The 100 Review: Welcome to Bardo (Season 7 Episode 5)

Behold! The much talked about planet called Bardo on the aptly titled The 100 Season 7 Episode 5, “Welcome to Bardo.” Unfortunately, the welcome is anything but warm and certainly doesn’t leave any of us wanting to sightsee. 

“Welcome to Bardo” does a good job of giving us just enough from previous episodes to place events into context without bogging the episode down in backstory.

However, while The 100 Season 7 Episode 4, “Hesperides,” may suffer from too many planets, “Welcome to Bardo” suffers from too many timelines (or time dilations). As Doctor Who would say, “it’s a wibbly-wobbly time-y whime-y ball of stuff.”

Not only do we have Octavia’s time on Bardo, but we have Echo, Gabriel, and Hope’s movements, plus events unfolding on Sanctum. Given how time dilation works it can make for a very confusing episode if you’re not paying attention to the text on the screen. 

What saves this episode is Marie Avgeropoulos’s performance as Octavia. Since we spend most of our time with her as the point-of-view character all the events we see on Bardo eventually relate back to her.  

Avgeropoulos works really well opposite Jason Diaz’s Levitt, who watches her memories with the same thrill the audience has for the last six seasons. Their scenes together are the strongest of the episode. 

Levitt and Octavia could be a strong relationship going forward if it wasn’t for his terrifying job in memory capture (m-cap). What bothers me about m-cap is the same thing that bothers me about telepathy: it’s an invasion of privacy and it gives him an advantage over her while she knows nothing about him. 

Levitt could have been playing a double agent. We don’t know, which is what makes m-cap so insidious. 

The fact that Bardo doesn’t seem to care and uses the technology anyway speaks volumes about them and paints a terrifying picture. 

From Hope, Gabriel, and Echo’s mission we can see Anders giving a speech that gives us plenty to dissect about the origin of the humans we’re seeing and the Bordoans that came before them.

The revelation that they are actually from Earth and not Elygius III makes for an interesting twist, but it actually makes me wonder if these were the humans from the Second Dawn Bunker. If they managed to escape and move across the stars. It would make sense as to how they have adapted to living underground. 

Where “Welcome to Bardo” ultimately fails is in the ability to advance the plot any further. While there are new developments, there’s nothing substantive to sink our teeth into in regards to the many planets that we now have on our radar or this supposed war.

Each episode that drags out this idea of what the last battle for all mankind and why Clarke is important is a wasted opportunity. 

Back at Sanctum there’s a more pressing problem. The Faithful are getting restless and the Primes need to quell a rebellion.

There’s a bit of stupidity here when you consider the Faithful’s logic. Their plan doesn’t make sense. This leads me to want to clap when Russell enters the room and starts telling them exactly that. I don’t particularly want to clap for Russell. 

The Faithful are playing to sentiment and hoping that Indra doesn’t want to see people die. They’re not wrong, but this same logic stands in sharp contrast to Bardo where everyone is urged to think of the collective. 

This scene is really designed to bring Sheidheda out of hiding and it’s beautifully done. 

These scenes are carried by Adina Porter and JR Bourne. Bourne does a menacing villain really well, and Porter plays with Indra’s backstory in a compelling way.

More importantly, this plot puts Indra in a position of leadership and it’s the kind of leadership Sanctum needs right now. Keeping in mind that almost every character of major importance is off the planet, we need someone with a commanding presence to handle this situation. She’s not gonna let Sheidheda get away that easily. 

Indra has the most to lose, and the biggest ax to grind. The way she refuses to let Jackson administer an anesthetic to Russell is just the tip of the iceberg. 

“Welcome to Bardo” introduces a lot of tension, and leaves us with the sad note of Bellamy Blake’s death. 

There’s something about the scene where he dies that feels off, but we’ve also seen this before.

Remember the Season 1 finale when Clarke closed the drop ship door and then blasted off, supposedly burning Bellamy alive? Just because it looks that way doesn’t necessarily make it true, and if it is then once again Avgeropoulos’s performance was stunning, and second only to Tasya Teles’s scream. 

It’s an interesting scene to end on, and definitely one that leaves us with more questions than it does answers. 

Stray Thoughts:

• Still not buying the whole invisibility thing? If they could ghost then why weren’t there dozens of invisible guards trying to take Octavia down? Are there complicated rules behind ghosting that we don’t know?
• John and Emori had some great moments on this episode too. The way John entered the tavern when he saw that they were going to sacrifice a child next was a very selfless move and felt very un-Murphy. Still, glad he did it. 
• Jackson is doing his best to fill Abby’s shoes, but it’s clear he’s not Abby. 

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

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The 100 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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