The long awaited season 7 premiere of The 100 has arrived! This is the final season of the series and I’m so not ready for it to end! If you don’t remember what’s happened so far and where this new season is headed, stop reading this and take a look through my season 6 recap to catch up!
Season 7 opened the same way the previous season ended, with Bellamy shouting for his sister, Octavia. No time has lapsed between seasons which is nice and made this an easy episode to grasp and where this new and final season is going. Bellamy tries to go out further to search for her when he is propelled back by an invisible force. It knocks him out and drags him away just as Echo leaves the tent to find him. As it drags him toward the Anomaly, Echo tries to pursue but just like Bellamy, she’s knocked back.
Meanwhile, Gabriel is trying to get a better look at the face markings on this new stranger, Hope, and he starts to compare them to those that were on Octavia’s back. However, before he can make any progress he scares her off when he notices her bleeding and bandaged arm. She hits him and escapes into the woods, unaffected by the invisible force.
Gaia and Madi walk up to Clarke at their new home, a farmhouse on the outskirts of the compound and the Palace. They discuss Madi’s enrolment in school (a very sore subject from last season) and Madi is beyond excited to start it. However, Gaia is worried about the lack of flame and the pretences she’s holding up to keep the peace. She brings up the possibility of it dividing Wonkru so they decide to keep the charade up a little longer as they ease into their new roles as leaders. Clarke seems to be strangely positive after losing her mother and it makes her character very hard to read for most of the episode. Gaia raises concerns about how the absence of the flame will impact Madi’s mind. This is an unknown territory for them as they’ve never had an ex-commander (because that usually means the current one is dead and another would be getting ready to take their place but that’s not the case here).
The question of where Shanheda’s code went to is still on Raven’s mind, but she has no clue where to look and has had no reason to go looking. Everything seems very peaceful for them at this farmhouse, but we all know that won’t last long though. They’re toasting the first dinner after the takeover outside when Jackson knocks Jon’s drink right out of his hands, spilling it all over him. Jackson tells him that it’s not okay to toast to the woman that Jon killed. Jon tells him that he had no idea that it was going to kill her. It wasn’t his intention. A lot of resentment and anger clouded over the group after that.
Hope stops running long enough to check on her wound where she discovers a tiny metal capsule containing a scrolled note. It read, ‘Trust Bellamy.’
Tensions run high at the compound as it now occupies several groups all with different beliefs. There’s the criminals Wonkru woke up in season 6, The Children of Gabriel, Russell’s followers who still believe in the Primes ,and then there is of course Wonkru who are trying to keep the peace as the new leaders of Sanctum.
After breaking up a fight between the followers and the convicts, Clarke declares the Palace to be off limits. Jordan confronts Clarke about Russell, riling up his followers to ask even more. Everyone wants to know what will happen to Russell: The Children of Gabriel want him dead and then his followers want to save him and preserve their old ways of worshipping the primes and the convicts want to call the shots. Jordan goes to see Russell in his cell and he is miserable. All he wants to do is die. Jordan tries to figure out why and reason with him to see another way, but when Russell doesn’t budge, Jordan places a blue chip on the table. Instead of taking it, Russell smashes it with his chains and Jordan leaves him be.
Echo and Gabriel chase after Bellamy until they run into Hope. Literally. She shows them the note and realising that they both want to find Bellamy, they team up and continue their search for him.
Murphy’s drowning his sorrows at the tavern with Emori as she reads more from Kaylee’s journal. Noticing the array of people in the room, Raven walks over to them and tells them that it might be best to keep up their Prime charade as Daniel and Kaylee, as a way to help Russell’s followers transition into Wonkru’s leadership more easily. Raven claims that if they don’t they’re sitting in the middle of a powder keg that will go off anytime.
Jordan informs the followers of Russell’s feelings and they in turn demand he be released, but this only causes a stir amongst the others. The Children of Gabriel only want to see him die and they will not settle for anything less. Indra and Clarke plan to move Russell into the Palace to keep him safe while they figure out the best way to handle him without breaking Sanctum apart. But when they hit a mob of angry people, Jon and Emori come strutting in as Daniel and Kaylee Prime telling the followers that they are one, which manages to calm them down.
Madi wants Clarke to open up about Abby, but when she pushes it, Clarke keeps giving her those unnervingly calm answers like she’s okay and has moved on, which only makes Madi angry and storms off, knowing that that isn’t true. After she leaves, Gaia tells her that Madi’s been drawing memories that aren’t hers and she expresses her growing concern for her well-being, having never dealt with an ex-commander.
Echo, Gabriel, and Hope devise a plan to trap this strange invisible threat once and for all, but when Echo needs to take the shot, she starts to hallucinate Roan and her friend, the original Echo. Then Hope starts to see Octavia beside her. Echo manages to snap out of it and hear Gabriel just long enough to take the shot, hitting her target and making them all visible. Tech from their helmets show a kill on sight order for Hope before fading out. Gabriel, Hope, and Echo link hands and walk into the Anomaly to get some answers.
Having had enough, Russell’s followers take up residence outside of Russell’s cell to protect him from those that want to harm him, specifically The Children of Gabriel. Clarke talks her way past to try and convince Russell to tell his followers to back off and leave the palace. Russell isn’t motivated by her calm words and is frustrated in her demeanour considering he was the one who killed her mother. He tries to rile her up, but it doesn’t work so instead he walks over to the table and hands her some of her mother’s belongings. They were the things she had worn before Simone took over, it included a necklace with a gold band on it. That triggers Clarke to hit him. All her pent up feelings about her mother finally coming above the surface. She pulls a gun at him and threatens to shoot, but instead chooses to hit him with it.
Knocked out, he wakes up on that table from Madi’s dreams with Shanheda. He’s in a different body, but when Shanheda gets up and walks over to Russell, he slits his throat all the same. Russell wakes up (who is really Shanheda) and begs Clarke to have mercy on him. During the struggle, a fire broke out and he begs her to not leave him there because it wouldn’t be a good example for Madi about making peace. She takes Russell and leads him out to the balcony overlooking the cluster of people all rebelling for different things. Clarke tells them to let the Palace burn because they have no need for one. She makes a speech, silencing the crowd until she finally proclaims that Russell Prime has to answer for his crimes. His sentence is to be carried out the next day. The Children of Gabriel celebrate having achieved what they wanted meanwhile Russell’s followers glare at Jordan as Clarke is after all his people and they trusted him.
That’s it! Stay tuned for next week’s recap!
I’ve looked at several different sites trying to find this answer with no luck: can someone explain Echo’s plan?? These human looking cloaked aliens either can’t see moving targets or didn’t want to kill them? Or neither? If the latter, then why did they kill them when they knew it wasn’t life or death? These characters seemed to have evolved to the point where that’s the only reason they’d kill but then they kill these creatures who weren’t trying to kill them. Very confused. I haven’t watched episode 2 yet, so maybe this is answered there, but guessing just a plot hole?