| “ | I was trying to take down a system dedicated to the worship of false gods. I became a false god all over again. | ” |
| — Gabriel to Octavia [src] | ||
Gabriel Santiago was a major character in the seventh season[1], after appearing as a recurring character in the sixth season. He is portrayed by Ian Pala, Donald Heng, and Chuku Modu, and debuts in "Red Sun Rising".
He was an original member of Mission Team Alpha and the former thirteenth Prime. After a moral awakening, Gabriel defected from the Primes and formed the Children of Gabriel to take down the Primes. His current host is Xavier.
Early life
Gabriel was born on Earth and has a grandmother from Colombia. She would make her own alcohol before the rich cut off her drinking water so that they could water their lawns. Gabriel eventually joined the Eligius Corporation and was aware of Bill Cadogan, because of Bill's reputation of being a cult leader of the Second Dawn. He was friends with a quantum physicist and Fields Medal winner named Colin Benson. Before the first Nuclear Apocalypse, Gabriel was selected to join Mission Team Alpha to explore life and human survival on Alpha.
Shortly after arriving on Alpha and setting up camp, Gabriel's girlfriend Josephine was killed by her father, Russell Lightbourne, who was under the influence of eclipse-induced psychosis. Following Josephine's death, Gabriel started working with Russell to figure out how to bring her back using their Mind Drives, which already stored her consciousness. He incubated some of the Nightblood embryos they brought from Earth so that he could upload the Mind Drives on the children, but the children always ended up dying because their minds weren't developed enough to hold an entire consciousness. After 25 years of experiments, Gabriel eventually figured out that they needed to use a fully developed brain and erase the host's mind completely in order to upload the entire consciousness from the Mind Drive. This successfully brought Josephine back.
During one of early red suns on Alpha, he became infected with seaweed toxin and he believed he could walk on water. He was then bitten by the Kepa-She and the toxin was removed.
By the time that Josephine was brought back, Gabriel was dying of cancer. Unwilling to lose him, Josephine resurrected Gabriel through his Mind Drive, which he hadn't wanted to happen. After his first resurrection, the two shared a dance and Josephine promised to love Gabriel forever.
Following Gabriel's breakthrough, the Primes started using the Mind Drives to bring themselves back by uploading their consciousness into Nightblood hosts. The Primes at some point started experimenting with the Red Sun toxin, with Simone trying to weaponize it while Gabriel focused on creating an anti-toxin. Gabriel discovered a way to use the toxin to create a waking dream as part of "a happy accident." At some point, he and Russell experimented using Gabriel's variant of the toxin to see if anything of their hosts survived. The experiment showed that nothing of the host survived, but it gave them a revelation about their purposes: Russell's was to make them into gods, while Gabriel's was to stop it from happening.
Eventually, in 2211, Gabriel started feeling guilty and rebelling against the Primes. To stop the resurrections, Gabriel destroyed the remaining embryos which had been genetically engineered with Nightblood. Simone Lightbourne intended to burn Gabriel at the stake for his actions, but he was helped to escape from Sanctum by Ryker Desai, who left his cell door open. Gabriel formed the Children of Gabriel group to help take down the Primes.
Gabriel trained a null named Eduardo, who was left in the Offering Grove as an infant. He taught him how to remove the Mind Drive so that he wouldn't be brought back. However, as Gabriel was about to die of old age, a Nightblood named Xavier was born. Eduardo saw this as a sign to bring Gabriel back. Gabriel became close with Xavier, who was also like a son to him, and rejected Eduardo's idea that they use Xavier to resurrect him. Gabriel believed that he had talked Eduardo out of it. After Gabriel died, Eduardo went against his wishes and used Xavier as a host to resurrect Gabriel. Gabriel was so upset at Eduardo for bringing him back that he killed him. It was also implied that Gabriel angrily killed Eduardo for murdering Xavier. He was left with no one to remove the Mind Drive.
Since no one else knew about it, Gabriel decided to pose as Xavier among the Children of Gabriel. They assumed that either the "Old Man" Gabriel had died or abandoned them. Gabriel posed as Xavier for ten years, while the Children of Gabriel believed that Eduardo had been killed by the Sanctum Guards around the same time that Gabriel disappeared.
Gabriel was also extremely interested in the Temporal Anomaly on Sanctum. It's implied that he visited it often to see hallucinations of Josephine, who he never stopped loving. According to a comment Gabriel made, he spent at least 150 years studying it by the time the people from Earth arrived; though Gabriel apparently couldn't uncover anything about the Anomaly and how it worked.
