Discussing Ep. 7.6
So this was a rather weird episode. I felt like the Planet Frozen scenes and the Bardo scenes were more filler than anything else and I was far, far more invested in what was happening on Sanctum.
This was another wonderful episode that featured the bad ass Indra. I feel like this more than made up for her absence last season because her character is being featured but also going through some growth. I love the growing antagonistic relationship between her and Russell/DC. I feel like there is no other character that could stand up to Dark Commander the way Indra could and receive his respect the way Indra does. Madi couldn't do it. Clarke definitely couldn't do it. Neither of them have the maturity nor the experience to trade barbs with someone like Sheidheda. Plus, with Indra's own family history with Dark Commander, there really is no other character on The 100 cast that could serve as the main rival to Sheidheda.
And I can think of no other character that could rival Indra the way Sheidheda does. I have to say, I loved his interactions not only with Indra but with Nelson as well. Their fight scene alone was just incredible. He almost literally beat Nelson with one arm tied behind his back! I wasn't counting on him being able to turn the Children of Gabriel over to his side because I figured that they'd be more aligned with Wonkru than anything else because they were against the Faithful and the Eligius prisoners. But the way DC was able to manipulate and convince Nelson that an alliance with the prisoners might be beneficial was impressive.
If he was able to turn Nelson and the CoG onto his side so easily, I can only imagine how easy it will be to turn Nikki and the Eligius prisoners to his side as well. Though I'm curious how he will maintain the allegiance of the Faithful if they find out that he is not Russell Prime but rather someone else. Nelson now knows the truth and I can't imagine that he would keep the truth from Nikki and the other prisoners because why would he? And also, how would he merge the CoG and the Faithful since they obviously have very opposing beliefs and the CoG hold a very real grudge against them. Once again, I wish we had a longer season because I'd love to see a more fleshed out approach to DC's machinations and manipulations. I get the sense that he's going to rally everyone to his side far too quickly to be believable.
It's funny because I mentioned in the last review that I'd like to see Indra and Murphy in more scenes together and I got my wish. It's just so hilarious because Indra doesn't mean to be funny, but she can be with her deadpan and no nonsense demeanour that when she says stuff like "Excuse me, but I need to borrow your god," it just comes off as hilarious. Also it was rather interesting that of all the people who would convince Indra to take her rightful place as leader of Wonkru, it would be Murphy. Because he was right....behind Clarke, behind Octavia, even behind Kane, there was Indra. And her opinion that she was just a soldier and a warrior and nothing more was obvious nonsense. She deserved that position. Far more so than Clarke!
She proves it time and time again. With her interrogation of Nikki, I didn't even catch on that Indra had never mentioned what was stolen and her observation that Nikki never even bothered to ask what was stolen either told her all she needed to know. It's that kind of experience, that kind of insight and intuition that makes Indra such a great leader. But she's also humble enough to ask for help. Her approach of Madi (who I'm surprised to see at all this season) showed that she isn't the stone hard warrior that lives without doubt or fear. She felt lost and needed Madi's help. Madi wasn't able to and finally Murphy and Emori were able to convince Indra that she's the person for the job of Commander. And Indra proved their point.
And what do I always say about Indra in every episode she's in? You don't fuck with Indra! And she proved why, taking Knight down with ease. But again, she shows leadership qualities by not killing him but ordering him to go and find those lost guns. She can't afford to lose any followers at this point and plus, it would go a bit of ways to show mercy, if only a little. I can't imagine that Trikru won't follow Indra at this point. They have to. It's going to be a very interesting chess match between Indra and Sheidheda. I suppose that's why they had DC have a chess board set up in his room (which is weird because who could he be possibly playing with?).
There's not that much to say about the Diyoza storyline, other than that she obviously hasn't lost her touch when it comes to killing people and being utterly merciless about it. Her biting that guy's neck was just fucking brutal! But what I didn't necessarily appreciate about her ability to take everyone down with ease is that it once again shows how utterly inept Echo is. Echo got beat by Hope (who trained for all of like 5 years under Dev). Echo got beat by Orlando (an older man but a Level 12 Disciple). And yet, Octavia (who has trained for less time than Echo has) was able to take Disciples down with ease. Diyoza was able to do the same. Now, Diyoza I could accept considering her experience being a former Navy SEAL and what not. But Echo has really come off as rather incompetent as of late.
Not to mention very cold hearted. Again, I get that she's upset about Bellamy and all that but for fuck's sakes! I suppose that assassin's training never goes away (much like Diyoza's training didn't go away either) but as Echo and all of them are going around killing innocent people, I can't help but wonder what Bellamy would have thought about it all. Now, granted, Bellamy isn't innocent either. But it begs the question: when does it all stop? When is it justified and when is it not? How many innocent people have to be killed in the name of love?
Which brings me to the discussion between Raven and Clarke on Planet Frozen (or Nakara as it is called in the episode). At least Raven was able to look at what she had done and admit that she wasn't a nice person for doing what she did. She had that level of clarity and self awareness to see that she was a coward for letting Hatch and the other prisoners die in her place. But then there's Clarke, with her fucking not-so-sage words of stupidity: "The people we've killed, we killed to save the people we love." Well, that's just makes it all better, now doesn't it?!? Raven rightly pointed out that those people loved other people too. And she asks the question: where does it end? And I ask that question of Echo and Octavia and Hope. Where does it end? They went and killed a fucking old man! A gardener by the looks of it. What makes their lives or the lives of Bellamy or anyone else any more precious than his?
As far as the rest of the Planet Frozen scenes, like I said, it was filler. I will say though that it was really intense and borrowed a lot from other sci-fi franchises, most notably Star Wars. I couldn't help but hear Han Solo utter one of his many famous lines: "This is no cave!"
Them crawling through that narrow tunnel just gave me all kinds of claustrophobic feelings! I felt like they borrowed a page from The Descent series with those scenes, as well as borrowing from Cloverfield a little bit with that spider monster just coming up and trying to chew Raven's face off! My goodness, it was very, very fortunate that she was wearing that helmet because she just would not have a face after having endured an attack like that!
In the end, it seems like the Planet Frozen sequences were there to fill time, give that moment between Raven and Clarke and also to confirm what Baby had suspected, which was that Bardo was connected to the Second Dawn cult that had built that bunker on Earth. I am curious to know if Raven did indeed choose Bardo as their next planet or if they went somewhere else. Also, considering that they didn't find Bellamy, if they do go to Bardo, will that mean that Bellamy and Gaia are perhaps on the same planet together as well?
It will be interesting to see what other planets and environment that exist and just how inhospitable they may be.
