My Thoughts After Episode 6.09: The Things You Take With You
I really loved this episode. (This season just keeps getting better in my opinion.) The Bellarke interactions alone would have made this a great episode, but there was so much more.
Micheal Beach back as Pike for the anomaly scene was great. I love him in pretty much every role I’ve ever seen him in. (I’ve had the week from hell, so I haven’t been online so if his appearance was leaked, I didn't know about it so I was very pleasantly surprised.)
I enjoyed Octavia killing Bloodreina too. I hope we get Octavia back like she was in season 2 and early season 3, at least as far as her personal happiness and moral compass are concerned. I like that she’s grown and experienced so much. I like that she’s learned how hard it is to lead, when she used to judge Bellamy and Clarke so harshly for their mistakes. But I felt like she needed something to happen to help her start coming back from Bloodreina and being able to return to the person she truly is, instead of continuing to make herself be who she thought her people needed her to become to keep them alive in the bunker, and I felt like her fight with Pike (and herself) was a really cool way to give her that kind of pivotal moment.
I was sad 2 weeks ago that I felt like we didn’t get to say goodbye to Kane as Henry Ian Cusick so I was so happy that they had HIC play the final scene, regardless of what body he was in. (Although the actor who played the man who Kane’s mind was put into, was really great and very “Kane-like” in his performance.) Speaking of the final Kane scene. That was done so well. The way he died was a very “Kane” way to go and I thought felt really true to the morally driven person he has become over the course of the series. I also think that was the best performance Paige Turco has given as Abby in the history of the show. Of course Henry Ian Cusick was amazing and Adina Porter was even more incredible than usual. I’m glad that they woke Indra up and she got to say goodbye to Kane. I’ve always loved their friendship. Her saying the Traveler’s Blessing was also really moving.
OK, Josephine recapping what she knew about Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship to Bellamy was such a treat! I loved the parallels between Josephine and Gabriel’s relationship and Bellarke. Also the fact that Josephine accused Bellamy (multiple times) of caring about Clarke more than all his other friends combined, and he had chances to deny it, but he never did? It fed my Bellarker soul.
I also thought that Clarke initially refusing to leave Bellamy was a great way for them to move further past her leaving him in Polis. And even though she had to go, she didn’t abandon him since she slipped him the keys.
I do have to say I’m a little worried about Diyoza. The only reason I’m not as worried as I would be with another show is that (as JRoth has said) they really like to make the audience feel the death of a character, so I don't think Diyoza will die by just slipping away into the anomaly without more drama than there was in episode 6.08, but she’s becoming one of my favorite characters so I hope she sticks around.
And finally, when Josephine told Clarke she had to give her back control to drive the motorcycle, and Clarke just revved the engine in such a badass way only to tell Josephine that it sucks when people take things from you, IN FRENCH (was told it was actually Mandarin), which she stole from Josephine’s memories, was just a perfect way to cap off Clarke’s story for the episode.
I can't wait for next week.