Throughout the Series
In Red Sun Rising, Gabriel is seen in a flashback, 236 years ago. It was 21 days after the Mission Team Alpha had arrived on the Moon Alpha. Gabriel was taking photos while his girlfriend, Josie kept interrupting him. As Josie tried to make out with him, they were interrupted by the sound of a swarm of bugs as the red sun eclipse approached. They went back to the outpost only to find Josie's father, Russell Lightbourne killing people because he was under the influence of the eclipse-induced psychosis. After Russell killed Josie, Gabriel ran and became one of the few survivors.
In The Children of Gabriel, Gabriel is posing as his host, Xavier. He is a member of the Children of Gabriel group that wants to bring an end to the Primes. While some of the members attack the Gagarin to steal the weapons and behead the dead Primes (Victor, Faye and Daniel Lee), Gabriel organizes to kidnap the remaining Royal Bloods - Delilah and Rose - from Sanctum before they are turned into hosts for the Primes. Delilah is rescued by Clarke Griffin, but the Children of Gabriel manage to keep Rose. In the woods they run into Octavia, who dares them to fight her. Gabriel puts on a mask and uses his knowledge of the forest as a weapon by spraying her with a paralyzing spore called "Mace plant" from the ground. As Octavia collapses, he tells her it won't hurt long. He asks his group to carry Octavia with them.
In The Face Behind the Glass, Gabriel, posing as Xavier, and other members of the Children of Gabriel surround Octavia and Rose. Tosh is interrogating Octavia to figure out how many others from Earth have the blood alternation. When Octavia refuses to comply, Tosh becomes more violent, but Xavier halts her, arguing that the Old Man won't approve. When Tosh suggests killing both Octavia and Rose, Xavier pulls out a gun. Tosh yields, the group moves out to meet up with the rest of their unit.
Later, Gabriel approaches Octavia and Rose who are tied to a tree. He sets his pack down and offers them food, but they refuse. When Tosh calls that the rest of their unit is here, Gabriel goes to meet them. Octavia notices a knife in the pack Gabriel left behind and uses it to escape with Rose. The rest of the Children of Gabriel chase after them but are killed by Diyoza when she comes to rescue Rose. Tosh kills Rose before dying, causing Octavia and Diyoza to go on a mission to hunt down the remaining Children of Gabriel - Xavier and The Old Man.
In The Gospel of Josephine, Diyoza and Octavia are chasing Xavier in the woods. He leads them to a swamp-like ground called "the crucible," where they get stuck and begin to sink. He offers to save them if they tell him who else among their people have blood alternation. Octavia asks Diyoza to tell him nothing. Xavier (Gabriel in disguise) tells them that he has a lot more time than they. He advises Octavia them to be calm because the more they struggle, the faster they sink. However, Octavia refuses to listen. Just as she is about to completely sink, they notice a bright flare in the sky. Gabriel says that it is a temporal flare and it's very dangerous. He throws them a rope to escape and run to safety.
Back in Sanctum, Jordan, Bellamy, and Gaia find a secret lab and a computer with video logs. In one of the video logs, Gabriel had just figured out how to bring Josephine back using her Mind Drive after 25 years of failed experiments. In order to successfully upload an entire consciousness into a new host, not only did they need to wipe out the host's consciousness but they needed to upload the Mind Drive to a host with a fully developed mind. The video shows how Gabriel successfully brought Josephine back through her first host, a young woman named Brooke, who was grown from an embryo in the incubator. After that, the Primes started using Gabriel's discovery to bring their loved ones back and essentially live forever.
In Memento Mori, Gabriel, still posing as Xavier, watches from a distance as Octavia and Diyoza strategize on how to find The Old Man. After noticing that Octavia's hand is damaged after being exposed to the temporal flare, Gabriel joins them and offers to help. On their way to retrieve a cure for Octavia, he tells Diyoza that The Old Man is actually Gabriel. He explains that Gabriel had a moral awakening and decided to turn against the Primes. He asks Diyoza to join their cause, but Diyoza refuses because she has an offer to raise her baby in Sanctum. He says that Diyoza's child would be treated as a "Null" since she won't have the black blood. However, Diyoza does not change her mind.
After retrieving the tree sap which is supposed to be the cure, it fails to work on Octavia. Instead Octavia's arm starts spiraling. After noticing the pattern, Gabriel gives her a rock to let the hand draw freely on the ground. She draws a logarithmic spiral, which he recognizes as the shape of the Anomaly where the temporal flare came from. He says that the temporal flare was a message for Octavia that the Anomaly is calling her. After revealing that he has a similar spiral too, Diyoza also confirms the Anomaly call by showing her book full of spirals. They agree to go together to the Anomaly.
