The 100 Discussion: 'Memento Mori' draws a line in the sand

The 100 is back from a brief hiatus with shocking twists — both on and off the show. 

"Memento Mori" exposes some hard truths about life in Sanctum and forces the group to take sides as Madi faces off against the Dark Commander and Octavia suffers a crippling blow.

We're Alyssa Fikse and Jessica Toomer, just two Bellarke stans living our best lives this week. Join us as we discuss all things The 100.

Jessica: So we’re starting this discussion a bit differently this week because The 100 fandom was treated to some truly shocking news over the weekend that just can’t be ignored. Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor, who play Clarke and Bellamy on the show, became a real-life ship and got married. Fam, when I say my jaw hit the floor upon seeing Eliza’s announcement on Twitter, that’s not hyperbole. My jaw actually unhinged itself and fell to the ground. Alyssa, you know how obsessed I’ve been with this news — I’m now following the preacher who married them on Instagram and Eliza’s mom on Twitter, so yeah, it’s gotten dark — but mostly I’m just so happy for these two who have led this show and this fandom so graciously and capably over the past six years. And if we can’t have Bellarke, at least we can have Beliza, right?

Alyssa: Actors falling in love while working together is nothing new, but damn, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like “Oh hey, I know you guys keep up with our lives a lot but surprise! We’re married now!” When I saw the news on Twitter, I honestly thought they were hacked at first. But I kind of like and respect how they did this. Yes, I obviously want to see hundreds of loved up photos of these babes, but at the same time, I keep reminding myself that it’s really not my business. They have their love and it’s pretty cool to me that they’ve protected it and kept it to themselves for this long. Where a lot of couples would have capitalized on it, they’ve played it cool, and that to me is rad as hell. So yeah, please post some pics, but also keep doing you, you crazy lovebirds. I’m into it.

Jessica: So. Into. It. But I feel this must be said — let’s all remember there are actual people involved in this. It’s not some ship on TV. So be kind, be respectful, and come fangirl with us whenever you need to.

Credit: CW/Jack Rowand

Alyssa: As much as I desperately want Real Clarke back, Josephine is awfully fun to watch. She’s definitely emerging as this season’s Big Bad, and I am kind of in love with watching her scheme. I feel like her endgame is going to expand beyond just “living forever and stealing anybody I need to do it,” and I’m curious to see how Murphy plays into it. He’s always been morally compromised AT BEST, and I think how he plays the game on Sanctum will be important going forward. But seriously, I could watch these two drink and snipe at each other for hours.

Jessica: Hard agree. I’m getting some serious third season Ontari vibes from this partnership. There’s a bit of sexual tension, a ton of sass and snark, and when you pair them up, there’s a good chance someone’s going to die. I stan. At the same time, I think both Murphy and Josephine have their own personal motivations that obviously conflict with each other. Josephine wants everyone to become a nightblood so the Primes can flourish, but I’m also getting the feeling that after hundreds of years, she’s growing weary of her parents telling her what to do. The way she interacts with Russell and especially her own mother leads me to believe she’d turn on them if given the chance, and the chance might present itself with Murphy and the rest of the group’s reaction to this Clarke news. At the same time, Murphy wants to live forever and he wants his people safe, so trusting someone like Russell over Josephine is the better bet there. It’s a chess match between psychopaths and I’ve always said, that’s the best kind of chess match.

