The 100 Review: The Old Man and The Anomaly (Season 6 Episode 8)

The 100 Season 6 Episode 8, “The Old Man and The Anomaly,” marks a pivotal turning point in the show’s story as many of this season’s plotlines are sent spiraling into chaos. Written by Miranda Kwok and directed by April Mullen, “The Old Man and The Anomaly,” does an impressive job taking almost every narrative we’ve been introduced to and kicking them from 100 to 100,000 in the space of just forty-five minutes. 

Above all of the chaotic and nerve-wracking plot twists within this episode, “The Old Man and The Anomaly” is, at its heart, about how far a person will go to save someone that they love. That theme runs through every single moment of this episode, and it is something that is inherent to The 100 as a whole. 

Madi lets Sheidheda talk her into burning down the world for Clarke, Murphy and Emori struggle between saving each other and saving their whole family, and Abby lets herself cross questionable lines in the name of saving Kane. Meanwhile, The Anomaly calls to Octavia, Diyoza, and Xavier/Gabriel (henceforth nicknamed Xabriel), by using the people that they both love and fear the most.

While keeping that message of love at the heart of this episode, Kwok also manages to work each storyline within to an absolute fever pitch, raising the stakes for every character and sending the audience into a proper frenzy, right at the edge of what equates to The 100‘s midseason finale hiatus (which is blessedly brief this year).

CAN LOVE ME FOREVER?

Josephine is awake and in control (for the most part), and she’s ready to end Clarke once and for all. Unfortunately for her, Russell takes Clarke’s survival as a chance to correct the mistake he made in killing her in the first place which would also protect him from the wrath of his fellow Primes when they learn he skipped the line for his daughter. 

Josie: Trust me, if we bring her back she’ll kill us all. 

Russell: I don’t think she will, not if we do the right thing. 

Rarely has The 100 introduced a group of new characters who are all this fascinating. Josephine, Russell, and the other primes are some of the show’s most complex and compelling villains to date. Russell toes the line between doing the right thing and damning it all for the sake of his child with impressive delicacy. Mad props to JR Bourne for being able to deliver that balance with such an overwhelming level of believability. 

Part of Russell must have believed Clarke’s genuine please to be allowed to do better when she first argued on behalf of her people at the beginning of Season 6. And what he’s seen so far from her people seems to have further sold her case to him. He sees the good in these people through his interactions with Clarke, Bellamy, Abby, and the others, and he also sees the value of keeping them on his side. 

With Madi going off the rails and Bellamy taking Josephine behind enemy lines, Russell’s commitment to “the right thing” has become tenuous at best. Now that the truth of what he did to Clarke is out in the open, his fellow Primes may not be so willing to prosecute the people from Earth for their crimes.

Sure, Madi murdered two of their people, and yes that’s obviously wrong. Technically, he murdered Clarke first, and then superseded the rights of the other Primes who were ahead of her in the lineage. It will be interesting to see if Russell will be able to hold himself accountable for what he’s done and find the strength to forgive Madi and Bellamy, or if he’ll become his own self-fulfilling prophecy and burn everything down to get his daughter back. 

Russell’s delusions of grandeur play perfectly into the position he has now found himself in. From his murderous bloody rage during the first Red Sun, screaming “Sanctum is mine!” while killing nearly all of his fellow settlers, to the way that Ryker refers to him as Zeus, everything about Russell pieces together to make him a sympathetic leader in one breath and an incredibly selfish monster in the next. 

One’s love for another person can easily muddy the waters of morality when their life is on the line. Madi, while on the opposite side of this conflict, is a prime example of that.

Sheidheda’s influence over Madi has continued to grow in the wake of Clarke’s “death,” and from what we know about the flame, it enhances what is already inside someone. Madi takes a very dark and ugly turn on this episode, and I’ve got to say, I don’t like it one bit. 

This plot may be leading somewhere that could very well have a satisfying conclusion, but as of right now it only adds friction to a story that is already ripe with conflict. I love that Madi would do anything to protect Clarke–that part of this storyline is a great way to flip the previous season’s narrative on its head. However, I’m now on team “get that thing out of Madi’s head” before it destroys her character any further. 

The Flame has the potential to be used as an interesting plot device that can expand our knowledge of post-apocalypse one Earth and the history of Grounder culture. Unfortunately, that isn’t what the story is doing with it right now. I want the Madi who believed in good guys and heroes back. 

In a tragic and heart-racing twist, Madi’s knife goes through Jordan as he keeps her from committing another murder. Jordan is such a beacon of innocence and goodness, as well as someone that Madi actually cares for. Hopefully, this mistake will be enough of a wake-up call for her to realize that The Flame’s influence over her is doing more harm than good.