In The Old Man and the Anomaly, Gabriel, still posing as Xavier, takes Octavia and Diyoza to the Anomaly. As they get close, he takes them to his secret hiding place to disarm before they go to the Anomaly. In the room, there's a photo of Josephine. After seeing the Mind Drive scar on the back of his neck, Diyoza realizes that Xavier is in fact Gabriel himself in a new host. Gabriel admits it and says that he only has the Mind Drive because he has no one to remove it. He explains to them how he had trained Eduardo to remove the Mind Drive but Eduardo betrayed him by bringing him back through Xavier as a host. Since then, he's been posing as Xavier and letting his own Children of Gabriel think that he abandoned them.
After coming clean to them, Gabriel leads Diyoza and Octavia to the Anomaly to cure Octavia and figure out why the Anomaly is calling Diyoza. On the way, Gabriel keeps getting hallucinations in which he sees Josephine. At the Anomaly, Diyoza sees a vision of her future daughter, Hope. When Diyoza tries to follow Hope, Gabriel cautions her against it because no one has ever returned after entering the Anomaly. However, Diyoza goes against Gabriel and Octavia's warnings and enters into the Anomaly. When Octavia gets close to the Anomaly, Gabriel pulls her out. As they lie side by side, Gabriel looks at Octavia's arm, confirming that she's been healed.
In What You Take With You, Gabriel takes Octavia back to the Verge from the Anomaly where Octavia insists that she doesn't remember anything and points out that she was only in the Anomaly for a few seconds. However, as Octavia returned clean and healed, Gabriel thinks it was probably much longer. She had also come out at a run as if Octavia had been running from something. Gabriel decides to use red sun toxin to help Octavia remember.
After awakening, Octavia tells Gabriel that now she has a renewal of purpose and prepares to take off, only to hear a message from Clarke stating that she is the host of Josephine Lightbourne. Gabriel warns that it means that Clarke is in trouble, which Octavia realizes means all of her friends are in trouble too. Before she can take off to help them, Gabriel reminds Octavia that Clarke's message said that she was coming to them and states that things are about to get weirder.
In Matryoshka, Clarke and Josephine watch a memory of Gabriel and Josephine dancing after their respective first resurrections. Josephine watches the memory in fondness and promises to love Gabriel forever. Instead of floating the memory, Clarke tells Josephine that she can keep it, but they have to move if she wants to survive to see Gabriel again.
In the present, Gabriel and Octavia find Clarke's body at the old blind Gabriel and Josephine spent time at together. The two save her from the vines, and Josephine reveals herself to be in control, reunited with Gabriel for the first time in 70 years. However, the reunion is interrupted by the arrival of Jade and five Sanctum guards to whom Josephine reveals Gabriel's identity, ordering his capture and the execution of Octavia. However, Josephine's condition gets worse and Gabriel insists that he must operate immediately if he is to save her and Clarke. One of the guards suddenly shoots the others and reveals himself to be Octavia's brother Bellamy. Bellamy sends Jade back to Sanctum with a warning for Russell, and Gabriel leads the group back to the Verge.
At the Verge, Gabriel explains that he must temporarily stop Clarke's heart in order to get Josephine to download back into her Mind Drive so that it can be removed. While Bellamy wants to trade it to Russell, Josephine recognizes that Gabriel doesn't want that, as it will mean another resurrection could take another innocent life. Josephine tearfully begs Gabriel to save her so that they can be together for good, but Gabriel, in tears himself, stops Clarke's heart and removes the Mind Drive. However, Gabriel can't revive Clarke as Josephine's mind managed to hang on inside of her. Gabriel believes that it's over and Clarke's body just can't handle the strain of holding two minds anymore. Bellamy desperately tries to revive Clarke despite Gabriel's beliefs, and she suddenly regains consciousness in Bellamy's arms. Sorrowfully, Gabriel watches as Josephine's brain wave pattern flatlines on his EEG, her mind having been destroyed by Clarke.
In Ashes to Ashes, Gabriel works with Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia to try to come up with a plan to save their friends and defeat the Primes. Gabriel urges Bellamy to forgive Octavia and reveals her experiences with the anomaly. When the Children of Gabriel arrive, Gabriel reveals his true identity to them, to the anger of Layla, Xavier's sister. Clarke convinces Gabriel's followers to spare him so that Gabriel can help them weaponize Red Sun toxin to invade Sanctum.
While Octavia and Bellamy are gone, Gabriel and Clarke discuss their plans for using the toxin against Sanctum, with Gabriel expressing reluctance to harm the citizens. As they discuss the toxin further, Clarke and Gabriel come up with a plan to use a lesser dose to simulate a Red Sun eclipse to trigger Sanctum's evacuation alarms so as to spare as many innocent people as possible. As Gabriel no longer knows the code to lower the radiation shield, Clarke discusses posing as Josephine to infiltrate Sanctum and do it herself so that they can launch their attack.
