Check out my reviews of previous seasons: Season 1 Review. -- Season 2 Review -- Season 3 Review -- Season 4 Review -- Season 5 Review -- Season 6 Review.
By the end of Season 6 I was already getting tired of the show and had little hope that it could be salvaged. I didn't realize it would get so much worse. That's not to say there weren't some strong episodes, I particularly liked the second episode of the season, but overall this season went quickly downhill to the point where I just wanted the show to be over. With so many characters, old and new, and so many different planets and locations the show lost its focus and at one point it just became the "Clarke jumping around from planet to planet" show. I kept watching because I knew it was the last season and just wanted to see it through to the end - and also because of Murphy and Emori - but by the end of the season I literally didn't care about any of the plotlines or characters anymore. If you're considering watching the show I would recommend watching seasons 1-4 or even 1-5 and then just stopping. Seasons 6 and 7 just aren't worth it.
There will be SPOILERS beyond this point.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
One of the things that struck me the most watching the final episode is that the writers were extremely confused about the messages they were trying to convey. And they were trying to discuss some pretty heavy themes as they had been from season 1. The problem is that when your theme focuses on war and "ending the cycle of violence" but you have no concept of why wars even start it becomes cartoonish and silly. Wars happen because people are fighting over things. Because people want something someone else has or want more power or want to fight to hold on to their own things. The show even teased these ideas in the earlier seasons when Skaikru was in conflict with the Grounders over the actual ground and territories. It made sense. But this season there was no sense of connection that any of the characters might have to anything they were fighting over. They weren't even really fighting over anything in particular. Clarke was just literally going around shooting people randomly, so many of the characters were hopping from planet to planet, and the "final war" was started as a distraction.
Especially with the reveal in the last couple of episodes that Earth was habitable again it just made no sense for all these different groups of people to completely ignore Earth and continue fighting over Sanctum. At least a few of the characters, particularly the grounders, should have attempted to just return to Earth and live there. Even if it was Sheidheda trying to retake Earth or if they had a conflict/war over Earth because it was the most habitable with no moon-induced-insanity or anything. That, at least, would have given the "last war" meaning.
Also, I find it absolutely ridiculous that they ended the show focusing on Clarke basically saying that her genocides were justified and that she would do them again. Wow. Really? So we want to "break the cycle of violence" but your main character is given a platform to basically say that her committing genocide is OK because she wanted to protect her friends/Madi? So war is bad when other people do it, but for the main (White) protagonist committing genocide is justified?
I just... and then, let's not mention the fact that she killed her best friend (Bellamy) over a notebook that she then didn't bother trying to grab from a meter away, so this excuse of doing it for her friends is complete and utter nonsense. Honestly, that's all I'm going to say about that character death. The actor for Bellamy made a good choice in just quitting before they somehow managed to butcher his character like they had to all the others.
Some of my favourites like Raven were so sidelined that they almost became background characters and others like Indra just kept doing so many stupid things that they didn't even resemble their old selves anymore. Even Octavia who kind of remained one of the main characters seemed useless aside from a couple of moments.
There was one stand-out episode: Episode 2: The Garden, which was wonderful because it took time to focus on only three characters and develop their relationships and show us what they went through in the anomaly. After this episode I had hope for the season, but this hope was quickly dispelled as the season continued to spin its wheels and get nowhere.
Another really well-done scene was Emori's death scene. It was creepy and so well acted. And they brought her back so I didn't have to be really angry about her dying. Which brings me back to the point that Murphy and Emori were the best characters throughout.
Finally, I want to mention the "Backdoor Pilot" episode Anaconda. It was... overall, as its own thing it wasn't necessarily bad. But I really hated what it did to the Grounders and their culture. The language, Trigadeslang, which I had previously assumed to have developed naturally to keep secrets from Mount Weather suddenly became just a kid's made up language and that made it really dumb. I actually really hated it.
It's hard to find more things to talk about in relation to this season. I'm not even angry I just don't care and haven't for a while. At the end of the day I'll remember this as a show that had a great concept, some really good moments and ideas and questions, but failed to deliver on all fronts. Seasons 1-4 were good and they at least knew what they wanted from it and followed through on their decisions and on the character moments. Beyond that the show became aimless and I think the writers lost track of what they wanted it to be.
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