Why This Fan Fave Character Might Not Make It to the End on ‘The 100’
Opinion
Throughout the past 12 episodes of The CW’s sci-fi drama The 100, it’s seemed like one character was being set up for a heroically tragic fate: Murphy (Richard Harmon). The once hate-able—and now immensely lovable—antihero kept saying and doing things that raised death flags. Who tells their girlfriend “I’m coming back” when they go off to do life-threatening acts of bravery? Characters who aren’t coming back! Except, Murphy did. And, true to his nature and against all odds, he keeps on surviving.
There is one other character who seems poised to not make it out of Season 7: Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley). His recent 180-degree shift to placing the lives of his friends beneath The Shepherd’s warlike, emotionless commandments has already led him down a dark path. With just three episodes left in the series, it’s unclear whether he’ll turn back to the light.
Here’s why we now think Bellamy—not Murphy—might succumb before the end credits of the Sept. 30 series finale, “The Last War.”
All the Murphy Foreshadowing
To be fair, The 100 could very much kill off both Murphy and Bellamy. This is a show that, in both Season 3 and Season 6, got rid of two main characters within mere episodes of each other. But it’s been laying on the “death foreshadowing” so thick with Murphy the whole season, it’s almost unbelievable that it’ll start meaning something now.
If Murphy was going to die, last episode would’ve been the perfect time; he would’ve made his heroic stand against Sheidheda (JR Bourne) and perhaps killed him to save everyone in the bunker. And everything seemed to line up for him to do it—he’d had his emotional moment with Emori (Luisa D’Oliveira), delivered that fateful “I’m coming back” line and even had Indra (Adina Porter) say she was proud of him. The fact that there were no press screeners released for the episode suddenly seemed ominous. It appeared the show was building to the cockroach’s noble end… and then his story continued.
If Murphy was going to die, why not kill him off then? It’s possible the writers wanted him to have last conversations with Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Raven (Lindsey Morgan) and Bellamy, or perhaps Emori is pregnant and what we’re really building to is a sacrifice-to-save-his-unborn-child situation. There’s been plenty of foreshadowing for that, too.
A Continued Character Cycle
But The 100 is a show that, throughout its run, has thrived on subverting expectations. See: killing fierce warrior king Roan (Zach McGowan) anticlimactically by drowning him in acid rain, resurrecting Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) only to kill him off in the same episode and, most controversially, killing off Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) via stray bullet. The fact that Murphy has been so heavily telegraphed to die almost makes it seem he’s safe. Whereas Bellamy…
Bellamy’s been stuck in this cycle of “following a powerful and corrupt leader” before, and every time he’s done it, someone’s ended up gravely injured or dead. In Season 1, he (unknowingly, but still) followed Diana Sydney’s lead and tried to kill Jaha (Isaiah Washington), who barely pulled through his injuries. In Season 3, he followed Pike (Michael Beach), and that led to the deaths of an entire grounder army…and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos)’s late love, Lincoln (Ricky Whittle). Sure, Bellamy’s adherence to the Disciples could get someone else killed this time, too—maybe Echo (Tasya Teles) or someone else he cares about. But what if the person Bellamy’s blind-faith following kills is himself?
Very Little Time Left
Another thing pointing to Bellamy dying rather than Murphy is the lack of episodes left in the show’s run. At this point, Murphy has completed his evolution: he’s a leader, someone worth following, a person with a good heart buried under dozens of layers of snark and sarcasm. Bellamy, on the other hand, seems like he just started an arc that would need another half-season to draw to a satisfying conclusion…and there’s only a few installments left to explore it.
Were the series finale to be two-hours long, Bellamy might get a redemption arc that feels satisfying. But with so little time left, it seems almost equally likely his atonement will arrive via heroic death.
Subverting Expectations
There would be a poetic tragedy in Bellamy returning to his old self just long enough to make a sacrifice play to save Clarke and the rest of his friends (and probably dying in either Clarke or Octavia’s arms, because The 100 likes to rip its viewers’ hearts out). In that way, he’d “right” his “wrongs” and have gone back to the light side, earning his redemption and dying with the knowledge that he’d protected those he loves.
And for those who’d say Bellamy’s safe because half of Season 7 was predicated on his fake death…not so fast. While it could be true, and Bell’s disappearance might shield him from a tragic fate, it also might be just predictable enough for the show to knowingly subvert it. If the writers knew fans would assume Bellamy’s extended absence would save him, they could deliberately write against it and kill him off in the finale. And in fact, building the season on the cornerstone of his death might’ve been a way to desensitize fans to it so that there’s less of an outcry if it happens for real.
Ultimately, it’s unlikely Bellamy would die before the series finale; he’s been there since the first episode, and he should be there until the last. But as for whether he makes it to the end credits…well, that’s another question entirely. Here’s hoping the eldest Blake pulls through—he’s not beyond redemption and he deserves true happiness, not whatever smoke-and-mirrors “peace” he’s found with The Disciples.
The 100, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
