kiss the wind

Agreed. "It's what Clarke would have wanted" is total BS, and he KNOWS IT.

Modo1013

As in the past, there are really no good choices here. Bellamy and everyone else truly believes that Clarke is dead. Nothing they have seen so far has shown them otherwise. Just one episode ago, Bellamy was planning to take the knowledge they gain in Sanctum and their people, and set out to live elsewhere. I think that he is still planning to do that. As devastated as he is, he is really their leader and needs to use his head. This leader has 400 other people asleep on that ship to consider. He is really trying not to burn this world down. At least, not yet.

The last time he spoke to actual Clarke, she told him how important he was to her. And it really was the first time she vocalized her regard for him. That conversation is staying with him. It doesn't matter that she had "died" before. They didn't see her die. After seeing someone murdered with the drive, he knows that this is what happened to Clarke. To see someone else walking around in her body is devastating. He knows that his rage and vengeance accomplishes nothing. It wont bring Clarke back. Bellamy has learned from past mistakes. All of them getting killed defeats the purpose of Monty finding that planet. Do bettter. That's the mantra. I think its more than fair to give the guy a minute to grieve someone he loves. It has been said by too many characters on this show for it not to be such intense feelings. So, we were "shown" not "told" this time. I loved it.

Bellamy had 6 years on the ring to mature and work through his issues. I'm guessing he is supposed to be about 30 now. I think that maturity is part of what didn't let the rage win. But, let him get wind that Clarke can still be saved. That fire will be back.

I guess that was my long-winded way of saying I don't think Bellamy's current behavior is OOC.

kenni727

Again, NOT SAYING that Bellamy shouldn't grieve Clarke. That would be ridiculous for him not to. And I can understand him claiming to the Primes that he'll take their deal in order to buy some time. But he tells Echo that's what their doing. Why? Cause it would seem that's actually what he intends to do. Which is what I'm saying is NOT Bellamy. Especially then claiming that's what Clarke would have wanted. Like who in the world actually believes that's what Clarke would have wanted? Bellamy would never use Clarke as an excuse to sit idly by.

CanIcallYouKate

Modo, I absolutely love what you are saying there and I completely agree. You also made a good point about focusing on Bellamy's hands. Loved that!

To me there are two things grieving Bellamy operates on right now. Monty telling them to do better and Clarke way back when telling him to use his head.

I also think it's premature to assume that he will be an acquiescing sad pushover for the rest of the season, but it's been barely a minute here for the poor guy.

Not ooc for me by any stretch of the imagination.

Agreed, Lisa

We know that Clarke is "alive" (nobody ever honestly believed they would kill off her character LOL ) but they don't. From all that we have been told and shown and the characters on the show likewise, the primes seem genuine when they say it's irreversible. Once taken over, the host mind is dead. So there is no "need" for action in the sense of mounting a rescue plan. They all think she's dead.

BlueDog9

Exactly. In their minds, there is nothing to do, no one to save. Clarke's dead and they have to move on, once Bellamy and Madi get through their grief. #SinceNoOneElseCaresButThem

Now if they realize Clarke's still in there and there is something to be done and they stay on their butts, call them OOC.

a little chaos

I wonder if we’ll see Abby’s reaction...

kenni727

No one to save? How about themselves? They need to get out of there. It's not like Bellamy to just blindly accept that the Primes took Clarke but the rest of them are safe.

BlueDog9

He's lost in his grief right now. Give the man more than 3 seconds to deal with losing his closest friend.

April7739

But they’re not ready to get out of there yet. I mean, this is a place where “tree-hugging” means something very different, and where eclipses induce psychosis, and where lakes are poisonous. They don’t know enough to fend for themselves in that world. They’re not ready to go out and build their own settlement. They have to learn what they can from Russell and then hope to get out of there.

I just honestly don’t see another option right now. I’m sure we’ll see one soon, but as of right now . . . I think Bellamy’s doing the best that he can with the limited information he has (and the limited amount of time he’s had to process everything). And it’s obviously killing him to not give in to that need for vengeance and urge to kill them all. He wishes he could. But that would only get himself killed, and then probably the others shortly after him.

Fuzzy Dunlop

You guys... if it's so upsetting for him to see Clarke's body walking around with someone else inside, then why is he enabling the Primes to do that to lots of other people by making this deal? He knows that they're going to keep body snatching if nobody stops them. Sure, for all he knows Clarke is gone forever. But the potential is there for him to make sure that same thing doesn't happen to anyone else (Madi, anyone?) Isn't he completely betraying her memory by making this deal?

The show set up a false dichotomy between "killing everyone" and "doing nothing." Murphy presented it to Bellamy that way, but I cannot believe Bellamy would have accepted it so easily. In those final scenes, instead of showing Bellamy just capitulating, telling Echo they're doing nothing, and breaking down into tears, the real old school "heart" Bellamy would have held a very quiet huddle with the Adventure Squad members he still trusts (ie, not Murphy right now) and tells them they're going to figure out a way to undermine the Primes. He doesn't have to know exactly what the plan is in this moment, but he does need to show that he's not giving up and he's not going to let what happened to Clarke happen to countless other people. There are points of weakness they can attack without literally just killing everybody. They could try to destroy the mind drives or the equipment and labs the Primes use to body snatch. They could start an underground campaign to un-brainwash the citizens. They already know the CoG are out there stealing host bodies, so they could try to contact them to see if there's a way to help out there...

