‘The 100’ Review: “Hesperides”

Well, we’re officially a quarter of the way through the final season of The 100 and honestly? I’m disappointed. While the world building has been decent it feels like the stagnant habit that the show gets in to during the middle of the season has started way early. It’s been a whole lot of so- so action for little to no results. While the world-building and details that have been sprinkled in to the first quarter may be relevant later in the season, in the moment it seems pointless. This is why people say that this show would work better as a Netflix show. If it was dropped all at once and could be binged it would feel like a bigger and better pay-off as opposed to week by week when the details fade and it seems more pointless.

Regardless, ‘Hesperides’ was the second best episode episode of the four we’ve seen so far (episode 7×02 ‘The Garden’ being the most enjoyable) and there’s a lot to discuss and details to zoom in on so let’s get started, shall we?

The 100 Review: “Hesperides”
Season 7, Episode 4 | Airdate: Julne 10, 2020
Directed by: Diana Valentine | Written by: Sean Crouch

Things I Loved

Dev: First things first and let’s just get this out of the way: he’s sexy. Now that I’ve addressed that, let’s move on. Dev was a prisoner Disciple sent to Skyring for an unkown reason and he formed a pretty immediate bond with Hope. After throwing her a knife so that she could arm herself and make her feel safer he eats some berries that she tells him not to and immediately gets sick. Well, dude. She warned you. While baby Hope is taking care of him she notices the countdown on his arm and he tells her that for the next ten years it’ll be just the two of them which leads her a mini (and understandable) breakdown which Dev comforts her.

We’re treated to a nice montage of time passing as Dev teaches Hope how to throw a knife with killing accuracy. She eventually gets it right and baby Hope transitions to the adult Hope and Dev now has that Abby famous grey streak in his hair to signify aging. Because he cares so much for Hope and knows that she wants nothing more than to have her mom and aunt back he trains her in fighting and they devise a plan on how to get Hope to Bardo.

The ten years has passed and it’s time for Dev and Hope to implement their plan. Unfortunately, Hope freezes up on her part and Dev is stabbed in the stomach by one of the Disciples that had activated their “ghost mode” (CRINGE). Dev realizes that Hope is in immediate danger and he wants nothing more than to both save her and make sure that she’s able to get the opportunity to rescue her family. He pulls a grenade that was attached to the Disciple that stabbed him and jumped at Hope to protect her from the blast. As he dies in her arms he tells her to continue on the mission which she does.

I feel obligated to point out that there is a parallel between Octavia/Bellamy and Hope/Dev. Hope and Dev had a sibling like relationship that also had Dev stand in as both brother/father. Octavia has always idolized Octavia and wanted to be just like her. Dev and Bellamy also look pretty similar if you squint. Just want to throw out in to universe that I now fully expect Bellamy to die protecting Octavia in some way. Thanks, I hate it.

Orlando: Orlando really grows on you, man. He starts off as a dirty weirdo but he develops a personality outside of that and we love to see it. Here’s what we know about Orlando as the episode progresses over the five years that pass in this one episode: he’s a level twelve Disciple meaning that he has access to everything Bardo related, he has never been in a battle, he knows Hope likes pumpkins and is extremely protective of her, he plays chess, he still believes in the Shepherd and the Disciples and says he prayers (which is so obviously Cadogen I feel like I’ve been whacked on the head with it. “In the shadow of the Shepherd for all man kind. He saved us from a fire that consumed the Earth. In the light of the Shepherd…), he might be a bit of a workaholic since he broke the Shepherd’s law number four aka honor the day of rest to be efficient the rest of the week, he knows when he’s being manipulated, he likes veggies, he cares deeply about Hope/Gabriel/Echo, but he doesn’t want to sacrifice any of his people to help them.

Literally, his one rule in agreeing to help the anomaly trio was that they don’t kill anyone, they get their people, they get out. AND THEY COULDN’T EVEN FOLLOW THAT REASONABLE RULE. Echo being Echo says that people will be getting killed anyway and the question is whether or not he was going to die with them. The foreshadowing. Again, thanks. I hate it.

Orlando trains the trio and they follow the same plan that Dev had originally set out with Hope all of those years ago. Orlando was tied to a tree with a gag over his mouth while the other three were hidden. When the Disciples came to get him and saw him they activated their “ghost mode” (again CRINGE) but before they could the others stunned them and began removing their suits to dress themselves. As they’re changing one of the Disciples comes up and is about to attack Echo. Hope sees and uses the knife that Dev gave her to stab the Disciple saving her. Orlando becomes extremely distressed and upset causing Echo to realize that while they’re friends and he cares about them “we are not his people.” And we’ll talk more on the next events under “Things I Didn’t Like.”

