‘The 100’: [Spoiler] Makes the Ultimate Sacrifice and Indra Fights Back (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The 100 Season 7 Episode 10, “A Little Sacrifice.”]
The sacrifice in “A Little Sacrifice” is anything but.
While The 100 was overdue for a major character death—and honestly, the writing was on the wall for this one—the scene in which it happens is tragic enough to make us reach for not just one Kleenex but the entire box.
On Bardo, Echo’s (Tasya Teles) plan for revenge against the Disciples goes sideways and ends in disaster; in Sanctum, Sheidheda’s (JR Bourne) bid for commandership leads Indra (Adina Porter) to fight him in single combat. Here’s how it all happens.
Solo Gonplei
Sheidheda—who escaped the scene of the slaughter through a secret passageway—confronts Madi (Lola Flanery) and threatens her. When he tells her if she doesn’t kneel, he’ll “cut out the hearts of the people [she loves] and feed them to her dog,” she’s left with no choice but to recognize his authority. Murphy (Richard Harmon), Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira) and Indra find her and offer comfort, but they’re interrupted by the voice of Sheidheda, broadcasting all across Sanctum. He tells the grounders the time of the commanders hasn’t ended.
With the few who remain loyal to her, Indra goes after him. As he is ordering the grounders to bend the knee or die, she bursts into the room, announcing, “Your path to the throne leads through me.” She demands they fight in single combat, which they do, in epic fashion.
Surprisingly, this doesn’t end in death for either of the two. Just when all hope seems lost for Indra, Madi jumps in and slices Sheidheda’s eye out. Enraged, he nearly kills Madi, but Indra quells his bloodlust by at last kneeling to him. Now officially the commander, he is determined to kill not only Madi, but also Murphy and Emori, who are hiding in the reactor with the faithful who are still alive.
Echo’s Plan
Meawhile, Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and her pals are stunned to hear that Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), Diyoza (Ivana Millicevic) and Echo are unwilling to leave the Shepherd’s service. Clarke bargains for some alone time with her friends and demands that Cadogan (John Pyper-Ferguson) stay in the room; then, she, Gabriel (Chuku Modu), Niylah (Jessica Harmon), Raven (Lindsey Morgan) and Jordan (Shannon Kook) deduce that their friends are still on their side because no one has informed the Disciples Clarke that doesn’t have the Flame in her head.
Across the facility, Hope (Shelby Flanery) also realizes where allegiances lie when Echo murders a guard who’s restraining her. “We’re going to kill them,” Echo says of the Disciples, “all of them.” She tells Hope she has a plan, and Hope wants in. Her assignment: Make sure their people are off the planet in an hour, or they’ll die, too.
A Test, Not a War
Clarke has a heartwarming reunion with Octavia, and they mourn Bellamy (Bob Morley) for a few moments. Octavia’s happy to see Miller (Jarod Joseph). Emotions are flowing pretty freely…until Hope bounds into the room to announce that Echo’s up to something.
Back in the anomaly stone room, Cadogan shows the group the logs they translated when they arrived on Bardo, all about the last war, ceasing to be fallible and transcending to be more. They need Clarke and the Flame because they need the code, which, when entered, will bring about the conflict. Cadogan then departs for lunch, and Gabriel, unwilling to lose their hostage, follows the cult leader out of the room.
Meanwhile, Jordan makes a huge discovery. Cadogan didn’t decode the text accurately, and in the correct translation, “the last war” is a test, not a battle. They’ll have to keep that info quiet, though, because it’s almost certain Cadogan would flunk that exam.
Saving Echo’s Soul
Gabriel and Cadogan have a fancy lunch filled with kombucha tea and other items from “their time,” plus a mention of memes. (Wonder what kind of memes Cadogan would’ve even laughed at?) Cadogan also waxes poetic about being chosen by a mysterious force to lead the war and the next evolution of the human race, and he offers Gabriel a spot on the team. After refusing, Gabriel ends up being “escorted back to his friends” by a team of guards, while Anders (Neal McDonough) lets Cadogan know they have a problem.
Somewhat predictably, that problem is Echo: She means to release the planet-killing toxin Gem-9 into the Disciples’ humidification system. Raven, Clarke, O, Hope and Diyoza are in pursuit, finding her only moments away from enacting her plan. They try to talk her down—Raven even calls Echo her sister!—and shockingly, they do manage to sand down the edges of the spy’s anger. She sobs in Raven’s arms, and all seems to be well…until Anders shows up.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Diyoza tries to make peace with the fuming Anders, handing him the Gem-9, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to save Echo from getting sent to Penance. Hope is tired of listening and negotiating and dealing with the Disciples, so she offs Anders and takes the Gem-9, squeezing a single drop into the air above the water supply. And that would seem to be that save for the fact that Diyoza, in a tragic act of heroism, catches the toxin before it reaches its destination.
It kills her in phases, coating her with golden crystals. Just before it engulfs her face, she tells her daughter, “Don’t waste this chance, little one.” The rest of the team pulls Hope from the room while she screams and sobs, and she’s left pounding on the door while she watches her mother die.
Other Observations
- While I’d predicted Diyoza wouldn’t make it out of this season—and even predicted her death would be connected to Hope in some way—that didn’t make this episode’s final moments any easier to watch. Thanks to Shelby Flanery, Hope’s agony felt so real. It’s been a while since I got this emotional at The 100.
- This episode made it apparent, I thought, just how little time we spent getting to know how bonds developed on the Ring over the six-year time jump. Raven is calling Echo her sister and refusing to leave—but did we ever see much evidence of a closeness between them? I thought she’d been tighter with Emori during that time. I truly wish we’d had more flashbacks so that scene would have had an impact similar to Clarke and Raven’s talk in “Nakara.”
- I see Murphy’s story going one of two ways: He’s either going to die (“Don’t look now, John, but you just might be someone worth following” has me all kinds of worried) or Emori’s pregnant (the line about her “glowing” and the show taking the time to demonstrate that Murphy’s good with kids could be evidence of that point). I suppose both could happen, but that’d be pretty dark, even for The 100. And part of me thinks both Murphy and Emori will live now, because we only have six episodes left, which is a tight timeframe to introduce and resolve the moral conflict of deciding whether to give either of them a new body or destroy their mind drive.
- Did I go into this season expecting to love the Sheidheda storyline? No. Is it probably my favorite part of this season now? YEP. The Indra vs. Sheidheda fight was a nail-biter—there were several moments when I was convinced Indra wasn’t making it out alive. Adina Porter and JR Bourne are so great, and they play off each other well. There’s an eerie-yet-fun magnetism to Bourne’s Sheidheda that makes him a blast to watch. More of this, please.
- I know the “final test” isn’t going to resemble our concept of an exam, but that was the first thing I thought of. The mental image of Clarke—because you know it’s going to be Clarke—sitting at a desk with some spindly alien creature looming over her as she fills out multiple choice bubbles made me laugh. Hope she’s been studying!
- Rating: 3.5/5—I always find myself wishing more was happening with Clarke and her friends this season, but it seems like things are starting to pick up. Plus, the Sanctum storyline was excellent.
The 100, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
