The 100 Review: Nevermind (Season 6 Episode 7)

The 100 Season 6 Episode 7, “Nevermind,” immediately enters the hall of fame as one of the best episodes that the show has ever done. Written by returning champion Kim Shumway and directed by The 100 veteran director Michael Blundell, this episode is a love letter to Clarke Griffin, as well as every fan of both her and The 100. 

The level of detail in this episode is absolutely through the roof. Each scene contains an abundance of clues and Easter eggs–so much so that it might take at least a hundred viewings to catch them all.

From Clarke’s memories as drawings in her cell, to the costume changes and the manifestations of Clarke’s subconscious, to the new worldbuilding and the exploration of both the past, every piece of this episode was lovingly crafted and beautifully executed.  

Josephine: We’re back bitches! 

THERE IS NO JOY WITHOUT PAIN 

For the majority of “Nevermind,” we take a journey through Clarke’s past and get an inside look at how she sees herself. We are all amalgamations of our experiences; Clarke has been through so much, and each choice she’s made has shaped her into the person she is now. 

Clarke’s manifestations are all pieces of her own mind in the form of people she loved, or people that had a significant impact on her. They each reveal important information about both the Mind Space itself, as well as the inner workings of Clarke Griffin.

ALIE represents exposition and explanation, and perhaps a bit of remorse. Her dad is happiness, comfort, safety, and confidence in herself that drives her to figure things out, while Octavia is the face of Clarke’s regrets and betrayals committed by and against her, mixed with feelings of cowardice and fear.

Maya represents Clarke’s guilt and self-loathing, a literal ghost telling her that the cost of saving her people was too high.  But Maya also embodies Clarke’s ability to find another solution in the face of impossible odds. Then there’s Monty: he is the moral compass, the love she has for humanity both in the individuals that matter to her and as a whole, and he’s the constant reminder to keep trying to improve. Be better. 

Before we get too deep into these manifestations, let me just say that each of them is amazing, and each returning guest star helped to ground this story in the roots of The 100 in a really beautiful way. 

At first, Clarke believes she’s dead. That’s what Russell said to her right before he stole her body, and she wakes up to find her long-dead father in a place that was an approximation of Heaven after the rest of the Earth had been consumed by Hell. But even the most impressive illusions cannot fool Clarke Griffin for long. 

This isn’t the first time Clarke has hallucinated her father when she needs a little help getting back on the right track. He’s her voice of reason, and his memory pushes Clarke to see the bigger picture once more. There are people that will always love Clarke no matter what (Jake, Abby, Madi, and so on), and she can draw strength from that love use it to drive her forward. 

Clarke: I love you, Dad. 

Jake: Forever.

The sound and set designs for “Nevermind” are responsible for the kind of details that give this episode the extra push from being a great episode to being an incredible episode. Clarke’s heartbeat that tells her she is still alive is woven into the scene with her father from the moment she opens the door. The voices of the people that haunt her memories whisper to her in each space that they inhabit, all mixing together to create the cacophony of conflicting feelings within Clarke.

It is so clear that The 100 production team crafted each scene of this episode with a great amount of care and attention. Clarke and Josie’s costumes change depending on which memories they exist in, and each memory takes us back to sets and locations long gone.

Every announcement that Clarke and Josie’s consciousnesses are about to come face to face is also specific to the location that the characters are in at the moment. In Clarke’s Mind Space, we hear the ship’s computer announce a “collision alert,” whereas in Josie’s memories we hear nuclear sirens and impact warnings advising people to take cover.   

We learn from Clarke’s ALIE manifestation that the Chip from Season 3 is what allowed Clarke’s memories to be saved instead of being wiped away by Sanctum technology. The science of The 100 has never been perfect, but again, the attention to details like this is part of what makes Season 6 one of–if not the best–season(s) yet. 

ALIE: I tried to spare you the pain and horror of your existence. 

Clarke: There is no joy without pain. 

So, the Neural Mesh created by the chip backed up Clarke’s mind, and it can only be removed via EMP. (Meet me in the Thought Debris section to theorize about using this to save Kane. You know I had to.) As fun as it is to watch Josie and Clarke face off, there is simply not enough room in this body for both of them. 

ALIE works as a brilliant way to deliver some important episode and season-specific exposition, but she’s also a great way to show Clarke’s stubborn determination to hang on to her past, even though it causes her pain. You don’t ease pain, you overcome it–Clarke’s victories are sweeter because she has known loss. 

Josephine appears to be much better at compartmentalizing and doing away with her “messy” emotions, while Clarke is overflowing with them. Josie sees it as a weakness, Clarke uses it as a strength. 

