S07.E13: Blood Giant

[CooperTV]

Quote

The red sun derails Clarke’s (Eliza Taylor) plans.

Original airdate 9/9/2020.

Edited August 20, 2020 by CooperTV

[ParadoxLost]

I hate this show so much.

West Coasters -if you don't want to be majorly spoiled stay out. Or maybe don't bother watching. I wish I hadn't.

Edited September 10, 2020 by ParadoxLost

[ParadoxLost]

I warned you...

 

The high point of this episode, the season, was Raven breaking down and Clarke, Emori, and Murphy huddling around her on the ground offering comfort.  That is all I wanted all season, the last season, just moments where these characters we’ve spent years watching take a minute to be a family.

And then the end.  I knew she would do it.  I knew it. Bellamy couldn’t be trusted.  Not in the bunker the last time Clake begged him to protect Madi and not now he’s been indoctrinated by this stupid little cult.  

 And the thing that pisses me off the most is that its not like the Magicians, I’m not a sobbing mess.  I am super pissed off for being so stupid.  They’ve done this shit so many times and still I watched.  They give nothing.  Not even scraps. And I watched.  I watched seasons beyond when I should have because they did give scraps up until this last season.

The only thing I ask is if they are going to do this kind of shit, make it mean something.  Make it hurt.   Give me good scenes and character interaction to think back on with a watery smile.  Give me the catharsis to cry at least. 

No, instead I’m just pissed.  I feel a little bad for Clarke because this is going to be more than she can handle and doesn’t bode well for her ultimate fate.  But that Bellamy was already dead, he was lost when he jumped of an icy cliff like a lemming a long time ago and we never actually saw him again after that.

Maybe I should just stop now.  I never watchd the end of the Magicians.  Never saw how Buffy ended.  I think maybe its better that way.  I don't know.

Edited September 10, 2020 by ParadoxLost

[thuganomics85]

Wait, is that really it for Bellamy?  If so, that might be one of the most anticlimactic exists for a character that is suppose to be very important.  I mean, it is certainly possible that they would find some way to bring him back down the line, but since I did hear there was some behind the scenes drama between Bob Morley and the show-runner, I wouldn't be surprised if this was some kind of "Fuck you" from the latter.  And, of course, they would make Clarke be the one to pull the trigger, because Clarke always has to suffer the most.  The whole thing is just silly to me.

I swear, between him mocking both Bellamy's sudden turn and the Cult's entire plan and motivation, Murphy really has become the audience; or at least my; surrogate throughout this entire thing.  I feel you, buddy!  Glad that he and Emori both are reunited again, and I'm glad we got more scenes with him and Raven, since I always liked that duo, and Richard Harmon and Lindsey Morgan always seem to enjoy playing off one another.  Granted, I'm pretty much at the point where all I care about is Murphy and Emori somehow getting a happy ending at the end of all of this.  Just give me that, show!

When done right, seeing two different villains pit against each other is epic.  But when your villains are Sheidheda and Bill, that really isn't going to be the case, since both of them are so dull, even if JR Bourne is at least faring better due to his campy performance, while John Pyper-Ferguson seems to be almost falling asleep at this point.  Again, I know I sound like a broken record, but I just keep imagining how better this would have been if Anders was the big baddie and it was Neal McDonough that was commanding the screen like only he can.

Dammit, Indra!  Or really, dammit, writers!  Why do you keep making her stupid and once again sparing Sheidheda instead of finishing him off?!  Indra from previous seasons would have done it!  This really feels like a clear-cut case of someone being written out of character in order to further the plot, and it's just ridiculous.  I hate what they are doing to her, since she's generally pretty awesome.

A hallucinating Gabriel somehow ends up being more intelligent and effective than a lot of other characters, which is really saying something.

Lindsay Morgan did a great job with Raven's breakdown, at least.  And Clarke, Murphy, and Emori comforting her was a nice moment.

Please tell me there will be no more breaks going forward.  I just want to wrap this up as soon as possible.  Granted, I really don't see this ending in a completely satisfying way, but I'm still pulling for Murphy and Emori to come out head.  Maybe Raven and Echo too.  And possibly Clarke, although I suspect the odds are not in her favor.  Because that is Clarke's lot in life.

[ParadoxLost]

55 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Please tell me there will be no more breaks going forward.  I just want to wrap this up as soon as possible.  Granted, I really don't see this ending in a completely satisfying way, but I'm still pulling for Murphy and Emori to come out head.  Maybe Raven and Echo too.  And possibly Clarke, although I suspect the odds are not in her favor.  Because that is Clarke's lot in life.

They have ripped off so much stuff from Stargate SG1 at this point, I'm more or less resigned to the idea that this will end with Clarke making some big sacrifice that results in her ascending as a being of light and then saying goodbye to Murphy, Emori, Madi, Raven, Octavia, Echo, etc.  With Bellamy dead I don't really think they'll bother killing off anyone else.  And then she'll leave through the Stone.  You know,, like Daniel Jackson 2.0.  Only they'll pretend that someday Clarke may show up in the prequel because she's a being of light that can time travel or something now.  But that will never happen. 

Actually, I think the prequel will go the way of How I Met Your Mother.  Screwing up this bad gets your next show taken away from you.

Edited September 10, 2020 by ParadoxLost

[KittenPokerCheater]

What??  Spill some tea!

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

t since I did hear there was some behind the scenes drama between Bob Morley and the show-runner, I wouldn't be surprised if this was some kind of "Fuck you" from the latter.

I was entertained this episode mostly because of Murphy's awesome one-liners and Emori.  And badass Indra "no one treats him."  

I don't think Bellamy is dead. Nope.  He still has to have more of a reunion with Octavia.

At this point, I think they are going to pull some kind of "going down in a blaze of glory heroically" type thing where only Maddie and her love interest/friends survive, tell stories about clarke et. al and live in peace and happiness yadda yada fishcakes.

Thus said: Please Show, don't kill Murphy/Emori.

[quarks]

So.

That was certainly an episode of television.

First the minor stuff:

1. Ok., I admit that I haven't exactly been the biggest fan of Shepherd Dude, but any Evil Guy who is willing and able to attack EvilHeda gets at least some kudos for me.

2. And then, just as I'm starting to think nice thoughts about Shepherd Dude he makes mean statements about the sets. Shepherd Dude, I'm in complete agreement with you, but, in all fairness we both know this is a low budget CW show! It's actually doing a bit better than most of the CW shows, at least as far as looks go. Let's be kind.

