The 100: The wasted potential of Bellarke and their seasons-long relationship

Whether you ship Bellarke or consider them a brOTP, it’s clear The 100 jumped the shark in “Blood Giant” — and the series is poorer for it.

Alright, Culturess readers, we all know Bellamy Blake deserved better than what he got in “Blood Giant.” Most have us have been wracking our brains since the episode aired, trying to figure out why the writers of The 100 would write a less-than-paid-attention-to kidnapping plot, fake Bellamy’s death, reveal he’s not dead but did join a cult, and then kill him just two episodes after his friends and family found out he’s actually alive.

Calling that a satisfactory arc for a beloved character, let alone the male lead of the show, is laughable, especially when his executioner is Clarke. Not only are they best friends, but they’re the two halves of the show’s most popular ship, Bellarke.

According to The 100‘s showrunner Jason Rothenberg, Bellamy’s death goes to “the heart of what the show is all about: Survival. Who you’re willing to protect. And who you’re willing to sacrifice.” But considering who Bellamy and Clarke are to each other, his explanation for what feels like an out-of-left-field decision reads incredibly weak.

Clarke shutting the door on Bellamy and Finn in the first-season finale in order to blast the grounders attacking the dropship traumatized her enough to risk breaking out of Mt. Weather to go find them in season two. She took Lexa’s advice and let a bomb drop on an innocent town in order to keep Bellamy’s undercover mission in said mountain from being exposed in the same season.

Rather than allowing Bellamy to die at Lexa’s hands in season three for his part in the massacre of hundreds of Coalition soldiers sent to protect their people, she tried to reason with him and figure out what led to the decision he made. She apologized to him in season four for threatening to kill him when he opened the door to Octavia and the grounders trapped outside of the bunker.

Yes, Clarke left him to die in season five after he chose to ascend Madi, which put her safety at risk, but she apologized in season six for her actions and promised not to lose sight of the fact that he’s her family, too.

So, if the point of their relationship was to move them closer and closer to a moment where Clarke would be willing to kill him, then what exactly are fans supposed to take away from their series-long arc? The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger? Fall Out Boy is great, but that’s not a lyric to write by for a relationship that sits at the core of who these characters are together and apart.

Throughout The 100, whenever things started falling completely to pieces for our heroes, it was usually because Bellarke was apart and/or at odds. They each have different leadership styles. Clarke tends to lead the masses and Bellamy influences them. They’re both charismatic and charming, but while Clarke is methodical about her approach to getting what she wants, Bellamy is all heart and relies on emotion to get what he wants.

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For six seasons the pair balanced each other out, though it’s no secret that the writers have struggled with their dynamic since the season four finale launched the series six years into the future, with Bellamy thinking Clarke had died only to find out she didn’t and now has a pre-teen child she cares for and loves.

As viewers, we have seen them be each other’s confidantes. The series even spoke to the way they ground each other in season four when Bellamy’s talk with Jaha leads to a conversation about how he centers Clarke. Bellamy responds that Jaha has it backward; she centers him.

The feelings they have for one another, whether you interpret them as romantic or platonic, have been the heart of the show even going as far back as season one, when they often rankled each other’s nerves. Their catchphrase has been “together” since they pulled the lever sentencing Mt. Weather’s citizens to death in order to save their own people. There’s really no way to look at The 100 without seeing the two of them entwined in the narrative.

While you can have one without the other, season seven has suffered in large part because Bellamy was off-screen and Clarke got sidelined in her own show. Their reunion — a staple of each season since the series’ sophomore run and one fans often look forward to seeing — was lackluster due to the two being on opposite sides once again and Bellamy’s immediate betrayal upon reunion.

There was no satisfactory resolution between Bellarke before Bellamy’s death. Their relationship ended in a literal shattered heart, and Clarke’s reason for killing Bellamy didn’t matter in the end because she didn’t get Madi’s sketchbook anyway. So what fans are left with are questions and dissatisfaction not only for Bellamy’s arc, but for the arc of one of the most important relationships on the show.

We spent half of last season on the edge of our seats, wondering when Bellamy was going to find out Clarke got body-snatched, how he was going to save her, and what saving her might mean for their relationship in the future. This season we weren’t at the edge of our seats with Bellamy’s storyline. We were bored waiting for when the story would pay attention to it — and when it finally did, it turned out to be a dud.

Bellarke was the kind of “will they-won’t they” ship that danced so dangerously close to the line of romance that even those who don’t ship it were getting tired of the way the writers kept waltzing around the idea of a romantic relationship between the two of them.

Clarke called Bellamy every day for six years when she was stranded on a scorched Earth. That’s 2,199 radio calls unanswered. Bellamy listened to what Clarke had to say about using both his head and his heart to lead and spent six years making sure her “sacrifice” wasn’t in vain. He lived in her honor.

In one of the most exhilarating and literal heart-pounding scenes this series has ever done, Bellamy brought Clarke back to life by encouraging her to get up and fight because he needed her, something he’d never outwardly admitted until that moment. The scene ends with a revived Clarke clutching Bellamy as he holds her close and she repeats the words, “The head and the heart.”

If there’s one relationship that should have made it to the finish line of the series, it’s Bellarke. Clarke and Bellamy have constantly lost people in their fight to survive, sometimes at their own hands and sometimes at the hands of others. But they have consistently wanted to be by each other’s side to see their fight through.

Bellamy told Clarke that as long as they’re breathing, there’s hope. It’s an idea that has kept both of them going, even though life has handed them increasingly tough challenges to navigate. Season six saw the beginning of healing between the two of them after their season five decisions nearly destroyed their relationship beyond repair.

Going into season seven, some fans believed the two would end the series dying together after saving their people. It seemed a fitting end for a pair who have repeatedly sacrificed pieces of themselves for the sake of others, and who in death may find peace. But this would allow them to do so with someone they loved and who knew them completely. Instead, we got “Blood Giant.”

Whatever we’re supposed to take from Bellamy’s untimely death and the subsequent end to Bellarke’s relationship in The 100, it wasn’t worth throwing years of character development and relationship focus in the garbage for the sake of shock and what this show thinks survival is — which apparently is the sacrifice of loved ones, even when talking or literally anything else but shooting your best friend in the heart would be better.

It’s doubtful that the writers will be pulling some kind of deus ex machina fix to erase Bellamy’s death from canon, and while I personally have a wild delusional take that this is all a simulation and killing Bellamy means that Clarke passed and she did it with his blessing, it seems we’re going to have to live with the wasted potential that the writers have handed us.

R.I.P. canon Bellarke. You deserved better.

Do you think Bellarke deserved better? Serve up your thoughts in the comments below!