Soon after Octavia and Bellamy return with the toxin, Sanctum guards led by Jade and John Murphy attack. Clarke poses as Josephine to them, claiming that Clarke is really dead. Once they are out of the tent, Clarke pretends to kill Layla and releases her friends to continue with their plan. After seeing Clarke's actions, Layla finally accepts that Clarke really isn't Josephine anymore.
In Adjustment Protocol, Gabriel waits outside of the radiation shield with Bellamy, Octavia and the Children of Gabriel for Clarke to take it down. However, they witness two Sanctum guards discussing an upcoming Naming Day ceremony with multiple Primes. Unwilling to wait and allow Russell to kill more people, Gabriel crosses through the shield and attacks the guard who stayed behind, taking his outfit and motorcycle. In Sanctum, Gabriel releases the Red Sun toxin in the water even though it's too early and surrenders to Sanctum guards, who recognize him. Gabriel is brought before Russell and confronts his old friend over his actions, only to learn that Russell has already resurrected the other Primes. As the Red Sun alarms go off, Russell realizes what Gabriel did and calms the crowd. Gabriel is able to overpower his guards and holds Russell at gunpoint, but can't bring himself to kill him. When more guards arrive, Gabriel surrenders reluctantly rather than shoot Russell when he has the chance.
Gabriel is tied to a chair while the resurrected Primes are brought in. As Russell introduces Murphy and Emori to the resurrected Mason family, Gabriel notices the two holding hands and realizes that they aren't Daniel and Kaylee Lee, informing the two that the Lee's are siblings. After Bellamy forces Priya Desai to admit the truth about the Primes and their hosts, Russell enacts the Adjustment Protocol and releases a massive amount of Red Sun toxin upon the Sanctum citizens, causing them to go insane and attack each other.
In the midst of the chaos, Simone is revealed to have been resurrected in the host of Abigail Griffin. Gabriel states to "Josephine" that "your mother murdered her mother. Ironic don't you think?" Clarke slaps Gabriel and orders him not to speak to her, asking how "she" could ever love such a traitor, to cover her grief over her mother's death. Simone buys the act and states that "Josephine" at least has closure now in regards to Gabriel. As the Primes prepare to depart for Eligius IV, Russell says goodbye to Gabriel and announces that Sanctum is now Gabriel's, though he suspects that Gabriel won't last very long.
In The Blood of Sanctum, a few members of the Children of Gabriel as well Octavia, Bellamy and Echo are captured by Sanctum believers. A female adjuster kills Layla just as Murphy and Emori enter to try to stop the process and take Bellamy, Echo and Octavia with them into the palace. As the believers realize that Russell Lightbourne and his family have left Sanctum, they start to attack again while the Children of Gabriel are still captured in the tavern.
In the palace Bellamy, Gabriel and Octavia find Jordan in a strange state due the fact that also Jordan had to drink the blood of Sanctum drug. Gabriel asks who will help him to release his captured group. Initially nobody wants to help - only Octavia offers to follow and tries to save the Children of Gabriel group. This allows the others to follow him.
Murphy, pretending to be Daniel Lee, agrees to act as decoy and bring Gabriel to the Sanctum believers for the adjustment procedure. Even after the adjustor Tory sees Gabriel take the Blood of Sanctum, she remains suspicious, walks outside and locks all of the others into the tavern. While Gabriel and Murphy control the inside - Bellamy, Octavia and Echo are fighting against all believers outside and try to stop them from burning down the tavern. Only a risky defense action from Octavia finally stops Tory from setting the tavern on fire.
Gabriel discovers a new tattoo on Octavia's back - Anomaly hieroglyphics, most in black a few in red color - proving that Octavia was much longer in the anomaly than just a few seconds. Gabriel, Octavia, Bellamy and Echo go back to the C.O.G. main camp, where Gabriel shows them the Anomaly Stone hidden under the floor - here Gabriel with Octavia touches all the red symbols they found on Octavia's back. The Anomaly expands rapidly while Octavia hears a person coming closer - it is Hope Diyoza, the young adult daughter of Charmaine Diyoza.
After stabbing Octavia with a knife, Hope falls unconscious into Gabriel's arms. Octavia vanishes into green dust, leaving Bellamy horrified and alone.
In From the Ashes, Gabriel treats the unconscious Hope while Bellamy and Echo try to chase after the missing Octavia. Hope regains consciousness, but terrified of Gabriel and lacking her memory, runs off while Bellamy is abducted by invisible people. Catching up with Hope, Echo and Gabriel learn that she has a message telling Hope to trust Bellamy. Though confused by Hope's amnesia, Gabriel remembers that Octavia also had no memory after coming out of the Temporal Anomaly and that Hope only had her memory on Sanctum while the Anomaly had engulfed them. The three team up together to chase Bellamy's kidnappers, quickly realizing that the people are not trying to kill them.