The Meh Things

Basically Everything Happening On Sanctum: Again, not uninterested but one) barely any time was spent with them so it’s hard to be invested when we’re not shown anything and two) until the last two scenes in Sanctum, the rest felt pretty fillerish.

So, finally after two days and four episodes later Clarke and company realize that some folks they used to be worried about not being around for a few hours have now been missing for a few days with nary a word. The fact that it took a dead body for them to realize something was amiss is absurd but I digress. They realize now–to a point. As they investigate the body of the deceased Disciple we learn that Bellamy had the only gun so he must have been the one that shot the bullets. My annoyance at the wrongness begins. Some guy comes in with Jordan (hi, Jordan!) and tells Clarke that their is a Disciple at the radiation shield asking for her by name. Interesting!

Clarke and company go out to the shield and we meet Anders, a lead Disciple, who tells Clarke that they are the Disciples of a Greater Truth and she is the key to winning the last war mankind will ever wage. Because we haven’t had enough wars on this show, obviously. Clarke is under the impression that Bellamy, Octavia, and Echo (she has no idea who Hope is and apparently Gabriel doesn’t even cross her mind) are all together and missing and agrees to leave with Anders and the other Disciples in exchange for the return of her friends. The Disciples inform her that her friends are on safe and they’ll return them and to meet them at Gabriel’s place. They tell her to hurry because time works differently where they are which we’ll touch on in Honorable Mentions.

While Clarke and Co. are prepping to go meet up with Anders and the Disciples at Gabriel’s place Raven and Jordan stay behind to try and discover the mysteries of the Disciple suits. Prompted by Jordan saying, “You think?” Raven realizes that the helmets are activated by their minds and we get some pretty interesting information about the anomaly’s as well as learning that Clarke is a target. But was she really? The plan from the Disciples was to get Clarke to Bardo and to the Shepherd which was what she agreed to do. The helmet itself said “Rendition to Bardo.” So, she knew what she was getting in to from the beginning so it’s highly confusing why they suddenly thought she was a target. Also, when will these bad guys learn that the quickest way to make Clarke Griffin do anything is to dangle Bellamy Blake in front of her face. How hard would it have been for Anders to say, “Hey, we’ve got Bellamy on Bardo. Come with us if you want him back.” instead of just vaguely referencing “friends.” He probably would have lived a little longer.

Clarke drives her motorbike to Gabriel’s camp where she has a little tête-à-tête with Anders. With her friends in the woods with all guns pointed directly at Ander’s chest he tells Clarke that her friends have killed four more of his people and betrayed and abandoned a man they had been with for five years causing him to commit suicide. Clarke says that he’s lying because let’s face it, she knows Bellamy Blake would NEVER (because she still hasn’t been informed that when the Disciples say ‘friends’ there’s a pretty important one to her missing) . He brings her the note and informs her that she may be willing to sacrifice herself but she would never sacrifice her friends and the invisible Disciples appear with guns trained on the others hidden in the woods. He tells them to kill her friends after she shoots him. Jordan pops up from the edge of the woods and creates a distraction telling Clarke to get down as all of the Disciples drop dead from an invisible force aka Raven. After having Raven on her moral high horse for the last two seasons (apparently forgetting the life and death sacrifices she was willing to make that resulted in others deaths as long ago as season four) they sure are upping her body count all of a sudden.

Clarke and the others go to the anomaly stone at Gabriel’s and pick a planet at random from Raven’s fun new helmet in an attempt to find out which one is Penance. Clarke stresses that nobody has to go because it’ll likely be dangerous. Everyone decides to go with the exception of Gaia who volunteers to stay behind to keep an eye on Madi and inform the others about what’s going on. She and Clarke hug goodbye and Gaia tells Clarke to bring them all home. After the new adventure squad go through the anomaly (with a cute quip from Jordan, “Ladies and Gentleman, Clarke Griffin has left the planet.”) Gaia goes to leave as well but gets kicked down from an invisible Disciple. While she’s on the ground we see the Disciple take the anomaly start to take the anomaly stone offline. Gaia attacks them and in the struggle is dragged in to the closing anomaly disappearing as it closes and the stone drops and shatters on the ground. This means that Madi is now all alone without Clarke or Gaia to protect her while Sheidheda is on the loose and nobody knows where they are. It’s at least set up to be interesting.

Adventure Squad are now on a freezing snowy filled planet which they quickly decide isn’t Penance. Miller suggests that they go on to the next planet but Raven gravely informs them that to do so they need an anomaly stone. Time to start searching for one then, boos. It’s gotta be around there somewhere.

