S07.E04: Hesperides

[CooperTV]

Quote

Mysterious outsiders arrive with news of Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) missing people.

Original airdate 6/10/2020.

[ottoDbusdriver]

And I thought last week's episode was boring.  This one really upped the dullness factor.

If we are going to go through 5 or 10 years of time passing every episode this is going to get really tedious really quickly.

Seriously, the helmet that Raven had provided details all about Clarke yet somehow couldn't provide a summary of environmental conditions for each planet -- you know, so that they didn't end up stranded on ice planet Hoth. FFS !

The nonsense with Orlando was just painful to watch.

If Dev was one of the bodies out by Orlando's chess game in the woods, why didn't Hope bury him at some point instead of leaving it to Orlando ?

And now that we know for sure that there are wormholes between planets, let's just rename the show Stargate SG-100.

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by ottoDbusdriver

[thuganomics85]

Hope:  "Come with us, Orlando!:

Orlando: "Nah, girl, everything y'all have mentioned about Sanctum makes it sound like it is really lame!"

(Later)

Clarke:  "So, who wants to just jump into a wormhole with me, where we have absolutely no clue where it leads?"

Miller:  "Fuck it!  It can't be any worse than shitty Sanctum!"

In short, I do love how everyone agrees that Sanctum sucks!
 

But, yeah, kind of a boring episode.  All the stuff on prison planet was just the trio trying to convince this Orlando guy to help, and after failing first with trying to appeal to his fondness towards Hope and than failing again with Echo failing to take him on in a fight, it all naturally ends with Gabriel just monologuing to him, and that changing his mind.  Totally predictable.  And, in typical The 100 fashion, it all ends with Echo going back on their world and killing the soldiers, and it sounds like it led to him committing suicide.  That's usually how it goes.  And, again, she's apparently doing this all for Bellamy, which would feel more impactful if I felt like Bellamy even felt a tenth of what she apparently feels for him.  I have a feeling she's going to be experiencing some heartbreak soon.

But, hey, both Echo and Hope got some spiffy new haircuts during the five year wait.  Tasya Teles looked pretty good with shorthair!  On the other hand, Shelby Flannery seemed to be aiming for a current Kristen Stewart look, but didn't quite pull it off...

Meanwhile, Clarke willing goes on another potential suicide mission (loved everyone's "Of course she agrees to it without hesitation" reactions), where it sounds like she is this the target of this Shepherd person that these soldiers guys keep talking about.  But luckily for her, Raven figures out how the whole invisible suit thing works, and saves everyone by killing them.  Which, naturally, makes her feel even more like shit over the bodycount she is racking up.  Don't worry, Raven!  You've still got ways to go to catch up to Clarke.  Or Octavia.  Or Bellamy.  I really can go on for a while!

Looks like Clarke, Raven, and the rest of the gang have now stumbled onto Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back!  Hope they find a Tauntaun soon!

No Murphy or Emori displeases me. 

[AudienceofOne]

6 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

And now that we know for sure that there are wormholes between planets, let's just rename the show Stargate SG-100.

At the beginning of last season I called it the baby that Stargate SG1 had with the Shannara Chronicles and I did not want to be right.

At this stage I have no idea what this show is even about. 

[ketose]

I despise this show for sprinkling in just enough sci-fi to keep me watching. There's this cool ass wormhole network and it's run by some megalomaniac masquerading as a god and his acolytes in full armor. Yep, it's SG-100. Except in The 100, the wormhole is just a timeline advancement device. 

[UNOSEZ]

Gabriel has turned into one of my fave characters.. And echo will always be echo 

[Isazouzi]

Why didn't Clarke and the rest first suit up before jumping to planets they know nothing about? I suppose the suits also deliver oxygen and heat. And since the wormhole seems to be a two-way street, which it wasn't on Stargate, why didn't they send one person first to go check the planet and tell them if it was safe for them to go? OK, maybe that part they didn't know.