Making their way close to the Anomaly, Gabriel realizes that they are going to fall under the influence of the Red Sun toxin and takes the anti-toxin to avoid this. With the particulates in the air showing where the cloaked people are, Gabriel urges Echo to shoot and after some hesitation due to her own hallucinations, she does so. Examining the three bodies, Gabriel discovers that the kidnappers are all human. One, still alive but wounded, tries to kill Hope based on orders to capture Gabriel and Echo and kill Hope on sight. However, Echo quickly shoots the man dead.
Gabriel realizes from the lessening noise in the area that the Anomaly is being closed by the kidnappers. Unwilling to abandon Bellamy, Echo insists on pursuing them through, but Gabriel warns that they must go together as being even seconds apart could result in them arriving months apart from each other. Hand in hand, Gabriel, Echo and Hope jump into the Anomaly together just before it closes behind them.
In The Garden, the three emerge from the Anomaly underwater on Skyring and discover that Hope's memory has returned. Hope leads Gabriel and Echo to the cabin she lived in with Octavia and Diyoza, explaining that the Disciples used the Bridge as she calls the Anomaly to continue on to Bardo. As Hope explains that time dilation has caused centuries to pass for Skyring since she left, Gabriel finds a doll and is disturbed by its monstrous look. Hope leads Echo and Gabriel to an Anomaly Stone hidden under the cabin, but discovers the note containing the code for Bardo has been washed off, preventing them from following the Disciples. Gabriel attempts to restore the message using charcoal, but fails.
Stranded on Skyring, the three discover that the Disciples have been using it as a prisoner for their unbelievers. Discovering one that the Disciples will come back for in five years, Hope tells the others that they must survive on the planet and keep the man alive until then. Hope explains to Gabriel that the Anomaly is actually an ancient transit system leading from Sanctum to Skyring and then from Skyring to Bardo. The code Octavia had entered was Hope's unique biometric code which pulled her through to Sanctum while Hope had injected Octavia with a locater tag, not stabbed her, so that Octavia would be pulled through the Anomaly in the other direction as per a deal she made with the Disciples leader Anders. Searching for the prisoner, Orlando, they discover that he dug up several corpses, including that of Hope's friend Dev, in order to have some company in isolation. Gabriel is surprised to recognize one of the bodies as that of Doctor Colin Benson, a friend of his from the Eligius III colony mission. As a result, Gabriel realizes that Skyring is actually Planet Beta from the Eligius III mission.
Recovering Colin's Memory Drive, Gabriel leads them back to the cabin to review his friend's memories for information. When Gabriel removes a Mind Drive from his computer tablet, Echo realizes that it belongs to Josephine Lightbourne and Gabriel explains that he had to be sure that Josephine was really gone. After his computer fixes some corruption on the Memory Drive, Gabriel is surprised to see that the recording starts with Becca Franco who he had a crush on. Becca expresses envy for Colin's chance to explore Skyring, preferring Planet Beta over Russell Lightbourne's choice of Alpha due to finding time dilation "sexy as hell". Gabriel realizes from Becca's comments that the five Eligius III worlds are in close proximity to a black hole though Skyring is further out, explaining why time passes faster on Skyring than on Sanctum or the other worlds. Gabriel suspects that the presence of the Anomaly on two of the worlds chosen for the mission is not a coincidence and suggests that Bardo is another of the Eligius III colony worlds, the Disciples are the descendants of another of the mission teams that settled that world and that the race that created the Anomaly were also searching for a new home as the Anomaly would've provided them the perfect means to search without having to use spaceships or cryo like the people from Earth had to do.
Fascinated by Colin's Memory Drive, Gabriel becomes engrossed in studying his friend's research as Echo and Hope leave him to it. When Echo returns, Gabriel reveals that he has learned that unlike Mission Team Alpha, Mission Team Beta, aside from Colin, died when their transport ship crashed on Skyring, preventing the creation of a colony there. Colin discovered the Anomaly Stone and began studying it, attempting to figure out the code to activate it. Gabriel is convinced that if anyone could figure out the code on their own, it would be Colin who was an award-winning quantum physicist. Gabriel is confused by Colin's recitation of a poem each day as he goes to work, but finds a memory of Colin succeeding and the Anomaly, too deep underwater to dive to under normal circumstances, expanding onto the nearby shore. Leaving his computer behind, Gabriel rushes outside to alert Hope and Echo of his discovery, but when they return to write down the code, they discover that Orlando has found Gabriel's computer. Having gone insane from the isolation, Orlando destroys the computer, preventing Gabriel, Echo and Hope from getting the code from Colin's Memory Drive.
In Welcome to Bardo, Gabriel appears in a flashback to when Octavia returns to Sanctum through the Anomaly from Bardo.