Josie: You think you’re a badass, but your bravado covers self doubt. 

Next up on the Clarke Griffin Trauma Tour, Blodreina manifests as Clarke’s regrets. She also represents Clarke’s fear of facing everyone she loves and really learning what they think of her. Perhaps this particular vision comes to life as Octavia, because at a base level the two of them understand each other. Both women have made impossible decisions that they struggle to justify. 

Josephine: Even your projections hate you, Clarke! 

Octavia isn’t the only projection of Clarke’s that embodies her guilt and self-loathing. We flashback to Mount Weather and get a visit from Maya. Every guest star on “Nevermind” does an absolutely stellar job, but Eve Harlow stands out in her two brief scenes. When her character was alive, she was soft, kind, and brave; it’s fascinating to watch her play with the darker parts of Clarke’s mind and then turn right back around to be the representation of Clarke’s ability to out-think her enemies. 

Clarke’s fear of killing more people than she’s saved is a recurring theme of The 100 that traces all the way back to Season 2, and has been addressed in each season since then. 

We could go round and round analyzing each of Clarke’s past decisions and weighing the costs against the benefits. But as Abby said earlier this season, we won’t be judged for the things we did to survive, but for the reasons that we did them. Clarke’s reasons have always been rooted in love.

It’s arguable that what Clarke’s done in the past, and how the Primes have built their society, aren’t all that different. After all, their system of resurrection was built out of love, too. In fact, Russell and Clarke have a lot in common when it comes to their traits as leaders.

Josephine, however, seems to embody a complete absence of love, either because it’s something she never cared about in the first place, or the far more likely option: because it’s something she locked away and lost over time in her quest for immortality.

The real difference between Clarke and Josephine is that Clarke holds herself responsible for almost everything. Every loss, every mistake, every decision weighs on her and informs how she behaves under pressure. She is constantly evolving because of her experiences. 

Josephine, on the other hand, continually shirks responsibility for her actions. She refuses to see other points of view besides her own, and she thinks that her way of doing things–no matter the cost involved–is the best way. 

Josephine: You can’t win, so why bother?

Clarke: To make sure you lose. Me? I’ll find a way to survive, I always do. 

Finally, Josephine reaches the innermost sanctum (ha!) of Clarke’s mind, where she is haunted by the ghosts that have left the biggest impact on her. Lexa’s death still brings Clarke to tears, choosing to mercy kill Finn changed how she makes decisions, losing her father, losing Jasper–Clarke bears the responsibility for all of it. 

By now, Josephine understands a lot of what makes Clarke tick. She knows that all of her choices were to save the people she loves, and she uses that to manipulate Clarke to her breaking point. 

Clarke will do anything to save the people she loves, including sacrificing herself, so that’s exactly what Josephine pressures her to do. 

The thing is, Josephine frames Clarke sacrificing herself as something that’s never occurred to her before. Not only has it occurred to Clarke, but she’s done it more than once. Clarke “died” so that her friends could make it to space, she injected herself with nightblood so they wouldn’t have to test anyone else, she took the flame to save everyone from the City of Light. The list of times Clarke has sacrificed herself to save others could go on for miles. 

It’s also something that weighs so heavily on Clarke’s mind that it’s what the eclipse psychosis brought out in her. On “Red Sun Rising,” Clarke’s mind tells her that she’s a poison, and everyone she loves is better off without her because she’ll just get them all killed one day. 

Josephine takes advantage of that aspect of who Clarke is, and takes the win.   

Clarke: Tell Madi I love her, tell all of them. 

Clarke gives in because Josephine offers her the exact thing she’s been fighting for since the day she landed on Earth: peace and safety for her people.

It’s genuinely heartbreaking to see Clarke actually accept the idea that everyone she loves, and everyone who loves her, is better off without her. It’s also understandable how she got to this point. Self-sacrifice is as much part of Clarke’s nature as her survival instincts are, and when everyone from Murphy to Raven has been putting her on trial for her mistakes, it’s no wonder she takes the deal. 

If her subconscious, Josephine, and even her friends are all telling Clarke that they’re better off without her, then who is she to argue with them? 

Thankfully, as strong as her guilt and self-sacrifice are, Clarke’s moral compass and her will to live (not just survive) are even stronger. Monty Green returns to represent all of the best parts of Clarke Griffin, and if you don’t feel like crying the minute he comes into focus, you might want to check if you still have a heart. 

Monty: I get it, it’s been endless. Bearing it so we don’t have to, anyone would be tired. But are you really gonna leave her? 

