WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The 100 Season 7, Episode 9, "The Flock," which aired Wednesday on The CW.
One of the most unstable, violent factions in The 100's final season is a cult on Sanctum loyal to the Primes, the ruling class of the human colony assumed to be living gods reborn in new host bodies each generation. Worshipping Russell Prime, the zealots are unaware the malevolent Sheidheda, the Dark Commander from Earth's bloody past, murdered and replaced their false deity. And as the villain continues to rise, an entire faction is left dead in his wake as he continues to grow more powerful.
With the Prime cultists entering an impromptu alliance with the former convicts from the Eligius IV, the group takes the Children of Gabriel -- a faction in direct opposition to the Primes -- hostage after the convicts steal the majority of the colony's guns. The convicts' leader, Nikki, demands an audience with Russell, John Murphy and Raven Reyes, plotting to murder the latter for her involvement in her husband's death to save the colony's nuclear reactor. While Raven is off-world, Russell and Murphy are brought before the cult and forced to admit that they are not actually Primes, along with Murphy's captive girlfriend Emori. Realizing they'd been following false gods all along, the cult enters into a murderous frenzy.
As Nikki prepares to execute Emori for Raven's absence despite her previous demands, Murphy volunteers instead to save his girlfriend's life. Insisting it was actually his fault for Nikki's husband to die, Nikki prepares to kill him only for Indra to lead a strike team of Grounders to ambush the Eligius convicts and take their leaders into custody. The plan was largely developed by Sheidheda in a bid for his own freedom, as Indra and Murphy were both well-aware of his true identity and deemed him too dangerous to roam free. However, with the hostage situation resolved, Indra turns on Sheidheda by leaving him with his own estranged followers.
Indra has Sheidheda locked inside a chamber with the Prime cultists, with the faction growing increasingly violent and baying for his blood. While cognizant Sheidheda is an especially lethal combatant, Indra hopes the Dark Commander's own followers will overwhelm and kill him, instructing the Grounder guards not to unlock the chamber without her explicit orders. Unimpressed by the cult, Sheidheda brutally murders the entire faction by himself in short order, with Murphy accidentally letting slip Russell was in fact the Dark Commander. This results in the guards opening the chamber to check for themselves and bowing in his bloody presence as he stands triumphant.
While Indra's plan to have Sheidheda killed backfired, it did serve to take a hostile faction off the board, as the Prime cultists are now completely gone. However, Sheidheda's true identity has begun to leak out to the Grounders. As a result of his connection to The Flame possessed by all Grounder rulers past, present and future, they seem willing to respect him and yield to his command. The Prime Cult may be no more but Murphy may have inadvertently triggered a civil war among the Grounders as Sheidheda continues to build his power base on Sanctum.
The 100 stars Eliza Taylor, Marie Avgeropoulos, Bob Morley, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Tasya Teles and Shannon Kook. The series airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.