In the present, Gabriel, Hope and Echo arrive on Bardo, cloaked using the Disciples' armor. After the three Disciples in the Anomaly Stone room are killed, Gabriel chides Echo, only to learn that the killer was Hope instead. Hope explains that without Orlando they don't need to take unnecessary risks, but Gabriel argues that leaving Orlando was the unnecessary risk and stops Echo from stabbing the men to ensure that they are dead. Gabriel reminds Echo and Hope that they only have 30 minutes to get to the cell block, get their people and get back to the Anomaly Stone room before shift change. However, they need to hurry as with Orlando opening the doors in their five years of practice, the best that they ever managed was 28 minutes. Gabriel points out that they need an inside man to succeed, but Hope and Echo believe that they have that in Levitt, the man who helped Hope and Octavia before and who will be in M-Cap.
As they reach M-Cap, the group is interrupted by Disciples heading to one of Anders' sermons who simply believe that Gabriel, Echo and Hope are running late. As Hope sneaks off in an attempt to assassinate Anders, Gabriel is shocked when Anders mentions that the Shepherd delievered the Disciples to Bardo using the Anomaly Stone. Gabriel explains to Echo that this means that the Disciples are not from Eligius III but instead came from Earth itself through the Anomaly. Echo talks Hope down from trying to kill Anders and the three depart once the sermon is over.
Returning to M-Cap, Gabriel, Hope and Echo discover Octavia hooked up to the machine and another scientist named Kirsch manning M-Cap instead of Levitt. Echo forces Kirsch to show them Bellamy's apparent death a week before during a failed attempt to rescue Octavia. As alarms go off since the Disciples now know the group is there, a grief-stricken and enraged Echo kills Kirsch despite Gabriel and Hope's protests that they need him as a hostage. As Echo screams in grief, Hope states that they will never find her mother now.
In The Queen's Gambit, Anders reveals Orlando's suicide to Gabriel and allows Gabriel to say a few words over his body before its sent to Nakara. Anders expresses surprise at the amount of things that Orlando apparently didn't tell the group and requests Gabriel's help with deciphering the Anomaly Stone, combining his 150 years of study with the Disciples' nearly a thousand years of work. Gabriel ultimately agrees.
Three months later, Gabriel is frustrated by the lack of success and is told that their last breakthrough was before the Disciple he is talking to is born. Clarke, Jordan, Niylah, Raven and Miller arrive through the Anomaly and Clarke is surprised to see Gabriel amongst the code-breaking team. Gabriel assures Clarke that Echo and Octavia are okay but informs her of Bellamy's apparent death.
In Anaconda, when Bill Cadogan arrives, Clarke allows the other Disciples to leave the room, but Gabriel stays. When Cadogan asks if his daughter is in the Key, Gabriel explains that the Key and the Flame are the same thing. Clarke later has him open the door so that Octavia, Echo and Diyoza can enter.
In The Flock, in a flashback to three months prior, Anders shows Octavia, Diyoza and Hope Bardo's poisonous surface and they realize that Gabriel saved them by preventing the group from going to the surface. When they ask where Gabriel is, Anders brushes off the question, stating only that Gabriel is no longer any of their concern.
Personality
Gabriel is a hardworking scientist who had feelings for Josephine Lightbourne. After Josephine's first death, he relentlessly pursued a way to bring her back. He eventually succeeded, using the Mind Drives, at the expense of erasing the host's previous consciousness. However, his relationship with Josephine ended when he disagreed with the Primes' ways, which he had himself helped create. He implies that Josephine is both his darkest fear and greatest desire.
While he was the primary creator of the Primes' rebirth method, he eventually became disillusioned with the Primes' philosophy. Gabriel wanted to save the Sanctum people from being killed and sacrificed. He defected from Sanctum and founded the Children of Gabriel.
His goal was to end the Primes' rebirths and he argues that "without death, life is meaningless". However, unlike many of his followers, he is opposed to killing. He spares Octavia Blake and tries to keep the Children of Gabriel from killing Rose. However, he did kill hosts while part of the Primes and he murdered Eduardo when enraged.
Gabriel had mixed feelings over being resurrected himself. After his first death, Josephine brought him back because she couldn't bear to lose him. It is implied that he was on his fourth body (i.e. third host) when he defected. When that host was dying of old age, Gabriel was ready to die for good. However, one of his followers, Eduardo, brought him back using a free-born host, Xavier. Gabriel killed Eduardo in rage.
After his latest resurrection, Gabriel became ashamed of what he had become. Gabriel states that he dedicated himself to bringing down a system of worship of false gods, but instead became a false god all over again. He chose to lie to his followers, pretend to be Xavier, and led them to believe that that he, Gabriel, abandoned them.