Monty always held his friends accountable when he was alive, and he’s still doing it now–even if it’s only in their memories. His dying wish for them to “do better” has been present in each decision they’ve made since landing on Sanctum. Seeing him return to tell Clarke that she’s still got things worth fighting for–things worth living for–is truly poetic. 

YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE COME HERE

Monty and Clarke get up to some good old fashioned snooping and break into Josephine’s mind in order to win Clarke’s body back, or at the very least gain some control over it. 

Clarke’s Mind Space is a combination of spaceships and happy places, filled with her own drawings of all of her memories. Just like art is something that has been woven throughout the series as an aspect of Clarke’s personality, Josephine’s books have been sprinkled throughout the first six episodes of Season 6, building to the perfect conclusion that her Mind Space is a library. 

“Nevermind,” relies heavily on the talents of Eliza Taylor and Sara Thompson, who both deliver absolutely incredible work throughout. Both women are riveting as they explore Clarke’s mind and fight for control using humor, passion, physicality, and emotion to drive each scene home. 

Taylor, Thompson, and the guest stars from Clarke’s past aren’t the only ones to knock it out of the park in this episode, though. The Sanctum flashbacks of Kaylee VII and Josephine VII are just as compelling as everything that happens in Clarke’s Mind Space. It’s impressive on every level, for characters we’ve only known for a handful of episodes to be that captivating without any influence from our series regulars. 

The 100 regularly does a marvelous job of highlighting the talents of every cast member that comes through the show, and every single performance on “Nevermind” is a home run.

Inside Josie’s library, Clarke takes us to two very important flashbacks that were hinted at earlier on The 100 Season 6. We get the context for why Josephine killed Kaylee’s lover, and how it motivated Kaylee to murder Josie’s last body. The way that The 100 is building this world and planting the seeds of this new story is masterful. 

On each episode, we get a taste of how these people got to the point at which we meet them without giving away the whole story. Each piece of the puzzle expands this universe and keeps the audience hungry for the next revelation. 

Josephine founded a eugenics program called Oblation to purify the bloodline and make a society where only people with Nightblood are born. The program has been protested against by both the primes and our people, leaving only Josephine herself in support of it.

However, some parts of her plan have clearly worked their way into the culture. The concept of Nulls remains in place and works as an effective way of keeping people who can’t produce hosts at the lowest class level, they work menial jobs, and are forbidden from reproducing. 

Taking her own agenda too far, Josephine had begun putting babies that were born as Nulls in the Offering Grove. Isaac, Kaylee’s lover, had been rescuing these “offerings” and giving them a chance to live by delivering them to Gabriel. Now we know how those who follow “the old man” got out, and why they hate the Primes so much. 

Addressing the definition of one’s people is another theme that weaves in and out of every part of this episode. Clarke has to face it in her past, and Josie’s version of it is a pillar of all of her decision making. Josephine believes in the sanctity and power of the Primes. To her, everyone else is either a resource, or a waste of space. 

The 100‘s ever-evolving take on “my people” has reached another interesting turning point. On Season 5, it narrowed down to each person’s loved ones making the phrase more impactful than it ever had been before. Now, on Season 6, Josie is abusing it to justify what is essentially genocide. 

“My people” either needs to mean “my family,” or it needs to mean all people. Anything in the middle gets innocents killed, and devalues human life and what it means to live. Season 6 is exploring exactly that with such a deft hand that it tells me this is the story they have been trying to tell all along. 

Clarke and Monty break into Josephine’s most traumatic memories and get a look at what Earth was like before ALIE destroyed it. At first, I was surprised that Josephine’s trauma point wasn’t the massacre led by her father during the first Red Sun. Maybe it is one of them, hinted at by the audio being replayed behind the door before Clarke gets inside, but reusing that memory for this would have been a waste. 

“Nevermind” capitalizes on the opportunity to keep expanding this universe, painting every inch of the canvas with impressive detail. 

Aside from ALIE, and a sparse few Becca flashbacks, we’ve never seen what Earth was like before Apocalypse 1–let alone what it was like for everyday people. ALIE’s claim that there were “too many people” is both echoed here by Josephine herself (albeit about a much smaller issue) and proven accurate by the features of this scene.

People come into the diner covered in dust, and every patron carries a mask and goggles, or both. Josie and her friend talk about how “dusty” and awful it is outside, as an excuse for why they don’t go to a “water rationing protest.” It’s a grim and devastating look at our actual future if we don’t take action against climate change to protect our planet. 

