Murphy Madness: The 100’s Richard Harmon Delivers the Best Performance on TV This Week
If you’ve been living under a rock– or up in space for the last 97 years– it might have slipped your mind that the action/sci-fi series The 100 has finally returned to The CW. It was a long hiatus, but we’re back bitches! First and foremost, before we gush about this week’s best performance on TV, I plead with you dear readers to watch this show live, get friends and family to tune in– whatever you do, just get those eyeballs glued to the screen and don’t you ever look away. Ha! But seriously, to say it’s the most engaging, inventive and painstakingly addictive drama I’ve watched in a very long while, is an understatement. No, really, I watch a lot of TV and this is one show I would never dream of missing.
Thursday’s Season 3 premiere exceeded my already high expectations and was jam-packed full of insight, plot developments, excitement and more importantly emotion. A whole lot of it. We return to our characters after a three-month time jump: Clarke (Eliza Taylor) is on the run, sporting a futuristic dye job and dreads, guilt ridden from the aftermath of Mount Weather, Camp Jaha has been renamed Arkadia– thank Goodness since he abandoned his post and all, and good old bat shit cray Thelonious (Isaiah Washington) is still tinkering with technology– boys and their toys, will they ever learn? It took me a good two days to process everything that went down in The 100’s new episode entitled “Wanheda: Part One.” But boy was it worth it. Despite substantial revelations: like Miller (Jarod Joseph) having a boyfriend, Clarke becoming quite good at the grounder’s language, and Jackson (Sachin Sahel) not-so-subtly mentioning the removal of the sky people’s contraceptive implants, one character’s journey really stood out to me. Of course this entire cast is a force to be reckoned with, but we must acknowledge this week’s installment gave one entertainer his long overdue time to shine.
MURPHY MADNESS
Richard Harmon’s got our attention, and man, is his future bright. The skilled actor who plays John Murphy, the snarky delinquent who never really found his place amongst the sky people, sets the stage for the entire episode with his out of this world performance. From the very beginning, Murphy was an ambiguous character, we couldn’t quite figure out, and did we even want to? Did we hate him? Did we like him? Did he serve any real purpose other than to be another body to be killed off to progress the storyline? Sure, his character realistically shouldn’t have even lasted more than a few episodes, but if you compare Murphy’s development from episode 1 to now, the results are astonishing. Who knew the dude who couldn’t spell ‘die’ correctly would be the one to persevere through being hanged, exiled, used as a conduit for biological warfare, and to end up blindly following our future-day Moses to some out-of-reach City of Light only to be driven crazy in solitary.
We open the episode with Murphy getting locked in the bunker for those three lost months, a smart move on the writers part, I mean, how great was it to see Murphy process all of these feelings and almost succumb to a serious case of cabin fever. While in the bunker, we not only got to see Richard portray a myriad of emotions but were offered insight into A.L.I.E. (Erica Cerra) and finally met her maker: Becca, who didn’t seem too happy to see A.L.I.E’s avatar was a mirror image of herself. Those first five minutes gave me chills, made my heart sink and drove me slightly insane as well. And the talent didn’t stop there, whether Murphy was deflecting Jaha’s delusions of the City of Light, or finding comfort in a familiar face like Emori, Richard continued to bring his A-game and ultimately earned himself his own post about how stellar of a performance he gave this week. No matter which character you’re rooting for to survive, Murphy seems to be the underdog that has what it takes to make it to the end… and we hope he does. This actor goes above and beyond for his role, and we can’t wait to see how his journey develops this season on The 100.
HONORABLE MENTION: The Harmon’s 
dominated this week! Jessica Harmon, yes, Richard’s older and wiser (she did not pay me in hot Cheetos to say this) sister joined The 100 gang this week as Niylah, a friendly grounder offering shelter to a traveling Wanheda. It’s no coincidence that these two performers stood out to us this week, I mean they do share the same DNA, and luckily for us their on-screen magnetism resulted in a double dose of the siblings slaying it on “Wanheda: Part One.” Jessica not only won over our hearts but the bed of our unsung hero Clarke, and was another utterly refreshing and intriguing performer to watch this week. Niylah was one of those characters you didn’t know you wanted to see on the show, until you saw her and man do we want her to stay. If any of the higher-ups on The 100 are reading this I beg of you– keep this gal around! Pretty please with a bunny tied up.
3 comments
Sexist bullshit. Eliza performance was masterful yet she gets ignored all the damn time because she’s a she.
The author gave her credit in the article though. Did you read it?
I am not ignoring the fact that Eliza Taylor is a gifted individual, she’s one of my favorite actors currently in the industry and quite honestly often carries the show with her impeccable portrayal of Clarke Griffin… but that’s not the point of this article. This article is to honor the evolution of Murphy and Richard’s execution of him on The 100. Everyone deserves a nod where it’s due, and this week it was Richard’s turn. I’m sorry you feel as though Eliza has been overlooked, but please don’t spout this sexist nonsense at me because it’s ridiculous to say I ignore her performance. She’s brilliant and I publicly proclaim that often. As a woman I advocate for not only Eliza but all women who are underrated on television, but thanks for your comment.