Damocles

I was thinking about the title yesterday.

Kane - took his love for Abby and his honour?
Octavia - took her knowledge of something mysterious and her hope for redemption
Clarke - took her frizzy hair and Josephine
Abby - took Marcus’s love and a kick in the arse from my boot
Gabriel - took nothing because Octavia is like meh idk what happened in the anomaly bro
Bellamy - took ?

Help I’m tired and need 40 more coffees

ETA I forgot about the reference to that Starwars quote:
“What’s in there?”
“Only what you take with you”
In reference to the Cave of Evil.

I think the title mostly seems to apply to Octavia, if we’re going the Starwars route?

destroyer of worlds

Initial thoughts:

- Marie was amazing in this episode though honestly, I would have enjoyed this Octavia-heavy episode more if I were a fan. However, I have to say that it was very pleasing to see her slay her demon (well, one of them anyway) aka Bloodreina.

- Still not a Pike fan but seeing Mike back was amazing. And he slayed his scenes too, it made total sense that it was him taunting and getting Octavia to face her demons because it was truly when he killed Lincoln that Octavia started down the dark path, which ultimately led to the birth of Bloodreina.

- Speaking of which, I got teary eyed seeing that parallel to Lincoln's death and seeing him again of course.

- Seriously, my face the entire time that Abby and faux!Kane were talking and then kissing ... no comment. SO awkward.

- Clarke typing out 'BOOHOO' when Josephine was telling Bellamy about Gabriel ... love that sass.

- Raven is being so inconsistent, ugh. If she has such an issue with Kane's body being replaced, WHY did she even help Abby in the first place? Doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

- Literally, Abby isn't worried about Clarke since she hasn't seen her in a while and when she saw her last, she was acting weird? No? Okay. #motheroftheyear

- INDRA, ****ing finally! Poor woman barely had enough time to breath once she awoke though, because the others are in trouble again (of course).

Glad to hear this from a non-shipper (especially the bolded parts) ... I don't want to go into specifics since this isn't the Bellarke thread but it truly gets tiresome having to hear sometimes that you have shipper goggles on, and what you interpret in certain scenes are wrong and not what the show is trying to convey.

BlueDog9

Damocles

Because I’m five years old, I did an actual LOL at the Pod Burrito part

BrooklynFan

This was a fun, consequential and intense episode. All three of the main storylines were interesting--this was one time when I didn't mind when the show cut away to some of my less favorite stories (*cough* Abby and Kane *cough*) because they were all good last night.

Octavia's Vision: For me, the best part this week was Octavia's confrontation of her Blodreina past. Two caveats that I have to get out of the way first: The "anomaly" stuff still makes zero logical sense to me, and the "face your demons" season theme overall feels too forced. It's a bit absurd that everything about this new world is contrived to make characters hallucinate or otherwise re-experience/confront their worst fears and actions from the past world (i.e. the plant toxins, the anomaly, the mind drives/mindspace, the snake venom that somehow brought Murphy back from the dead). Odd how this season has largely squandered the opportunity to world-build in favor of rehashing the past.

However, while watching the episode I pretty quickly set these concerns aside and got absorbed in Octavia's toxin-fueled vision. Marie is just such a good actor; maybe the best on the show IMO, and she nailed this. Her character has also had a strong and well-written arc over several seasons now and that really payed off. I loved how the writers remembered and brought us back to Lincoln's death as the catalyst for her journey into darkness, and how they depicted her murder of Pike as the first concrete step into her Blodreina persona. We still have no idea what the anomaly is or what happened there, but I loved every minute of Octavia's part of the ep. And I thought it was hilarious that Gabriel called out the fact that the anomaly cleaned and styled her hair!

Clarke/Josephine : This storyline was fantastic as well. I loved Clarke's sass, tapping out BOOHOO in Morse code! And then it was so great to see her back in control of her body when she needed to save her own life (and clever of Josephine to realize that Clarke could do what she could not). I didn't entirely buy that Clarke could have taken out all those CofG warriors, but whatever, I rolled with it. Also loved seeing Clarke's quick thinking during her escape and as she quickly realized Jade would help her. Given that the CofG are more or less the good guys on this planet, it's kind of a bummer how so many of them keep getting killed. Hopefully this season will end with some kind of justice for them, and the end of the Primes' rule in Sanctum.

Regarding Josephine's criticism of Bellamy and Clarke's relationship, I think we should bear in mind that Josephine is a sociopath devoid of empathy and with very little understanding of ordinary human emotion or relationships. She pointed out some valid factual criticisms, but I hardly think she can be taken as a sound arbiter of healthy relationships.

