TV Romance
‘The 100’ Fumbled Bellarke & What Could Have Been One of TV’s Greatest Slow Burns
Believe it or not, it’s been five years exactly since The 100 aired its hundredth and final episode. We still think about the show for several reasons, but the one that continues to weigh heavily on our minds is Bellarke, also known as the fan ship of Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) and Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley).
From the first time Bellamy called Clarke “princess” back in Season 1 all the way up until their fateful reunion in Season 7, we held out hope that the CW sci-fi drama would finally recognize that the two were meant for each other. Had the show handled their romantic potential correctly, Bellamy and Clarke were on their way to earning a spot in the TV Couple Slow Burn Hall of Fame, right next to The X-Files‘ Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson).
Alas, The 100 fumbled Clarke and Bellamy’s relationship so horribly that we still think about what could’ve been all these years later. In honor of the finale’s five-year anniversary, we’re revisiting what made Bellarke the best ship of the show — and where the show went wrong with them.
There are many reasons why we hoped for Bellarke all the way until the bitter end. Even from the get-go, when the two navigated life on post-apocalyptic Earth, Bellamy and Clarke had a chemistry so strong that we almost immediately assumed that they were headed in a romantic direction. (Heck, it was so strong that Taylor and Morley got married in real life!) They may have started as reluctant partners in leading the 100, but even then, the spark between the two could’ve lit a match.
Diyah Pera / The CW
The evolution of Bellamy and Clarke’s bond in Season 1 was so well done that we didn’t mind them staying friends for a while longer. Over the seasons, they would save each other and sacrifice for each other, perhaps most significantly when Bellamy pulled the lever at Mount Weather with Clarke, saving her from shouldering the burden of killing all of those people alone.
Don’t get us wrong: We’re all for deep platonic friendships, and we would’ve been perfectly happy with that being Bellamy and Clarke’s outcome in the early seasons. However, the show just kept giving them so many borderline romantic moments that it seemed like a waste for Bellarke not to be endgame.
Remember when Bellamy had to leave Clarke behind on Earth and return to space in Season 4? Clarke called Bellamy every day for 2,199 days, even when there was no response. It was the perfect setup for them to finally get together in Season 5, when Bellamy and the rest of the crew returned. That was just one instance of The 100 driving them apart, which the show did repeatedly. But that’s what would’ve made the payoff of them getting together in the end so much sweeter.
Some of the wedges between Clarke and Bellamy, we’d be remiss not to mention, were other love interests. Admittedly, we loved Clarke’s relationship with Grounder Commander Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) in Seasons 2 and 3, and we wouldn’t have minded if they’d been endgame either, had Lexa not sacrificed herself for Clarke.
Compared to Clarke and Lexa, we weren’t quite as impressed by Bellamy and his most significant love interest, Echo (Tasya Teles), but they weren’t terrible once they got together between Seasons 4 and 5. We feel a little bad about minimizing Bellamy and Clarke’s other relationships, but again, they should’ve been warm-ups for the main event: Bellarke.
We went into the final season with an “it’s not over until it’s over” mindset. When Clarke and Bellamy finally reunited (again) in Season 7, all of the romantic buildup between them crumbled. The relationship that was once the grounding force of The 100 withered away when a brainwashed Bellamy not only betrayed Clarke but tried to kill her. When Clarke was forced to end his life, it felt like a betrayal to us. Why couldn’t they at least have a platonic happily ever after? We would’ve gladly taken that.
We’re mollified slightly by the fact that Bellamy and Clarke do end up engaged in Kass Morgan’s book series of the same name, but still. It’ll take way more than five years for us to stop thinking about the wasted slow burn potential of Bellarke onscreen.
Do you agree that The 100 fumbled Bellamy and Clarke’s potential? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
