The 100 Season 5 Episode 9 Preview: Bringing Death To Sic Semper Tyrannis
Yana Grebenyuk
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We left off The 100 Season 5 Episode 8 with Bellamy finally straying from just using his words. Instead, he was allowing Clarke's arrest to push him into finally taking action.
That resulted in Octavia eating a poisoned bar and being out of commision for the next few days. A strain was created, bigger than anything else that Blake's may have managed, but it also presented a turn in the way that the bunker would be handled.
From here Clarke needs to be released, with Bellamy and Madi possibly working together to make that happen before they run out of time. Indra's loyalty to Octavia may waver; the same can't be said for the others in the bunker though.
And things are only continuing to escalate over in Eden, with McCreary back to ruin everything that Charmaine had built her hope around. Pun intended.
Now The 100 Season 5 Episode 9 is using the title "Sic Semper Tyrannis," so we should probably wish for safety to all of our favorites. Danger isn't new to The 100, but I expect that to be topped with an escalating twist to emerge.
It is obvious that Shallow Valley is cursed, and soon everyone will have to face that.
The synopsis for this specific episode is, "The growing fractures in Wonkru threaten to explode once and for all. Meanwhile, in Shadow Valley, Murphy starts a fire, unleashing catastrophic results."
There is also this very helpful trailer to help arrange our expectations.
Now, this preview may contain some light teases about the ninth episode, all of which are based on characters and scenes that have been discussed before or have been included in promotional videos and/or photos.
Proceed with caution if you don't want speculation or a variety of theories, but really, who doesn't like that?
Related: The 100: Season 5 Character Death Watch
Clarke's Family To The Rescue
Bellamy made the first step to save Clarke using her arrest to push him to take a stand against Octavia.
Does that mean getting Clarke out is that easy?
Something tells me that Bellamy still won't be able to breeze right into the room where Clarke is held and walk out with her as if nothing happened.
Octavia accused Clarke of reason against Wonkru. If anyone else were in prison for that crime, it would result in a fight in the gladiator pits to the death.
So even if Octavia isn't around to inflict that continuous punishment on Clarke, everyone else knows the drill well enough to serve in her place.
That is where Bellamy talking to Madi must fit in, other than the fact that he promised to keep her safe. She will need that now that the leadership position for Wonkru might be reconsidered.
Bellamy might very well be the key to clueing Madi into just how bad things have gotten, by at least sharing that Clarke is in danger and needs their help.
Now there is still no definitive way to determine if Bellamy knows that Madi is a Nightblood, so this could be when Madi trusts him enough to share that information.
Bellamy is on the same wavelength with Clarke on that; there is no question that if he knew this, and if Madi mentioned that she saw the flame with Gaia, that he would decide she has to disappear immediately.
That is where the promotional photos for The 100 Season 5 Episode 10, "The Warriors Will," come up briefly.
Bellamy's placement in the plot kind of disappears from here on out. He isn't in the synopsis for the next two episodes and isn't in the promotional photos, so trying to place exactly where he is and what he is doing will be difficult.
It's possible that he gets a head start and goes to Eden, possibly to help out the others once he realizes how bad things are getting in the bunker as the prime suspects.
Or, and this may be more likely, Bellamy will end up stuck in the bunker after he reconnects Madi and Clarke so that they can leave as fast as possible.
There is no way of knowing, he could just be out of the frame in any of the shots that were already released.
But there is a chance that Bellamy will decide to take Clarke's place, due to his guilt about what he did to Octavia pushing him to let Madi and Clarke get out even if they all can't.
When Bellamy told Octavia that when she woke up, they would all be in Eden, he had to be formulating a plan to make that happen.
Of course, as mentioned further on in this preview, that might change once the leadership issue comes up unexpectedly from multiple people.
Anyway, Bellamy could still be in the bunker, which isn't great if you consider that Octavia could wake up earlier than expected.
There are photos from "The Warriors Will" that tease characters in the gladiator pits with Octavia standing above and watching in a way that screams danger for characters we care about very much.
Could Octavia come back and find out exactly what happened while she was sleeping? Will she decide to rope in everyone that took part in turning Wonkru against her and force them to fight to the death?
That could place Indra, Gaia, and maybe Bellamy all in the same place for another episode and could work as a present-day plot as Abby shares with Clarke what she knows about The Dark Year in potential flashbacks.
Either way, everyone should be worried because none of this is okay and the stress is about to become even more vivid.
Related: The 100: Characters Who Deserve More Screen Time
Growing Shallow Tension
In this recently released clip from the upcoming episode, a few things seem to be fitting into place about what is happening in Shallow Valley.
First, Murphy and Emori have reunited with Raven and Echo, which means they are now working as a team again to take down everyone else.
But there is also a weird tension between Raven and Echo, further questioning if Raven felt like she could or should share what happened between her and Abby. There seems to be a lot of blame going on about Raven deciding (once again) to opt out of the plan to kill Not-Zeke.
