Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Season seven follows the Anomaly through Sanctum, Bardo and Skyring, worlds linked by stones that act as time bridges. Flashbacks reveal that Octavia and Diyoza spent years on Skyring raising Hope while only seconds pass on Sanctum, tying the Season 6 cliffhanger to the new planet network. Sheidheda reappears on Sanctum and seizes power; on Bardo, the Disciples capture Clarke’s friends because they believe she holds the key to a final test. Bill Cadogan sees the test as a last war for humanity’s future.
Jordan discovers that the supposed last war is a test, while Diyoza sacrifices herself to stop Hope releasing Gem-9 into Bardo’s water supply. Bellamy survives a journey through the Anomaly to Etherea and returns believing in Cadogan. When he tries to give Cadogan Madi’s sketchbook, Clarke fears that its drawings will expose Madi to the Disciples and kills Bellamy. Cadogan later captures Madi and has her tortured for the Flame’s code, leaving her paralyzed and unable to join Clarke’s final effort.
Cadogan begins the test, but Clarke shoots him and takes his place. The judge appears in Lexa’s likeness; this is the testing being’s chosen form, not Lexa herself. Clarke fails because she commits murder during the test, so Raven appeals and argues that humanity can still change. On the battlefield, Octavia calls on both sides to stop fighting, and the Disciples and Sanctum forces lower their weapons; humanity passes and transcends. Madi chooses to remain in that collective state, while Clarke cannot transcend. Her friends choose mortal lives beside her on Earth, where the judge says they will grow old together but cannot have children or transcend later.