Ashes to Ashes

Season 6, Episode 11

Release Information

Airdate

July 23, 2019

Writer(s)

Charmaine DeGraté

Director

Bob Morley

Episode Guide • Transcript

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Ashes to Ashes^[1] is the eleventh episode of the sixth season of The 100. It is the eighty-second episode of the series overall.

EPISODE WAS DIRECTED BY BOB MORLEY – Bellamy and Octavia must work together to save their friends. Echo is forced to face her past.^[2]

Plot

Inside the walls, Madi is strapped to an operating table and getting her bone marrow extracted. She may be weak physically, but she is seething with rage and Sheidheda inside her. He wants her to kill everyone who gets in their way in order to get revenge for Clarke, but Madi only wants to kill Primes. However that still doesn't stop her from lashing out at Dr. Jackson who Sheidheda wants dead regardless.

In Gabriel's tent after Clarke wakes up. She assuage Bellamy’s fears that he did the wrong thing in saving her. She thinks his plan was good, but there’s the small problem that Josephine’s mind drive is now a blank slate. Gabriel thinks they should put the mind drive back into Clarke and let Russell think it’s his daughter. Bellamy thinks this is too dangerous, even though the mind drive doesn't have Josie in it.

Clarke suggests since Gabriel build the shields and more importantly as nightblood he could walk through the radiation barrier at any point and lower the shields, but Gabriel doesn't want to since he believes the innocents inside the city are savable. The only reason he fled in the first place is because he was going to be burned at the stake until Ryker saved him. When asked what his crime was Gabriel tells them it was destroying a stash of genetically engineered embryos that Josie had created to be their future nightblood hosts.

After continued aggression from Bellamy, Octavia finally asks to talk to him outside the tent. When she exits, Gabriel explains that Octavia has changed. She went through the anomaly, “the greatest mystery of Sanctum,” and came back out. Bellamy ponders Gabriel's words, but doesn't get the chance to act upon them as the tent is surrounded by remaining members Children of Gabriel.

Gabriel exits the tent and tells his followers the truth after a decade, “The old man is dead, so is Xavier.” At first they're in disbelief as he tells them that he killed Eduardo in anger over his resurrection which was pinned on an Sanctum guard. Xavier’s sister, Lyla takes this the hardest and is is ready to kill him as 'revenge', but Bellamy says she needs to keep him alive to deliver the bomb.

He says that Gabriel can make a bomb with the red sun toxin, walk through the radiation shield, and release it on Sanctum. Then they can find Raven, have her take down the shields, and use the chaos of evacuation to kill the Primes. However she still believes Clarke is Josie and orders Gabriel to kill her however he shows her that Josie's mind drive is out of Clarke's head Lyla agree to leave her be for now, and Bellamy and Octavia go on a toxin hunting mission.

Bellamy hunts for mushrooms covered in the toxin while Octavia tries to explain herself and her time in the anomaly. She says she knows why the thing spit her out: “It was for you.” She explains that she knows he was right to leave her behind, and she sees the damage she did — but part of the reason she was so lost was that he wasn’t by her side. “Without you as my compass, I was lost,” she explains. “I couldn’t find my way out of the dark.” Bellamy takes this in and says he knows she’s his sister, “but you’re not my responsibility not anymore.

Back at the tent, Gabriel tells Clarke one of the reasons he was disillusioned with the Primes is that they were making a bomb just like this. They found that the aggression from the bomb made the people faithful to the Primes go after those who weren’t, thereby cementing their godlike status. That’s when Clarke realizes she’s facing Mount Weather all over again. She doesn’t want people to die, and she has a new plan: Use just enough of the toxin to make the insects freak out so the people will flee, but no one actually ingests it. Without the craze of the toxin though, this means they’ll have less time and will need the shield to be down beforehand. Meaning she has to imitation Josie for this plan to work.

Still in Sanctum prison, Miller and Gaia are trying to escape. Murphy is standing around offering no help when Jade comes in and says that he’s wanted in the palace. He’s taken in where Russell is torturing Echo to learn who else knows “the truth” aside from Tai. She doesn’t give up anything, so Russell tells Ryker to take her to the machine shop and test Abby’s bone marrow on her. As she’s being dragged out, Murphy tells her in Trigedasleng that they’re sneaking out to the machine shop to get Becca’s book and she needs to stay alive until then. And because Echo spits back venom at Murphy, Russell believes he’s still on his side. He wants him to go with Jade and bring back Josie. If he doesn’t succeed, Russell will kill Emori.