Alyssa: I think it’s super interesting to see Josephine and Russell at odds already. Like, he risked a lot to bring her back because he’s her father and he loves her, but surely he suspected that something like this could happen, right? Josephine’s darkness seems rather baked in, so something tells me this is not the first time that she’s caused problems for the primes. I foresee Russell having to team up with the group in order to take Josephine down, but I don’t think I’m ready to accept him as some sort of anti-hero either just because he’s not quite as homicidal as Josephine. Also, I think we need to talk about Raven. I don’t think the writers quite know what to do with her this season, so she’s just spinning her wheels. Lashing out at Clarke, expressing that she doesn’t really care about her people that much anymore, spilling way too much information to the Cute Prime. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Jessica: Right? Every time Raven speaks I hear the proof that the writers are just lost as to how to move her character forward, but making her this self-righteous, angsty a**hole is not the way. And sacrificing the essence of who she is and why we love her to service some kind of weird redemption arc for the Primes, specifically Ryker, feels doubly gross. Raven’s lost so much so I can understand why the idea of people body snatching and brainwashing others into sacrificing themselves hits a nerve, but if she’s meant to be the conscious of the group right now, then show her WITH the group, not off in some bike shop tinkering with clocks and ranting about morality. Give her something to f***ing do. Another character I’m struggling to understand this season: Abby. What the hell is going on with these two women? Is it the Red Sun?

Alyssa: Abby! Did they forget that Abby is a genius? And that one Cliffs Notes conversation with Murphy about Clarke would not be enough to fool her mother? Abby’s characterization this season and last has been quite manic, and I think her grief over Kane and her guilt over the Dark Year has magnified that. However, I think they’re doing the character a real disservice. Obviously, Abby makes a lot of mistakes, but she’s never been a fool. Josephine isn’t convincing at all as Clarke, so I feel like, with the information that they have about the Primes, Abby should be a bit quicker on the uptake. If Gaia and Echo are realizing that Clarke isn’t really Clarke this quickly, Abby should already have noticed and taken steps to get her daughter back. Clark’s safety has been Abby’s motivation since forever (except for that little incident of sending her to the Ground), so this just all feels off to me.

Jessica: It’s such a stretch to think that a mother would not know her daughter has been body-snatched, y’all, especially one as brilliant as Abby Griffin. I know grief and addiction make you do strange, sometimes terrible things, but it doesn’t blind you to something as life-jarring as that, and it feels icky to me that Abby’s main purpose this season has been to bring back Kane. Like, Kane is a totally Zaddy so I get it, but really? We’re on a new planet, with so many medical discoveries awaiting us and the small issue of Josephine commandeering Clarke’s body and she’s just like, “But wait, guys, Kane”? Again, give these lady geniuses more to do, please.

Credit: CW/Robert Falconer

Alyssa: While Bellamy is the only one reacting to Not Clarke in a logical way, Madi has her own sh*t to deal with. All of this ominous Sheidheda stuff is dark as hell. You would think that with all of the weird tech and ritual that has gone into the line of Hedas that they would have found a way to exorcise this guy by now, but this dude has somehow stuck around, giving off major 1999 The Mummy vibes. Madi is so mature and competent that it’s easy to forget that she’s just a kid, and I feel like Gaia is kind of forgetting that in all her emphasis on training.

Jessica: I read it as just overwhelming fear. Gaia knows she’s not ready to help Madi in the way she needs — they’ve gone about this whole passing of the flame thing so wrong — and with Clarke MIA, she probably feels a heightened sense of responsibility, not just for the child but the legacy of the commanders in her head. Honestly, I just wanted Madi to have some idyllic childhood scenes this season — going to school, playing fetch with a Golden Retriever — so I’m pretty bummed she’s still suffering with this Flame plotline. Plus, if this melted face guy pushes her to become some kind of mass-murdering psycho, I’m gonna be so pissed.

Alyssa: Madi is seriously growing dark in her grief, but I think the fact that she spared Gaia spoke volumes. I’m very worried about our little heda, but she clearly isn’t ready to go full on Blodreina at this point. I’m not sure quite what Russell thought was going to happen when he body-snatched Clarke, but I definitely think that he’s underestimating his position of power. Madi has shown the ability to unite and inspire people in the past, so who’s to say she can’t do that again?

Jessica: True, and I think it might come down to Madi and her relationship with the Flame to help Clarke — who is still alive in Josephine’s mind! I knew the show wouldn’t kill off its captain like that, but damn was it nice to be reassured that Mama Bear is still in there. I don’t like that she’s in a padded cell a la her former home on the Ark, with drawings of her dead loved ones surrounding her, but Clarke Griffin is a fighter so it’s going to take more than some washed-out tones and pencil sketches to bring her down.

