“Game of Thrones Season 8, congratulations. The 100’s final season has officially taken the throne for the worst television writing we’ve ever seen.
There’s something to be said about killing a character for shock value. Sure, it can surprise your audience, and even occasionally help move along the narrative when done properly. But when it’s done wrong, it can ruin a show’s legacy. Take Veronica Mars as an example. A fan-favorite character was killed off in the final moments of the show’s long-awaited fourth season, and now it’s unlikely to be renewed ever again. The season is widely disliked by both the critics and fans, and now every conversation about the show comes back to that one poor plot choice.
In The 100’s case, there’s been more than one poorly written character death that the creators have had to make statements and apologize for. Most notably, characters Lexa and Lincoln in season three of the show. The latest addition to this pattern is none other than the show’s male lead, Bellamy Blake.
Killing off Bellamy was always going to be a bad choice. He’s one of the most beloved characters by the fanbase. It would’ve always been hard to wrap our heads around what The 100 would be like without Bellamy Blake.
He’s framed as the heart of the series. He would do anything for the people he cares about and has proven time and time again how resilient he can be. When other characters gave up, he kept going. Nearly every single character on the show had a deep emotional bond with him that drove their respective character arcs at one point or the other. He was always going to be a big loss.
But The 100 didn’t treat him like one. After being sidelined for the entire final season, he was killed off in the most gruesome way possible. He was killed off for a notebook. He was killed off by his best friend. Say what you want about the nature of Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship, but they were each other’s person. Platonically or romantically. Both of them have chosen the other over love interests and the safety of mankind before. So, why would it make sense for Clarke to be the one to shoot Bellamy?
We’ve been here before. At the end of season four, Clarke holds Bellamy at gunpoint when he wants to open the bunker to save Octavia. That was literally a choice between Bellamy or her people, a choice between Bellamy or the safety of the human race, and she chose him. Why would she choose the mere possibility of Madi being in danger over him now? He promised he wouldn’t let anyone hurt Madi right before she pulled the trigger. This is a repetitive storyline, and it was done wrong.
Bellamy’s absence in the season has had a considerable impact on the show’s viewership. It’s been hitting series lows in ratings all season. Social media has been filled with questions about Bellamy’s whereabouts ever since he was taken into the Anomaly in the first place. He’s been left out of promotional materials and ignored in behind the scenes extras. It’s clear that this is not just a bold storyline to shake things up in the final season, this is completely done out of spite. In an entire episode about Bellamy’s journey on Etherea, his name was not said once in the five-minute clip discussing the episode. That’s purposeful. There’s no way around it. If you go back and look at actor Bob Morley’s tweets during filming and compare it to past accusations against showrunner Jason Rothenberg, it’s clear that this is a pattern.
Behind the scenes drama has affected the story and the characters suffered for it. Ricky Whittle, who played Lincoln in the earlier seasons of the show, has stated that the show’s creator cut storylines for his character to try and make him as insignificant as possible to the plot. Lincoln’s death was rewritten and moved up earlier in the season and changed to an execution. Fans have complained about how Lincoln’s death was shot, and how out of place it had felt for Pike to kill him in that way.
Bellamy’s character seems to have been given the same treatment. He was killed out of the blue and in a very graphic way. He wasn’t given any final moments with the people he loves to say goodbye. There was no tribute to his death. Finn got an entire episode with flashbacks building up to his death. We only had him for a season and a half. But Bellamy, the male lead for seven seasons, is killed off in the final few minutes of an episode without anyone blinking an eye. Clarke killed Finn while saying she loved him. Lexa died in Clarke’s arms. Jasper died in Monty’s. But Bellamy dies alone.
Screw that. It was a hateful choice. He went out knowing that everyone he loved hated him, and he died by the hands of the person he trusted the most. Did anyone even try to understand where he was coming from? What he went through? Bellamy spent the entire last season trying to bring Clarke back from the dead but she won’t even take a minute to reflect on what must have happened to him to change his beliefs so suddenly? The Clarke Griffin we know and love would have never killed Bellamy, especially for a stupid sketchbook that she didn’t even get. There wasn’t a worse way for him to go out.
If you add in all of the romantic baiting Bellarke fans have dealt with over the years, it’s hard to get past how terribly written this was. We went from writers and cast members tweeting their support for the relationship, to having one kill the other three episodes before the series finale.
Bellamy Blake is a hero. He always has been. But he was written off for the majority of the season, given a complete personality change, and then killed by someone he loved. That’s The 100’s legacy now. They didn’t “do better”. It only got worse.”