Due to nearly five years of training from Orlando, Gabriel gained the knowledge and skills of a Level 12 Disciple, meaning that he has become a formidable warrior in his own right. Despite this, Gabriel is shown to retain his reticence for killing and betraying others. However, he abandoned Orlando due to a lack of time and his own interest in seeing Bardo and rescuing his friends, prioritizing it over taking a risk on trusting Orlando who would be stranded on Skyring as a result.
After arriving on Bardo, Gabriel's attitude caused his friends to repeatedly suspect that he really only cared about getting his answers in regards to the Anomaly. Rather than risk going to the surface, Gabriel went so far as to stun his friends and later joined forces with the Disciples who offered him the chance to finally get his answers, seemingly betraying everyone. However, like the others, this was apparently just an act to buy time as he did not inform the Disciples that Clarke no longer had the Flame in her head and sided with her group without hesitation upon their arrival on Sanctum, taking part in their secret discussions with no one suspecting his allegiances and stood guard over Bill Cadogan for them. He was also unimpressed with Cadogan's arguments about why the Disciple way was best, feeling that you can't fight for the soul of the human race with an inhuman army. Gabriel did, however, enjoy speaking with someone from his own time with whom he could share stories and have each man understand what the other was talking about.
Physical Appearance
His current host is tall and dark tan skin with brown eyes, short black hair with small white hair spot, beard and mustache. In Season 7, he shaved the sides of his head.
His original appearance was tall and slender with brown eyes, brown hair and light tan skin.
Relationships
He was in a romantic relationship with Josephine Lightbourne, but their relationship ended when he disagreed with the Primes' own ways and defected from Sanctum. He implies that Josephine is both his darkest fear and his greatest desire. A hallucination of Josephine suggests that Gabriel keeps going to the Anomaly to see her which he doesn't deny beyond the last time as he had gone to help Diyoza and Octavia. When reunited with Josephine, Gabriel was happy to see her, but tearfully refused the idea of saving her so they could be together. After he decides to let her go, it was implied that due to his fear of Josephine's true nature and her corrupt motives, he still wanted to prevent her from harming more innocent people, even though he loved her for centuries. He was visibly upset after her EEG flatlined.
At some point, after abandoning Sanctum, Gabriel developed a father-son bond with a boy named Eduardo he'd rescued. Though Gabriel wished to die with his last host, Eduardo loved him too much to let Gabriel go, though Gabriel thought he'd talked Eduardo out of his plan to resurrect Gabriel through Xavier by the time he passed away. In his anger at his resurrection, Gabriel killed Eduardo, for which he showed remorse while explaining the story to Diyoza and Octavia. When confronted by Xavier's sister Layla, Gabriel stated that he also loved Xavier like a son, which is implied to be the reason why he angrily killed Eduardo.
Appearances
| Season Six | |
|---|---|
| Episode | Appearance Status |
| Sanctum | Absent |
| Red Sun Rising | Flashback |
| The Children of Gabriel | Appears |
| The Face Behind the Glass | Appears |
| The Gospel of Josephine | Appears |
| Memento Mori | Appears |
| Nevermind | Mentioned |
| The Old Man and the Anomaly | Appears |
| What You Take With You | Appears |
| Matryoshka | Appears |
| Ashes to Ashes | Appears |
| Adjustment Protocol | Appears |
| The Blood of Sanctum | Appears |
| Season Seven | |
|---|---|
| Episode | Appearance Status |
| From the Ashes | Appears |
| The Garden | Appears |
| False Gods | Mentioned |
| Hesperides | Appears |
| Welcome to Bardo | Appears |
| Nakara | Appears |
| The Queen's Gambit | Appears |
| Anaconda | Appears |
| The Flock | Mentioned |
| A Little Sacrifice | Appears |
| Etherea | Appears |
| The Stranger | Appears |
| Blood Giant | Appears |
| A Sort of Homecoming | Appears |
| The Dying of the Light | Absent |
| The Last War | Absent |
Quotes
- Josephine Lightbourne: "What do you say, Gabriel? You ready for phase two?"
- Gabriel Santiago: "That's what the embryos are for."
- -- Red Sun Rising
- Gabriel Santiago: "The key is a fully developed brain. Once the adult host's consciousness is gone, the mind stored in the drive uploads with ease. Now, we still have loads of tests to run, but so far, Josie's consciousness, herself, appears to be whole. In other words, Eureka. More soon."
- -- The Gospel of Josephine
- Gabriel (to Octavia): "The forest is my weapon."
- -- The Children of Gabriel.
- Tosh: "You're gonna shoot me now?"
- Gabriel: "I'd really rather not. The rest of our unit is expecting you."
- Gabriel (to Octavia and Diyoza): "The harder you fight - the faster you die."