So this "religion" is about a shepherd who supposedly saved them from the fire on Earth. And he's pissed if you don't rest on the 7th day of the week. Like mighty pissed. 5 years of imprisonment is not a joke! And their technology is super advanced compared to what we've seen so far. I really feel like I'm watching the last seasons of Stargate, with the Ori and the Ancients. 

[driver18]

And I officially hate Echo, Hope and Gabriel now. Seriously, fuck them.

[Lady Calypso]

I think that this episode was not very well edited. The beginning montage was horrible, so I'm guessing there were some ADR issues that they couldn't fix, so they inserted a weird pop-esque song over the dialogue to mask it.

Not to mention the weird editing for the Sanctum scenes. Where did random Anomaly Helmet Disciple come from? Who found them? And then we also jump right into answers, since it felt like the show realized that there's no way Clarke and friends would realistically find out about Bellamy, Echo, and Octavia otherwise. I think that the helmet is also very contrived. It's able to give answers by just thinking about it? AKA, they didn't have time to waste for Raven to find a way to hack the helmet.

The Echo, Gabriel and Hope scenes were decent enough, but I feel like they could have cut a couple of them to explain the Sanctum plot, since that seemed very rushed, given that the Sanctum scenes were only four or five in total. But I liked seeing the five year time jump and the relationship between the three and Orlando.

Echo was fantastic in this episode. I appreciate what she brought to it, especially the scene where she's talking with the plants. I didn't like her betrayal and think it could backfire on her if Anomaly Baldie was lying about Orlando killing himself, but I get why she betrayed him. 

Also, this Shepherd guy is totally the Bill Cadogan cult leader that was mentioned in season 4, the one who made the bunkers. I only remember Cadogan because of my rewatch of some of the episodes, so I won't be shocked when this is revealed. 

The end scene was odd enough as well. So, Clarke, Raven, Jordan, Niylah and Miller go to a new planet, and Gaia gets taken to another. At least Jordan is finally getting in on the action with the gang, like he should have last season. 

But honestly, this was a poorly edited and paced episode, only filled with a couple of good moments. This marginally beats out 7x03, though, just with how interesting the Anomaly stuff is compared to the stupid Sanctum political drama. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

35 minutes ago, Isazouzi said:

So this "religion" is about a shepherd who supposedly saved them from the fire on Earth. And he's pissed if you don't rest on the 7th day of the week. Like mighty pissed. 5 years of imprisonment is not a joke! And their technology is super advanced compared to what we've seen so far. I really feel like I'm watching the last seasons of Stargate, with the Ori and the Ancients. 

Here's the thing -- the Eligius missions left Earth well BEFORE the first Priamfiya (or however it is spelled).  So how exactly did 'the Shepherd' save them from the fire on Earth ?

That's right -- he didn't.

And considering it's been a couple of hundred years since the Eligius missions left Earth, how can this be the original Shepherd ?  Or is 'the Shepherd' using the same tech as the Primes of Sanctum ?

The other question is -- how do the Shepherd's followers have detailed records of OneKru, considering that they basically just arrived recently at Sanctum ?

Another question -- how come none of the original inhabitants of Sanctum know anything about the time anomaly or these visitors from another planet that have super-futuristic tech ?

None of this makes any sense at all -- the writers should be ashamed that this mess is all they could come up with.

[paulvdb]

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

The other question is -- how do the Shepherd's followers have detailed records of OneKru, considering that they basically just arrived recently at Sanctum ?

They mentioned something about a memory extraction technology that they have. So presumably they used that on Octavia and Dioza to get information about who they are.

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Another question -- how come none of the original inhabitants of Sanctum know anything about the time anomaly or these visitors from another planet that have super-futuristic tech ?

I'm assuming they never visited Sanctum before. Or at least never made contact with the people of Sanctum.

