Echo is an antagonist in the post-apocalyptic TV series The 100, serving as an antagonist in the third season, the main antagonist of the fourth season. From the fifth season through most of the seventh season, she transitions into a heroic character. As revealed in the sixth season, her real name is Ash, having taken on the identity of the real Echo, her best friend, after being forced to kill Echo in self-defense as a child by Queen Nia.
First appearing as a prisoner in the second season, Echo works with protagonist Bellamy Blake to escape Mount Weather and the Mountain Men, before using their connection in the third season to lure the Sky People into a trap on behalf of her queen. Subsequently, throughout the fourth season, Echo advocates against the Sky People and attempts to help King Roan cheat in the Final Conclave. After being caught by Bellamy, Echo is banished for her actions and joins Bellamy's group in retreating into space for survival.
From the fifth through seventh seasons, Echo sets aside her villainous past and becomes a friend and ally of the protagonists, even beginning a romantic relationship with Bellamy. However, after his apparent death at the hands of the Disciples, Echo apparently betrays her friends and reverts back to her old ways, joining the Disciples. This proves to be a ruse as Echo intends to commit genocide in revenge for Bellamy's death, but is talked down at the last minute. Subsequently, she returns to being on the side of good completely and ends up a fully-redeemed protagonist.
Biography[]
Past[]
As a child, Ash was best friends with the real Echo who was to be sent by the Ice Nation as a spy into Sangedekru, the Desert Clan. While practicing archery one day, the two were found by Queen Nia who, after Ash couldn't kill a spy, forced the two girls to fight to the death. Ash was forced to kill her best friend in self-defense and as a result, Nia forced her to take on the real Echo's name and identity, a secret that Echo would keep for decades to come. Echo became an elite assassin for the Ice Nation, but was eventually captured by the Mountain Men and was taken to Mount Weather for their experiments.
Alliance with Bellamy Blake[]
After Bellamy infiltrated Mount Weather, he encountered Echo in one of the prisoner cages. Despite Echo's warnings to him, Bellamy managed to escape his imprisonment and Echo helped Bellamy to kill a guard. Bellamy was forced to leave in Echo in her cage, but later came back to free her when the combined Grounder-Sky People army marched on Mount Weather. However, Commander Lexa made a deal with the Mountain Men that freed the Grounder prisoners while leaving the Sky People to the Mountain Men.
Betraying the Sky People[]
A few months later, a captured Echo was taken to Mount Weather which had been turned into an infirmary for survivors of Farm Station's war with the Ice Nation. Bellamy recognized Echo and had her released and Echo claimed that the Grounder summit at Polis was a trap which Bellamy believed due to their history. However, Echo betrayed the Sky People as part of the real trap which involved an Ice Nation assassin destroying Mount Weather via self-destruct codes provided to them by Carl Emerson. Echo later reported on their success to Queen Nia.
Although not seen, Echo subsequently took A.L.I.E.'s chip and fell under her mind control. However, she was set free when Clarke Griffin destroyed the AI.
Coming of the Death Wave[]
Following the war with A.L.I.E., Echo took command of the Ice Nation warriors after King Roan was gravely injured and declares Polis to be under her control. Echo later agrees to talk to Bellamy about the Sky People's supposed surrender and reveals that she had purposefully lured him out of Mount Weather before the bombing in order to save his life and apologizes for not being able to save his girlfriend Gina. In reality, the meeting a distraction so that Clarke and Abby Griffin can treat Roan. The two manage to save Roan's life, but Echo advises him towards war with the Sky People and Trikru and to execute Clarke. Clarke eventually convinces Roan to uphold his earlier promise to make the Sky People, Skaikru, the thirteenth clan, but Bellamy doubts that he will ever be able to trust Echo again.