- -- The Gospel of Josephine.
- Gabriel (to Octavia and Diyoza): "I can wait longer than you can."
- -- The Gospel of Josephine.
- Gabriel (to Diyoza): "Did Russell tell you your child will be considered worthless? You don't have the blood, and neither will she. They'll call her a null. She won't be able to bear children. She'll clean toilets or volunteer to die as a guard or attend to the dead."
- -- Memento Mori.
- Gabriel (to Octavia about her hand): "It's not just a tremor. It's a message. The Anomaly's calling you... just like it called me."
- -- Memento Mori.
- Gabriel (about his body): "Russell, this body, this man, he was someone's son, someone's brother, and he was killed for me."
- -- Adjustment Protocol.
Killed Victims
- Brooke (mind wiped by Gabriel and Russell to bring back Josephine)
- Eduardo (killed in anger over his resurrection and the death of Xavier)
- Clarke Griffin (heart temporarily stopped; revived)
- A.L.I.E. 2.0 (shot and permanently destroyed)
- Spirits of the Commanders (destroyed alongside the Flame)
Notes and Trivia
- He is a geneticist and has a doctorate degree in the field. He also appears to have some medical training.
- In "Hesperides," when he comments on Orlando's physical condition, Orlando asks him if he is a doctor and Gabriel replies that he is.
- He is considered to be a demon in Sanctum. Gabriel himself implies that he is considered one not only for his rebellion, but for destroying the embryos in particular.
- This act caused Josephine to start Oblation.
- He and Russell jail-broke the Mind Drive.
- In the script, Russell also mentions that Gabriel created the serum used on the hosts before they implant the Mind Drive and that it took him over twenty years.
- Even though he brought back Josephine and the others who were killed by Russell Lightbourne, during the first Red Sun eclipse, it was implied that Gabriel's experimental test was meant to resurrect those just for one time only as he refused to do any more resurrections. Despite Gabriel's refusal against killing the Hosts, it was implied that the reason why he only used the Hosts for first resurrections is because the first, official Hosts were just only the experimental embryos at the time Josephine and the others were resurrected. By the time that Sanctum grew into a new society, he refused to sacrifice any more innocent Hosts, but the Primes forced him against his will, which led to his defection from Sanctum.
- He founded the Children of Gabriel.
- He wrote a book chronicling the effects of the Red Sun called "The Double Helix Under the Double Suns." [2]
- Gabriel's favorite play is The Crucible, which was banned by the Primes.
- He had a crush on Becca Franco before coming to Alpha.
- In an unnamed date, Josephine Lightbourne mentioned that his last host must be at 95 years old. In 2281, Josephine confirms that if Gabriel was 106 by now, he'd be dead.[3]
- That host is confirmed dead and he currently has a new host that he has had for ten years. This means that his host was age 96 when he died.
- He is the only Prime that came alone. The others had a family member(s) come with them.
- His original body died of cancer. His previous host died of old age.
- Unlike the other Primes, it is unknown how many hosts Gabriel has had. Given the old age of his previous host, he likely hasn't gone through as many hosts as the other Primes who have each had upwards of six.
- In "Adjustment Protocol," Russell states that Gabriel is in his fifth or sixth host. However, Russell was unsure of the exact number and Gabriel didn't offer it to him. This is because Gabriel was resurrected in a new host, after his previous host left Sanctum and died of old age.
- At the end of "Matryoshka," Gabriel spoke in Spanish saying "death is life".
- In his original body, he was Colombian. Hence, his knowledge of the Spanish language. His grandmother was also from Colombia.
- Both of Gabriel's known resurrections were because someone he loved couldn't let him go.
- Gabriel is one of three characters to have multiple episodes named after them, the others being Echo and Clarke.
- Gabriel is the second character to have two within one season.
- The episodes are "The Children of Gabriel" and "The Old Man and the Anomaly."
- Gabriel is the fourth main character to debut after first season. (Echo was the first, Roan was the second and Jordan Green was the third).
- As of "Hesperides," Gabriel is considered a Level 12 Disciple thanks to the training he received over 4 years and 8 months from Orlando.
- Gabriel is the eleventh main character to die in The 100. The ten preceding ones are Wells Jaha, Finn Collins, Lincoln, Roan, Jasper Jordan, Thelonious Jaha, Monty Green, Marcus Kane, Abigail Griffin and Bellamy Blake.
- Gabriel is the second major character to died in Season Seven, first is Bellamy.
Gallery
| To edit this gallery, go to Gabriel Santiago/Gallery. To review image policies, go to Media Guidelines. Note, the images go in episode order. |
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.jpg "A Little Sacrifice (6).jpg (1.52 MB)")
.jpg "A Little Sacrifice (11).jpg (1.54 MB)")
