The 100’s last season may be ending on a high note, but there isn’t the plot twist that many had hoped for. Many viewers probably already knew that we’d be forced to say goodbye to numerous of our favourites before the end of the show because this is a show that has killed off several of its big characters over the years in a variety of painful and shockingly abrupt ways. But no one could have reasonably predicted that, with just three episodes left until the series’ closing credits roll forever, we’d be made to watch Clarke Griffin murder Bellamy Blake in cold blood during the last seconds of “Blood Giant.”
The 100 has chosen to reinforce its worst instincts with this twist, favouring shock value over character development and misery over hope. Not only is the decision to kill off Bellamy tragic, but it is also aggravating, depressing, and completely absurd. He doesn’t pass away defending those he cares about or giving his life in service to his people. Even Thelonious Jaha would have laughed at his final comments, which are a collection of meaningless, cultish platitudes about rescuing humanity. The relationships this show has spent literally years creating are sacrificed on the altar of a shock revelation, and honestly? Everything that was important about his existing narrative journey and honestly? It’s awful.
Fair enough, Bellamy has been such a non-factor in Season 7 that the choice to kill him off does make some sense. He gets hardly any screen time in Season 7 and has essentially been gone from the plot. In addition, his rapid transformation into a fervent religious fanatic makes it seem as though a stranger made the decision rather than the character who has developed over the course of the preceding six seasons. In other words, even though “Blood Giant” was the absolute worst, The 100 had already let Bellamy down several times this season.
Although it further humiliates Clarke by making her do it on her own, this technique of killing him has no purpose other than to presumably enhance the emotional stakes for the season finale by serving as a reminder to the audience that no one on this show is ever truly safe. (A lesson that, after seven seasons, it seems improbable that anyone is still in need of.)
But Bellamy’s passing feels like a slap in the face to those of us (like me) who have been consistently defending The 100 despite a slew of unwise choices during this last season.
There didn’t only appear to be no big picture strategy for this character; the programme didn’t even care enough to make it up. Bellamy might have been given more development if he had been a part of this season for longer than 45 minutes, making the decision to turn him into a true Second Dawn believer more plausible. Maybe this episode would have felt more like a tragedy rather than a joke if The 100 had depicted a Bellamy who was so desperately desperate for something to believe in and who wanted to finally let go of his burdens that he would discard everything that had ever mattered to him.
Bellamy’s death, on the other hand, appears to be nothing more than more gratuitous torture porn on a show that appears to have lost the ability to do anything besides make its characters suffer.
I’m not entirely clear why mankind wants to live on Sanctum, or anywhere else for that matter, at this point. Nowhere in the world of The 100 can one find happiness, optimism, or tranquilly. Even while the programme has never shied away from depicting the dark nature of the society in which its story is set, Bellamy’s death’s circumstances are unbelievably depressing. After he threatened to endanger the life of her child over an insignificant notebook that nonetheless fell into the hands of the enemy, his best friend—who loved him more than anybody, save perhaps Octavia—shot him dead. Everything about this is so incorrect that it almost defies words.
Bellamy has fought beside Clarke for seven seasons and figuratively more than a century, supporting her when no one else did and assisting her in carrying an almost inconceivable load. He trusts her, he loves her, and he has repeatedly shown that he will do just about anything for her. It is absolutely absurd that he would suddenly put her daughter in danger in the name of a brand-new religion that he literally just read on a cereal box.
Similar to this, Clarke has demonstrated that she is unable to envision a world without Bellamy in it. She has already failed to murder him while humanity’s survival was at jeopardy, and even as recently as Season 6, she still expresses regret over abandoning him in Polis. It’s absurd to think that Clarke wouldn’t at least make an effort to find another means to keep Madi safe that didn’t include killing the other person who has the most significance in her life. The Clarke we’ve spent the past seven seasons watching would have at the very least targeted his hand rather than immediately aiming for the kill shot. (And, you know, really located the sketchbook that served as the impetus for everything.)
Furthermore, Bellamy’s purportedly moral intention to save mankind by giving Madi to his new cult pals is meaningless given that everyone already knows that Bill Cadogan is an unreliable conman operating a centuries-old swindle. Although we may not exactly support Clarke’s decision to kill her BFF, we all agree that she is correct in anticipating what the Second Dawn will do to her daughter once they have that book. The saddest part is that Bellamy must understand that on some level as well.
Understanding how Bellamy exposed his friends’ fabrication about the Flame at the end of “Etherea,” then stood back and watched them suffer as a result, was difficult enough. How he could argue with Clarke that the danger to Madi’s safety is justified because he has suddenly discovered a new bizarre religion that will save humanity is nearly beyond comprehension. And in an effort to persuade Clarke to change his mind, to make reference to their catchphrase “together,” which has seen them perpetrate genocide and jeopardise the future of their people by one another’s sides? Bellamy should have at least perished for ruining his best friend’s daughter by keeping the sketchbook. At least then, his passing would have had some significance.
The other tragic lesson of “Blood Giant” is that The 100’s ladies deserve better than the finale this show gave them, even while Bellamy unquestionably deserves something greater. The show’s apparent joy in making its female characters make difficult decisions and undergo repeated personal betrayals in the name of grim storytelling every season is no longer novel; it just feels disgusting. Now that she has killed her best friend, Clarke will also have to deal with Octavia and Echo, who, even if they are able to comprehend her actions, are unlikely to ever be able to forgive her.
The 100 compromised everything it stood for over its last season, not only killing off one of its leads and shattering one of its core relationships. Showrunner Jason Rothenberg maintains that this programme is about survival and the heinous acts that people are prepared to commit in the sake of that survival. But who among us would ever want to participate in Clarke’s quest if that is what survival looks like?