Alyssa: Because I am a Bellarke shipper until I die, I think we need to discuss the fact that Lexa and Bellamy were the ones who were given focus in her mind prison. Listen. It has been 84 years and this ship is still not canon. I honestly think that the time for maximum impact passed about two seasons ago (especially now that they up and got married IRL, which will make me laugh forever and ever, amen), but it’s time. There are only so many intense moments and romantic parallels that can happen before they finally get their sh*t together and admit that they’re desperately in love, right? RIGHT?

Jessica: Look, no one is doing more for the Bellarke fandom right now than Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor. They married each other IRL just to show Jason Rothenberg what was possible! (And, because they love each other, blah, blah, blah.) If this whole nearly losing Clarke thing doesn’t light a fire under the writers’ a**es and push Clarke and Bellamy to finally confront their feelings for each other, I honestly don’t know what will.

Credit: CW/Jack Rowand

Alyssa: Speaking of lighting emotional fires and panicked desperation, things are once again looking DICEY for Octavia. To the surprise of no one, that quicksand sludge wasn’t the best shield against the flare, and her arm seems to be aging at an accelerated rate and poisoning the rest of her body. Not great! Diyoza, being the best, seems pretty determined to keep Octavia alive, but something tells me that will be an even more difficult task once they actually make it to Gabriel.

Jessica: Besides giving us a truly comedic moment with Diyoza’s injury healing thanks to some tree sap that (what’s his name) tapped like Cheryl Blossom taps maple trees on Riverdale, the best bit about our time with our two favorite outcasts came when we learned just a bit more about who this mysterious Gabriel is, and where Octavia’s story is going this season. I still have absolutely no hope that Gabriel is the savior everyone claims he is — and I love Diyoza for constantly rolling her eyes at that declaration — but I am excited to see what this injury, and the intention behind it, mean for O. The more sci-fi sh*t the better in my opinion, and having her withering arm be a sign she’s been chosen for some higher purpose feels like the most obvious start of a redemption arc I’ve ever seen on this show.

Alyssa: Yes! I have been an Octavia stan since the beginning, and that status was certainly tested last season. That being said, I am more than confident that she can find her way back to herself or even something better, and if a withered arm is the way to do it, then so be it. I’m ready to finally meet Gabriel and see what all the fuss is about, and I think he’s going to have a lot to say about Octavia and her apparent ties to the Anomaly. My body is ready.

Jessica: For disappointment? He’s a 200-year-old white guy with a guilty conscious, how great can he be Alyssa? But no, I too am ready to see what all the damn fuss is about, and for Octavia and Diyoza to be completely unimpressed with it all.

 Credit: CW/Jack Rowand

Alyssa: Now that we know that Clarke is alive in there (duh), I’m ready to see her fighting back against her new situation. Clarke is above all things scrappy, so I don’t see her taking kindly to someone else running the controls of her body. No way. I’m also curious to see how the group handles trying to coexist within the community despite knowing what they did to Clarke. I see that lasting about a half hour give or take a few minutes, especially now that Madi is on the warpath and has a demonic entity at her back.

Jessica: Yeah, the preview for next week’s episode is very Clarke (real-Clarke) centric so I expect a kind of showdown between her and Josephine. I wonder if this has ever happened before? Josephine somehow seems unsurprised at Clarke’s resistance in her mind. It could just be that she’s a psychopath and enjoys the cat-and-mouse game, or it could be that the hosts are still alive in there somehow. If so, that’s just f*cked up to the nth degree. I’m also worried that with Gaia banished, Madi’s going to give in to her darker impulses and that’s going to have lasting damage to her. Burn Sanctum down sure, but I don’t want Madi to be tortured by the things she does in her grief. Of course, that’s this show’s M.O. so…

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors', and do not necessarily reflect those of SYFY WIRE, SYFY, or NBC Universal.