Hey, thanks, Tripp. Even though you don't ship Bellamy and Clarke, I appreciate you acknowledging the things that shippers do see and feel means something. Sometimes it's a little bit hard being a Bellarke shipper and being told that your opinion is wrong or that you're not interpreting the story correctly, which unfortunately seems to happen a lot in this fandom. I mean, I don't like the ship Bellamy's currently in, but hey, if some people out there perceive it as an awesome ship, that's their opinion, and they're entitled to it. It differs greatly from my own, but hey, that's fine.
Okay, so I just went and re-watched the episode because I thought it was soooooo good, so I'm just going to go ahead and post my thoughts now, while it's fresh in my mind!
Clarke/Josephine (with Bellarke mentions): Man, you can just tell how much fun Eliza had playing this role. It's been really fun to watch. Josephine is so up her own ass, thinking she's awesome.
Yeah, right! Awful is more like it. I was surprised but absolutely delighted when we found out that Clarke could actually hear what was going on! Didn't expect that at all, but now she knows that Bellamy's fighting for her. And she continues to fight for herself now, too. Josephine might be crafty, but Clarke's a fighter, and she had to get really tough on earth, especially to survive on her own. I found it a tad unrealistic that she was able to take everyone out by herself (she's not Blodreina, after all), but I guess I can chalk it up to adrenaline and the will to survive. I was really surprised that we actually saw Clarke return in this episode, and Josephine definitely bit off more than she can chew here. What, does she think Clarke's just going to go to sleep now?
Josephine . . . welcome to the EVERYBDOY KNOWS club. Here, you'll find our deceased president named Roan. We have another deceased member in Jaha, and then there's Diyoza, who came in swinging last year when she proclaimed Bellamy and Clarke "the hostage taker and his girlfriend." Murphy is also a member of this club, as are Octavia and Madi. We also once had ALIE in this club in the form of RavALIE and AbALIE. And a lot of people in the fandom are in this club, too, so . . . yeah, welcome. You're not nice, but we welcome you anyway. Our club gets bigger and bigger a the time.
Basically that's my attempt at being humorous about the fact that Josephine very obviously had a "I guess you care about her more" line. Which, um, doesn't seem to be wrong. And then there were some interesting directorial choices that I'll save for the Bellarke thread, and her calling out Bellamy's relationship with Clarke as "weird," which it is, but not in a bad way. Yeah, it's had its ups and downs, but she uses something like Bellamy leaving her behind on earth as a negative, when really, it was what Clarke wanted him to do. I found all of her interaction with him to be incredibly . . . significant. Further discussion in the Bellarke thread.
Bellamy (also with some Bellarke): I'm loving Bellamy so much this season. I know Bob's been limited because of his knee, but honestly, if you didn't know about that, I don't think you'd be able to tell. I just love seeing Bellamy so determined and passionate about saving Clarke. He's heart-driven right now for sure, because he is risking everything for her, but he's still using his head, too, trying to negotiate in the midst of . . . absolute chaos, honestly. Just little things like swiping some red blood on her forehead . . . that was good thinking. Didn't work, but it almost did. I wouldn't have thought of that.
He so clearly hates Josephine but at the same time can't completely hate her because she looks like Clarke. Someone threatens her, and he jumps to her defense because of Clarke. Someone pushes her around, and it pains him to see that happen. And can I just point out that I absolutely LOVE the fact that he was still attuned to her using morse code and then loved even more that he realized she was Clarke just by . . . knowing her so well, pretty much.
Now that we've gotten a glimpse into both Octavia and Clarke's minds, though, what do we have to do to get a glimpse into Bellamy's? That'd be so complex and complicated. Like, if you were to draw a character web, Bellamy would be the guy with the most connections to others, the strongest relationships. It'd be so cool to see all that in his mind. And to see more of a glimpse of, like, the Eclipse Bellamy, which was obviously an extreme version of himself. I don't know, it'd just be cool, but I'm not holding my breath for it.
