The 100 7×01 Review: “From the Ashes”

“From the Ashes”, the premiere episode of the seventh and final season of The 100, throws a lot at you in a short amount of time. It definitely sets up what will no doubt be the major conflicts of the season, but it feels like there will be too much going on to give us an adequate and satisfactory conclusion, even with a few extra episodes this season.

The 100 as a show has never shied away from exploring conflict and human nature, and “From the Ashes” is no exception. Some of this is introduced organically – such as with the picnic at the beginning of the episode where it’s made clear that some of our group are angry at Murphy and Emori. However, a lot of the conflict is spelled out by Indra. As it always is with this show, there are multiple warring factions and everyone hates each other. What else is new?

It will be interesting to see the dynamics of the different groups and how they interact, but to be perfectly honest, I’m very tired of how everyone is always fighting. I’ve got conflict fatigue with this show. I’m over all of the violence. I would like, for once, to see people actually working together for the good of humanity or because it’s the right thing to do rather than wondering what they’ll get out of it.

Not to mention, the Eligius prisoners and the Children of Gabriel look very similar to each other, stylistically. I’m sure this won’t be confusing at all in the long run.

But aside from the fact that the people of Sanctum, the Children of Gabriel, the prisoners, and Wonkru all want to kill each other, there is also the small matter of the anomaly and how invisible people (please do not introduce aliens in the final season) have come through and captured Bellamy. And it seems they were sent to capture him, Echo, and Gabriel, based on the overlay from one of the invisible person’s helmets. (For Hope it said “kill on sight”.)

We know from the trailer that the anomaly is a wormhole; it leads to other planets and obviously holds some sort of time component, because Hope was a baby and now she’s not – and she has memories of Octavia, even though Octavia was only in the anomaly for a short amount of time.

Oh, wait, and if that wasn’t enough, it looks as though Russell’s consciousness has been consumed by Sheidheda. I’m not quite sure how that was able to happen, but apparently it has something to do with his code being on the Eligius computer, which has access to the mind drives. (And now I am suddenly very worried for Murphy and Emori.) JR Bourne is in the credits, so they aren’t going to kill him, no matter what Clarke yells from the balcony; this makes me curious how he gets out of this mess.

I’m bored of Sheidheda. I sort of figured when they didn’t do much with him last season that they were setting him up for something in season 7, but he’s just not a very interesting villain. There is enough going on without him popping up. Also, it seems kind of weak that they left Earth but now one of the main villains is someone not only from Earth but from decades ago.

You could tell that Clarke’s breakdown was coming. She spent all of “From the Ashes” telling everyone that she was fine, and as soon as she saw her father’s wedding ring, she couldn’t hold in her grief anymore. I am only a little surprised that this was enough to cause her to snap on Russell (although that beatdown was sexy as hell, I’m not going to lie), after having spent the entire episode advocating for his life to be spared.

Random Thoughts:

• Hey, the dog lived! Excellent. Now please let it survive to the end of this season.
• The picnic scene at the farmhouse was very incongruous with the rest of the episode (indeed, with the rest of the show).
• Yay for more Indra! She was sadly underutilized last season.
• I am living for the Roan hallucination of Echo’s. I really didn’t want him to die; that’s one of the things that angered me most from season 4.
• Why do the 100 put so much faith in Jordan just because he’s Monty’s and Harper’s son? He doesn’t have their same experiences. Overall, he’s a very blah character who doesn’t really add much to the story.
• Clarke stands in front of a burning palace and declares there are no more kings or queens and then unilaterally decides they’re going to kill a prisoner. OK, Daenerys.
• So we’re just not getting previews for the next episode now?

All in all, I thought that “From the Ashes” was a pretty good premiere episode, but it was bloated and busy and at times confusing. Will they be able to wrap up all of the open storylines in a way that makes sense and doesn’t make everyone want to throw things? They’ve got 16 episodes to convince me that they haven’t made a huge mistake.

Have you seen “From the Ashes”? What did you think?

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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