3. Loving this banter between Murphy and Raven.

4. Also, loving the dog. Also, really worried about this dog, now that pretty much all of the main characters have bolted from Sanctum (not that I blame them; Sanctum sucks)

5. Decent resolution there to the Nikki/Raven subplot. With that said, I'm kinda fine if we never see Nikki again.

6. Though I'm also kinda fine if Nikki just ends up running Sanctum with Indra while the remaining characters head off to whatever planet and work out their issues. Look, at this point, someone has to run Sanctum, and it clearly isn't going to be EvilHeda or pretty much all of the other people in the bunker, it might as well be Nikki and Indra.

7. Seeing Josephine back was wildly entertaining - I've really enjoyed the actress, and she was having a blast this episode.

8.. And great episode for Emori. Also really liked the moment of Clarke, Murphy and Emori coming together for Raven. That was great.

And now the major stuff:

Here's the problem: for a death to have any meaning/emotional punch, I need to know how we got there. 

And in this case, I didn't. 

First, on a character level, as I've been saying for three episodes now, I'm just not buying Bellamy's conversion over to a Shepherd Pod Person. And the problem here, as I've also been saying, was the Bellamy Gets Religion Episode. I get what the show was going for. But they didn't get there. The problem is, the Bellamy we've been watching for six seasons before this knows how easily people can be manipulated, knows that people's emotions can be changed through computer chips, propaganda, red toxin thingies - something this episode just reminded him about - and so on. He's also a character who personally witnessed the results of Cadogan's obsession back on earth, and who has also personally witnessed, more than once, a number of leaders absolutely convinced that they were In The Right turn out to be just getting a lot of people killed.  

I am just not convinced that a couple of visions on a weird planet would be enough to convert him into a Cadogan Pod Person. Or, at least, that the visions that we saw would be enough to convert him into a Cadogan Pod Person. Or that his friends wouldn't have tried harder to argue with him. Especially since I'm not even sure why Cadogan believes in this transcendence stuff or what it's supposed to do. 

And then there's this specific episode, where, in order to get to this particular moment of Clarke shooting Bellamy, the plot needed:

1. Cadogan not immediately killing EvilHeda.

2. Indra once again deciding not to kill EvilHeda.

3. Cadogan deciding to try to restore the chip right then and there, instead of taking Gabriel, the chip and the computer off to a safer location - specifically one away from Clarke.

4. The suspiciously convenient presence of Madi's sketchbook

5. EvilHeda mentioning the book

6. Apparently nobody taking notes about which symbols, exactly, Cadogan pushed at the end there. Like, YOU HAVE A SKETCHBOOK RIGHT THERE. YOU CAN WRITE DOWN THE SYMBOLS IN ORDER, and then use them to open the gate again.

Which is out of character for everyone involved except, I guess, the notebook, which doesn't have a character or much decision-making abilities. But otherwise, Indra knows what happened the last time(s) she failed to kill EvilHeda. It went poorly for everyone. Cadogan didn't hesitate to kill most of the goons; again, it makes no sense for him to decide to leave EvilHeda alive, unless he was aware that EvilHeda once had the Flame - and since that didn't come up, that wasn't why. No, the only reason EvilHeda was left alive was to point out HELLO THIS SKETCHBOOK IS KINDA INTERESTING, not because any of the remaining characters would have left him alive. For that matter, it's not at all clear to me why Clarke didn't kill EvilHeda in the opening scenes, or, hell, why anyone let EvilHeda live this long. And there's been no reason whatsoever for Madi's sketchbook not to be locked up someplace far away from EvilHeda, given that Gaia and Jackson knew that the sketches could be dangerous. 

So it's not that I have a problem with Clarke shooting Bellamy. It's the steps that were taken - or not taken - to get the plot to that point that I'm questioning. 

 

[Samwise979]

Ugh. I.,... Don't even know what to say. Except what the fuck. 

I was really looking forward to binging this series from the beginning after the finale and now I don't want to watch it ever again. 

Idk if that's an over-reaction but, I am truly disappointed right now. 

[ParadoxLost]

34 minutes ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

I don't think Bellamy is dead. Nope.  He still has to have more of a reunion with Octavia.

Bellamy is dead.  Just because they should have done a lot of things with him this season that they haven't doesn't mean they will.  The writers suck.  They are convinced the plot is brilliant and their characters are an aftertought.

Outside of Bellamy somehow ascending, we aren't going to see him again.

Edited September 10, 2020 by ParadoxLost

[quarks]

Also, I will just repeat a point I've made before: I'd have a lot more interest/belief in this whole Transcendence storyline if a single character on this show would go, HOLY WOW, ALIENS EXIST? NO WONDER BELLAMY HAS TURNED INTO A POD PERSON THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION but given that everyone has been, aliens, huh, meh, it's difficult to believe that anyone is taking the aliens seriously enough to think that transcendence could be a real thing.

We got sorta there with Murphy tonight but even he was like, look at Bellamy's new clothes! Much more interesting than aliens!

 

[wrongheaven]

Can someone please explain to me why the sketchbook is so important/dangerous? And where IS Gaia?

I have excused the show a lot over the years, but tonight was just ridiculous. I can’t help but feel that everything having to do with Bellamy was born out of behind the scenes drama. He had no point this season - what did it matter that he was converted? The storyline would be the same without this, and all it did was shit on one of the main characters of the show at the last minute and give him a weak and unnecessary death without even a goodbye from anyone.

Clarke could have just shot him in the arm or the leg. She didn’t have to kill him and she wound up leaving the notebook behind with the last disciple anyway. What was the point of any of it?

again, I have excused a lot from the show. But this made no sense and was incredibly dissatisfying.

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by wrongheaven

[ParadoxLost]

16 minutes ago, quarks said:

So it's not that I have a problem with Clarke shooting Bellamy. It's the steps that were taken - or not taken - to get the plot to that point that I'm questioning. 

The real problem is that for whatever reason they only used Bellamy for three episodes.  It is impossible to get to a place where its believable Bellamy is willing to betray everyone in his life to the point that Clarke feels she has no other choice but to shoot him.  They basically needed to spend a season indoctrinating him to Pike/Grounder levels of messed up in the head.  And that wouldn't have been enough.  They would have needed to do more than just say that he was willing to sacrifice them to bring peace after the final war and then leave Raven and Clarke's "torture" to our imagination.  They would have had to have Bellamy kill one of their own for the Shephard or spend an episode where we know exactly the torture Clarke was subjected to for it to be gruesome or extraordinarily cruel and Bellamy to be actively involved rather than just watching her shake in a chair.

[ParadoxLost]

3 minutes ago, wrongheaven said:

Can someone please explain to me why the sketchbook is so important/dangerous? And where IS Gaia?