My main question before heading off to the things I didn’t like section is why didn’t the others grab suits off of the dead Disciples so that they could all have a cool helmet in the event of separation or something? That seems like something they would have considered since they’re supposed to be so smart.

Things I Didn’t Like

Gabriel/Echo/Hope: I actually put them in order of the level of disappointed I am in each of them and Gabriel is NUMBER ONE. Listen, I have long since given up hope for Echo to have a personality outside of Bellamy’s Girlfriend so her shooting everyone and killing all of the Disciples because she “has to get to Bellamy” and deciding to leave Orlando alone is disappointing but not surprising. Gabriel on the other hand. He may be a relatively newer character but he has been made to be an upstanding and moral character and the fact that he just left Orlando to rot on Skyring, tied to a tree, surrounded by the dead bodies of people he knew and loved, all so he could get answers about “the other side” made me furious. They knew Orlando for five years and cultivated a relationship with him, and to just do that to him is so amazingly cruel it makes me feel sick. Gabriel barely knows Bellamy, Diyoza, or Octavia so they are not his driving factor like they are for Hope and Echo to getting to Bardo. All he wants is more information, more knowledge, more science that after a split seconds hesitation made him throw away a man he had lived with for five years. He threw away a mans life, if not knowing he’d kill himself*, then at least knowing he’d be alone for years again after giving him a family all for the sake of scientific curiosity. I am disgusted.

Echo, as mentioned above, has no character traits outside of being Bellamy’s Girlfriend but I’m still pissed at her betraying Orlando too. Not to mention, she’s doing this all in the name of Bellamy who would also tell her to back the fuck up and think of something else. With a five year time jump you would think she would develop some other motivations or something. But, like Roan said in the premiere, who is she without a master to follow, and as far she’s concerned her master needs her help. So, again, while disappointing not surprising.

Honorable Mentions

Orlando/Anders/The Disciples: I don’t think this will be last we’ll see of Orlando, actually and there’s a few reasons why.

One) Anders knew that the anomaly trio were on Penance the entire time and just left them there. We know this because he tells Clarke that time works differently where her friends are. How did they know unless Orlando had somehow told them? When he’s playing chess “by himself” is he even by himself or is somebody just in invisible mode? Was he playing a long con the entire time as a way to keep an eye on Hope? He even told the trio that their plan wouldn’t work because after what happened with Dev they’d send more people this time. Also noteworthy that when the Disciples did come for him they called him Master Orlando. It’s all just very suspicious and could easily have been a ruse to keep Hope occupied for a few more Bardo days.

Two) Orlando, being a level twelve disciple (which I am assuming there are thirteen because we know how much this show and Cadogan love that number) knew so much about Hope because he was privy to the information from the memory capture performed on Octavia and Diyoza or maybe even Hope herself. When speaking to Gabriel and Echo earlier in the episode Hope tells them that memory capture isn’t torture unless you fight it and Octavia and Diyoza fought it.

Three) I actually toyed with the idea that Orlando was a mind-drive version of Cadogan for a bit but thanks to this handy-dandy map, that seems unlikely. Cadogan aka the Shepherd is likely still in cryo.

Four) The biggest thing that makes me think he might still be alive is that he died off-screen. Until the season is over I’m going to be anticipating him popping up again somewhere.

Clarke’s Coping Techniques: When trying to comfort Raven the audience is let in to Clarke’s brain a bit. She tells Raven that she didn’t kill those people and that if she hadn’t done what she did they’d still be dead but so would everybody else. The few for the many. She also tells her that she’ll never forget the faces of those that are dead but it’s important to also remember the faces of the ones she’s saved. She also makes a comment that she’s not willing to lose anyone else again, something she’s mentioned a few times already this season, which begs the question, just how many people (besides the ‘we can see it coming from five hundred miles away and we’re not happy about it’ one) will she lose this season?

Anomaly Time Update: We now know that a year on Skyring=a few days on Bardo=a millisecond on Sanctum per Gabriel.

The Anomaly Stone: In the beginning of the episode we see what looks like Hope praying to the anomaly stone under the cottage. I don’t know if it’s necessarily relevant but it was striking.

DNRs: As promised, here are the listed DNR’s for this episode.

DO NOT REVEAL – “Hesperides”

• Clarke and company go through the anomaly
• Gaia is sent elsewhere, unbeknownst to our heroes
• Hope’s childhood, growing up alone and having an unexpected guest
• Hope’s struggle to escape Skyring and the deaths around it

And that’s that for the ‘Hesperides’ review and the last of the press screeners. We are all now on equal footing, everyone knows what everyone else knows. So, what did you think? Feel free to comment below or hit us up on twitter @TVSource.

Watch The 100 Wednesday’s at 8/7c on The CW.