“Sanctum” is episode one of season six of The 100.
In the season five finale, “Damocles: Part II”, those still alive had evacuated to the Mothership as McCreary had fired a missile at the valley. With the last habitable land on Earth destroyed, and an estimated 10 years needed for it to recover, they all went into the cryo-pods. Clarke and Bellamy were then woken up by Jordan, someone they had never seen before. Which was surprising. Jordan is Monty and Harper’s son; neither had entered the cryo-pods. It also wasn’t 10 years in the future but 125. It took Monty 30 years to do Plan B, which was to crack the Eligius III mission file. That wasn’t a mining mission, but a colonisation one. The Mothership is now in orbit about a brand-new planet for them to wreck. Or, hopefully, not; Monty said that this time they needed to do better.
Bellamy and Clarke have now woken some of the others. Bellamy says it’s a lot to process, so everyone can take an hour. At least they survived. Abby believes that it’s a chance to get their humanity back. Raven says some of them never lost it. Shaw follows her and asks if she’s okay. She isn’t. Harper and Monty left them. Shaw can understand; a chance to spend a lifetime alone with someone you love sounds pretty good to him.
Jordan has some food which he tells Clarke Monty preserved for all of them when they woke up. Jordan has heard it doesn’t taste that good but it’s all he has ever eaten. When he asks about Abby, Clarke says that Abby is worried about Kane, who was but into a cryo-pod critically injured. Which reminds Jordan of something. Clarke asks the others if they’ve seen Raven and Shaw – the people Clarke handed over to the enemy to be tortured? No. Jordan returns with the batch of stuff Monty created that induces a coma. Abby can use it to save Kane.
There were five planets suitable for life found and missions were sent to each. Monty chose the one closest to Earth. They don’t know if the atmosphere is suitable; Jordan tells them the instruments aren’t working, possibly because of interference in the ionosphere. They need to go down to find out if it’s habitable. Again. There is a beacon, but those are solar powered, so it doesn’t mean that anyone is alive down there.
The Eligius III mission has had an estimated 200 years on the planet. Bellamy suggests they go down and wait for the others to come to them. They will take guns, but also non-lethals, and not shoot first this time. It’s suggested by Raven that Clarke stay on the ship then. Raven is the one staying behind; Shaw is going and they can’t risk both of their pilots. Their best fighters need waking up, but Bellamy says his sister is the last person he’d trust not to shoot first. So, Miller is going with them.
During the trip down, the Mothership loses communications with the dropship, so Raven tells Jordan to move to a new orbit. Which results in them seeing a glowing circle on the surface. Jordan thinks it looks like an aurora; Raven points out that such only appear at the poles. The dropship gets through the ionosphere but they still lack instruments. However, they make nit down safely and the way of checking to see if the atmosphere is safe is to open the door and expose everyone to it. Not the greatest idea. On the Mothership, Abby wants Niylah to wake all of Skaikru, as they are universal donors. All except Octavia.
Jordan has repositioned the ship and discovers that the planet, Alpha, is not a planet. It’s a moon of a gas giant. And the system has two suns. Abby arrives to take Raven’s blood; Raven is not happy with her. During the argument, they miss noticing that Niylah has woken Octavia.
On the ground, the others see the gas giant, and the suns are eclipsing each other. There’s a lake and Murphy decides to go for a swim to see if it’s safe. And disappears. Because he was messing with them. He drags Emori in as well. They still can’t get through to the ship. Clarke apologises to Shaw and she would do it differently if she could do it again. But she can’t. None of them can. Monty thought this was a second chance for them. Murphy replies that it’s more like a fifth one for her; she says the same is true of Murphy. Shaw tells Clarke is deeds, not words, that will matter.
Then all the bugs go quiet. Jackson has one already captured; five minutes ago, it would have eaten a leaf out of his hand. Now it wants to eat him. Its entire physiology has changed. So far, everything has seemed to be going quite well. The planet is pleasant and safe. That can’t last. And it doesn’t. A whole swarm of bugs arrive and attack and everyone has to flee to the beacon they detected.
The planet starts out safe then gets deadly. Other elements are creepy, then get really creepy. Then really bad. Lots of people don’t trust each other for what they’ve done in the past; Raven doesn’t trust Abby with pain meds. Others are feeling guilty about the actions they have done. The exception seems to be Octavia. Previously, she had seemed to finally admit that the death of her people was her own fault in her lust for power. Now, she doesn’t, claiming everything she did was for the benefit of her people. Something that is clearly not true. If that doesn’t change, she probably shouldn’t have been woken up.