The 100 Review: The Dying of the Light (Season 7 Episode 15)

It’s hard to put the feelings, that The 100 Season 7 Episode 15, “The Dying of the Light,” leaves us with into words. 

Actually, no! It’s not. This episode is frustrating beyond belief and feels completely nihilistic. 

The 100 is a series where there are no boundaries and no one is safe, but the fact that we leave this episode with Madi having had a massive stroke after Cadogen relentlessly tortured her in M-Cap is unconscionable. 

There is so much to unpack in the final scene and none of it is okay. 

If your reaction to the last five minutes of the episode is anger; that’s good. You should be angry about this because The 100 hasn’t had a villain that vile to inflict this kind of violence on a child.

I’d argue that that makes Cadogen the most worthy adversary for the finale, but that’s giving a character who shows up mid-season too much credit. Madi does not deserve to be locked into her own body. She doesn’t deserve to not have a role in the final episode.

Too many people have been making choices for Madi since she joined the cast on The 100 Season 5, and she deserves to have her own voice. Not be a pawn. 

In Cadogen’s mind, she was a tool to be used and to hell with what the memory capture device did to her. He got his answer, and he can proceed to the test, or war, or whatever this season has been dragging us towards. 

In the end, it’s not worth it if this is the kind of sacrifice that has to happen. Even Levitt, who was raised thinking this was the ultimate goal, is starting to see that with Sheidheda’s carnage as they approach memory capture. War is senseless. People you know will be lost. 

Madi’s loss hurts more than most because it isn’t an ending. This isn’t a kind of death that The 100 has given us before. We’ve seen people shot out of airlocks, stabbed, roasted by a death wave, and gunned down, and those deaths have been quick and definitive.

Madi’s end is something more. It’s agency taken away, and it’s much worse when you factor in that she is a child.  Not only is she a child, but a child that was thrust into the role of Commander in an attempt to unite the clans, who was then at the mercy of Sheidheda! 

When that role was removed, Madi should have had the chance to live her life like a normal child. In fact, if it wasn’t for the anomaly stone she’d probably still be out there being a kid. Which is what she deserved!

Yes, I am aware that Sheidheda would still want Madi dead even if they didn’t have the anomaly stone. However, I would argue that you can contend with him because you’d still be playing with rules and technology that most of the characters are familiar with as long as the group is together.

Which just brings me back to one of my main issues with the season. The fact that the cast is split into different cells acting independently of one another.

We’re at the same juncture now in the penultimate episode. Clarke and Octavia now on the quest to rescue Madi. John, Emori, Raven, and Jackson all working to unearth the bunker’s stone to get to Sanctum. Indra, Gaia, Hope, and Jordan just…in the rotunda…waiting?

Echo and Niylah, who knows where, but presumably okay because the Azgeda symbol on the floor was too big a revelation to just let them float off into oblivion before the finale without any real significance. 

When you break down how “The Dying of the Light” is structured, it’s a story about two lives being in danger: one who mattered so much because she could carry an entire faith on her shoulders, and one who mattered so little Clarke and company were once willing to use her to test a night blood experiment. 

Emori’s had a different tone this season. She’s been lighter. She’s embraced the fact that she’s important to someone and can make a difference. Seeing her in pain on this episode isn’t the ending she deserves either.

John and Emori were the underdogs who survived by any means necessary, and through most of The 100 Season 7, it was uplifting to see them not have to fight for survival. They are the couple that I most want to see get a happy ending, as slight as that may be. 

Looking back, none of the couples on this show have survived except for John and Emori and Miller and Jackson, and the later of the two haven’t been together most of the season! 

Aside from my hopes that maybe John and Emori would have a bright and happy future together being dashed, Luisa D’Oliveira does a spectacular job acting opposite Richard Harmon, Sachin Sahel, and Lindsay Morgan. If this Emori’s swansong D’Oliveira brought her A-game and it works. 

The scene between Emori and Raven is particularly spooky given Madi’s end. The fact that Emori is preparing for the end and knows that she can trust Raven to honor her wishes is powerful and heartbreaking. 

Emori mentions that she felt like she mattered on The Ring, and we saw her attempt to save everyone on The 100 Season 7 Episode 3, “False Gods.”  Both John and Emori have gone well beyond their survivor mode and have been thinking about others this season, but the fact that that’s where Emori is at now when we’re so close to the end of the series is truly sad. 

If Emori doesn’t make it out of the series alive, it is one of The 100‘s greatest weaknesses that they didn’t use the relationships developed on The Ring to the best of their ability.

Seeing Emori and Raven over the course of Season 7 hints at a close friendship. Emori learned a lot from Raven and clearly feels comfortable enough with her to confide in her like this, and that scene really just encapsulates how neither of these two had nearly enough screentime over the last several episodes and the kind of storytelling that could have been. 

The 100 — “The Dying of the Light” — Pictured: Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The last we see of this group is when they’re rushing through the Bridge as Jackson shouts that they won’t be losing anyone else. Let’s just hope they’re going somewhere where they can actually help her, and humanity, at the same time. Although, given what The 100 has given us so far this season, that may be wishful thinking. 

Going into the series finale, it’s hard to know what to hope for, but I get the feeling that no amount of meditation is going to be preparatory enough for what lies ahead.

There seems to be so much heartbreak, and trauma, and violence that it feels like there is no way to a happy ending. Telling us it will be a happy ending isn’t going to be good enough, and painting it as the best possible scenario is also going to feel like a copout. 

There has to be a light at the end of the tunnel for a few of these characters, otherwise, what is the point of it all? 

Stray Thoughts: 

• Sorry to bring this up, but you know who could have operated out of a backpack? Dr. Abigail Freakin’ Griffin! And you know who can attest to that? Raven! But of course, we have to focus on getting to Sanctum so that we can find the damn stone! 
• Just a quick prediction: Echo is going to save the day isn’t she? The fact that the Azgeda symbol is on the floor means something. Who wants to bet that Callie had a few more conversations with Becca before she was burned at the stake and someone from Azgeda had the answers to this test?
• Why do I get the feeling that when Clarke catches up with Cadogen he’s going to play the “I just wanted to see my daughter again card?” Got news for you, Cadogen: you’re not coming back from this. 
• The 100 is really out there trying to ruthlessly tell us that survival is more important above anything else isn’t it? Who wants to guess that by the end of the finale someone ends up forming a cult that starts preaching ‘love is weakness?’ They’d just have to take what Cadogen started and amplify it!

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

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

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

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

How ‘The 100’ Waged a War on Women