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Here's the thing -- the Eligius missions left Earth well BEFORE the first Priamfiya (or however it is spelled).  So how exactly did 'the Shepherd' save them from the fire on Earth ?

He could have foreseen it. Or claim to have foreseen it. And getting his people away from Earth before it happened was how he saved them. Or claims to have saved them.

[tennisgurl]

What a weird episode, a whole lot of not a whole lot really, especially everything with Gabe/Hope/Echo and Orlando, which was basically a retread of the Hope backstory episode. Echo betraying Orlando and killing the soldiers was really needless I felt like, it was one of those things the show does when someone does something terrible, usually screwing over a friend or ally, for reasons that they try to play as cruel but necessary, when really its seems needlessly dickish and will probably come back to haunt them anyway. I generally like Echos harsh pragmatism, but that seemed pointlessly crappy. 

The editing in this episode also seemed choppy, and normally this show does a pretty good job at editing and showing what everyone is doing and where they are. I spent the whole Clarke plot being confused, and now I have no clue where anyone even is. Too bad they didn't pack up any coats!

At least Jordan wasn't useless, and he and Raven were fun, even if Raven is still being angsty. Clarke even gave her a nice pep talk, and took the higher road by not being all "yeah, not so high and mighty now huh?" after Raven spent so much time shit talking Clarke.

So these new bad guys are a cult of personality bunch of religious zealots who brainwash their followers, have memories from Earth, and use their advanced technology to keep their cult members in line? Gee, who does that sound like...

[quarks]

1. Well, for a change, Jordan didn't manage to annoy me that much this week. Largely because Hope managed to annoy me more.  Hands down least likeable character this show has had since at least Finn, and rapidly surpassing Finn at his worst.

2. So I'm expected to believe that in a five year period, Echo hooked up with and fell in love with Bellamy, but in the same five year period, failed to hook up with Gabriel or Hope or Lots of Tattoos Dude and was still so much in MUST FIND BELLAMY mode that she was willing to abandon someone who trained her? Like, ok, this is more or less consistent with her pre-five-years-in-space character, but I thought we were supposed to assume that she had changed a bit while up in space?

Great haircut, though. And the bit with her talking to the plants was fun. And, ok, I can definitely see not hooking up Hope. But Gabriel's pretty hot, Echo!

3. Ok, some of my questions about the pumpkins were answered - they've left seeds on the prison planet for people - but that still doesn't answer several other questions, like, how did any of these people except arguably Gabriel (and, I guess, Hope) learn to farm in the first place? (Octavia - up in space; barely paid attention during Earth Skills; didn't spend all that much time farming later; Diyoza, Navy Seal/prison, though I suppose she could have been raised on a farm/taught to garden as a kid; both Lots of Tattoos Dudes, apparently spent time training as assassins; Echo, spent her life training as an assassin with a brief gap of possibly helping Monty grow algae). As I said last time, farming is not quite as simple as just putting seeds into the ground and moving plants around.

Also, why leave pumpkin seeds? I mean, I'm as fond of a pumpkin latte and pumpkin pie and pumpkin ravoli as anyone, and yeah, pumpkin is nutritious, and people need vegetables, but wouldn't, I dunno, seeds for wheat, rice, sorghum and barley also be just moderately useful? Again, I know the actual answer to this is "pumpkin is nice and colorful on camera, and we can put up lots of little pumpkins and squashes to frame the scene nicely," but in context, providing prisoners with squash and pumpkin seeds and not, say, grains, feels a bit off.

4. After seven years and uncountable deaths on this show, Clarke still feels comfortable with leaving just one - one - person behind to go warn the others.

5. However, on that note - I'm assuming there was some sort of scene about this, and it was either cut for time or cut to ensure that specific actors didn't have to appear in and thus get paid for this episode, but surely Clarke should have spent just a moment chatting about the situation with Indra, Murphy, Emori and Jackson - and to be fair, also, chatting up some Sanctum folks and EvilHeda to see what info they had? Like, Clarke, Mount Weather involved some planning. Let's go back to that thought. 

