The 100 Review: Etherea (Season 7 Episode 11)
Bellamy Blake is back on The 100 Season 7 Episode 11, “Etherea,” but the timing is too convenient.
When we first saw what happened to Bellamy in the explosion on The 100 Season 7 Episode 5, “Welcome to Bardo,” it was heartwrenching, but from the moment “Etherea” started, it’s hard not to ask why it took anyone on Bardo three months to confirm whether or not Bellamy was actually dead.
The thing is if you’ve been around the block with this fandom, you know that that wasn’t a real death. No one was confirming it, and everyone was hinting that he’d be back.
The opening to “Etherea is all manufactured. It’s a quick exchange to give us the status quo after Hope killed Anders at the end of The 100 Season 7 Episode 6, “A Little Sacrifice.”
Let’s be honest, no one is mourning Anders right now. Yes, the humans on Bardo most likely are: but does the audience care? Afterall, Clarke is the key, there is really no reason to suspect that their lives may be in jeapordy at that point.
The one good part of that opener is seeing Levitt realize that Bellamy is alive, and exclaiming like the fanboy he’s become for Octavia’s story.
As we move into the story of Bellamy marooned on Etherea with the Conductor, the events play out as you’d expect. It’s a pilgrimage, and there’s likely going to be a transformation.
Was Bellamy the one we expected to change? No.
Bob Morley’s performance on this episode is captivating, and he has a great chemistry with Jonathan Scarfe. “Etherea” is also a great example of how you can compress time and tell a compelling story, but where it pays off and rips the rug out from under us is the ending.
Bellamy has always been about a champion of his friends: Octavia, Clarke, Echo.
They’re what drives him to fight, and seeing him give up the fact that Clarke no longer has the flame is a punch in the gut. That scene is terrifying, but I want to assume that in a quarantine-like solitude Bellamy spent a lot of time reading the Conductor’s book and maybe sees something more in his experience.
While it’s great to have Bellamy back, and he has been missed, it’s really hard to make peace with this episode’s placement.
Once again, The 100 intercuts its momentum, backtracking overtime to get us to a shocking final moment. I want to suspend my disblelief with this episode and think that certainly we should be shocked by the idea that Bellamy survived, but it’s not shocking. At all.
A part of me is really hoping that what Bellamy went through on Etherea is a part of the final test or at least a gateway to it.
With only a few episodes left until the finale, it’s getting more and more infuriating that the progress on the final battle or whatever it’s supposed to be.
A part of me is still thinking it’s going to be something about climate change loving each other, and that’s really all it boils down, then this season is really a big jerk around.
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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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.