Perhaps those moments from the Season 6 trailer where Madi appears to be suffering while being experimented on were a misdirect? Could Madi choose for herself to have The Flame removed, which is complicated by her connection with Sheidheda? Maybe the Prime’s knowledge of The Mindspace will play a part in Madi being able to defeat the Dark Commander and take her life back. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! 

In a much more satisfying vein, Murphy and Emori must choose to “do better” in their own ways as they are faced with an opportunity to save themselves or save the people that they love. The 100 takes me by complete surprise on “The Old Man and The Anomaly” by having Murphy actually propose to Emori with a literal promise of forever. 

Murphy: Emori, I love you. And I know I’ve never been perfect or even close for that matter, but you make me want to be. 

Murphy and Emori have a history of looking out for themselves above others, but you would have to be blind not to see that they have had a positive impact on each other. They make each other better people; as Murphy says in his proposal, she inspires him to try. Murphy brings the same out in Emori, and through her relationship with him, she found the only family she’s ever known. 

Emori is the perfect double agent. She cares about people on both sides of this moral dilemma, and she’s just clever enough to be able to save them all. 

Murphy’s proposal to spend the rest of eternity together is an attractive one, as it’s the ultimate survivor’s move with the person she loves more than almost anything. But Murphy isn’t the only person that Emori loves: one look at her space family, at Echo–the family member she probably has the most in common with–is all it takes to convince her to do the right thing. 

Each member of Spacekru grew up in vastly different ways, but Emori, Murphy, and Echo were each completely on their own for some portion of their childhoods. She relates to these people with ease and understanding–Murphy is the man she loves, and Echo has become her sister. 

Emori was also quick to forgive Clarke’s transgressions during Season 4, asking Raven to wait past their deadline to give her the chance to make it to space with them, even though mere days before Clarke had been willing to test her in a radiation chamber. Clarke’s willingness to cross that line left a mark on Murphy, but it’s what Clarke did next that made an impact on Emori. 

Clarke chose to inject herself instead, and then she gave Emori her space suit, saving her Emori’s life and risking her own on untested nightblood. Emori knows darkness, and she knows what it costs to betray others because that’s how she grew up. She took advantage of whatever she could in order to survive. But she’s learned that no matter what’s in your past or what you do in fear, you can still do better at the very next opportunity.

What it means to have a second chance is one of The 100 Season 6’s biggest themes, and Emori looks at every fork in the road as a chance to keep going, keep living, and keep saving what she loves.

Bellamy: You think we care about that traitor?

Josie: Lord knows you shouldn’t! But yeah, I do, which brings us to yet another episode of no good choices!

Emori also takes advantage of not being limited by impossible binary decisions by making her own option. She chooses to save Clarke, but she makes the choice to save Murphy too. All of these people matter to her; no one is expendable.

Practically everyone else in this episode makes some kind of compromise of their principals in order to do what they believe is right, but Emori stands by hers even in the face of her own mortality. For a character that once was willing to betray just about anybody to stay alive, that’s a pretty big deal. 

The plan goes pear-shaped, as the best-laid plans often do, but Emori still manages to get Bellamy and JC past the radiation shield, and keep Murphy alive until the two of them are captured. That is what Monty meant by doing better. 

Emori: My answer is yes. I will love you forever even if we die today. 

Murphy is decidedly less concerned about their friends–but when you look at it from his perspective, he’s given them a lot more than they’ve given him, especially since they landed. The previous day, Bellamy told Murphy that Monty would be ashamed of him, and now he calls him a traitor. Then, Echo leaves him behind. Murphy can only be expected to fight for this family as much as they are willing to fight for him. 

At this point, the only connection Murphy can trust is the one he has with Emori. Earlier this season I pointed out that Clarke and Murphy are almost two sides of the same coin; I would love to see this group of people band around Murphy the way they have around Clarke.

Sure, Clarke’s saved them all a few more times than Murphy has, but he has saved them, and that means something–or at least it should. 

Echo and Bellamy work together as pretty good co-leaders throughout this episode, secure enough in their connection to trust each other to save the people that they care about. Echo knows how important Clarke is to everyone and she trusts Bellamy to do what it takes to bring her back, while Bellamy trusts Echo to stay on the inside and protect the rest of their little family now trapped behind enemy lines. 

At the end of ” The Old Man and The Anomaly,” it appears that everyone from Earth has been captured, except for maybe Echo. Given her history as a spy, being on the outskirts of this brewing war should give her the perfect edge to save her family and maybe even give them an advantage in the inevitable war for Sanctum. 

