Our season seven premiere picks up directly where the season six finale left off, with Octavia disappeared and Bellamy crying her name. From here it takes three paths.
The first path we immediately follow is that of Gabriel (Chuku Modu), Bellamy, Echo (Tasya Teles), and Hope (Shelby Flannery). Hope stabbed Octavia, but once the anomaly moves along she doesn’t remember why or anything else that is going on. Gabriel tries to reason with her, but in true 100 fashion she solves her problems with violence and then runs. Outside, where Bellamy is mourning his sister, there is some invisible force making life harder for him. When it drags him away, Echo gives chase only to also be harassed by it. She joins up with Gabriel, and they eventually meet up with Hope who has a note in her arm instructing her to trust Bellamy (gee, I wonder who wrote that). Three’s company is on the hunt for Bellamy. Will they find him? Will they discover who or what is standing in their way?
The second and third paths involve the powder keg that is Sanctum post Primes.
Madi doesn’t have the Flame anymore, and Wonkru can’t know that or they won’t continue following her. Indra (Adina Porter) explains that keeping them Wonkru is vital, and Clarke agrees, but she also wants Madi to have a childhood. But, Gaia (Tati Gabrielle) reports that Madi is drawing pictures from a past that isn’t hers…is Sheidheda still in there?
Meanwhile, Russel Lightbourne the VII (JR Bourne) isn’t dead which is pissing off a lot of people: there’s the true believers who want him freed because they drank the Kool-Aid and won’t stand for their god being imprisoned, while everyone else wants the remaining Prime dead because of…well, all the body snatching of course. Will Russel get what he really wants? Spoiler: it’s death.
The first path ends on a bit of a cliffhanger with Echo, Gabriel, and Hope getting “beamed up” for lack of a better term by whoever is running the time machine. Because, it is a time machine. The invisible enemies are folks from (assumedly) the future who were sent to capture Bellamy and kill Hope. What they might have in store for Echo and Gabriel, if anything, is yet to be seen.
The second path leads to the conclusion of the third path (or, more appropriately, its evolution). Russel pushes Clarke’s buttons to try and get her to kill him and it works, but we finally found out what happened to Sheidheda (Dakota Daulby). While I’m not sure if it was Clarke’s beating him around that did it, or if the upload just took this long to finally finish, either way we see the original Russel Lightbourne (Sean Maguire who played the Dark King in The Magicians final season) make a brief cameo before being quickly dispatched by Sheidheda who promptly takes over. The Dark Commander has no intentions of dying, even though Clarke has finally come around to the idea of killing Russel, and he taunts her into saving his life. This turns out to be more of a stay of execution as she goes on record to the whole of Sanctum promising Russel Prime will die.
Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. It hit the ground running and reminded me why I love this series as much as I do.
First, there’s Clarke, who is always trying to do the diplomatic thing while being pushed closer and closer to the nuclear option (yes, pun very much intended). She failed to take charge in season one when Bellamy grabbed the reins and all hell broke loose, so this time around I think she’s really intent on getting it right. Unfortunately, she’s also fresh off the death of her mother, Abby, and not dealing with it – which we all know leads to poor decision making. It seems like she’s doing great, until Russel decides to dig into that wound. Though, to be fair, Sheidheda wouldn’t have a home to hunker down in if she had only killed Russel from the get-go. Ah well.
Then there’s Indra and Gaia. Now, I didn’t get to these two on my recap because A LOT has happened on the show and it’s hard to cover all your bases, but suffice it to say that Octavia wouldn’t be the kick-ass warrior princess she is if it weren’t for Indra. I’ve loved her character throughout the series because while she may seem stubborn and unmovable, she actually adapts incredibly well to what unfolds around her. Indra’s willingness to go with the flow allows her to survive where many of her Grounder brethren don’t. She even grows in her ability to accept her daughter Gaia’s faith in the Flame. Gaia has survived because of her faith. She has complete confidence in her Commander and her job as Flame Keeper, and it will be fascinating to see what happens to her now that the Flame is gone.
Lastly, there’s the myriad directions this season looks to be taking. You have the time travelers, Clarke’s efforts to rebuild Sanctum, and Sheidheda. The time travelers have already proven fruitful, bringing us a Prince Roan (Zach McGowan) cameo! The Dark Commander will most certainly take advantage of the Prime true believers to divide and conquer, though how he’ll manage to turn all of them into violent blood-bathed warriors should be something. Clarke’s got a fight on her hands, not to mention what happens if Madi really does have some sleeping Commanders in her subconscious. Will it be similar to that whole mind fuck with Clarke and Josephine Lightbourne (Sara Thompson)? Will, Madi have to kill the ghost in her head!?
You know I’ll be watching to find out!