Its Madi's sketchbook of stuff she remembers from having the flame in her head.  Clarke doesn't want any of the cult to find out for fear of what they would do to her.

Right after Clarke and crew went to Hoth, Gaia encountered one of those helmet guys and the went through to some other planet.  The details are a little vague to me. I presume its coincidentally where everyone else ended up.

8 minutes ago, wrongheaven said:

Clarke could have just shot him in the arm or the leg. She didn’t have to kill him and she wound up leaving the notebook behind with the last disciple anyway. What was the point of any of it?

There was no point to killing Bellamy.  I have to assume that she thought she could convince him to leave the cult and not betray them again because that is really the only scenario where that secret stays safe with the way they set up the confrontation.  Once it was clear that wasn't going to happen, killing Bellamy doesn't help anything because in that kind of stand off Clarke isn't going to get the book so there is really no reason to kill him either.

 

[CooperTV]

Hahaha, oh god, those spoilers were true after all. Jason, you spiteful toxic dick you.

Edited September 10, 2020 by CooperTV

[Afwife1992]

I don't know what the eff I just watched. First we wait seemingly forever for Bellamy to reappear. Then, when he does, he's a pod person. Then he's pretty quickly killed off. I mean, WTF? Clarke and Bellamy are arguably the most important, longest relationship of the show--two of the few left from Day One, through all the ups and downs. Their bond was intense. And it was great too because it was not a romantic pairing. So it's bad enough for Clarke to have to shoot him but for it to feel SO anticlimactic? So..blah? No resolution/dramatic final scenes with Octavia? Echo? What we last saw was IT? I mean, what a crapfest. I'm with some of the others who have said they've watched from the first episode and are now ready to not even watch the remaining eps. 

And? If it *was* some kind of backstage bad blood, eff you to Bob Morley? It's doubly crappy to make his wife kill him. 

[Featherhat]

I wish I could be surprised by this clusterfuck but I'm not. Sigh. 

[CooperTV]

The writers should definitely try and attempt to defend their decision to kill Bellamy via Clarke by quoting Carrie Fischer's now-memetic The Last Jedi behind the scenes words: "It's about family and that is what is so powerful about it".

Because it all clearly fits in this situation as well. In the Last Jedi Luke Skywalker

Spoiler

tried to kill his nephew over some dream he'd had,

and in this one Clarke Griffin, who in season 6 promised to Bellamy she would never forget he's her family, killed him dead over her "daughter", and he was left lying there like a afterthought. I'm sure in the next episode Octavia will be very understanding and everything.

I mean, I always hated Clarke. But it isn't really her fault. Jason Rothenberg is just pathetic with his spite and hate for his own fandom. He's at fault for every action characters make. And this was his revenge to Bob Morley for some behind-the-scenes drama, and to his fanbase for sticking with the show and believing they'll have a good finale send-off. 

[dippydee]

Yikes! I’m no Bellamy fan (season 3 and Pike stopped that) but dude deserved better. I would have been fine with it if it seemed like a story choice rather than petty revenge from the producer but what can you do?

 I’m only here to see this show through to end for my precious Raven who needs her happy end after the sheer volume of torture she’s suffered over the last 7 seasons (it’s not a complete season of the 100 if Raven hasn’t been tortured at least once). Also for Murphy and Emori, I would have laughed if you’d told me they’d be my favs but despite how much of a mess the last couple of seasons have been they’ve actually had the most consistent story and growth. 

[Lady Calypso]

So, I may have been one of the ones who was absolutely fine with Bellamy dying before the season started. I actually expected him to be the character to die, rather than Clarke or Octavia because he hadn't had some big climatic death/near death moment in the series. And the idea of Bellamy dying was decent but....their execution was absolutely horrific. This season has been so poorly written, so poorly paced, that the lead-up to Bellamy's death and his death scene felt like it was with some guest star, just with a slightly bigger role for the episode, rather than for a character we've grown to know and care for for seven years.

I'm not a Bellamy fan at all; I thought he sucked as a character, for the most part. But he deserved a way better story arc for season seven than the shit we got with him. He only appeared in three episode total and a cameo in the premiere. That's it. That's pathetic. 

And what also pisses me off is the fact that HIS DEATH DIDN'T MATTER. Clarke STILL didn't get Madi's book that she killed Bellamy for! Which means the Disciples can STILL take it back to Bardo and figure out what Bellamy had already figured out. Like, what the fuck, show? 

Again, fine with the idea of Clarke having no choice but to kill Bellamy to save her daughter. But the way it ended up playing out? Not a fan. This season has been downright terrible. I have not liked much of season seven, if I have to be honest. Not the planet hopping stuff, not Sanctum, none of it. 

It was nice to get Murphy, Raven, Clarke and Emori together in a scene, though. Even if I think the whole Raven kills Hatch and his buddies plot has been underused, it did lead to a nice moment with them, especially after they were all apart for nine+ episodes.

And, once again, we STILL get way too many scenes of other characters who we HAVEN'T been watching for seven years. As much as I know that Gabriel is a main character, he got more screentime than Murphy in this episode. I get he had a role to play and it was nice to see Josephine again, but...WE'RE ON THE LAST FOUR EPISODES. EVER. This season feels like a big "FUCK YOU" to a lot of the main characters. 

Highlights have been a lot of heroic Murphy, at least, and Indra has always been an honorary main character for me so I'm ok with HER getting more screentime. 

Finally, I was hoping for some fun red sun eclipse drama. All we got was Gabriel bantering with a dressed up Josephine and Indra seeing her mother. Otherwise, it felt like a normal night for the group. Not even Cadogan went crazy from the Red Sun. 

It would have been a better death scene if Bellamy had been under the effects of the Red Sun, to be honest. Have him physically trying to kill Madi or something. A lot would have been better than what we actually got, and would have made more sense.

[quarks]

8 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

The real problem is that for whatever reason they only used Bellamy for three episodes.  It is impossible to get to a place where its believable Bellamy is willing to betray everyone in his life to the point that Clarke feels she has no other choice but to shoot him.  They basically needed to spend a season indoctrinating him to Pike/Grounder levels of messed up in the head.  And that wouldn't have been enough.  They would have needed to do more than just say that he was willing to sacrifice them to bring peace after the final war and then leave Raven and Clarke's "torture" to our imagination.  They would have had to have Bellamy kill one of their own for the Shephard or spend an episode where we know exactly the torture Clarke was subjected to for it to be gruesome or extraordinarily cruel and Bellamy to be actively involved rather than just watching her shake in a chair.

Yeah, this.