Bellamy: Stay safe. 

Echo: Save Clarke. 

The stakes for Clarke’s body have certainly been raised as Josie shows signs of increased brain deterioration giving Bellamy a pretty tight deadline to save her life. The whole situation is heightened further by the fact that Jackson didn’t make it out with them.

Now Bellamy’s only hope of saving Clarke is finding Gabriel. 

Josie and Gabriel’s two-hundred-plus-year history makes this one of the confrontations I am most looking forward to this season. There’s a past filled with both love and bad blood between these two, which has led them both to be the figureheads of this world’s two opposing sects. 

Will Gabriel want to kill Josephine or save her? Will he see saving Clarke as a chance to redeem himself for helping to create this society? Will Josephine be able to convince Gabriel she still cares for him? Does she still care for him? Will seeing Gabriel again shift something in Josephine?

YOUR DARKEST FEAR, YOUR DEEPEST DESIRE 

Meanwhile, out in the woods, all of our Xabriel suspicions are confirmed as soon as we arrive at the verge. Shout out to The Afictionados for clocking this imposter a mile away. While the way that Gabriel has survived all this time isn’t what I expected it, the twist still comes off quite naturally. 

Gabriel set out on his own to save lives and bring down a system of “false gods” that he feels responsible for helping to create. We learn that Gabriel basically got a taste of his own medicine when the person he raised to extract and destroy his Minddrive saved him against his will.

Josie: He loved you too much to lose you, I know the feeling. 

Upon waking, Xabriel killed the son that he raised in a fit of rage that makes me hesitant to say either team on this planet is “the good guys.” 

The 100 Season 6 has been leaning hard into classic science fiction, and Battlestar Galactica has long been a clear inspiration for Showrunner Jason Rothenberg. Xabriel’s story about Eduardo and his nonconsensual resurrection reminds me of the speech that Adama makes in the show’s pilot mini-series. 

For anyone who does not know, Battlestar Galactica is the story of the last of the human race fleeing for their lives from a race of Cylons (read: robots) that they created who have risen up and decided to wipe out their creators. On the eve of the massive Cylon attack that serves as the inciting incident for the rest of the series, Commander Bill Adama ends a ceremonial speech with these foreboding lines:

Adama: You cannot play god and then wash your hands of the things that you’ve created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can’t hide from the things that you’ve done anymore. 

This quote feels apt for Season 6 as a whole, but especially Xabriel’s ascent to false-godhood for a second time. He ran from the society that he helped to create, and then ran from his responsibilities to the new group of rebels he created here. It’s time for him to stop running–it’s time for all of these people to stop running–for the cycle to break we must face our demons, and then do better.

We learn bits and pieces about this Anomaly as we follow our merry trio of terrorists closer to the glowing green light.

Here’s what we know so far: the space around the Anomaly has similar effects to the Red Sun, causing people to see things that aren’t there. It has a temporal effect that warps time for biological life on the planet. All radio signals on the planet are swallowed up by the force and caught in endless feedback loops (while we’re there we hear signals from Bellamy, Raven, and Josephine garbled and repeated).

Oh, and no one who’s ever gone into it has ever come back out. Until now.

As Xabriel, Diyoza, and Octavia near the Anomaly, they all begin to hallucinate the person that they both love and fear the most. Xabriel sees Josephine, Diyoza sees her daughter, and Octavia sees Bellamy. Each person hallucinates someone that means the world to them, someone whom they’re also terrified of in some way.

Octavia fears that not only does her brother hate her now, but he might hate her for the rest of their lives. Diyoza fears the expectations of being a good mother in a world that has already pinned her as an evil terrorist. Xabriel fears his past with Josie, what he did to bring her back, and the love he clearly can’t let go of.  

I have no idea what it means yet that Diyoza has disappeared inside this thing, but I am looking forward to finding out (and hopefully, getting her back).

Octavia is the first person to enter the Anomaly and come back out of it. She comes back out seconds after going in, completely healed. We don’t know what she saw in there, or how long she was gone in Anomaly time. I’m a little surprised that for all his knowledge of this space and all his curiosity, Xabriel himself has never gone in. 

“The Old Man and The Anomaly,” laid out the parallels between Xabriel and Octavia as false gods pretty clearly. Will they be able to solve this mystery together, and possibly figure out who they truly are in the process?

I also hope that this isn’t the end of the relationship between Octavia and Diyoza. This power duo has stolen our hearts in just a few short episodes, and the connection that they share is honestly one of the most touching and profound on the show. They’ve each found something that they need in the other, both an equal and a comfort to each other in this fascinating mentor/mentee bond. 

