The 100's Marie Avgeropoulos Sounds Off on Octavia's Loyalties: "She Understands the Importance of Family"

Marie Avgeropoulos explains why Octavia is no longer the girl under the floor.

By Lauren Piester Feb 16, 2017 3:04 AMTags
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"She's not the girl under the floor anymore, that's for sure." 

Octavia Blake's (Marie Avgeropoulos) transformation on The 100 from secret second child to hardened assassin has been heartbreaking to watch over the past season or so, and in tonight's episode, she continued to prove that she's not messing around—though she does still have a soft spot. 

After the death of her boyfriend, Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) last season, Octavia basically disowned her fellow sky people and her brother, Bellamy, to fully embrace everything she had learned from Indra (Adina Porter). As we learned tonight, no matter what else is happening among the clans, Indra will always be what's most important to her.

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After it was discovered that someone had stolen the flame—the last of Alie's tech, which was keeping the clans loyal to Roan—it became Octavia's job to hunt them down. She eventually discovered that the flame had been taken by a young flamekeeper named Gaia (Tati Gabrielle) who still believed in the flame's spiritual significance. Just as she was about to murder Gaia, Indra appeared and revealed that the girl was her daughter! Suddenly, the flame was no longer as important as protecting Indra and her family, so despite the fact that Octavia and Gaia were able to save it from being destroyed by Ilian and his looters, Octavia told Roan the flame was no more, and he'd have to find a new way to keep the clans in line. 

"She had to do that as a chess move in order to protect Gaia, which really shows you were here loyalties lie, and that's with Indra," Marie Avergopoulos tells E! News of Octavia's decision over the phone. "She understands the importance of family I think more than any other character on the show." 

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At this point, Indra is all the family that Octavia has, after what happened in season three when her brother's actions indirectly led to Lincoln's death.

"Indra has taken Octavia on as almost her un-biological mother and mentor, so she'll do whatever she can to protect that relationship at all cost, because there's been times where even her own brother Bellamy didn't believe in Octavia, or support her decisions," Avgeropoulos says. "She still deep down I think holds Bellamy responsible for the death of Lincoln." 

While Bob Morley told us that Bellamy's road to forgiving himself requires a reconciliation with Octavia, Avgeropoulos says Octavia is not exactly focused on her brother right now. 

"This season Octavia's so busy distracting herself by using her assassin skillset by mending the big hole in her heart with a sword, due to Lincoln's loss," she says. 

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The rest of this season will continue to explore Octavia's relationship with Indra, and her newfound friendship/rivalry with Gaia. 

"They're very evenly matched, but there's a jealousy that comes from the fact that Indra and her daughter are on such different playing fields because of Gaia's ritualistic beliefs, the complete opposite of those that are Indra's," Avgeropoulos tells us of Octavia's relationship with Gaia. "And because [Gaia and Indra] have been separated so long, and Octavia and Indra have really come together as almost an un-biological family, Gaia has become quite jealous of her and that relationship that has become so strong, because she didn't have that one with her own mother." 

As for the flame, while it will likely cause some problems with Roan's hold on the clans, Avgeropoulos says, "the flame almost becomes unimportant towards the end of the season." 

"Octavia found the flame important only to save Gaia's life, and that just shows you the type of person deep down Octavia is. She does care about salvaging the relationships between family." 

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While Octavia has been dealing with the situation among the grounder clans, her former friends from the ark have been working on how to save everyone from the incoming onslaught of radiation. Tonight, Jaha thought he would be able to lead Clarke and Bellamy to a magical underground bunker that would solve all their problems, but it didn't actually work out that way. While they were eventually able to see a potential solution in the nightblood Luna, there's still a long road to solving the apocalypse. 

Octavia, meanwhile, is just taking things one step at a time, "mission by mission." She's busy trying to keep the peace among the chaos that broke out when everyone else learned of the end of the world. 

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She's also going to be taking on some new responsibilities. 

"She really teams up with Indra to take a really important leadership role that kind of falls into her lap, not by choice, but Octavia is faced with a lot of decisions that are going to affect all the people, not just Skaikru," Avgeropoulos says. "Octavia really keeps finding a way to find herself in the middle of things, whether it's an allegiance with Trikru versus Skaikru, or as we see in this next episode, Indra's needs versus Roan's wants. And that happens again when we see her play with the new kids, Gaia and Ilian, who sort of complete her mission in the name of diametrically opposed causes." 

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However, eventually Octavia's new life as an assassin is going to catch up to her. 

"She's been leaving a trail of death behind her everywhere she goes, and eventually that's going to catch up with her," Avgeropoulos tells us. "It's really quite heartbreaking to see how lonely and insecure she truly feels inside. It's not pretty, what she's been trying to cover." 

It never is, on this show. 

The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on the CW.