The general idea - Bellamy gets indoctrinated into a cult and reaches a point where Clarke has to shoot him -- isn't a bad one. There's even at least some lead-up to this - Clarke killing Finn back in season 2, Bellamy following Pike in season 3, Clarke almost shooting Bellamy in season 4, and Clarke demonstrating that her chief priority is Madi back in season 5.

But this season, we simply didn't see enough to make any of this credible - especially since we have seen six seasons of Bellamy growing into someone with a genuine reason to be skeptical of cult leaders. We also saw him see and to a certain extent explore what kinda remained of Cadogan's cult back on Earth - a bunker where everyone died from radiation, not exactly speaking well of Cadogan's wisdom or preparation skills, and another bunker which - admittedly sometime later - proved to be unable to keep about a thousand people going for just five years without having to resort to cannibalism. We know that Cadogan's daughter helped found the Grounder culture - another culture that Bellamy saw, interacted, and had no reason to trust.

We also saw Bellamy wracked with guilt over what he did while he was following Pike.

The end result of this? A Bellamy who risked his life to fight a cult group under the control of a computer. A Bellamy who helped take down his own sister after she became a cult leader and who refused to work with the Eligius guys, and a Bellamy who spent most of last season working against cult leaders - to the point of risking his life to help bring them down. And, sure, there was a brief moment last season where Bellamy did stop fighting against the cult leaders - but when he did, he took the time to discuss that situation with the rest of SpaceKru - and reversed it as soon as he thought he had the chance to bring down the Sanctum leaders.

And in the end, we saw a Bellamy who had mostly accepted his past.

As I said back in the Bellamy Gets Religion episode, it made no sense for that episode to end with Bellamy a believer, visions or no visions, jump off the cliff or no jump off the cliff. (Especially because Bellamy could reasonably figure out - without needing to believe in cult leaders - that Cadogan had managed to survive jumping off the cliff into the gate, and that even Cadogan never claimed to be the one who built the gates. If Bellamy emerged from that planet believing in anything, it should have been aliens.)  Bellamy already dealt with cults/cult leaders/etc. And instead of showing us someone who would always follow a cult leader, The 100 showed us someone who, yeah, did that once - and then focused on not only never doing it again, but fighting the cults that he found.

It made no sense.

It didn't help that this came during a season where Clarke and Madi have barely interacted. And sure, the setup here was a bit better than the Bellamy cult leader thing, but, if Clarke really wanted to keep Madi safe from the cultists, she had an obvious, immediate alternative. Madi had already gone through the gate at this point. Cadogan, by his own admission, was the only person who knew the code to that gate (though again, I have no idea why the others in the room weren't paying attention to exactly what symbols he was pressing, given that this was all KINDA IMPORTANT). So, you know, just shoot Cadogan. Prevents anyone from following you and Madi through the Gate.

35 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

It would have been a better death scene if Bellamy had been under the effects of the Red Sun, to be honest. Have him physically trying to kill Madi or something. A lot would have been better than what we actually got, and would have made more sense.

 

Also, this. 

Tweaks would have been incredibly helpful here. Have Bellamy end the Bellamy Gets Religion episode not getting religion - and still working against Cadogan - and yet, somehow revealing that Clarke doesn't have the Flame anymore. Threaten Bellamy by pointing out - correctly - that Cadogan's group still has Octavia, Clarke and Echo as hostages. Have everyone return to Sanctum and the huge mess there - and then, just as things are going poorly, repeat what happened in this episode - eclipse, toxin, not enough antidotes. Forcing Clarke to shoot a hallucinating Bellamy in order to keep Madi safe - right after Bellamy has done everything to try to save his friends. 

That would have had a brutal emotional impact. 

What we got? Not so much.

[KittenPokerCheater]

If this Bellamy's swan song, it will be one of the worst, rushed, and stupidly executed storylines ever.  Shoddy writing.  And somehow Evilheda is still alive?  

It's like they're trying to make Bellamny Anna Karenina- the character is so inconsequential that the novel continues on without her.  

Grrrr.

[tennisgurl]

Just when you think this show cant go any lower, someone finds a shovel...

I just...I just could not believe that any writer could possibly be this incompetent, this stupid, this uncaring about their own characters and their own fans...but then I remembered every other show that has come up with increasingly cruel and hateful endings for its main characters for the sake of cheap drama, and I remembered what a general shit show this show has become, and then it all came together. This is seriously the end of Bellamy, one of the main characters and biggest driving forces of the show since the pilot? He gets indoctrinated into some lame ass cult in five seconds, betrays everyone who he cares about, and then gets shot by Clarke? What a massive fuck you to Bellamy, Bob, and to all of us poor schmucks still watching. I dont know the whole story, but I did hear some stuff about issues between Bob and some of the writers/show runner (who has certainly had a vindictive streak in the past) so its hard not to see this half assed death as some kind of screw you to Bob. Or possibly as a fuck you to Bellaclarke fans, who the show runner has never really been a fan of from what I have picked up, or just to the fans in general, who they clearly hold in contempt and are annoyed by. Stupid fans, wanting a well written show, the nerve! Bellamy as a character has always been pretty up and down depending on what was going on with the writing, but he has long been one of my favorite characters, with a story that I found really rich and complicated, and to see this as his end, getting brainwashed shockingly easy and as a puppet to this seasons lamest Big Bad and the gunned down by his best friend after getting no closure with anyone, even Octavia, is just so unsatisfying. How exactly does this seem consistent with his story? He never got even a tiny bit of closure with anyone, even Octavia, never really finished dealing with his issues, and even on a show that has killing its characters as its bread and butter, this is just shocking in its senselessness. I kind of suspected that Bellamy might not survive this season, but I thought he would die saving everyone, having made peace with Octavia or something, not like this. This is just so lame, even in the middle of this increasingly lame final season. I cant even cry or be sad that one of my favorite characters just shot and killed one of my other favorite characters, I am just really pissed off and annoyed that a show I used to love could treat its audience and characters so poorly, and is so clearly running on fumes. Like, how does this end Bellamys arc as a character? Or his complicated relationship with Clarke? Its hard to see this as an end to his or their story when he is clearly brainwashed (or else he would certainly tell that the guys holding his closest friends hostage to force his best friend to do work for him are the bad guys) and hasn't acted like himself since he got back from the mountain. Its like he was some kind of clone, but now the clone was killed so we will never get to see real Bellamy again. Bellamy died when he supposedly died earlier (and dont you love that he got a fake out death, was around for a few more episodes, than died for real?) in the season more or less, and both his deaths sucked. 