 

Diyoza brings Octavia back to herself, and Octavia tries to save Diyoza from going into The Anomaly. I hope this miracle marks the beginning of Octavia’s hero journey, one in which she finds herself and saves everyone–from Diyoza to Clarke, to Kane, and maybe even Bellamy. 

Another interesting highlight from this storyline is the quote that Xabriel repeats as they arrive at The Anomaly. He shares a line from the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton. 

Xabriel: Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light. 

The poem was written in the late 1600s, and tells the story of a civil war between Heaven and Hell, which also serves as a pretty clear metaphor for The 100 Season 6. Sanctum is clearly an apparent Heaven, while everyone living outside the dome lives in a veritable Hell. 

The Primes have made themselves into gods, and even textually condemned Gabriel as an actual demon. The conflict between these two forces has been brewing long before our heroes ever landed on this planet. Maybe they’re the only people who can stop it, or maybe they should just get out of the way and pick up the pieces when the dust settles.  

I CAN SAVE YOU

On the Eligius IV Mothership, Abby takes drastic measures to save Kane, sacrificing her own humanity for his. 

Throughout the episode, Abby is visibly uncomfortable with the means she has been given to save the man she loves. She wants more than anything to save his life because she believes that he deserves to live far more than she does. She also believes that this is the only way that they’ll be able to save him. 

Abby cannot bring herself to look at Gavin when he’s conscious. It’s heartbreaking to watch Abby reach this point, especially when just two seasons ago she was questioning whether she should experiment on someone in order to figure out the very solution she needs to save Kane now. It speaks so much to what she and Kane went through in the bunker, and it reflects how she sees herself now.

In the darkness of that bunker, Kane and Abby clung to each other through everything–through Blodreina’s violence, through The Dark Year, through Abby’s addiction and god knows what else, they stuck by each other with all of the commitment of, “til death do us part.” 

Abby began the series as a voice of morality fighting for the rights of all humankind to survive. She has always been fundamentally good. She is the person Marcus Kane trusts to lead their people out of the dark.

None of these characters have survived the last 131 years unscathed, and Abby has her fair share of blood on her hands, particularly from The Dark Year. Abby’s actions during The Dark Year were completely necessary, but she blames herself for letting Octavia shoulder that burden alone, and she blames herself for what they had to become. 

Abby has always fixated on what it means to deserve survival, and now she no longer believes herself worthy. But even through The Dark Year, Abby was always motivated by saving others. It makes sense that when she is presented with an opportunity to save someone that she knows is worthy, she takes the deal. I also cannot fault her for wanting to save one of the few people who might be willing and able to show her that her heart is still good. 

Abby: If you had the chance to bring back someone you loved, would you?

Raven: Not if I had to kill someone to do it. 

This response of Raven’s is, well, essentially very un-Raven. I understand that her role this season so far has been to remind everyone that the things they’ve had to do to survive have had too high a cost when it comes to innocent lives, as well as their own humanity. But it’s almost as if Raven was body-snatched when she went to Space. This person upon a shining moral high horse is not the Raven Reyes that I recognize from Seasons 1-4 of The 100.  

The Raven Reyes I know asked Clarke to murder the Grounder Commander and start a war to save the man she loved. That Raven helped shut down Mount Weather’s generators to save her people. That Raven convinced and supported Monty through killing his own mother in the City of Light. And then that Raven left Clarke behind in Priamfaya to save the rest of Spacekru. 

I am not saying that any of Raven’s past choices are right or wrong, but I am saying that if she remembers any of that at all she should at the very least be able to offer Abby Griffin a modicum of sympathy. Raven could still tackle this plotline from a perspective that finds what The Primes do immoral, while also understanding why Abby is in the position that she’s in, and why she so desperately wants to save the man she loves. 

Raven: I couldn’t save my mother but I can save you.

A Raven who knows this is wrong, but can see why Abby thinks she needs to do it is much more compelling than whoever this person is in her place. 

Raven clearly still loves Abby, even if she doesn’t approve of what she’s doing. This storyline is so rich with emotion, I only wish that it was fully capitalizing on the show’s own history to give it that extra shot of devastating accuracy. 

Abby’s choice to save Kane by sacrificing someone else is a hard pill to swallow for some, but if we really think about the history of The 100, Abby’s decision almost directly mirrors Kane’s choice to save her during Praimfaya. On The 100 Season 4 Episode 12, “The Chosen,” Kane saved Abby against her will by keeping her in the bunker–for him to have saved her another innocent Skaikru person had to die.

Raven: He’ll hate you for it. 

Abby: Maybe, maybe you’re right. I might lose him but at least he gets a chance to live. I am not doing this for me.