In the machine shop, Echo asks Ryker to stop and get back on the right side of this fight. However he refuses believing Echo's promise will not save his mother or him. He grants Echo her last request to tell him something from her past that she hasn't even told Bellamy.

Echo tells Ryker that her birth name is Ash and she had an friend named Echo until they were forced to fight each other to the death to prove worth to Queen Nia. Through tears, the real Echo tells her friend to fight back so maybe Queen Nia will see value in her, too, and stop this. Echo is able to tackle her friend, but she can’t take her out before Ash pushes an arrow through her stomach and kills her. The queen says Sangedakru is expecting a girl named Echo, so Ash becomes Echo. In the present day Echo says she was already wiped as an person when she took on her friend's identity however even though he's sympathetic Ryker can't let her go. Gaia and Miller who escaped from Sanctum jail burst in with this. Echo breaks free and kills Ryker telling him "Hesitation is death."

Back at Gabriel’s tent, Bellamy is learning the plan to use Clarke as 'Josie' and he’s not pleased. He wants to do it the way that probably kills lots of people and doesn’t put Clarke in danger. “What would Monty do?” Clarke says. He still doesn’t like this plan, but Octavia really shuts him up when she says, “If we can spare innocent lives, we should.”

Outside, there’s a commotion. Murphy and Jade are there to collect Josephine. After collecting “Josie,” Jade wants to shoot Layla, but Clarke says, “This one is mine.” Jade exits the tent and Clarke shoots the ground. Before untying Bellamy, Clarke escapes with her Sanctum guard. Layla is clearly very confused, but gets that Clarke isn't Josephine.

Russell is so excited to see his daughter return all it takes is a hair twist and a few remarks about how awesome she is for him to believe it’s her with even further convincing on the story of Clarke vs Josie in the mind space with Clarke twisting the narrative making Russell believed his daughter won while Clarke died. Clarke sees Madi and acts like Josie in front of her causing Madi to go berserk leading Clarke to sedate her. Still keeping her cover Clarke asks Russell “How many doses can we get out of her before she dies?”

Cast

Starring

Eliza Taylor as Clarke Griffin
Paige Turco as Abigail Griffin (credit only)
Bob Morley as Bellamy Blake
Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia Blake
Lindsey Morgan as Raven Reyes (credit only)
Richard Harmon as John Murphy
Tasya Teles as Echo
Shannon Kook as Jordan Green (credit only)

Guest Starring

Jarod Joseph as Nathan Miller
Sachin Sahel as Eric Jackson
Tati Gabrielle as Gaia
Brenda Strong as Nia
Lola Flanery as Madi Griffin
JR Bourne as Russell Lightbourne VII
Chuku Modu as Gabriel Santiago
Bethany Brown as Jade Royal Guard
Thomas Cocquerel as Ryker Desai
Lee Majdoub as Nelson (Children of Gabriel leader)

Co-Starring

Dakota Daulby as Sheidheda
Kat Rutson as Sierra Royal Guard
Sean Kuling as Cassius Royal Guard
Megan Danso as Layla
Ian Butcher as Bryson
Milli Wilkinson as Ash/Young Echo
Kai Dolmans as The Real Echo
Mark Tyler Krysko as Azgeda Speaking Warrior
Thomas Nicholson as Sanctum Prime Guard #1

Quotes

Gaia: "What were you thinking?"

Nathan Miller: "That's the best lift I've made since the Ark."

Echo: "Hesitation is death." Bellamy: What do you want me to say, O?
Octavia: Say I'm your sister.
Bellamy: You're my sister. But you're not my responsibility. Not anymore.

Bellamy: Hey, you're okay. You're still here.
Clarke: Thanks to you. How long have I been asleep?
Bellamy: A few hours. I'm so sorry, Clarke. I knew you were a target. I didn't protect you.
Clarke: Bellamy, you saved me.

Notes and Trivia

This is the third episode of the series to be directed by a member of the main cast.
- The other two were "The Other Side" and "The Warriors Will", both of which were directed by Henry Ian Cusick.
- This is the first episode directed by Bob Morley.
This is the last episode to be written by Charmaine DeGraté.
It's revealed that Gabriel has been posing as Xavier for ten years.

Body Count

Sangedarkru spy (shot in the back with an arrow by Queen Nia)
The real Echo (stabbed with an arrow by Ash)
Ryker Desai IX (stabbed by Ash)

Behind the Scenes

It's named after Echo's birth name Ash.
- Prior to the airing there were rumors that Echo would finally die in this episode however that turned out not to be the case because only Kai Dolmans's version of Echo was killed off in the flashback.