Major spoilers ahead for the fifth episode of The 100's seventh and final season, called “Welcome to Bardo.”
The 100 didn’t hold back in delivering huge twists in “Welcome to Bardo,” some of which answered questions that have been lingering ever since Octavia raced out of the Anomaly after spending an undetermined amount of time on the other side in Season 6. Between the time dilation between Bardo, Sanctum, and Penance along with the episode time jumps, a whole lot happened. That said, the moment that will likely have The 100 fans talking, theorizing, and potentially lamenting until at least the next episode was what seemingly resulted in the death of a very big character. Did The 100 really just kill off Bellamy Blake?!
Well, it’s not 100% clear, so fans don’t need to start rending their garments and gnashing their teeth in grief just yet, but things don’t look so hot for good old Bellamy. Let’s take a look at why he might be dead but why there’s still hope. (No "Hope" pun intended.)
Why Bellamy Might Be Dead
“Welcome to Bardo” actually spent most of the episode on Octavia and her trials on Bardo, where her memories were mined for information on Clarke, and Anders definitely noticed that Octavia’s thoughts strayed to her brother a lot. Bob Morley made his first appearance since the Season 7 premiere in a room on Bardo with the Anomaly Stone, when Anders seemingly revealed that the Disciples had pulled him over to Bardo to get information on Clarke.
Octavia tried to save her brother, saying that she’d give them all the information on Clarke they needed if they’d just let Bellamy go, but that might have been what ended in his death. Bellamy, because he’s Bellamy and he reconciled with his sister at the end of Season 6, refused to leave without Octavia.
With Anders securing Octavia’s promise to spill details on Clarke, he technically didn’t need Bellamy anymore, and when a guard who Bellamy hadn’t killed pulled out a grenade, Octavia was the only one who tried to warn Bellamy. The blast knocked everybody back and scorched the Anomaly Stone, and it looked an awful lot like Bellamy was more or less vaporized by his proximity to the explosion.
Marie Avgeropoulos deserves an award for her expression of shock and despair as Octavia, who clearly at least believes her brother is dead, and she had a front-row seat to the explosion. Echo saw the explosion via Octavia’s memory, and she believes that Bellamy is dead as well, which unfortunately resulted in her murdering a hostage that she, Hope, and Gabriel really needed in a fit of rage.
Octavia and Echo are arguably two of the three characters (with Clarke as the third) who love Bellamy most and who would most want to rationalize that he’s alive; if they believe he’s dead, and if The 100 was giving Bob Morley time off per his request, it stands to reason that Bellamy really could be dead. This is the final season of a very deadly show, after all, and I’ve suspected the Bellamy and/or Clarke will die before the final credits roll. My real surprise is that, if this really was Bellamy’s death, it happened in the fifth out of 16 episodes in Season 7.
All of this said, I still have hope that Bellamy isn’t dead, and not just because I want him to be alive. Read on for my reasons why Bellamy might still be among the living!
Why Bellamy Might Not Be Dead
Look, this is television, and if a TV show “kills” a character without showing a body or the explicit death, then that character isn’t necessarily dead. Sure, Bob Morley’s request for time off might explain how The 100 could kill off the male lead without asking the actor to film an intense death scene, but I’m choosing to believe that the show just wanted to make Octavia and Echo believe that Bellamy was vaporized, and maybe scare the pants off Bellamy fans in the process. For now, I’m sticking with the TV rule that if there’s no body, somebody isn’t necessarily dead.
And The 100 actually left a big opening for Bellamy surviving while still being blasted backward by the explosion and making Octavia think he was dead. The Anomaly Stone was glowing green and ready to transport somebody out of Bardo when the grenade went off, so it’s entirely possible that Bellamy was able to fall, jump, or be forced backwards into the Anomaly rather than vaporized, and the blood on Octavia’s could have come from one of the other people who had been close to the Anomaly Stone. No body + a wormhole opening to somewhere safer = hope for a living Bellamy!
This also wouldn’t be the only case of one of the key characters falling through the Anomaly, with their fate unknown. In the previous episode, Gaia and a Disciple scuffled on Sanctum and fell through an Anomaly Stone before it closed and was destroyed behind them. They didn’t end up on the same frozen planet as Clarke and Co., and it’s probably safe to say that they’re not on the burning Earth, Penance, or Bardo. Characters can fall into the Anomaly on The 100 without The 100 immediately revealing what happened to them. Might Bellamy and Gaia have ended up in the same place?
Aside from all the in-universe ways and reasons Bellamy could have survived, I really think it wouldn’t make sense to the story for Bellamy to be killed off this way. He has only been in Season 7 for a couple of minutes, and Bob Morley is the second-billed actor and male lead of the show.
Unless Bellamy was killed to accommodate Bob Morley’s request for time off, I find it hard to believe that the second biggest character on the show could be so unceremoniously killed off, especially without sharing any kind of meaningful scene with Clarke that could give closure to arguably the most important dynamic of the series. Could The 100 really split up the head and the heart of the series like this?
The head and the heart of Clarke and Bellamy aside, Bellamy didn’t get a meaningful final scene with any characters, unless the brief moment between Bellamy and Octavia in the presence of a bunch of other characters qualifies.
Remember Abby's farewell tour of meaningful moments, if not explicit goodbyes, in Season 6 before her death? Wouldn’t The 100 give the secondary protagonist of the show more of worthy ending that what happened in "Welcome to Bardo" to Bellamy? Admittedly, Bellamy dying because he wouldn’t give up on Octavia would be in-character since their reconciliation, but I don't want to believe the show would do it like this, and not just because I’ve been hoping for an unlikely happy ending for the Blake siblings.
Unfortunately, we can only wait and see if Bellamy is gone for good or not. New episodes of The 100 air on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. You can relive the earlier seasons of the show in which Bellamy is totally, clearly, 100% not dead streaming on Netflix, and be sure to weigh in our poll below about whether or not Bellamy is alive. Don't forget to check out our 2020 summer premiere schedule for more viewing options.
This poll is no longer available.