Abby was devastated by what Marcus did then, and he may be devastated by her choice now, but I hope that he will be able to understand why she did it, given that he’s already done the same for her. Marcus knew that saving Abby was both the right thing to do and the thing that he wanted to do–Abby believes saving Marcus is the right thing to do, even if this isn’t the way she wants to do it.

This closing scene is perhaps one of The 100‘s best “boom out” moments, as everything from Paige Turco and Greyston Holt’s performances combines with April Mullen’s brilliant direction to deliver a scene that is somehow both heart-warming and horrifying. When the transfer is complete, Abby is incredibly withdrawn and almost visibly terrified of what she’s done, but she can’t help but be drawn to this person the moment he begins to stir, to offer comfort to the man she loves.

Turco flawlessly moves from fear to relief and then back to fear as Abby experiences the overwhelming comfort of having the person that she loves back while being plagued by the intense guilt of what she did to get him here. Holt also delivers a very impressive performance as he manages to embody Marcus Kane instantly. From the way he speaks, to the way he holds Abby in his arms, Holt successfully delivers the difficult task of portraying a character we have come to love because of someone else. 

Mullen also did brilliant work through this entire episode, but this scene in particular. The way that Abby is drawn to Kane II’s hand when he wakes, then moments later Kane’s arm full of Earth Scars is the thing that causes him to realize he isn’t exactly himself anymore is brilliant in a way that I can’t even begin to quantify. The use of perspective is also perfect, as we see what Kane sees as he wakes in Gavin’s body, and then spiral around the two as they reunite to see the mix of relief and shock on both of their faces as they embrace. 

This is going to be one of Kane and Abby’s most emotional stories yet, and I am both excited and terrified to see where it leads. I may be fooling myself, but I still believe that this is only a temporary situation. If they keep him on ice, Kane’s body could very well be resurrected using The Anomaly, or the Time Amber that we’ve been introduced to in Octavia’s storyline. 

Having Octavia return from her walkabout to save Kane would be a really lovely way to bookend their journeys for Season 6. 

Until that happens, having Kane in this new body is likely to cause some delicious conflict on the Mothership. He and Abby both love each other more than anything, and I have no doubt they’ll get through this too, but this is certainly going to be an adjustment. Meanwhile, Kane has quite a bit of catching up to do, and I don’t think he’s going to take to kindly to their new hosts (ha!) no matter how much he’s currently benefiting from them.  

Ultimately, I trust The 100 to land this story in an emotionally satisfying manner and in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the ride. 

THOUGHT DEBRIS: 

• Why would they have brought one of the shock collars down with them? Like what’s the point of packing that? 
• Do Bellamy and the others know that Madi banished Gaia? Where has she gone? Do you think she’ll team up with the Children of Gabriel? Let me know your Gaia theories in the comments! 
• If Gabriel had never taught Eduardo about his MindDrive couldn’t he have just died of old age?
• Diyoza saying “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” as she and Octavia follow Xabriel toward the Anomaly is a whole Star Wars reference and I would like to draw hearts all around it, thank you. 
• I’m very impressed with the highlighter Octavia fell out of The Anomaly wearing, sis was GLOWING in that green light.
• I cannot believe that The 100 gave me Abby Griffin in an actual space suit. I have never been more grateful (or gay). 
• I’m very impressed by Greyston Holt, and I’m excited to have Marcus Kane back in any capacity, but boy do I miss Henry Ian Cusick. Let me cross all of my fingers and toes in hopes that I’ve accurately predicted where this is going. 
• Do you think Delilah is still alive? And that Gavin could be? Clarke survived because of her neural mesh, but the people from Sanctum don’t have that. I hope for Jordan’s (and Kane and Abby’s) sake that they can be saved. 
• IS JORDAN GOING TO BE OKAY???? You can’t have MADI kill Monty and Harper’s son not half a season after we’ve met him! 
• IS MURPHY? I know this is The 100 but can y’all maybe stop fatally wounding so many people that I care about? Geez!
• Can someone PLEASE tell Abby about Clarke? I understand if they have to be in separate narratives right now, but I’m also really excited for it all to come back together. 
• Simone immediately shuts down Gavin before he can tell Abby too much about Sanctum’s warped class system. When Abby learns the truth, about who these people are, and about what they did to Clarke, I don’t think she’s going to be so agreeable even if they “saved” Kane. 
• Why did no one know where Madi was when she went missing? SHE TOLD YOU HER PLAN GUYS, COME ON!
• Why has Xabriel never gone into The Anomaly himself?

 

What did you think of this episode of The 100? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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

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