I mean, this could maybe have worked as the tragic end to Bellamy's story, maybe, if they had really sold him being brainwashed, if they had really managed to make it so we bought that he thought that working with these people would save the lives of the people he loved, that he was doing this to protect them, even if they hated him for it, and they had him doing something more dramatic than holding a coloring book before Clarke killed him, where it really was Clarke having to choose between him and Madi or him and everyone else, or he really went off the deep end and tried to kill Madi or everyone else to help them "transcend" or whatever, but this? This has all been so rushed, that I cant buy it. I just hate that, after everything, Bellamy died as a brainwashed weirdo in that stupid robe who betrayed everyone and never even got a chance to hash things out with any of the many people in his life he has unresolved issues with, its just such a terrible waste of such a major character. I could buy an ending where Bellamy is driven to extremes in what he thinks will protect his people (as that been his driving motivation since the very start) and that leads to his downfall, even by way of Clarke, that it wasnt brainwashing even but that he really did think this could protect the people he loves, but there just hasn't been enough time to make me buy this at all. Plus, its just another pile of misery to dump on Clarke, who at this point I am just hoping manages to die with some dignity (unlike Bellamy) and can finally end her suffering. Besides, it didnt even matter! Clarke still didnt get the stupid book, now nothing has changed except Bellamy is dead and everyone get to be even more miserable than usual as they try to deal with this next mess. 

Its really too bad, because, before one of the stupidest things this show has done in a long history of stupid things happened, I was thinking that this episode was a bit better than the last few have been. A lot of the characters are back together, we got lots of great Raven and Murphy banter, who have one of the best relationships on the show and who are always great for some snarky comic relief (loved them making fun of each other for how much things have gone to crap on both their sides) we got some closure for Ravens story and her guilt about letting those people die of radiation, and the group hug between her, Clarke, Murphy, and Emori was one of the best and most emotionally impacting moments the show has had in ages, and we got to see the cute puppy being cute! And more mocking of those stupid all white outfits, which  is always correct. The reason they probably kept Raven and Murphy away from Bill and Bellamy was probably half because they knew that Bill couldn't give his boring ass speeches while Raven and Murphy are heckling him. 

But of course, we also have tons of scenes with boring new characters who I dont like or care about instead of focusing on the characters we have followed for years (and in the final episodes!) and we have a show down between Bill and Sheidheda where, tragically, neither of them die. I was hoping that they would kill each other and some better villain would show up to be an actual threat to our heroes, but of course not, we have to keep these two idiots around to be non threatening even longer. I cant believe that Indra didnt kill Sheidheda, it seems so out of character that she wouldn't take out this threat when she had the chance to, yet again! It reeks of writers who want to keep him around and have to come up with contrived reasons to keep him around, forcing people to act out of character, although why they want him so badly is beyond me. I have no idea why we are stuck with so many randos instead of giving screen time to characters who have been around for several seasons, who we might actually want to see, but I guess the show is bored with them, and they want us to be interested in the new shinys. I would think we want to spend time ending the many year spanning extremely complex arcs of our MAIN CHARACTERS in the last few episodes after seven seasons but apparently not! After seeing the end they wrote for Bellamy, arguably the male lead of the show, its pretty clear how much this show cares about its main characters. 

[ParadoxLost]

2 hours ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

If this Bellamy's swan song, it will be one of the worst, rushed, and stupidly executed storylines ever.  Shoddy writing.  And somehow Evilheda is still alive?  

It's like they're trying to make Bellamny Anna Karenina- the character is so inconsequential that the novel continues on without her.  

Grrrr.

That's more or less what is happening.  I think a lot of problems this season is that the writers are totally wrapped up in the prequel.  Thats why so much of this Stargate SG1 ripoff is the focus.  It ties back to the prequel via cult Dad and the flame.  The original characters are an afterthought in service to the showrunners preoccupation with the next show.

I haven't been able to figure out why Evilheda lives and is getting dragged out this much.  But it just occurred to me that this is probably because of the prequel too.  They are spending time introducing the most evil commander because he wants to give the end state of Grounder cultural development before rewinding to the beginning and telling the tale of how they got there.

[ketose]

10 hours ago, quarks said:

As I said back in the Bellamy Gets Religion episode, it made no sense for that episode to end with Bellamy a believer, visions or no visions, jump off the cliff or no jump off the cliff. (Especially because Bellamy could reasonably figure out - without needing to believe in cult leaders - that Cadogan had managed to survive jumping off the cliff into the gate, and that even Cadogan never claimed to be the one who built the gates. If Bellamy emerged from that planet believing in anything, it should have been aliens.)  Bellamy already dealt with cults/cult leaders/etc. And instead of showing us someone who would always follow a cult leader, The 100 showed us someone who, yeah, did that once - and then focused on not only never doing it again, but fighting the cults that he found.

It made no sense.

I'm not really as invested in the characters on the show, and I like the scifi / Stargate stuff (although too little, too late). My take is that Bellamy does believe in aliens and their devices. They seemed to tell him that the war / test is coming. If that's the case, Cadogan is the Shepard in that he's trying to get everyone to the point of the final battle. In terms of Bob Morley, this is probably the best outcome. He got to do a whole episode featuring him and he gets to have a big death scene in an episode where nothing else really important seems to happen.

Of course, for a plot-driven show, the plots are also terrible. The confrontation between Bill and Shitheda was lame. The insects killed like 2 people. The catching up stuff just points out how convoluted the stories are this season. I'm also leaning toward "judgement day" being focused on Clarke and she will restore humanity by flipping a big switch that will accidentally kill Raven in the process.

[SourK]

Wow, everyone was so merciful except for Clarke.

On 9/9/2020 at 10:22 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Wait, is that really it for Bellamy?  If so, that might be one of the most anticlimactic exists for a character that is suppose to be very important.  I mean, it is certainly possible that they would find some way to bring him back down the line, but since I did hear there was some behind the scenes drama between Bob Morley and the show-runner, I wouldn't be surprised if this was some kind of "Fuck you" from the latter. 

When I was young, Terry Farrell got into a fight with the producers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and then her character got murdered, and then there was a musical montage where all of the other characters thought about their favorite memories, and she wasn't included in any of them. This feels kind of like that.

On 9/9/2020 at 10:22 PM, thuganomics85 said:

A hallucinating Gabriel somehow ends up being more intelligent and effective than a lot of other characters, which is really saying something.

I 100% buy that Gabriel is the kind of person who decides he's the one who should take a test on behalf of humanity -- that felt spot-on to me. I don't remember if everyone hallucinated last time the sun came out?

23 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

They have ripped off so much stuff from Stargate SG1 at this point, I'm more or less resigned to the idea that this will end with Clarke making some big sacrifice that results in her ascending as a being of light and then saying goodbye to Murphy, Emori, Madi, Raven, Octavia, Echo, etc. 

