"The heart and the head."
— Bellamy Blake
Russell seeks justice. Meanwhile, Gabriel must make a difficult choice. The Blake siblings reunite.
This episode contains examples of:
- Always Save the Girl: Lampshaded by Josephine when it's revealed Bellamy disguised himself as one of the Sanctum guards. She later tells Bellamy that Clarke was "right to depend on him."Octavia: Bellamy!Josephine: (snotty) Because of course it is.
- Anyone Can Die:
- Josephine.
- Also Simone, but her mind drive is still intact and so she can still be revived.
- Tai, the one responsible for assassinating Simone, is burnt at the stake by Russell after our heroes are spared.
- Berserk Button: Bellamy is already distraught, but when Octavia tries to break it to him gently that Clarke is gone, he nearly takes her head off.
- Big Damn Heroes: Bellamy when he disguises himself as one of the Sanctum guards and rescues Clarke/Josephine, Octavia, and Gabriel, and then later when he saves Clarke after Josephine slits her throat in the mind space.
- Call-Back:
- "The heart and the head."
- Clarke telling Josephine to "go float yourself" in "Nevermind" comes back with Josephine attempting an Ironic Echo, which ends up becoming a "Eureka!" Moment.
- Murphy realizes that the bone marrow from the skeletons in the Reliquary could be used to create Nightblood, referencing the Mountain Men's attempts at creating blood that could filter radiation in Season 2. Because of Season 3 and 4, Abby knows how to do it with Nightblood.
- Continuity Nod: Madi knows how to change the passcode on the Flame to prevent anyone from removing it.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Bellamy does CPR on Clarke after Gabriel pronounces her dead, and is able to bring her back. Played With somewhat in that Clarke's mind wasn't technically dead in the mind space yet, and hearing his voice trying to bring her back is what gave Clarke the strength to finish off Josephine and save herself. However, as usual, the show refreshingly averts the typical media portrayal of CPR being used for respiratory distress; Bellamy does CPR to keep Clarke's heart pumping, which is what CPR is for.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Tai infiltrates a lunch with the Primes and slashes Simone's throat; she dies in Russell's arms.
- The Dreaded: Gaia explains that if Sheidheda takes over Madi, they'll long for the days of Blodreina.
- Enemy Mine: Clarke and Josephine work together to keep their minds from deteriorating. Clarke grows some sympathy for Josephine after seeing some more of her memories, but Josephine turns against Clarke again once she regained consciousness. In their final confrontation, Josephine halfheartedly apologizes to Clarke for doublecrossing her, but it was that or Clarke killing everyone in Sanctum.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- In their mindspace, Josephine tells Clarke to "go float yourself", which gives Clarke the idea to clear up their mindspace by metaphorically floating Josephine's memories.
- Russell telling him that he could have been one of the skeletons in Sanctum one day gives Murphy the idea to create more Nightblood hosts by using bone marrow, which buys them some time at the very last possible second.
- Flatline Plotline: Getting Josie out of Clarke's mind involves stopping her heart, since death prompts the back up of the mind drive. Then Gabriel removes the drive, injects Clarke with adrenaline, and she wakes up as herself. Things go awry when Josie uses the neural mesh to survive the back-up, and Clarke continues to flatline.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Murphy’s status as this is made abundantly clear. Upon being told their friends will be forced to choose who will die, Echo immediately concludes they’ll pick Murphy. Cut to the group, and Murphy comes to the same conclusion, which everyone else affirms.
- Heart in the Wrong Place: It's hard not to notice Bellamy is doing CPR compressions on Clarke's stomach rather than her chest, but justified in that the CPR isn't what revived her, it was his Life-Saving Encouragement.
- He Knows Too Much: While Murphy's gambit buys time for him and his friends, Russell chooses to burn his citizen who knows the truth about the Primes so that he won't tell anyone else.
- Indignant Slap: Abby slaps Murphy when she learns that he helped the Primes when Clarke was presumed dead.
- Internal Reveal: Abby only just now finds out what has happened to Clarke. Also, Russell fills in Simone about everything she has missed while in space.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Josephine's death is represented by Clarke swinging an axe at her head in the mindspace.
- Life-Saving Encouragement: Hearing Bellamy tell Clarke he needs her, that Madi needs her, and that she's a fighter gives her the motivation to defeat Josephine in the mindspace.
- Meaningful Echo: "The heart and the head," previously metaphorical, is now literal as Gabriel tells Bellamy that Clarke is doomed to die: "Once the head stops telling the heart to beat, it's all over." It's a "Eureka!" Moment of sorts for Bellamy, who intervenes himself to tell Clarke not to give up.
- No-Sell: Bellamy and Octavia get frustrated when Josephine attempts to convince Gabriel to spare her.
- Not Quite Dead: Clarke's heart stops beating, but hers and Josephine's brains are still functioning within the mind space, which allows Bellamy to bring her back.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Bellamy begs Clarke to stay with him, telling her he needs her, as he tries to save her life.
- Public Execution: Russell prominently has all of our heroes set up to burn at the stake in the middle of Sanctum, surrounded by villagers. Murphy manages to save himself, Emori, Abby, Raven, Miller, and Jackson, but Russell decides to kill Tai, anyway for murdering Simone.
- Sanity Slippage: Madi rages against Gaia and anyone who gets close enough. Abby insists they just take the mind drive out, but Madi has changed the passcode.
- Security Cling: Bellamy and Clarke cling to each other after he saves her life, both crying. Downplayed with Gabriel and Josephine, who share a lengthy hug upon their Big Damn Reunion when he and Octavia cut her/Clarke out of a patch of sentient vines suffocating her. Both times Octavia is given a Reaction Shot, with confusion and annoyance at Josephine and Gabriel, but a small, bashful smile at her brother and Clarke.
- Shout-Out: Josephine quotes Hamlet's soliloquy at Gabriel.
- Villainous Breakdown: Josephine loses her smug demeanor when her shared mind with Clarke starts failing, becoming concerned for Clarke's well-being since it means they'll both die. She also becomes distressed when Clarke floats a random bunch of her memories and asks to let her choose which memories to dump from then on.
