WiC Watches: The 100 season 7
By Zac Giaimo
The 100 — “Welcome to Bardo” — Image Number: HU705A_0629r.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Neal McDonough as Anders, Jason Diaz as Levitt and Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia — Photo: Colin Bentley/The CW — 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
Episode 705: “Welcome to Bardo”
After this chapter, to say the action has picked up would be an understatement. We finally learn why Hope stabbed Octavia in the premiere, and what happened to her during her time on Bardo. Since time on Bardo moves differently, only a little over a month has passed for Octavia, although that time was tortuous: she literally had memories pulled from her under questioning. She holds out for as long as she can but eventually cooperates…mostly.
Octavia is rescued by Hope and sent back to Sanctum. Hope reappears shortly after, sent on a mission from the people on Bardo after being captured trying to save Dioyza. This is where she stabs Octavia with a tracker knife and Octavia is sent back to Bardo for more questioning.
So much happens in each scene that follows it becomes difficult to not lose track of the timeline of events. It’s clear how these events affect one another, but since there are three different planets that move through time differently, a clear picture of whether something happens before or after something else is nearly impossible. That could be by design; it’s hard to know a character’s motive when you don’t know what they know, which is good for tension. This is most apparent when we finally see Bellamy after he was taken by the invisible Golden Masks. He holds one hostage and demands that Octavia be released. Unfortunately, one of the Golden Masks self-destructs his suit, seemingly killing Bellamy in the process. Of course, Octavia is beside herself with grief, but we don’t see it in any other scenes, even the ones that take place after this event.
Or at least I think we have scenes that happen after Bellamy’s supposed death. It’s never made clear, and when the text on the screen tells us how many days ago something happened, it doesn’t clarify where it happened, which planet. Sanctum, Bardo, Sky Ring? Forty-five days means something very different depending on where we are.
I’ve also continued to say Bellamy’s “supposed” death, as there was no body to be found, and given this show’s history, if there’s no body I’m skeptical whether he’s really gone.
Still, watching video of Bellamy’s “death” does throw Echo into hysteria after she, Hope, and Gabriel come through the wormhole and save Octavia. She brutally kills the worker who shows them the video. Her rage is probably going to make things harder for everyone in the group going forward.
Meanwhile, on Sanctum, with Clarke gone the leadership responsibilities fall on Indra, Emori and John. They attempt to stop those still faithful to the Primes from killing themselves until Russel is released. John tries to deescalate the situation, but he is soon discovered for the false Prime that he is but saved from death by Russel Prime himself, who comes to put an end to his followers’ brutal actions.
But Russel Prime is also not Russel Prime. During his speech, he gives away a bit too much and Indra hears the Shedheda in his words. When they are the only two left in the tavern, she talks to him in Grounder, he responds ever so slightly, and her fear is confirmed. In seconds, his entire energy changes and the mask of Russel Prime is dropped. The scene is full of tension, as we learn Indra has a past with Shedheda, and the two actors do some of their best work yet. We then see Indra taking the mind chip out of Russel Prime’s body so he can never be reborn again.
A lot happened in what seemed like a short amount of time. The one character we didn’t see at all may have had the biggest effect on the episode: Clarke. The leader of Bardo says that Octavia is only being questioned to learn more about Clarke, since she’s the key to everything. How this person knows of Clarke and how she could be of use to a world she only just discovered in unclear. As often happens this season, we are left with more questions than answers.