Following a strong episode exploring what’s on the other side of The Anomaly, season 7 episode 3 of The 100, “False Gods”, squandered the opportunity to move things forward by repeating itself. Echoing old story beats is nothing new for The 100, and the show actually used this to great effect in the first two episodes of its final season. The trouble with reusing old ideas, however, is that it has to be done with a new angle or twist. When The 100‘s repeated stories have worked, it’s because the individual elements have been different. It’s not repeating a story just as filler, but to look at the same theme from a different angle.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
The main story of season 7 episode 3, “False Gods”, was a problem in the nuclear reactor that powers Sanctum, bringing back a story the show has done many times of nuclear power and radiation causing as many problems as it solves. Raven leads a group to fix the reactor and keep it from melting down, bringing in some of the Eligius IV prisoners when trying to recruit from Wonkru fails.
Related: Why The 100 Killed [SPOILER] So Early In Season 7
As usual, the main thrust of the story is that things go from bad to worse. Murphy and Emori help in the most dangerous areas, as their Nightblood should help them survive higher levels of radiation. When the radiation turns out to be too much for even them to handle, Raven chooses to hide it from the Eligius crew, likely killing them from radiation exposure in the process.
This story doesn’t work in the episode because it’s nothing that The 100 hasn’t done many times before. Someone has to be convinced to take a big risk to save themselves - the only new thing is that it’s the prisoners rather than Grounders or people from the Ark. Once again someone lies and gets people hurt or killed to save the day, but it’s Raven this time instead of someone else like Clarke. It’s not even explored how using different characters in these roles affects the story, outside of a minor subplot that Eligius wants a better place in the new compound when it’s built.
The nuclear story in “False Gods” especially feels like filler because it comes out of nowhere. There are ongoing story threads that, even if handled badly like this, would have felt like things were moving forward. There’s no mention of what’s happening on the other side of the Anomaly after that was the entire story last episode. Sheidheda has taken over Russell’s body and the peace in Sanctum is getting more brittle by the day, but that’s relegated to a subplot despite the title “False Gods” suggesting it’s the main story. Instead, there’s a new conflict invented for the episode that feels no different to ones already gone over many times before.
Ultimately, The 100 mostly wasted “False Gods”. It invented conflicts that have been done on the show many times before, without having anything new to say or moving the existing story along. When the show is so close to ending, another filler episode about a nuclear accident isn’t worth the time The 100 spent on it.