Following Roan's rise to power, Echo acts as his advisor and spies on Skaikru, eventually discovering that they are repairing Arkadia to survive the upcoming death wave while excluding the Grounders. Echo reveals this to Roan and captures Bellamy and Stevens, executing the latter as an example and disbelieving the plan to turn everyone into Nightbloods in order to survive. Later, while chasing down Octavia, Echo battles the other woman, leading to Octavia's apparent death which Echo hadn't intended to happen. Unbeknownst to Echo, Octavia actually managed to survive the fight. Echo later accompanies Roan to a negotiation with Skaikru and argues with Bellamy who believes that they all need to work together in order to survive. After stopping a would-be assassin from shooting Roan, Echo chooses to cover up the incident along with Bellamy, but can only watch as Arkadia is destroyed by Illian.
Echo is subsequently sent back to Polis to keep the peace and leads the Ice Nation's warriors in battling Trikru for control of the city while Roan is gone. After Roan returns from the unsuccessful attempt to create Nightblood, Echo warns him of the new alliance between Skaikru and Trikru and that Trikru had sacrificed holding the central tower to hold the temple instead, suggesting that something of importance is hidden there. After the aborted ascension of Clarke to Commander, Roan decides to hold a Final Conclave to determine which clan will control the hidden Second Dawn Bunker which can be used to save 1,200 people from the death wave.
The Final Conclave and Banishment[]
During the Final Conclave, Echo takes a bow and begins assassinating the champions from other clans, breaking the rules of the Conclave and in effect cheating for the Ice Nation. In the process, Echo mortally wounds Illian, forcing Octavia to mercy kill him and earning Echo a long-lasting grudge from the other woman. Spotting Echo, Bellamy intervenes and stops her from killing anyone else. After learning of Echo's actions, an enraged Roan banishes her from the Ice Nation, having wanted to win the Conclave fairly.
After Skaikru seizes control of the bunker, Echo discovers the truth and threatens to expose it to the other clans. When Indra learns of her actions, she believes that the Ice Nation should be banished, but Octavia refuses to condemn the entire clan for Echo's actions and forces Echo to stay until Bellamy opens the bunker, threatening to reveal the truth about what Echo did otherwise. Bellamy eventually opens the door, but while Octavia allows the Ice Nation in, she upholds Roan's banishment of Echo with Bellamy refusing to intercede on her behalf, dooming Echo to die in the death wave.
From Antagonist to Protagonist[]
Shortly thereafter, a lurking Echo hears John Murphy discussing the lighthouse bunker that he intends to survive in along with Emori and she secretly follows Clarke's group as they set out. When the group is ambushed by desperate Grounders, Echo arrives and rescues them, explaining that she hopes that since she saved their lives, they'll save hers by allowing Echo to join Murphy and Emori in their bunker. Clarke, believing that she can survive the radiation thanks to her new Nightblood, gives Echo, who has begun to suffer its effects, her radiation suit. Echo explains that she had only been trying to ensure the survival of her people and points out that Clarke would've done the same. When the group decides to travel into space in order to survive on the Ark Ring in orbit, Echo instead chooses to commit ritual suicide out of shame. Bellamy talks her out of it, acknowledging that while he may never trust her again, he believes that they might need Echo to survive in the future.
Over the next six years on the Ring, Echo becomes a full-fledged member of the group and even starts a romantic relationship with Bellamy, although its mentioned that it did take awhile for him to trust her again. Following their return to Earth, Echo puts her antagonistic past behind her and remains on the side of Bellamy and the others, although her skills as an assassin come in handy on more than one occasion, particularly later on Sanctum where she helps to build a rebellion against the Primes. After being turned into a Nightblood by Ryker Desai in order to become the new host of Simone Lightbourne, Echo reveals her past to him as Ash in an attempt to keep Ryker from becoming like her, but fails. After being rescued by Gaia and Nathan Miller, Echo kills Ryker, repeating the words that Queen Nia had told Echo years before: "hesitation is death."
The Disciples and Attempted Genocide[]
Shortly after the defeat of the Primes, Bellamy is kidnapped by a group known as the Disciples. Alongside Gabriel Santiago and Hope Diyoza, Echo follows them through a wormhole known as the Anomaly, ending up on another planet dubbed Skyring where time runs much faster. In order to reach the Disciple homeworld of Bardo, the group is forced to spend five years on the planet waiting for the Disciples to return for Orlando, a Disciple that was banished to Skyring as a punishment. They manage to convince Orlando to train them as Disciples and defeat the group that arrives in five years, but Echo betrays Orlando, killing the defeated Disciples and leaving Orlando behind on Skyring, believing that they can't trust him amongst his own people. A devastated Orlando subsequently commits suicide.
