The 100 Season 6: Richard Harmon on Murphy's Choices, His Future, And More
Yana Grebenyuk
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After that dramatic journey seen during The 100 Season 6 Episode 6, Murphy's story has never felt more real.
His choice of actually going through with helping Josephine put him against some of his family, specifically Bellamy, and it also got him a reward. Josephine gave Murphy (and Emori) the Sanctum chips so that they could upload their minds and live forever as the Primes do.
To some, that may seem like a conflicting decision, but to Murphy, it may be the only reasonable one.
Taking some time out to talk with us, Richard Harmon shares his view on Murphy's decisions and what that could mean for the relationship he shares with his family. He also looked forward with the character for Season 6 and offered some insight on some of the scenes that we have witnessed so far.
The 100 Season 6 Episode 6 Review: Memento Mori
What can you tease about Murphy's arc for the remainder of the season?
We are finally going along the line of finding out the answers to questions about how far Murphy will actually go to survive. He is going to keep being in situations where he is going to keep asking himself that and we are going to see the decisions he makes.
This season feels a lot like the season of Murphy. There is more room for Murphy to get fleshed out as a character again. How was that experience for you? What was your favorite Murphy to play?
Well, I loved it. Any time they give me more stuff to do I am obviously very happy, and I love playing that character.
I've said it before that this might be the best Murphy season since maybe Season 2.
The 100 Season 6 Episode 4 Review: The Face Behind the Glass
Murphy has made certain decisions that some might consider questionable this season. How did you rationalize his decision to work with Josephine? Especially with how Murphy ends up risking a lot, like his family, in the name of immortality?
You say that is a questionable decision. I challenge you to find the greatest person out there who is ready to die and somebody who wouldn't have accepted that offer.
He had no choice; they are on their planet, and Josephine has a guard and everything. If he had said no that he isn't going along with this, she would have killed him right there.
So I don't think it is a questionable decision, I think that is the right decision and it's a decision that you would have also made. I would make it and I don't blame Murphy for it and that is my argument there, I don't think it is a questionable decision, I think it is the only decision.
Murphy is motivated this season by what he saw when he died. That may still be revealed, but for now, no one knows, so what did you think at that point that Murphy saw?
They left up to me and my imagination, and I imagined it more as a gut feeling than a vision. I was trying to think of visions and kept coming back to some dude in red spandex and a pointy little trident.
That wasn't working for me, so I made it more of a gut feeling, this feeling of absolute dread and pain and misery.
The 100 Season 6 Episode 5 Review: The Gospel of Josephine
In "Memento Mori" at the end we see Josephine reward Murphy with two of the Sanctum USB hard drives. We can assume that the second is for Emori, right?
I think that is an assumption that one can make. That is a fair assumption.
So where does Murphy go from here? How will he explain all of this to Emori?
That is the whole thing is that from here on out this season it is going to be very interesting to see, not only with Emori I know she is incredibly important to him, how he is going to explain to the rest of his people/family why he has done what he's done.
And his relationships with them will be forever affected by this; there is a very good chance that it will.
Something important to note about Murphy is how long it takes him to trust people, let alone call them his family. Would you say he is thinking immortality through? Because what happens when his family starts to die out and he is left just with the Primes?
The thing about Murphy is that he is not a happy person generally. So I don't know if he thinks that immortality will bring him happiness. He suffers from so much stuff.
He is a sad person, a depressed person, an angry person; he is an incredibly flawed person.
But at the same time, his one thing is to survive, that is what he does and it's what he is good at. It's almost to survive just to spite himself, so the immortality is just to keep going with that. He would be sad when his friends died, but he is already sad.
He has survived as long as he had just to spite himself.
Speaking of family, Murphy and Bellamy's relationship has gotten more screentime again this season thankfully. But now they seem to always be at odds, what was that like playing off each other like that?
Bob and I have been doing it for years now. Some of the most fun we have all year is we just wait for our couple Murphy and Bellamy scenes that we get. We love working together. I mean I'll speak for myself, I love working with Bob Morley. He is an incredible actor.
He's got such a gut for it -- that gut instinct. We can really play with each other and let loose. He's just relentless as well, we compete against each other and try to win but at the same time make each other better.
The 100: How the Blake Siblings Prove that Forgiveness Should Be Hard
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The 100 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Yana Grebenyuk was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in April 2021.