Goodbye to Kane: I tell my children not to use the word "hate," but I have seriously disliked the whole Abby-obsessed-with-saving-Kane storyline. This week, though, it paid off, giving HIC a proper sendoff from the show and allowing Kane to retain his principles and his humanity (as well as to remind Abby of the fact that she is supposed to be the one making sure humanity deserves to survive!). I thought the new actor did a great job of matching Kane's speech and mannerisms, and also convincingly showing the mixed emotions as Kane tried to understand what had happened to him, considered the possibility of a new life with Abby in that new beefcake body, and then regretfully relinquished his life and his love. I loved that Indra was finally (finally!) awakened and that she had a chance to say goodbye to her friend. I loved that HIC (and not the new actor) played the final part of the scene. I cried when Indra said the Ark farewell to Kane, and I'm glad that Kane's leadership helped the spaceship group to stand up to the Primes and destroy the nightblood serum.

Four notes:
*Abby, Raven and the rest up in space STILL have no clue what's going on down on the planet with Clarke, Madi, and all. When will they find out?

*I get that Kane couldn't live with what had been done, but did he really have to kill himself immediately?? He could have stuck around for a bit to help fight the Primes and make sure his loved ones were safe before offing himself. It's not like he had to PERSONALLY float the nightblood serum--they could have just tossed it out the hatch. On the other hand, I wouldn't have wanted to watch Kane the Second for episodes on end, so maybe it was best to give the whole thing a quick and dignified ending.

*I thought Abby was broken last season, but she is REALLY broken now. I wonder if and how she is going to come back from this.

*Where is my beloved Diyoza???

Damocles

^ great read!

I also thought it was a bit bonkers that Kane offed himself SO quickly, and it was also sad because the guy who gave him his body died for absolutely nothing.

scribere

I finished the Episode About 2 mins ago and im just too speechles for Words. This was one of the best Episodes of the Series for me. I cried, laughed, it was intense, emotional, interesting, surprising, so well acted and just Incredible.

Fuzzy Dunlop

I just want to point out that even if some shippers get their feelings hurt when other people don't like their ship, it goes both ways. I have felt for six seasons now that the overwhelming narrative from people on this forum is that Bellarke is romantic and if I disagree then I must be delusional or crazy or stubborn or whatever. Just so you know. The things you post on this forum get read and if you are out there calling non-shippers delusional and making little emojis about us, we do see it. So... I'm not afraid to say what I really think about it. If you all feel comfortable judging me as crazy or stubborn or delusional for not liking your ship, then I don't care if you don't like my opinions about them. Do not give me this "stop telling me my opinions are wrong" complaint when that's exactly what you're doing to people who disagree with you. It's disrespectful.

Karma Police

I'm going to watch the episode next week, when it's on Netflix.

I don't ship them either and don't always see what shippers see but they are definitely planting some of those scenes on purpose, maybe as an acknowledgment to the fanbase? Who knows but I get why they have so many shippers, the writers put more effort into their scenes than their other relationships.

Fuzzy Dunlop

I honestly think they're "acknowledging" the fanbase... a.k.a. pandering or fan service. They've said from the very beginning that they never intended for that relationship to be interpreted as romantic and they were surprised when they found out it had a big following. The show runner specifically calls them platonic. If we're going to take Jason's word for it that they're soulmates, then we also have to take his word that it's not romantic. I think they're just afraid that if they don't throw some scenes to that fanbase, then they'll lose them like the lost the Clexa shippers and then they'll have no audience. It's not because this is some long-planned slow burn romance that's secretly the main story of the show and they're just waiting for the right moment to reveal that they've been lying to us about Bellarke for years. This show is a plot-driven story about moral dilemmas, it's not all about a ship. But of course, disclaimer: this is my opinion. I'm not telling anyone their opinions are "wrong" if they don't see the same things.

BlueDog9

Fuzzy Dunlop

Thanks for that. What's up with Kane's scars coming back? What are they trying to say there? Cause it's not like Kane II could have cut/branded himself and formed new scars in like 15 minutes or whatever. Are they saying this is the transition from looking at Kane II to original recipe Kane? It's a weird moment.

Ropetuned

Been so busy so I haven’t watched a single episode but I did have Henry leaving spoiled for me, so does he actually die or do the cliche decide for yourself trope?

madness

Dead-dead.

Damocles

*unless like Toni said, someone scoops him up! Ha.

Also - I previously forgot to mention I was confused by the thing with Kane's scars, too?