So, I’ve been diving back into “The 100” lately, specifically chewing over the whole Bellamy and Echo dynamic, especially towards the end. It’s one of those things you watch, and then rewatch, and each time something new clicks or, well, something new bothers you.
Echo, man, she really had a rough go of it. And with Bellamy in that final season? It was like trying to recognize someone you’ve known forever but they’ve got a completely different face. I remember hearing bits and pieces, like Bob Morley, the actor playing Bellamy, was dealing with some personal things around seasons 6 and 7. Maybe that’s why his character arc felt so jarring, almost like they had to write him out in a hurry. But Echo’s reaction, her trying to process it… she seemed to get that the Bellamy she knew, the real Bellamy, was kinda already gone. Lost to that whole Cadogan Kool-Aid. It wasn’t just about him dying; it was about who he’d become before that.
It’s funny, these fictional characters and their struggles can really make you reflect on your own stuff. Watching Echo sort of come to terms with that loss, it actually dug up a memory of something that happened to me a few years back. It wasn’t about space cults or anything, but the feeling was weirdly similar.
I was part of this small online gaming community, really tight-knit. We had this one guy, let’s call him “Commander.” He was basically the founder, super dedicated, always fair, the guy everyone respected. We’d been gaming together for ages, built up this whole thing from scratch. Then, one day, he starts introducing all these new rules. Weird rules. Stuff that went against everything we’d built. He started acting super paranoid, kicking people out for no good reason, talking about “loyalty tests.” It was bizarre. We tried talking to him, asking what was up, but it was like hitting a brick wall. He wasn’t the same person. The reasonable, cool-headed guy we knew? Gone. Replaced by this…stranger.
The whole community kind of fractured after that. People just drifted away. And you’re left standing there, looking at this person who looks the same, sounds the same, but is clearly not the same. That look on Echo’s face, that mix of grief and confusion and maybe a bit of resignation when Bellamy was so far gone? Yeah, I felt a shadow of that. You’re not just mourning what happened, you’re mourning the person you thought you knew. You start wondering if they were ever really that person, or if you just painted that picture in your head.
So, yeah, Bellamy and Echo. It’s more than just a sci-fi storyline sometimes. It’s about change, loss, and how you try to make sense of it when someone you care about fundamentally shifts. That’s what I’ve been mulling over during this rewatch. It’s a good reminder that sometimes, you just gotta process the hand you’re dealt, even if it’s a bad one from someone you trusted.