Also, surely Clarke would have made a point of saying something to Madi?

Also, also, before hopping off to various strange planets, Clarke, it's very helpful to at least bring along a water bottle or two.

 

[UNOSEZ]

38 minutes ago, quarks said:

this show has had since at least Finn, and rapidly surpassing Finn at his worst.

Oh god I hated Finn from the nanosecond he did that flip on the trip down to the planet.. And hated him until he died... Hated that he lived for so long and welles died I'm episode 3.. Hated that when welles died he was the one consoling.. And I think grief-banging Clarke.. Who seemed to move on quickly ( I think the main reason I've never totally loved her)... I hated how he treated raven.. I hated his hair.. Ugh

[quarks]

15 minutes ago, UNOSEZ said:

Oh god I hated Finn from the nanosecond he did that flip on the trip down to the planet.. And hated him until he died... Hated that he lived for so long and welles died I'm episode 3.. Hated that when welles died he was the one consoling.. And I think grief-banging Clarke.. Who seemed to move on quickly ( I think the main reason I've never totally loved her)... I hated how he treated raven.. I hated his hair.. Ugh

Yeah - when Wells died and Finn didn't I was like, oh, come on. 

And back to this episode - I can't help but think all of the reveals in this episode should have made Dizoya and Octavia - two traumatized, suspicious people - more traumatized and suspicious, not less.  I mean it's still possible that Dizoya built the cabin on her own (I was a bit skeptical about that, too, given that it wasn't at all clear to me how she managed to saw down the boards) but it increasingly looks as if she didn't, so...you arrive at a strange planet after going through a strange green thing, find a cabin, find lots of vegetables and seeds, and it doesn't occur to you to wonder more about what's going on? 

[Samwise979]

This episode was really confusing. So, Dev trains Hope and gets killed helping her to escape - does Hope get captured? Or did Hope stay on the planet? Or did she escape? How does she know Orlando? And how did Clarke et al get the body of the dead soldier? 

Oh, and Echo is HEARTLESS!!!! The Orlando actor was good, made me feel for him after only knowing him for one episode. 

[Isazouzi]

18 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Here's the thing -- the Eligius missions left Earth well BEFORE the first Priamfiya (or however it is spelled).  So how exactly did 'the Shepherd' save them from the fire on Earth ?

That's right -- he didn't.
 

And I didn't say he did, I said it was what the religion said. Big difference.

[Slider]

They are wasting the whole season with a bunch of setup and no story.  Not a fan.  Last season they wasted all their time setting up this season, but still haven't followed through with anything.  Why do you need the Children of Gabriel, the Children of the Shepard, The Dark Commander, Madi as Commander, Clarke as the leader, the people of Sanctum, the prisoners, the OneKru, and the rest of the grounders?  Too many factions, not enough time to mesh it all out.  They built so much, and there isn't enough time to have a decent payoff.

[SourK]

Okay, so, this show is now Stargate, but I'm okay with it. I actually found this really interesting -- much more interesting than the other plot lines that have been held out to me this season. Echo's betrayal also felt a lot more personal and painful than Raven's betrayal last week -- I guess because she has more practice betraying people.

On 6/10/2020 at 11:54 PM, thuganomics85 said:

And, again, she's apparently doing this all for Bellamy, which would feel more impactful if I felt like Bellamy even felt a tenth of what she apparently feels for him.  I have a feeling she's going to be experiencing some heartbreak soon.

Yeah, I'm also concerned about that. Echo is All About Bellamy, but Bellamy's all about either Clarke or Octavia, depending which way the story's going. He's never been all about Echo and I don't think he's going to be. :(
 

On 6/11/2020 at 9:40 AM, Isazouzi said:

Why didn't Clarke and the rest first suit up before jumping to planets they know nothing about? I suppose the suits also deliver oxygen and heat. And since the wormhole seems to be a two-way street, which it wasn't on Stargate, why didn't they send one person first to go check the planet and tell them if it was safe for them to go?