After arriving on Bardo, the group rescues Octavia, only to learn that Bellamy apparently died in an explosion. Grief-stricken and enraged, Echo immediately brutally kills a Disciple technician and begins slipping back into her old mindset as an assassin, killing an old man simply because he could potentially report them. After being captured and grieving Bellamy, Echo scars her face as a sign that her grieving is over and commits to the Disciple cause seemingly whole-heartedly. Of the group of trainees that she is a part of, which includes Hope's former political terrorist mother Charmaine Diyoza, Echo proves to be the most ruthless and successful, at one point literally stunning her competition during a skills test with a weapon before actually completing the test. After Hope fails the tests, Echo coldly tells the Disciples to send her to Skyring as punishment for several years despite their friendship.
After the arrival of Clarke's group, it quickly becomes clear that Echo, Diyoza and Octavia have only pretended to join the Disciples as they didn't reveal the secret of the Flame's destruction. Echo rescues Hope from being banished and sarcastically wonders if Hope had actually thought that Echo had bought into the Disciples' beliefs. However, Echo's true purpose in infiltrating the Disciples was to get revenge for the death of Bellamy by unleashing the Gen-9 bioweapon while Hope gets the others out. To this end, Echo murders two Disciples and tortures Octavia's love interest Levitt into helping her. After learning of Echo's true intentions, Clarke and her friends rush to stop her from committing genocide in the name of revenge. Although Echo remains hell-bent on doing it, Raven and Octavia manage to talk her down. Hope tries to finish the job herself, but is stopped by Diyoza who sacrifices herself to prevent the genocide.
Losing Bellamy and Peace[]
Not long after, Bellamy is revealed to have survived, having ended up on another planet for over two months instead. However, be betrays his friends and fully converts to the Disciple cause, allowing them to be tortured in the name of finding the Flame and achieving Transcendence. Along with most of the others, Echo is sent through the Anomaly to an unknown planet to ensure Clarke's cooperation with Bill Cadogan. However, Clarke is forced to kill Bellamy in an attempt to protect Madi.
After forcing Cadogan to take them to the others, Clarke and her friends learn that they were sent to a regenerated Earth. Clarke tearfully reveals Bellamy's death to her friends and alongside Octavia, Echo forgives Clarke, feeling that the real Bellamy had died a long time ago. Echo subsequently falls into a depression, revealing her past as Ash to a drunken Niylah and expressing remorse for having never revealed who she truly is to Bellamy. In turn, Niylah reveals her own surprising origins to Echo and the two commiserate. When the Second Dawn Bunker is damaged by a bomb blast, the two women become separated from the others by a celling collapse, but survive unharmed and are eventually rescued by Raven, Nikki and the Eligius prisoners.
When Wonkru travels to Bardo to buy Clarke time to stop Cadogan, Echo is one of the team that slips through using Disciple suits in order to reach Clarke directly. Encountering Levitt, Echo apologizes for torturing him as she wasn't herself at the time and joins Octavia and Levitt in trying to prevent a war between Wonkru and the Disciples. When Levitt is shot by Sheidheda, Echo risks her life to help Octavia rescue him and is mortally wounded in the process, stating that she had lost Bellamy and she wasn't going to lose his sister too. Echo nearly dies of her wounds with Hope resorting to CPR to keep her alive. After Octavia convinces both sides to stand down, the human race, aside from Clarke, achieves Transcendence, saving Echo and Levitt.
After Clarke returns to Earth with Russell's dog Picasso, she discovers that the now fully-redeemed Echo had joined the rest of her surviving friends and family aside from Madi in returning to human form to live out the rest of their lives in peace.
Trivia[]
- The episodes "Echoes" and "Ashes to Ashes" are named after her and feature Echo heavily, the latter exploring Echo's history as Ash.
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 Villains
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