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The 100 season 6 episode 8 review: The Old Man And The Anomaly


This review contains spoilers.

6.8 The Old Man And The Anomaly

Welcome to, ‘yet another episode of No Good Choices,’ as we will now be referring to the show (not really, but I wish). After last week’s fun, fan service-y episode largely treaded nostalgic waters, a lot happened in this episode. The 100 picked up the quality from the usual mid-season slump, helped along by this season’s structure, even if the frenetic pace has been consistent.

Diyoza and Octavia’s development continues to be one of the strongest threads this season. At this point it doesn’t matter what Diyoza did, I welcome her back with open arms and Octavia isn’t too far behind her. Seeing these two care for each other so genuinely and start to reveal some of their inner truth via the Anomaly is entirely welcome, and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the endlessly resourceful Diyoza.

I can’t wait to hear what Octavia experienced inside the Anomaly, but for now she has been healed from her temporal flare-related injuries. Most of the audience has expected her to have a romantic connection with Xavier, who we now know is Gabriel (thanks, Diyoza!), and this episode made it even easier to see why. They both know what it’s like to make hard choices for your people, to be elevated to the point of a god, and to not know how to come back down from it.

It can be hard for the mysteries on The 100 to live up to all the hype – I guessed last year’s cannibalism at first mention and by the time it was “revealed” the entire fandom saw it as a foregone conclusion, taking the wind entirely out of those sails. But like the infant sacrifice last week, exposing Xavier as Gabriel this week benefitted from there being so much else going on that neither was built up on a pedestal as the end-all, be-all twist of the season. It’s more fun for the audience to be surprised, even if the reason why is more a case of sleight of hand (given the focus on Clarke and the Primes) than complete shock.

Gabriel’s story since he left Sanctum was brief but moving. In just a few moments we learned he rescued a child left to die, raising him as his own, trained him to remove the brain drive, all the while living with the guilt of what he created in Sanctum. The matter of fact way he told Octavia and Diyoza that he killed his son in a blind rage contrasted with the shame-filled tenor of his admission that he took on Xavier’s life. There’s certainly more to the story – Xavier had to have a mother, and the rest of his followers are wandering around out there somewhere. Here’s hoping we get to know him better.

I’m hoping to see Emori unpack her feelings a bit more in a future episode. Luisa D’Oliveira did an excellent job conveying a lot with very little screen time and dialogue, but there are so many competing priorities at play. For example, there’s something about her delivery when she tells Josephine that she’s on their side that feels like Emori wasn’t actually all in. Perhaps this was an attempt to mislead the audience, but it feels deliberate that she didn’t answer John directly, and only got on board when it became a survival situation.

While Emori did tell Bellamy that Clarke was alive, it was looking at Echo that made her do it. As much as the whole group who went back to space is family, the two outsiders have a special bond. I’m particularly hoping to see Emori react to Bel and the others keeping her out of the plan – even after everything they had been through, they decided she was still an untrustworthy outsider, her greatest trigger. It’s so like Emori to set that aside (as well as John’s horrible decision making) in the moment of crisis, but I’m hopeful that she’ll find her moment to hold Bellamy and Murphy accountable for making decisions for her.

Speaking of Murphy, he of the terrible choices. It’s hard to understand how he didn’t come up with new maths once he knew Clarke was alive. This might be a way for him to finally understand Clarke’s many difficult choices, but it unfortunately feels a bit out of step for him to keep getting farther away from his well-earned character evolution, at least without sufficient pressure.

Russell radicalised over the course of this episode, which is something I thought we had already seen. The fact that he keeps trying to reset back to an orderly, just, peaceful man ruling over an orderly, just, peaceful society makes me want to see him and Clarke locked in battle yet again. I love seeing Eliza as Josephine, but there’s something fascinating about watching foils who are such well-crafted mirror images of one another.

Priya showed once again how the Primes are so careless with the lives of others. She is grateful to Jordan (who better not be dead, so help me), and for a minute I even thought she might be Delilah when she bent down to help him. But her response to finding out from Ryker what Russell did to Clarke wasn’t to be aghast over murder, but rather to be appalled that Russell cut in line. Like the old Greek Gods, the Primes might occasionally take an interest in the Nulls and even reward them, but they don’t truly value their lives.

Abby is headed in that same direction fast, if she isn’t there already. Raven did her best to try to stop her, but at least now she might be getting help from Kane, in his new form of the body of Gavin, AKA Greyston Holt from Bitten. I can’t imagine many things more horrifying than waking up to see your own dead body but realising that the love of your life is responsible has got to be one of them. It seems like everyone who has been kidding themselves about their own culpability or purity is finally going to have to face the reality of their actions.

Read Delia’s review of the previous episode, Nevermind, here.



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