we find bellamy three months post-mount weather. we discover he has a girlfriend, personally i’m guessing he and gina have been together about a month due to bellamy not dating that easily, but that’s a meta for a whole other time. the first time we encounter him in this season, he’s training with lincoln. they give lincoln a uniform and bellamy uses his trademark together. we’ll see later this doesn’t mean he trusts the grounders - that’s a theme throughout the season (and really, it’s a theme throughout my bellamy’s entire life) - but he does trust lincoln. lincoln is the exception, rather than the rule.
later, kane tells him not to screw that up about the peace with the grounders. abby says he’s come along way. yes, he has, but kane is still right - he’s a work in progress. that’s true throughout the season. it’s natural for people to take steps forward, only to take even more steps back. bellamy does this. remember kane’s order to bellamy because it comes into play later.
they find jasper on the ground and bellamy is convinced they should leave him this time, implying this is something that’s happened before. when clarke left, she thought she was bearing the weight - forgetting he’s going to be the one who will have to deal with the grief their people are experiencing first hand. this is important throughout the entire season. jasper slaps his face in a mock salute. long gone is the boy who worshipped him. bellamy has lost jasper’s respect, but we know that jasper blames monty most (people blame those they love the most, it’s a natural thing). bellamy looks at raven in this moment, annoyed, but i think there’s a deeper feeling there. hurt, guilt.
there’s a kiss with gina just before, but it’s not the kiss that shows me much personally. she’s his first actual girlfriend for my bellamy and that’s important. but the fact that he’s told her that aurora used to read to them is the bigger thing here - he cares about her. i personally don’t think bellamy was in love when gina died (that’s a whole other meta, again)... but he obviously cares of her. and the fact that he’s shared about his past with her shows trust. trust trumps anything for bellamy blake. she’s too good for you, raven says. bellamy, secretly, agrees. she has something that bellamy can’t quite grasp. he’s dark, while she’s light. she is too good for him.
next, there’s the best scene ever where they’re all singing in the car. they get a moment of just being the young people they are and having fun but, whelp, here comes a signal. this is where bellamy utters his famous screw protocol. that’s important because, while following kane’s orders means something to him, it’s a bigger deal to bellamy to find those people his group cares about. monty’s family. miller’s boyfriend. bellamy’s motivations are still pretty clear at this point. fight for my people. during this whole trip, the group listen to him. it’s pretty obvious they view him as a leader at this point. we even get a bellamy smile!
bellamy tries to say not to use force, but jasper does his jasper thing and, when he kills the grounder, bellamy is doing it for jasper. once again, his people are more important than the truce. he doesn’t like the grounders. doesn’t trust them. they’re trying to kill jasper and, in his mind, they’re breaking the truce first. this isn’t the first time the grounders have attacked first. bellamy kills the grounder, breaking the truce, and in turn... he fails kane’s order. don’t screw this up.
he fails. bellamy feels the most guilty when he fails those he cares about. bellamy even tries to defend himself immediately upon seeing kane. kane’s opinion of him is actually really important to bellamy. while bellamy would never admit it to himself or even realize it, kane is like the closest thing he has to a dad.
they mention clarke for the first time and it’s been obvious since s1 that she’s important to him. i’m not even talking about in a shipping way and i won’t throughout this entire series. but they mention clarke is being hunted and both monty and bellamy looked frightened by this prospect.
now, probably the most important scene in this episode as far as understanding bellamy’s motivations... indra, monty, kane, and bell are back in the rover. “we know there’s a kill order, you people are big on those.” his tone is flat, unimpressed. he does not like the grounders. i repeat, he does not like the grounders. playing peace is one thing. trust is another. indra explains about her people’s belief in taking others’ powers when you kill them and bellamy literally rolls his eyes and shakes his head. just another reason to never trust them, he thinks.
“what clarke did in mount weather...” indra says. what we did, bellamy remembers. it’s not just clarke - it was him and monty, too. but they’re not the ones being hunted. bellamy views this as the grounders targeting clarke. he can’t trust them.