Anyway, my point in all of this is that I think the writers aren't doing justice to Bellamy by kind of dumbing down his reaction here. Again, notice how characters like Jordan and Raven, who definitely wouldn't be going along with this plan, have been randomly removed from the group. I don't know what the end game is here, but they're setting it up for Madi to come into conflict with everyone, for sure. It just feels to me like they're abandoning good characterization to force their plot.

kenni727

Exactly! I'm not suggesting Bellamy have a plan right at this very second. Of course, grieve for Clarke. But don't then just roll over and let the Primes have their way.

It seems like many of you don't think that's what Bellamy plans to do...once he learns Clarke is still in there. But giving in isn't what Bellamy would be doing anyway - regardless of who was taken.

I'm not buying this "It's Clarke so of course Bellamy is shutting down." Cause that's what we're being shown - he shut down. Not just taking time to grieve, but actually giving in to the Primes.

That scene at the end showing Bellamy crying and clenching his fists by the water? Believable. What's not believable is telling Echo they're doing nothing. An "I don't know yet" would be far more likely.

Fuzzy Dunlop

Yeah, when Echo asked when they were going to attack, Bellamy should have like gritted his teeth and said something about how they're going to need to be sneakier and not attack directly. I mean... his girlfriend is a trained spy. They have the skills to do this another way. They can pretend to be going along with it for now while they come up with a better plan. They considered their options more carefully last season when it was Octavia vs. Diyoza. Can't they be smarter like that now? Why the sudden dumb helplessness?

Because honestly, if they're trying to "do better" like Monty (and Clarke?) wanted, then I don't think that just means not burning down entire civilizations. That's a really low bar. Doesn't "better" also mean not standing by and allowing atrocities to happen? There are innocent people on Sanctum that they need to liberate. (And soon they're going to realize that they've got 400 of their own people up on the space ship who are at risk of getting converted into hosts by Abby.)

kenni727

I've about had it with Abby. I really hope Raven questions what she's doing and gets her to open her eyes.

And this really isn't an either/or situation. They have other options. Bellamy knows that. He was already considering other options. This is not like Bellamy.

He's the one who had the idea and volunteered to sneak into Mt. Weather. He's he one who sided with Pike to take action against the Grounders (not saying that was a good idea, but point is he acted). He was the one to poison his own sister to prevent a war.

The list could go one. Point is, Bellamy has made numerous difficult decisions. Each time according to what he thought best for his people - even at great personal cost and under pressure or in grief. No part of him believes that giving up is doing better and thereby doing right by either Clarke or Monty. Clarke would want him to continue fighting to save their people. And Monty would want him to do it with no bloodshed.

April7739

Listen, I hate these Primes and would love for Bellamy to find a gun and blow ‘em all to kingdom come. But I just can’t understand the mindset that any of this is OOC. If there is one thing that 6 seasons should have taught us, it’s that Bellamy is an incredibly complicated character whose decisions are complicated, too. And let’s not forget that probably the darkest time in his life resulted from his desire to seek vengeance and fight a war. I think this episode showed us that that side of Bellamy is very much still in there (we saw it come out in 6x02 during the eclipse, too), but I think it’s pretty understandable why he wouldn’t want to be consumed by that again.

Yes, but this is also a difficult decision. I’m not a fan of the scripts being released, but even the script described this as the most difficult decision of his life. I think he did make the decision of what he thought was best for his people. And one can argue that . . . it actually might be. For now, at least. Any sort of retaliation right now almost surely ends in his death and the death of the others, which surely Clarke wouldn’t want.

With all that being said, I do hope he realizes the importance of keeping a close eye on Madi right now. Or, you know, it doesn’t all have to be on Bellamy. Any of them could be thinking about that, especially since they’re definitely not grieving as intensely as he is.

And he’s avoided bloodshed so far. And who’s to say he won’t continue fighting? Define fighting, anyway. Sometimes fighting is surviving and doing what you need to do rather than what you want to do.

Anyway, I’m probably done talking about this here. I thought it was a stellar episode in general, and especially for Bellamy, the man who cannot just have a good simple day EVER.

Fuzzy Dunlop

And I can't understand the mindset that this was a good episode for Bellamy.Especially coming from people who are fans of the Bellamy/Clarke friendship. He gave up so quickly. He was so easily convinced to betray her memory by making a deal with the people who murdered her. It's not even about bloody revenge. I'm amazed that you guys think it's somehow romantic(?!) or something that Bellamy is standing by and becoming complicit in the brainwashing and body-snatching that killed Clarke. I am genuinely shocked that you guys liked that.

But oh, well. People are going to see things in different ways.