We also get a glimpse at Becca and Diyoza on the covers of magazines and tabloids. It’s interesting that Becca was at the height of power and praise, but her program brought about the apocalypse; Diyoza was criminalized for treason against the government that likely caused many of the problems Becca was trying to solve. 

Josie’s flashback also touches on the extremely topical and touchy subject of toxic masculinity. First, in the implication that one of her professors sexualizes his students, and then more aggressively in Dave, who decides to kill himself in front of Josephine to punish her for rejecting him. 

It’s horrific and terrifying, and all too real in today’s world. Originally, Josephine didn’t even want to come to Planet Alpha with the rest of her family, but this experience changes her mind. Consequently, it changes her life forever, as that choice leads to her becoming a Prime and evolving into a self-proclaimed deity who lost her heart. 

I’m interested to see if this memory plays into the as of yet unexplored trauma she holds surrounding Gabriel. Gabriel (as far as we know) isn’t toxic, and he’s definitely on the right side of morality. But if watching a boy kill himself and blame it on her is such a pressure point for Josephine, having a man she loves abandon the society they built together because of her is going to leave a mark.

A-L-I-V-E

Clarke manages to stay in Josie’s Mind Space by hiding as her Monty manifestation, and with big Stranger Things energy, she delivers a message to Bellamy with Christmas lights and morse code. It’s such a clever nod to both Clarke and Bellamy’s pasts as absolute nerds, and the connection they share that allows him to understand what it means. 

Bellamy: It means Clarke’s alive, and we’re gonna get her back! 

So the battle for Clarke’s body rages on. Josephine is ready to kick her out–but as she said, Clarke won’t go quietly and now she has backup. Will our heroes be able to save her and still secure a sanctuary for themselves, or will they have to sacrifice one for the other?

THOUGHT DEBRIS:

• Hello friends, this is where I spin my crazy “this is how we save Kane” theories, thank you for coming.
  • On the previous episode, Josie gave Abby a solution to save Kane that comes with some pretty unfortunate conditions. We were also introduced to the magical healing tree sap, Time Amber, for no clear reason as it didn’t actually work on Octavia’s aging arm.
  • It’s probable that Abby is going to go through with the mind transfer and Kane’s mind will spend some time in the body of a volunteer, because none of the characters with crucial life-saving information can contact her (or each other) at the moment. But, if Kane has a Neural Mesh, like Clarke, from the time that he was chipped, his mind should stay backed up in his original body.
  • If Octavia and Diyoza can bring enough of that time-sap up to the ship, no matter what happens to Kane with the Prime’s plan, the could still be able to save his life the right way. The way he would want. 
  • Okay, that’s all! Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk about Marcus Kane, please enjoy the rest of my stray thoughts below, xoxo! 
• I like to think “I love you.” “Forever.” is something that Jake and Clarke said to each other throughout her childhood. The delivery of it in this episode effortlessly speaks volumes. It reads like a little family phrase that was said over and over even though this is the first time we’ve heard it. 
• Josie saying “all this running is just plain undignified” is a whole mood. 
• Why did Josie bring in a projection of her father in his current body and not his original one? I’m sure this is an actor availability issue, but it’s still an interesting choice. 
• I love that Josie says “Yahtzee!” when she finds Clarke’s memory. Little things like that gound her to a life on Earth before Apocalypse #1. 
• “It’s why you cry when you think of Lexa.” Oh neat, I also cry when I think of Lexa so thanks for explaining that one Josie. In all seriousness, I love this line and I love that that relationship continues to impact Clarke in real and emotional ways. It doesn’t hold her back but it does shape who she is. 
• Who allowed Eliza Taylor to be so breathtaking in the saddest part of this episode? Ma’am that highlight can be seen from space even through my tears. 
• Clarke’s heart is so big and full of love. I will defend her until my dying breath. 
• Josephine tried 0100 on the lock, aka “The 100,” but she “forgot Raven and Bellamy” making Clarke’s passcode 0102. I definitely missed this detail the first time around but now I love it. 
• Is the Offering Grove just a way of getting rid of the dead, sacrificing people, or committing suicide, or does the forest actually do something or create something as a result of those offerings? The trees consume whatever organic life is given to them, but what does that result in? Does sacrificing one’s self to the Offering Grove actually produce a benefit for Sanctum, or is it just another way that the Primes have created an illusion of holiness and grace to cover the ugliness of what they’re actually doing?
• Gabriel’s “latest host” should be over 95 by now, but I am still Team “He’s Xavier” until proven otherwise. 

 

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The 100 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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