You saying that makes me realize that ultimately Clarke will be the one who takes this test on behalf of humanity, and her righteousness will save us all.

22 hours ago, wrongheaven said:

She didn’t have to kill him and she wound up leaving the notebook behind with the last disciple anyway. What was the point of any of it?

Yeah, I noticed that, too. I thought maybe she grabbed it when I wasn't paying attention, but it sounds like she didn't. The entire point of killing Bellamy is to stop people from finding out that Maddi knows stuff, so... having a protracted argument about it in front of multiple witnesses and then leaving the book behind anyway seems like a bad call.

13 hours ago, dippydee said:

 I’m only here to see this show through to end for my precious Raven who needs her happy end after the sheer volume of torture she’s suffered over the last 7 seasons (it’s not a complete season of the 100 if Raven hasn’t been tortured at least once).

I thought it was funny when they went to the reactor and we immediately get a shot of Clarke being happy to see Maddi, a shot of Murphy being happy to see Emori, and then a shot of Raven in her own private hell, assaulted by memories of killing that one convict. As much as we joke about it, it sucks that she literally never has anything good happen to her, and I too would like it if that changed.

13 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Finally, I was hoping for some fun red sun eclipse drama. All we got was Gabriel bantering with a dressed up Josephine and Indra seeing her mother. Otherwise, it felt like a normal night for the group. Not even Cadogan went crazy from the Red Sun. 

It would have been a better death scene if Bellamy had been under the effects of the Red Sun, to be honest. Have him physically trying to kill Madi or something. A lot would have been better than what we actually got, and would have made more sense.

Yeah, at first I was like "Oh, that's cool. They remembered that the sun makes people kill their friends; and also that's a nice metaphor for the way the characters are betraying each other. I bet something really interesting will happen." And then, it's like the sun makes you hallucinate but not necessarily kill people, and you can resist it if you're used to it, and there's an antidote that pretty much everyone gets in a timely way, and it doesn't really tie in to what's happening with Clarke and Bellamy and it's like, why bring back the murder sun at all?

[quarks]

3 hours ago, ketose said:

I'm not really as invested in the characters on the show, and I like the scifi / Stargate stuff (although too little, too late). My take is that Bellamy does believe in aliens and their devices. They seemed to tell him that the war / test is coming. If that's the case, Cadogan is the Shepard in that he's trying to get everyone to the point of the final battle. In terms of Bob Morley, this is probably the best outcome. He got to do a whole episode featuring him and he gets to have a big death scene in an episode where nothing else really important seems to happen.

Of course, for a plot-driven show, the plots are also terrible. The confrontation between Bill and Shitheda was lame. The insects killed like 2 people. The catching up stuff just points out how convoluted the stories are this season. I'm also leaning toward "judgement day" being focused on Clarke and she will restore humanity by flipping a big switch that will accidentally kill Raven in the process.

The key thing in your point here, though, is the word seemed. You might be right - the aliens did tell Bellamy that the war/test was coming, and he based all of his later decisions on that. But that wasn't clarified in the script. What we got in the script were some visions that could have been caused by aliens, could have been caused by Bellamy eating whatever those scorpion things were in the cave, could have been caused by stress, or could even - possibly - have been caused by Cadogan (he presumably could have figured out where Bellamy went, and, as an uninjured person who had been to the planet before, could have gotten to the Vision Cave ahead of Bellamy and Whoever That Other Guy was, and set up some sort of vision system. We know the people at Bardo have some very advanced technology, which could easily include the ability to create holograms/other 3D images/illusions).

But as it was, even Bellamy didn't seem completely sure at first that he had seen messages from aliens, and the audience definitely didn't get a chance to hear the aliens tell him that the war/test was coming.

If instead of seemed, this was, we saw the aliens warning Bellamy - the same way we saw the Mountain Men getting poisoned by radiation back in season two - then I think this entire plot might have worked better. But we didn't.

Completely agreed with you on the insects, though.

 

[NUguy514]

I'm not opposed, conceptually, to Clarke killing Bellamy to save Madi, but the execution here was so laughably inconsequential and illogical that it utterly failed as an emotional high point within the world of the show, no matter how well Eliza Taylor and Bob Morley were selling it.  However, it succeeded brilliantly in showing all of us very starkly what an absolutely resentful, toxic bully Jason Rothenberg is.  This whole season basically has existed for him to exact revenge on Bob Morley, with Eliza Taylor as collateral damage, for whatever conflict they had behind the scenes.

On the upside, I never wanted Bellamy and Clarke together and was afraid the show would end that way, so I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore!

Oh, and yet another situation where Rothenberg makes Indra very stupid for no reason at all except laziness.  Lovely.

[CooperTV]

JRoth said this episode will be the one people gonna talk about forever. That turned out to be correct assumption but as it usually happens with Jason and his delusions of grandeur, not for the reasons he thinks. 

BTW, Jason said he's a fan of Game of Thrones season 8. Everything you need to know about him as a writer, pretty much.

[tennisgurl]

9 hours ago, CooperTV said:

BTW, Jason said he's a fan of Game of Thrones season 8. Everything you need to know about him as a writer, pretty much.

The character assassinations! The nonsensical plots! The pointless character deaths! The padding! It all makes sense now! I guess this makes Bellamy our Daenerys? 

[CooperTV]

1 minute ago, tennisgurl said:

I guess this makes Bellamy our Daenerys? 

Well, at least Jon Snow was upset about the fact he had to kill Daenerys. Not so sure about The 100 characters' reactions, though. I'm almost convinced they'll be understanding of Clarke's killing their family member. Because it's JRoth, and it's only three episodes left.

 

[domina89]

13 hours ago, CooperTV said:

JRoth said this episode will be the one people gonna talk about forever. That turned out to be correct assumption but as it usually happens with Jason and his delusions of grandeur, not for the reasons he thinks. 

BTW, Jason said he's a fan of Game of Thrones season 8. Everything you need to know about him as a writer, pretty much.

What JRoth (and other showrunners of a similar mindset) seems to forget is that fans have a VERY long memory.  You screw us over with a terrible ending to a series we have invested much time and, sometimes, money, into and we aren't going to invest our time and money into any of your future projects.  These types of things are career-enders.  Once you break faith with the fans, it is very difficult to get that back.  

[CooperTV]

31 minutes ago, domina89 said:

These types of things are career-enders.  Once you break faith with the fans, it is very difficult to get that back.  

The last time I remember something like that happening was The Last of Us Part 2 game this summer. Looks like those people just never learn not to burn bridges behind them. Or they just don't need money from their fans, IDK.

