WiC Watches: The 100 season 7
By Zac Giaimo
Episode 702: “The Garden”
The mystery of what happens beyond the Anomaly is revealed instantly, as we see the lives of Octavia, Diyoza (Ivana Milicevic) and Hope extend years into the future on the planet they have named Sky Ring. Since Hope originally came back to Sanctum 20 years old, we know that the time dilation is greatly increased on this planet, so seconds on Sanctum is months on Sky Ring. We see them live a peaceful life, one without conflict or troubles. When Gabriel, Echo, and Hope go through the Anomaly, it has been over 20 years since Octavia and Diyoza first went through. They search the old cabin where Hope grew up and try to piece together how this kind of travel is possible and how they can return to Sanctum.
This is where the plot holes start to open up. Through flashbacks to Hope’s youth, we see Octavia try each day for years to swim down to the bottom of a lake to reach the Anomaly they originally came out of. Diyoza disagrees and wants Octavia to remain with her and Hope on Sky Ring forever. This leads to conflict, and Diyoza destroys Octavia’s last chance to return.
The problem with this is that I don’t buy Diyoza’s attachment to this isolated life, where she’ll watch her daughter grow up to inevitably bury her and Octavia, and then wait to die herself. Diyoza has lived a life torn apart by war, so it’s understandable that she wants the opposite for her only child, but what kind of life can she hope (pun intended) for Hope to have if there is nothing but to survive?
The biggest problem I have with this is the writers do absolutely no work to make us believe this is a goof life. It’s just what we’re supposed to want for these characters. Even Octavia’s attempts to return generate no tension; since time moves so much faster on Sky Ring, we already know she fails. The idea that these adults must sacrifice their lives for the happiness of a child that is doomed once she reaches adulthood is, well, kinda selfish.
Now, in other circumstances this wouldn’t be an issue. When Clarke does something similar for Madi back in season 6 it’s justified because there’s an actual future on the line for not only Madi but humanity as well. But since Octavia and Diyoza are the very last of an entire species, I feel as if they have a higher calling than to just escape and be happy. At least they could have planned to give Hope a choice once she reaches a certain age, but Diyoza doesn’t even want to consider it. She fully plans on living out her days exactly the same for years and years until she dies, condemning her daughter to inevitably do the same once her time comes.
While we learn about Hope’s origin story, we follow 20-year-old Hope, Echo and Gabriel as they try to find Bellamy and a way back to Sanctum. They learn that the cabin and surrounding area is an isolation prison for the descendants of a ship, like the one Dioyza and her prisoners were on, and discover one such prisoner is currently serving his time. They have a few encounters with the man and Echo and Hope go from hating each other to crying in each other’s arms in the span of about five interactions.
There’s a very quick explanation of who these invisible people are, where they are, and what they call themselves, but it’s brushed over instantly by the next scene. Because Gabriel was a Prime, his mind is over 150 years old. He recognizes a mind chip on a corpse and uses it to find the correct code to enter a different kind of Anomaly — this one’s a cool looking rock — to return home. But the crazy prisoner man returns to the cabin while both Hope and Echo are on watch, and for some strange reason destroys the only piece of technology (a tablet) that could help Hope, Echo and Gabriel return to Sanctum. This man, who’s gone “isolation crazy” as Gabriel puts it, doesn’t try to reclaim his home, or push out the intruders, or ask for help, or try to steal something, but instead finds the one thing the plot needs him to destroy and destroys it.
I get why this needed to happen: so they can strand the trio on Sky Ring for a few years, but it’s just such a plot-driven action it’s not believable at all. It’s one of those scenes you can’t think about or it starts to not make sense. It’s also hilarious when he looks at the tabley and mutters, “What is this?” when he comes from a civilization that has achieved invisibility, for crying out loud!
The setup that was done in the premiere episode for the other characters is skipped through here, as the writers decide to head right into the heart of the biggest mystery the show has to offer. Although it did set up some new ones, like what happened to Octavia and Diyoza after the Disciples captured them, who are the Disciples, and why do they call themselves that? And where the heck is Bellamy? It’s been two episodes and we’ve seen only 30 seconds of a major character.
Hopefully, some of these questions are answered next week, but if they go along this path, we’ll instead be seeing what Jordan has been up to.