I actually thought at first that they were about to do an Interstellar and split up, sending one person to scout each planet to save time. You make a good point about the helmets.

On 6/11/2020 at 10:24 AM, Lady Calypso said:

I think that this episode was not very well edited. The beginning montage was horrible, so I'm guessing there were some ADR issues that they couldn't fix, so they inserted a weird pop-esque song over the dialogue to mask it.

Word. I legitimately thought there was something wrong with my sound during that first musical montage.

On 6/11/2020 at 10:24 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Not to mention the weird editing for the Sanctum scenes. Where did random Anomaly Helmet Disciple come from? Who found them?

Also, I had no clue WTF was going on with that and I assumed it happened last week and I just forgot, but I guess not??
 

18 hours ago, quarks said:

And back to this episode - I can't help but think all of the reveals in this episode should have made Dizoya and Octavia - two traumatized, suspicious people - more traumatized and suspicious, not less.  I mean it's still possible that Dizoya built the cabin on her own (I was a bit skeptical about that, too, given that it wasn't at all clear to me how she managed to saw down the boards) but it increasingly looks as if she didn't, so...you arrive at a strange planet after going through a strange green thing, find a cabin, find lots of vegetables and seeds, and it doesn't occur to you to wonder more about what's going on? 

The timeline of the prison stuff confuses me. It does seem like the cabin and stuff would have been put there by the prison people, but it also seemed like the prison people only discovered this planet when Octavia chucked her letter into the anomaly. Or maybe they just didn't have any active prisoners on the planet and became aware that people were using their cabin when Octavia sent her letter? I don't get it.

 

[Taryn74]

4 hours ago, SourK said:

Or maybe they just didn't have any active prisoners on the planet and became aware that people were using their cabin when Octavia sent her letter?

Yeah I think that was supposed to be the implication. Diyoza mentioned she spent the three months before Octavia showed up scouting and never saw any sign of others currently on the planet, so maybe she just assumed the planet had been abandoned for some reason, or the people had died, or whatever.

[AudienceofOne]

7 hours ago, Slider said:

They are wasting the whole season with a bunch of setup and no story. 

And none of it has a point that I can see? What does any of this add to the storytelling? Maybe they're angling for a new season or a spinoff. If so that's even more annoying. They should wrap up the story they have. I really don't understand why they couldn't use this season to finally show them building a society or if they want to show the extinction of humanity then show it. Everyone just keeps running around for no reason. 

I'm fine with Clark choosing to go after Bellamy. But shouldn't they have at least had a conversation about her abandoning Sanctum? Someone at least could have said, "you have responsibilities here, you can't leave". Or something. Anything. 

The editing did not help of course. The episode was all over the place.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, AudienceofOne said:

And none of it has a point that I can see? What does any of this add to the storytelling? Maybe they're angling for a new season or a spinoff. If so that's even more annoying. They should wrap up the story they have. I really don't understand why they couldn't use this season to finally show them building a society or if they want to show the extinction of humanity then show it. Everyone just keeps running around for no reason. 

I believe the already have a spinoff in the works and you are probably right that they are using this season to set it up.

I've long given up on the storytelling.  I just wanted Clarke, Bellamy, and Murphy on the same planet. In all the episodes.  And maybe sharing a decent number of scenes.

[ramble]

Welp that’s four episodes gone. So many people I don’t know or don’t care about or both. Why can’t this final season be OriginalKru having a actual storyline together and ending things with either a happy homeland or burning the human race down? This hodgepodge mess of storylines and groups I don’t give a float about is disappointing.

A few of the things that stood out the most to me after binging all four episodes is that Hope the Doll was creepy as crap,  Echo is a crap character, and I wish Blodreina would make a reappearance and clean up some of the crap these storylines are spewing.