[Taryn74]

1 hour ago, domina89 said:

What JRoth (and other showrunners of a similar mindset) seems to forget is that fans have a VERY long memory.  You screw us over with a terrible ending to a series we have invested much time and, sometimes, money, into and we aren't going to invest our time and money into any of your future projects.  These types of things are career-enders.  Once you break faith with the fans, it is very difficult to get that back.  

Exactly. I was excited to watch the spinoff prequel if it gets greenlit, now I absolutely refuse to watch it unless they pull out some serious opinion altering mojo these last few episodes. And I also refuse to rewatch this series as well (which, again, I was excited to do). I've never rewatched LOST because they pissed me off so much. It will be the same with The 100.

[KittenPokerCheater]

2 hours ago, domina89 said:

BTW, Jason said he's a fan of Game of Thrones season 8.

 "Jason, I knew Game of Thrones.  Game of Thrones was a friend of mine. Jason, you are no Game of Thones."

I swear, I'm never watching any show by this guy after this.

Edited September 11, 2020 by KittenPokerCheater

[Artsda]

Wow didn't expect them to kill off Bellamy and by Clarke? Should have been reverse.

[ParadoxLost]

20 hours ago, domina89 said:

What JRoth (and other showrunners of a similar mindset) seems to forget is that fans have a VERY long memory.  You screw us over with a terrible ending to a series we have invested much time and, sometimes, money, into and we aren't going to invest our time and money into any of your future projects.  These types of things are career-enders.  Once you break faith with the fans, it is very difficult to get that back.  

Its nice to think that showrunners who mess up a show this badly will have a consequence for messing up a show this badly.  But that is pretty rare because the fans who know who is in charge and avoid them aren't enough of a part of future audiences to make a differences.  And the industry won't care about messing up a show unless they kill a cash cow.  The 100 just isn't popular enough in any way for this to have career ending consequences.

I do think it will have the prequel killing consequences.  It will either never make it to air or it won't find an audience.  But frankly the 100 was on a decline for so long that it didn't seem like there would have been much interest in that show any way.  It would have been doomed to feeling kind of like the 100 but missing all the characters that connected the viewers to the show.

[quarks]

4 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

I do think it will have the prequel killing consequences.  It will either never make it to air or it won't find an audience.  But frankly the 100 was on a decline for so long that it didn't seem like there would have been much interest in that show any way.  It would have been doomed to feeling kind of like the 100 but missing all the characters that connected the viewers to the show.

Yeah. The 100 is a cult hit, but not on the scale of The Vampire Diaries or Arrow, suggesting less interest in a prequel/sequel to begin with. And the prequel won't have the benefit of that Netflix deal which helped infuse cash into the various CW shows - and although the prequel could certainly follow Batwoman's example and head to HBOMax, by all accounts HBOMax is having a pretty rough launch, and that's before asking if HBOMax viewers, with access to big budget HBO shows, will have any interest in a low budget prequel to The 100. Sure, maybe, but if I were a WB executive, I wouldn't count on it. Or if The 100 fans are interested enough in the prequel to be willing to shell out for HBOMax. Again, maybe, but I wouldn't count on it.

Beyond that, I think the prequel was facing other, coronavirus/recession based issues - same stuff that's supposedly one thing holding up Green Arrow & the Canaries.  Deadline just reported that WB may be facing a much worse cash crunch than previously believed - and that WB is trying to conceal the gravity of this to calm down Wall Street investors - which means that WB may honestly not have the money to back iffy projects. Simultaneously, coronavirus precautions have increased filming expenses - meaning that there's no way that the prequel can come in at the original pitched budget. 

So I think the prequel was iffy well before this episode aired - but I also don't think the fan reaction to this episode is helping. 

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

My memory is a little fuzzy -- were there face-eating bugs on Sanctum during the previous eclipse that occurred right after the Eligius IV arrived at Sanctum ?

[Taryn74]

4 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

My memory is a little fuzzy -- were there face-eating bugs on Sanctum during the previous eclipse that occurred right after the Eligius IV arrived at Sanctum ?

Ha ha ha. Well, sort of. Jackson noted that the bug he had in a jar was acting very aggressively and they did have to run from a swarm of insects (Emori fell behind and they had to go back for her) but it wasn't made to seem an immediate life or death situation and/or that the insects were actually targeting them. If that's what the show meant to portray, it failed.

There were also bugs in aquariums in the schoolhouse, but again it looked like the Sanctumites used them as 'canaries in the coal mine' more than anything.

And honestly, the way the show handled the red sun events made zero sense. If this phenomenon was tied to an eclipse event, shouldn't that be predictable? Especially by a highly technologically advanced society? Why should they have to use 'canaries in the coal mine' at all? Why have the handcuffs attached to the wall in case they get caught by surprise? There shouldn't be any reason they would get caught by surprise. It makes no sense.

[AudienceofOne]

On 9/10/2020 at 11:44 AM, ParadoxLost said:

And the thing that pisses me off the most is that its not like the Magicians, I’m not a sobbing mess.  I am super pissed off for being so stupid.  They’ve done this shit so many times and still I watched.  They give nothing.  Not even scraps. And I watched.  I watched seasons beyond when I should have because they did give scraps up until this last season.

The minute they did it to Ricky Whittle we should have stopped watching. It's really our fault for sticking around this long. Rothenberg is such a pissy little bitch - and yes I hate myself for using a gendered insult but that's all I got.

On 9/10/2020 at 11:44 AM, ParadoxLost said:

The only thing I ask is if they are going to do this kind of shit, make it mean something.  Make it hurt.   Give me good scenes and character interaction to think back on with a watery smile.  Give me the catharsis to cry at least. 

On 9/10/2020 at 12:22 PM, thuganomics85 said:

since I did hear there was some behind the scenes drama between Bob Morley and the show-runner, I wouldn't be surprised if this was some kind of "Fuck you" from the latter.  And, of course, they would make Clarke be the one to pull the trigger, because Clarke always has to suffer the most.  The whole thing is just silly to me.

Rothenberg bringing back an actor he's decided he doesn't like just to force his wife to murder him for no reason. They say that you can tell how the production staff feel about an actor by how they kill them on screen and in this case they benched him, gave him a lobotomy and then had his wife shoot him over a book and then *leave the book*. God this is so unbelievably shit. If I didn't have only three episodes left I'd be out of here.

On 9/10/2020 at 2:11 PM, quarks said:

Also, I will just repeat a point I've made before: I'd have a lot more interest/belief in this whole Transcendence storyline if a single character on this show would go, HOLY WOW, ALIENS EXIST? NO WONDER BELLAMY HAS TURNED INTO A POD PERSON THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION but given that everyone has been, aliens, huh, meh, it's difficult to believe that anyone is taking the aliens seriously enough to think that transcendence could be a real thing.

