‘The 100’ Season 5 Episode 10: Madi’s Flashback Dream Explained

The CW Madi

You may have gotten a little caught up in the fight pit drama and Octavia turning insane to remember a key plot point that was revealed during Season 5 Episode 10 of The 100. But this article is here to make sure you don’t forget for long. Madi had a flashback courtesy of the chip that revealed a key plot point involving Becca, the Commanders, the Grounders, Cadogan, and the Second Dawn cult. Read on to learn more about what we know so far, thanks to that too-brief moment in Madi’s dream.

Fans have long theorized that Cadogan’s Second Dawn cult was somehow connected to the Grounders, and Madi’s flashback dream reveals that this is far more than just a theory. Unfortunately, we don’t have a clip to show yet, but as soon as we find one, we will add it to this article.

The flashback showed Becca being essentially burned at the stake while yelling that she wanted to help. During her dream/flashback, Madi screamed, “Cadogan don’t do this!” It appears that Cadogan burned Becca alive, while she was trying to save humanity with her night blood.

The scene in the flashback dream gives further credence to the idea that all (or many) of the Grounders are directly descended from the Second Dawn members. This would explain why their culture changed so fast.

We still don’t know why Becca was burned alive or how her night blood was still passed on. Perhaps it was simply fear about her night blood serum that caused them to kill her in the same way that a witch is killed. Or maybe Cadogan took the flame before killing Becca. Or maybe they realized she looked like Allie and thought she was Allie, and killed her.

But why would they burn her alive and then later worship her as a god and savior, as Praimheda? Unless, perhaps, there was a division among the Second Dawn members. Or maybe Becca somehow survived being burned by Cadogan.

If you don’t recall, here’s a quick refresher about Cadogan and the Second Dawn.

Cadogan

The CWCadogan

Cadogan

Cadogan

In the episode “The Four Horsemen” (Season 4 Episode 3), Jaha leads Bellamy and Clarke to a place where he believes thousands can survive the radiation. It’s a bunker built by a doomsday cult known as The Second Dawn, which was founded by Bill Cadogan. When they come to the bunker that Jaha was seeking, they find skeletons and a pendant with the number 11 on it in Roman numerals. Inside the bunker, they find thousands of skeletons. It looks like the bunker didn’t seal right and the cult members weren’t saved from the radiation after all. The Level 11 bunker ended up being a “fake bunker” of sorts (or at least one that didn’t work.)

The bunker that Jaha later found and which Octavia and company used to survive was the Second Dawn’s Level 12 bunker.  Its location under the Polis temple hinted strongly of a connection between the Second Dawn cult and the Grounders.

The CWSecond Dawn symbol

Wall decor in the Second Dawn Bunker showed a clear connection to the Grounders. They have posters that read “Blood must have Blood” and “Your fight is over” and “From the ashes, we will rise.” These are common saying of the Grounders and the Flamekeeper’s prayer. The photo on the right might even appear to be like Nightblood.

The CWSecond Dawn

So the theory is that when Becca landed about two years after the bombs, and called out to people approaching her who were wearing hazmat suits, these were members of the Second Dawn cult who were living in the bunker. (Becca landed in her Polaris pod, but the AR got erased and it was later thought to read “Polis.”) This implies that at least some of the people in the Level 12 Second Dawn bunker were inoculated with Becca’s nightblood serum and became the ancestors of the Grounders.

And now, thanks to Madi’s dream flashback, it looks like the leader of the Second Dawn cult, Cadogan, ended up burning Becca alive for some reason. Maybe he burned her at the stake and then took the flame, creating a religion that gave him more power. Maybe Becca tried to take Cadogan’s power away from him and he killed her for it.

If the cult truly disliked technology, this could explain why the Grounders’ entire ideology is so different in such a short period of time, and how they lost knowledge of technology in so few generations. Fans have long seen this as a plot hole, but it might not be after all.

What do you think the flashback reveals? Let us know in the comments below.

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