Octavia (and Pike): WOW! Okay, you guys know how I felt about Octavia last season. And while I still don't necessarily
like her, I have to say that I continue to be pleasantly surprised about how they're handling her storyline this season. I did find her "I have to earn it" line about redemption a little cheesy and heavy-handed, but other than that, this was some really good stuff. That scene of her in the fighting pit was loooong, but it was really good. I did not expect to see Pike again! Holy ****. Mike Beach is so good. And Pike . . . I don't hate him the way a lot of other people in the fandom do. One of the most interesting lines to me was that Octavia killed him right as he was trying to start earning his own redemption. I think a lot of people tend to forget about that. I don't think Pike was a fundamentally bad person. I think he became incredibly misguided and never had a chance to redeem himself.
Then there were the Lincoln flashbacks. I thought we'd never see Ricky Whittle's face on this show again or hear Lincoln mentioned ever again, but it worked really well here. Honestly, I used to like Linctavia more than I do now. They were, at one point, probably my second favorite ship on the show. But nowadays I prefer both Memori and Murven to them. But yeah, it hit me in the feels. That music. (Also, this is random, but music-related . . . I loved the background music when Octavia was looking at the green box. It was really pretty.)
My feelings about Octavia are so complicated at this point, but I do think she's had one of the most well-written storylines from season 4 onward. As infuriating as it's been, they've really crafted it well, and Marie has knocked it out of the park. She's phenomenal.
I loved that they used Pike to recap ALL the horrible things Octavia did last season. It's like . . . they didn't let her off the hook for it. They brought up the hydrofarm, the battle in the gorge that didn't need to be fought, putting Bellamy in the pit, the cannibalism . . . Yep, it was pretty bad, and I think this episode did a great job of showcasing how horrible Blodreina was. Interesting character, but horrible. Kind of like Josephine, although Josephine is sometimes funny.
Kane: I knew this was coming. I knew HIC was leaving the show, and I doubted they would keep the Kane character around in another body. So this was a very unique death scene for me. I didn't cry, because at this point . . . I wanted it. I wanted Kane to be able to die. I didn't want him to have to live on in someone else's body, because we all knew he wouldn't be okay with this. And let's be real here, his role on the show is not as important as it once was. Don't get me wrong, though, I still love Kane. I don't envision that he'll ever leave my Top 10 favorite characters list, even though I did bump a couple people up over him recently. He died a hero, and I'm proud of him for that. So it was a very bittersweet ending for him, IMO.
Kudos to the other actor for managing to seem very Kane-like. He did a good job.
Abby: Amazing acting by Paige Turco in the last scene. She let herself ugly cry, and it worked. I'm so frustrated with her at this point that I still struggled to feel bad for her, but on some level . . . yeah, I do feel bad. She watched the man she loves be floated for a second time. But she was so wrong to do what she did, and it was pretty delusional for her to think that Kane in another body would be a workable thing. I actually don't agree with Kane saying she's stronger than him. Not in recent seasons. I still wouldn't mind if Abby were to also kick the bucket this season, but I don't see it happening now.
Raven: 
What is there to say? She's still in desperate need of a storyline, exists to say judgmental lines (even if they are warranted), and was there for Kane's death when I don't even recall her ever having any meaningful scenes with Kane?
Indra: I'm so glad they finally woke her up! Adina is such a strong presence on screen. I'm glad she was able to be there to say goodbye to Kane, too, as their friendship was always kind of a nice one. And an unexpected one. She actually brought up a good point that one could compare the conclave and the floating policy on the Ark to what the Primes are doing now. And in that scene, Kane had a line about worshipping false gods, and I just have to say . . . that's so reminiscent of the commander system. I feel like it's kind of the same thing. All the more reason for the flame to be destroyed, even though it won't be.
Stray Thoughts: I really like that this episode allowed the focus to be on Octavia, Clarke/Josephine, Bellamy, Kane, and Abby. Even though I like some of those characters better than others, I think the show works well when it doesn't try to cram everyone into the storyline. Like, sure, I love Murphy, but he wasn't needed for this episode.
Episode MVP: Marcus Kane without a doubt.
I'm just going to list off my picks just to keep track of them at this point:
6x01 - Bellamy (still unsure on this one, but he had good leadership)
6x02 - Murphy
6x03 - Clarke
6x04 - Diyoza
6x05 - Jordan
6x06 - Bellamy
6x07 - Clarke
6x08 - Emori
6x09 - Kane