folks stepping into the wormhole? And how the hell does Madi even know to draw this?

More questions than answers.