How do you come back from having a beloved character die with seemingly no rhyme or reason? You have two more characters behave completely out of character, apparently! That’s where we find ourselves at the top of “A Sort of Homecoming.” (If I still sound salty, well, I am. It’s been six years since the How I Met Your Mother finale aired and I’m still angry. I hold TV grudges for a long time.)
Clarke is hurled back to the Second Dawn bunker, “otherwise known as hell,” as Jackson says, where everyone — including Gaia — is waiting. That’s right, we’re back on Earth (and I’ll be honest, I’m patting myself on the back for predicting this at the beginning of the season!). The Shepherd has no interest in staying, so he swallows a nano tracker and blips out of there. “May we meet again,” he says in one last jab at Clarke.
They go out and wake up Octavia and the first group to go through. It’s reunions all around, but everyone quickly notices Bellamy is missing. Clarke says that he’s dead, and just when you think she’s not going to take responsibility for it, she says, “I killed him.” Octavia and Echo start to walk toward her as she explains how he had Madi’s sketchbooks and knew she had memories the Shepherd would try to use. “I tried everything — I promise,” Clarke says. Octavia gets right up next to her and hugs her. “I understand,” she says, “so would the old Bellamy.”
Do I believe she would have empathy for someone killing her only sibling that quickly? The woman who literally made people eat one another not that long ago? Absolutely not. But, okay, I’ll go with it. But then Echo follows suit: She says that Cadogan helped Bellamy give meaning to all the violence he’d been part of. She hugs Clarke, too, and as the intro rolls, I am scratching my head and wondering who those people are I just watched.
Oh, and I didn’t even mention the fact that Gaia was pulled there by a random Disciple who has nothing to do with Bellamy or the future or the end game of this show at all. So, that was a whole lot of time I wasted on brainstorming theories!
Gaia has been there a few days, so she’s set up home in the Second Dawn bunker, and they all do the same — except Octavia. She doesn’t have the best memories of that place, which is very understandable! Their first task in the bunker is to find the stone. Niylah says there’s no way they lived there for six years and didn’t see it (I’ve been thinking this for many episodes, so I appreciate her voicing that). Gabriel says that’s how Cadogan got his people out, so it has to be there somewhere. Raven puts on her helmet and sees it’s 100 feet ahead. They’re about to go find it when Clarke asks to borrow the helmet.
Before anyone realizes what’s happening, she smashes it on the wall. “This is our home,” she says. Adding that everyone they care about is there and she won’t lose anyone else. Which I guess would be okay if no one was hunting down her daughter using the very notebook she killed Bellamy for and then LEFT BEHIND.
Back on Bardo, the Shepherd is scrolling through it while he sits next to Sheidheda, who is healed and hooked up to an M-Cap. Cadogan doesn’t know who drew these sketches or what they mean, but he knows Sheidheda does. He has the capability to draw this knowledge out of Sheidheda’s head, but he’d rather they come to an agreement. All Sheidheda wants is Sanctum as his own planet and the stone to be destroyed. Bill tries to explain that the stone is indestructible and once the war is complete, everyone will either die or transcend, no matter where they are or if they’re fighting in it or not. Sheidheda didn’t get to where he is by having scruples, so he quickly gives up Madi and even offers to go get her for the Shepherd.
Back at the bunker, everyone is trying to settle into a new normal: Miller and Jackson hook up and then discuss the meaning of life. Niylah finds her old stash of booze in the vents. Gabriel plays the piano. Jordan and Hope start to dance. It’s all too much for Echo, who just wants to be alone. Madi also isn’t having any fun. Clarke tells her it’s time to rest, but Madi is quite angry that Clarke decided everyone’s fate—including Bellamy’s — just to protect her. “You ruined my life — just like you ruined your own,” she screams as she runs out. Post-apocalyptic tweens, amirite?
Just then the lights come back on because “settling into the new normal” means electrical work for Raven. Murphy thanks her for her work and then gives her a new project: fixing the helmet. He says that there are other people on Sanctum who call Earth home and it’s not fair to leave them behind with all that planet’s issues. I still can’t pinpoint exactly when Murphy became the soul of the show, but I really love it. Raven and Emori get to work.
Meanwhile, Indra goes above ground to talk to Octavia. She knows it’s been more than a decade for Octavia since she was Blodreina, and she sees she still can’t get over what she did. But Indra wants to share the blame with her: They face the bunker together. And it’s a good thing because they’re going to need all the help they can get down there.
With Octavia, Indra, and Gaia standing in the pits, the bridge opens and they’re ready to attack. But they don’t see anyone come through. Sheidheda sneaks through on his own, invisibly. Octavia runs to find Clarke. The two of them search the entire bunker to find Madi, but they keep coming up empty on each level.
Blissfully unaware, Madi is learning to play the piano with Gabriel. Niylah has had a bit too much to drink, so she stumbles back to her bunk. Hope has emotions, so she runs out and Jordan follows. It’s just Madi and Gabriel left in the rec room playing ominous music.
Clarke and Octavia find Hope and Jordan (who are just the cutest socially awkward couple!) outside the maintenance room, where Raven is working on the helmet with Emori and Murphy. Clarke quickly fills them in on what’s happening, and they tell her where Madi is. Suddenly, Sheidheda shoves O into the room and locks the door.
The next thing you know, Gabriel gets stabbed in the back. Sheidheda puts on a little bit of a cat and mouse game before unveiling himself to Madi. He tells her that the Shepherd gave him nanochips to get her back peacefully or the knife thing (like Hope used on Octavia) if she won't go willingly. But he has a third option of his own: to kill her and block transcendence from ever happening.
With the little strength he has left, Gabriel jumps at Sheidheda, which gives Madi the opportunity to get away. She runs to the pits, where Sheidheda follows. Indra and Gaia put up an excellent fight: Indra is about to kill the dark commander when he uses the transporting knife on himself and blips back to Bardo.
When Murphy frees everyone from the maintenance room, they rush to the rec room and find Gabriel bleeding out. He explains that Sheidheda was with Madi, but she rushes back into the room then and Clarke breaths a sigh of relief. When she explains how Sheidheda stabbed himself and disappeared, Octavia says Cadogan won’t stop sending people until they find Madi. Clarke says they have to get the Stone working so they can get back to Sanctum and fight him with her own army. But Madi puts her foot down: She says no one else is going to die for her.
Madi goes so far as to grab the nano trackers Sheidheda left behind. She wants to turn herself in, but Clarke takes them from her. They’re all arguing about what to do while poor Gabriel is dying — but he says he’s ready. He’s had a good 200 years, after all. Octavia recites him the prayer they used to cite on the Ark, and he passes. Before they can really process that, Clarke realizes Madi is gone.
Clarke rushes to find her in the pits, where Madi has the tracker knife held to her gut. Madi says no one else is going to die to save her. And just like that, she stabs herself and is gone. I have to say that Clarke may be pissed, but her “daughter” is truly taking after her. This is a Classic Clarke move if I’ve ever seen one.
And if that weren’t bad enough, seconds after she’s gone, the Shepherd sends through a large bomb. Miller is able to get it outside of the blast doors before it detonates, but seconds later, the ceiling above Murphy and Emori collapses.
I couldn’t have predicted I’d say this six seasons ago, but if Murphy dies, SO HELP ME GOD… I can only take so much.
