The 100 recap: The anomaly is revealed … kind of

The anomaly is different things to different people: For Gabriel, it’s a riddle he needs to solve. For Octavia, it’s the world keeping her from her brother. For Diyoza, it’s the home she’s dreamed of. For Hope, it’s the only home she’s ever known, one she calls Sky Ring. And for us viewers, it’s a giant cluster. But not in a bad way — heck, I love a good mystery that is virtually unsolvable (hello, six seasons of Lost). That’s why “The Garden” was so fun to watch. Here’s everything we’ve learned about the anomaly so far…

We start with Octavia coming through the green anomaly of Sanctum and into a giant lake. She swims up — which causes me to wonder like I did in the pilot, how exactly did she learn to swim? Anyway, she blinks away the water to find herself in a place that looks a lot like Vancouver … aside from the giant ring crossing the sky. It seems like a peaceful place until she hears a woman crying.

Octavia follows the sounds to find Diyoza in a house about to give birth. Turns out we’ve got a timey-wimey situation here where Diyoza stepped into the anomaly moments before but has been waiting for O for three months. As we know, Hope is safely born and Diyoza is excited to raise her baby in this world. She says there’s plenty of food and water, there’s a shelter, and there are no threats — but we all know that can’t last for long. Assuming there are no threats in a new world has never worked out well on The 100.

As Hope grows, “Auntie O” spends much of her time attempting to swim back down to the anomaly. Diyoza doesn’t want her to go for a couple of reasons. Besides it being dangerous, she also doesn’t want her leaving her and Hope alone. After Octavia digs up one of the futuristic men in their garden and finds him in a suit, she has hope that she can get as far down as she needs without bursting an eardrum or heart. But Diyoza sabotages it: She destroys the suit, so O has to stay.

In a scene that had me sobbing (anybody else?), Octavia explains to Diyoza how she needs to get back to Bellamy simply to say she understands. She understands why he did what he did. With no way to get back to him, O writes a letter. She recognizes the darkness that was inside her — but it’s gone now and she loves him. She puts the letter in a water bottle and fills it with rocks. She drops it down into the lake and the anomaly.

And that is how Diyoza’s dream world turns into a nightmare. See, the anomaly isn’t a one-way street. Going through this side leads you to another world, one that Hope calls “Bardo.” When Octavia��s letter makes it to Bardo, they come to Sky Ring to capture Octavia and Diyoza, who they know about from her letter. They don’t know about Hope, though, so she’s able to hide in the bunker of the house (because of course, the house has a bunker). She’s about 10 years old when her mother and aunt are captured.

Cut to 20-year-old Hope: She submerges in the lake just like O did — but she’s not alone. Gabriel and Echo arrive in Sky Ring, where they’re given background info in bits and pieces. (I could never be a TV character because I would be like, “Okay sit down and explain everything to me in great detail right now.”) Here’s what we learn:

1. Time works differently here. Because Hope was in Sanctum for about a day, she says that means she’s been gone from this place for 100 years. (Don’t panic about Bellamy: He didn’t stay on this planet long.)
2. The men in masks are called the Disciples. They're trained as warriors, and their leader is Anders.
3. The disciples live in a place called Bardo.
4. Sky Ring is actually a prison world for Bardo. When Anders thinks people aren’t pulling their weight, he sends them to Sky Ring for an amount of time that counts down on their forearm.
5. The anomaly is actually called a “bridge.” The bridge from Sanctum leads to Sky Ring; and the bridge from Sky Ring leads to Bardo.
6. There are two ways to travel between these worlds by bridge: Using the “stones” (the spiral thing we saw in Gabriel’s bunker) with a code or by being tagged.

So, Hope stabbing Octavia was actually her tagging her. Apparently, the Disciples said they would return her mother if she got O back for them. The good news is that she has the code to use the stone that’s in the hatch beneath her house and can go to Bardo to get both of them back. The bad news is the code did not hold up during her lake trip and has washed away.

More bad news: There’s an imprisoned man living in Hope’s old house. He’s suffering from what Gabriel calls isolation syndrome, so there’s no telling how long he’s been there. His forearm countdown clock says he has five more years. Hope says they better start planting and settle in because when he gets picked up in five years, that will be their opportunity to get out.

There aren’t many answers yet on what happened in the 10 years between when O and Diyoza were taken and when O and Hope returned to Sanctum, but she does say she met a prisoner named Dev during that time, and he taught her how to fight. (Diyoza had forbidden it before.)

They later find the current prisoner has dug up skeletons to play with (yeah, he’s been on the planet alone for too long). One is Hope’s friend Dev, and one is Colin Benson, a member of Eligius III whom Gabriel knew of. Gabriel suddenly has an idea: He pulls the Mind Drive from Colin’s skull and uses his computer to see his memories. (I have to point out that it’s odd that 1. He has this because it’s not like they packed for this expedition and 2. The lake didn’t kill it!?)

Anyway, they watch the Mind Drive. We get a throwback to good ol’ Becca as the first vision post-Mind Drive insertion is a view of the OG scientist explaining how the chip works and that Planet Beta is near a black hole and will have time distortion. Long story short: Eligius III crashed on this planet, a.k.a. Planet Beta, and Colin was the only survivor. Gabriel deduces that the people on Bardo are somehow descendants of Eligius III (not sure how that works, but okay). He thinks that whoever created these stones that allow for travel between the bridges millions of years ago must also be looking for a new home — but they can't do it without spaceships, cryosleep, or mind drives. So, what I’m hearing is … TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE!

But that certainly isn’t going to stop these three from going round and round: Gabriel sees in Colin’s memory that he discovered the code to access the house’s stone. He goes outside to tell Echo and Hope (who are having an adorable moment) that he needs a pen. When he goes back inside, the prisoner has the memory viewer in his hands. And he’s not ready to go anywhere: “I must serve my time,” he says as he throws the tablet to the ground, shattering it.

Nothing ever comes easy to these characters… or for us viewers. I have to admit this episode took some mental gymnastics to fully grasp the time dimensions in two different timelines and on three different planes (all while trying to remember what happened last season). But all I have to say is keep it coming.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• The 100 showrunner breaks down season 7 premiere's new planet, brewing civil war, and more
• The 100 showrunner promises planet-hopping final season will reveal a deeper message
• The 100 showrunner gives update on potential prequel that's 'pivotal' to final season