This is a really good point. There's so much stuff here that characters are just handwaving. What also annoys me is that they devoted a really long time in one episode to Jordan's "OMG this language is like Korean, the Shepherd's translation is wrong" and NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON HAS SAID THIS TO HIM OR BELLAMY OR EVEN TO EACH OTHER. No one, not even in passing. "Oh sure, transcendence whatever, you know there's no 'war' right?"

On 9/10/2020 at 2:55 PM, CooperTV said:

Jason, you spiteful toxic dick you.

That might be better than pissy little bitch. 

On 9/10/2020 at 4:33 PM, Afwife1992 said:

Clarke and Bellamy are arguably the most important, longest relationship of the show--two of the few left from Day One, through all the ups and downs.

More importantly than that, Clarke and Bellamy are the thematic core of the show. They were the head and the heart in more than just name, they were the way to examine different aspects of social governance and responding to conflict. And it's true that the writers had fucked that up from at least season 6 (and possibly before that) but it doesn't change that the show without Bellamy has no heart just like the show without Clarke has no head. And that's why this season has been so tedious.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by AudienceofOne

[CooperTV]

52 minutes ago, AudienceofOne said:

nd it's true that the writers had fucked that up from at least season 6 (and possibly before that) but it doesn't change that the show without Bellamy has no heart just like the show without Clarke has no head.

It's hard to, believe, honestly, that in season 6 everyone was on Clarke's case about her Madi obsession (to the point of actual child abuse) and leaving Bellamy to die in season 5, and Clarke in the end admitted Bellamy was her family too. And then Bellamy moved heaven and earth to bring her back from Josi's clutches and never gave up on her.

And this season we have this. I mean, Clarke is essentially was killed as a character along with Bellamy in that scene as well. 

What a disgrace.

[quarks]

7 hours ago, AudienceofOne said:

This is a really good point. There's so much stuff here that characters are just handwaving. What also annoys me is that they devoted a really long time in one episode to Jordan's "OMG this language is like Korean, the Shepherd's translation is wrong" and NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON HAS SAID THIS TO HIM OR BELLAMY OR EVEN TO EACH OTHER. No one, not even in passing. "Oh sure, transcendence whatever, you know there's no 'war' right?"

Yeah, there's that too. I mean I realize that the characters have been kinda/mostly separated from each other, but there was that scene just a couple of episodes ago where Cadogan had them all lined up ready to be expelled to different worlds. Why on earth didn't Jordan - who has been established in canon as a character more than willing to speak up, and who has also been established as someone desperate to bring peace and mediate between different groups - speak up right then and at least say something about the alternative translation? Or even Niylah, for that matter? Established as a character who could give Cadogan information about his daughter - and thus someone Cadogan might listen to?

#

Incidentally, without getting into spoiler territory, the behind the scenes look for the next episode reveals that the script for this episode went through a number of major last minute changes, including, apparently, the last minute decision to kill off Bellamy. So last minute that in the original script for episode 14, "Homecoming," Bellamy was still alive.  The behind the scenes video also notes that major script changes for both episodes happened during pre-production and production for episode 14.

I should note that this isn't at all unusual for a number of reasons - about 75% of Arrow and Supergirl episodes are/were shot with a writer on set, largely to accommodate last minute production issues. Given just how much of The 100 is shot on location, outside, in questionable weather conditions and with the occasional bear, I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that The 100 has always written on set. However, based on the comments from the writer and the director, and also some comments made earlier by Lindsey Morgan and Marie Avger this wasn't just the typical last minute script rewrites; these were major changes requiring significant changes to the script and disrupting both pre-production and production.

I'm not 100% familiar with The 100's production schedule, but it presumably works something like this: a draft script is finished at least six/eight weeks prior to shooting; a network script is then drafted and reviewed (in this case by Alloy, the CW, WB and - at least in theory - some of the CW affiliate stations and CBS); network and legal changes are incorporated, and a shooting script is finalized about two weeks prior to shooting, with preproduction starting eight to 14 days prior to shooting - that is, during the shooting of the two previous episodes. From Jessica Harmon's comments, it sounds as if many of the changes for episode 14 happened during official preproduction - that is, during the filming for episode 13 - and from comments made by her and Sean Crouch, these were major changes.

Based on all of this, I think we can probably assume that the show decided to kill off Bellamy while filming that episode. It is possible that this decision was made after someone decided, hey, you know what would make the finale really cool? An already dead Bellamy! I know, right! Like talk about upping the stakes! And if Bellamy's death does end up adding something useful or cool in the finale, then, YAY. But I think it's equally if not more possible that something came up BTS, and this was the solution.  That also explains why the episode still has a long conversation between Cadogan and Bellamy that ended up not going anywhere.

Just a guess on my part, of course, but I think it makes sense.

[BK1978]

This sort of has something to do with this episode.  I forgot that it came back last week so I missed it on Wednesday.  I thought they would put it on the CW OnDemand but nope.  So I tired to watch it off the CW website and it kept on buffering every five seconds, so I rage quit watching this episode.  It sucks because you really do need to see this show on a week-to-week basis to understand what is happening.  Now I am going into tomorrow nights episode blind.

[CooperTV]

On 9/14/2020 at 9:13 PM, quarks said:

I'm not 100% familiar with The 100's production schedule, but it presumably works something like this: a draft script is finished at least six/eight weeks prior to shooting; a network script is then drafted and reviewed (in this case by Alloy, the CW, WB and - at least in theory - some of the CW affiliate stations and CBS); network and legal changes are incorporated, and a shooting script is finalized about two weeks prior to shooting, with preproduction starting eight to 14 days prior to shooting - that is, during the shooting of the two previous episodes. From Jessica Harmon's comments, it sounds as if many of the changes for episode 14 happened during official preproduction - that is, during the filming for episode 13 - and from comments made by her and Sean Crouch, these were major changes.

 

There's also an issue of many episodes this season being filmed out of order.

[ketose]

On 9/16/2020 at 1:29 AM, BK1978 said:

This sort of has something to do with this episode.  I forgot that it came back last week so I missed it on Wednesday.  I thought they would put it on the CW OnDemand but nope.  So I tired to watch it off the CW website and it kept on buffering every five seconds, so I rage quit watching this episode.  It sucks because you really do need to see this show on a week-to-week basis to understand what is happening.  Now I am going into tomorrow nights episode blind.

I have good luck with the CW app on Roku. It probably works for other streaming devices as well.