And while I get Echo's frustration with this weirdly repetitive plot that I swear even Not-Zeke is aware of all too well, it makes sense.
Raven presents a better plan to Echo and the others. Instead of just killing people they could make progress and take out the enemy without getting their hands dirty.
Her plan must focus on the distance between Charmaine and McCreary, playing up the fact that Charmaine doesn't have the same loyalty from her people when McCreary is around and angry.
From here we can assume that they all work on creating tension, and with that, a possible riot can ensue.
From the episodic trailer, there is actual fighting happening in the woods of Eden, with a break cut to Murphy -- this is where I'd say the fire starts.
Remember the fire?
It was explored quite a bit in The 100 Season 5 Episode 8 Preview that I wrote, in which I mentioned the fact that the fire might be discussed so randomly in the synopsis because of the way that it would affect the plot going forward.
There is a shot of the crowd fighting, and it is quite possible that the fire was spotted in the background. Who else could see it?
The rest of the episodes this season will have to move quickly, and the stakes will have to keep getting higher because there are some plots that have been taking their time lately.
That means that "Sic Semper Tyrannis" must be treated as if something will occur; chances are that things are about to come to a conclusion in Eden.
Related: The 100 Season 5 Episode 8 Review: How We Get To Peace
It won't be as calm as it was, quite possibly because the promise of it being a sustainable home for everyone is no longer the road that the story is going.
In a way, the best way to shake up the story is to take away the fact that Eden was a safe place. Everyone was fighting for it because it was the constant in all this, and what if it wasn't?
That is where Charmaine and McCreary must come in as well. With McCreary back where he belongs, he won't be happy that Charmaine was willing to leave him out there to die.
But above all that, there is the state of the cure and whether McCreary will get that information.
Charmaine told Abby that she couldn't share it with McCreary, but how about the prisoners? How many of them know and are any willing to clue in McCreary because they are more loyal to him?
There is no doubt in my mind that McCreary will somehow get tipped off and come looking for Abby because his priority will be making sure that he is healed as well.
That is probably where the tension will come in, helpfully nudged by Raven, Emori, Murphy, Echo, and even possibly Not-Zeke.
There is no telling how much they will choose to include him and whether he will be willing to help them out since Echo is on her one-track mind still, and he isn't stupid.
Regardless, the danger is starting to brew, and McCreary will be in the center of it.
Now, moving a little further in time for a second, the episode following "Sic Semper Tyrannis" is entitled "The Warriors Will." The promotional photos have been released for it, which is where we see Clarke and Madi in the woods heading towards Eden.
Along the way, it seems like Clarke has picked up some hostages in the form of McCreary and some of his prisoners. Do with that information what you will.
Wonkru Like No Other
With Octavia out of consciousness, who exactly is the leader now?
Time to place a bet on the fact that this question will be what pushes the bunker forward in Sic Semper Tyrannis, specifically when it comes to whose orders will be heeded from here.
Indra could be temporarily in charge; we've seen enough of her in the trailer to consider it.
And yet it has to be mentioned that Gaia pulled out her sidekick this season, the flame.
This has to be the chance that Gaia was waiting for, to try to reinstate the idea of a Commander through Nightblood that has the flame put into them as was done before the time of Wonkru.
Circling back to that, Madi is still in Octavia's inner circle and without Clarke there to get her out immediately, will we have to keep our eyes on her?
There has to be that confusion about whose orders should be put into place, especially when they have to decide what to do about shifting over to Eden and their communication with Charmaine.
Gaia and Indra are the base level characters that we can assume will be included in this, with Miller possibly joining in. He seems to be Octavia's second, especially with Kara out of the picture, and his ideals will probably mirror Octavia's the closest.
So Gaia is looking to push for the old method of leading through Madi, and Indra quite possibly might agree with Clarke and Bellamy's attempts to make peace with Charmaine instead of marching into war for it.
Will Miller then be a third factor in this confused leaderless state? And will he try to push forward what Octavia had planned when it comes to getting that land all for themselves and not looking to figure out a deal?
Only time will tell.
Related: The 100: Best New Relationships of Season 5
Stray Thoughts
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Niylah and Jackson are back in the picture again, suddenly both by Octavia's side. Based on what we know about The Warriors Will, there is a chance that Octavia will make an earlier recovery than anyone even sees coming.
Could Niylah and possibly Jackson be assigned the duty of guarding Octavia play into that?
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Abby hit her possible rock bottom when she harmed Raven, which is confirmed based on future synopsis sneak peeks for the upcoming episodes. She is going down a path of withdrawal in the very near future, with this episode possibly kicking that into high gear.
So the chances are that we will continue to see more of Abby struggling than any potential happiness for her yet.
- Monty isn't done selling his idea of an algae farm in the bunker as a better option for life to Wonkru, so chances are he will still be working on it. WIll he maybe find out what happened to Octavia though? And will he be able to piece together what went down during the Blake dinner party?
- Where is Bellamy 2018?
Yana Grebenyuk was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in April 2021.
