Okay I apologize in advance for highjacking this ask but I need to throw in some e/cho and b/echo analysis bc how do people believe they’re endgame? It’s bewildering. Are we not watching the same show?
I absolutely agree that we have no idea how bellarke is going to end but b/echo isn’t getting a happy ending - or at least one together. Let’s look at this through the strict lens of scenes, the show, and not bellarke anxiety, e/cho hate, and JR hate.
The very first b/echo scene is Bellamy assuring her that things won’t change on the ground. That’s classic foreshadowing that things certainly will change on the ground.
We don’t get a lot of b/echo in the rest of S5, meaning it’s pretty stagnant. They’re separated so that their status can stay the same. The focus of S5 isn’t b/echo, it’s the (rough) reunions between separated parties (mostly bellarke and the blake siblings and clarke/octavia).
Besides b/echo being stagnant and the show focusing on the tumultuous bellarke reunion, we do see b/echo and e/cho utilized in a way that either highlights bellarke or pushes it forward. The intentional shot of clarke’s face when they unite, how that is the focus of the shot rather than the b/echo reunion. Octavia comparing Bellamy’s love for Clarke to his romantic love for E/cho. E/cho being the one to tell Clarke that Bellamy is alive and Clarke not killing E/cho before that because of her love for Bellamy. Etc etc. She’s not there in S5 to do much other than serve the plot and development of other characters and relationships.
In this season, we also are shown that E/cho is as ruthless as she’s always been. She’s a good spy. It’s not really that important until later, everyone is pretty ruthless this season, but it’s something to note, to rember for S6 & S7.
In the second episode, we have E/cho’s hallucination during the red sun. This is the first instance of them comparing b/echo to a master/spy relationship and it stems from E/cho’s hallucination/insecurities.
Bellamy: Yeah, they're fine. Just let me in!
Emori: Yeah. That's right. Do what you're told. That's all you ever do...
Emori: The good, little spy...
Echo: Shut up so I can think.
Emori: Always following her master's voice.
Echo: I said shut up! Shut up!
Two episodes later, we have the dance scene. Maybe shipper lens is a thing, but there’s a reason that a director or whoever is putting the shots together shows Bellamy and Clarke in alternating shots like he’s watching her. No we can’t tell if he’s jealous, really happy for her, etc. But the point here is that when E/cho tries to comfort him, she’s doing it *wrong.* She’s not giving him what he needs, and he’s cruel about it. Because he’s craving Clarke, in whatever capacity. He wants Clarke comforting him, not E/cho. Because Clarke does it *right*. She has a long record of saying the *right* things to Bellamy regarding Octavia and we just saw the scene before where Clarke does emotionally provide what he needs. This is about b/echo and not bellarke but it’s important to note that his girlfriend is not emotionally fulfilling him in the way his *friend* does. Bellamy unfairly lashes out at E/cho bc of it.
When Bellamy and e/cho talk and she opens up, it feels hopeful. But there’s immediatey that foreshadowing again. Bellamy tells her that from then on they’re looking forward, not back. Another indication that it won’t be that easy, especially given they intentionally make the next shot the one of Clarke dying. Bellamy won’t be looking forward with E/cho bc his attention that season will be on Clarke. And it is.
The rest of the season really revolves around Bellamy saving Clarke. Prioritizing her above everyone else, including E/cho. Interesting too how Bellamy is grieving Clarke alone. Hmm, I wonder why he isn’t seeking comfort in his grief from his girlfriend when his *friend* has died.
We get E/cho backstory. This serves to show how conditioned she is to this ‘serving the master’ mindset. How young she was when she learned it and why it affects her today. Some people tried to make this about bellarke and her not telling bellamy, but it’s not. It’s about her and why she is the way she is and why she depends on those unequal, unhealthy relationships, even with people like Bellamy who aren’t necessarily trying to abuse that or are even aware of the dynamic.
A general note, tying into the last S5 one above, is E/cho continues to be ruthless. Maybe the more correct phrase is she continues to be less likely than the others to let killing someone interfere with her goals. Unlike S5 though, this directly contradicts with the “do better” Monty mantra that bellarke are trying so hard to follow. The distance between how her and Bellamy handle things and approch things on the ground is increasing, the gap widening (remember the “nothing will change on the ground” foreshadowing?).
Ah, here we are in the present. This season pretty much immediately opens with e/cho on a quest to save bellamy. That’s been the arc the whole season. Physically, she’s on a quest to save him. The man she loves. Interesting that her supposed arc is saving the master. That’s her goal at the onset of the season.
But wait! Right before they enter the anomoly, the symbol of them officially entering this quest to save octavia and bellamy together, we get another E/cho hallucination. This time it’s her old master and he’s more or less accusing her of the same thing her hallucination, her subconscious, was last season during the red sun.
Roan: Once a killer, always a killer.
Roan: Without Bellamy, who will you follow?
Girl: Answer the question, Ash.
Roan: Without someone to follow, who are you?
Girl: A girl who killed her only friend and stole her name?
Roan: The honorless spy who would do anything for her queen, even betray the man she now claims to love?
I mean...guys. They basically spelled out the main points that they’ve spent the last 2 seasons building and foreshadowed her upcoming struggles.
Once a killer, always a killer
Who will she follow without a master?
Without a master, who is she?
Who is she alone, this girl who doesn’t even own her name?
...the man she CLAIMS to love
So what happens to E/cho after this? She spends 5 years with people and at the end of it, she kills a man who they considered a friend. Listen, I’m not even saying that wasn’t smart or that it was the wrong decision. That’s not the point here. Let’s look at that in the context of Roan’s words. Once a killer, always a killer.
An even more interesting read on her killing Orlando and Roan’s words is this line by Roan: The honorless spy who would do anything for her queen, even betray the man she now claims to love? Hmm. On the surface we can say, look, she’s saving the man she loves, not choosing her queen! But that’s not really the role everyone is playing anymore, is it? In fact, what we have is E/cho willing to do anything for her queen (Bellamy), even betraying the man she claims to love (Orlando: friend, the family she spent 5 years with). She’s fulfilling the nature or intention behind Roan’s words.
So where have we left E/cho? We’ve left her at the ‘believing Bellamy, the master is dead’ stage. The next one of Roan’s lines we’ll address in the next episodes is Without Bellamy, who will you follow? Will she follow someone else? Will she lead? We don’t know where she’s heading other than that she’s proving the line Once a killer, always a killer to be true (once again - I am not judging ber actions one way or another. This is just fact.)
As the season progresses and her arc ends, it will eventually answer the final question: Without someone to follow, who is she? E/cho’s entire storyline is about finding out who she is without a master, without Bellamy.
E/cho’s entire story is about them breaking apart, not ending up together. If we’re watching the same story, how do you truly believe that b/echo is endgame?
