#S02E10 Failure to Communicate

[thankstothe]

folk hero really

[gabrielokun]

[toohardtosummarize]

Murphy, Safety, and the Appeal of Immortality

Murphy did a real 180 this episode from his relationship with relative peace and safety during the s4-5 time skip (peace and safety are boring and make him feel useless because he’s ill-equipped for them) and I hope they’ll actually. like. talk about it on the show but i’m writing this to reason it out just in case they don’t because i do not trust in the 100 like that.

Murphy has always thrived on conflict. I’m not sure he remembers a time before he lived from scrape to scrape, from adrenaline rush to adrenaline rush, and he knows how to do so. He’s a valuable asset if your goal is to make it through a dangerous situation, and Murphy thrives on being a valuable asset because it and only it makes him feel as though he is cared for and as though he belongs (as of the s4-5 time skip it was absolutely still reflective of his worldview that “no one gives anything [support, affirmation, acceptance] without expecting something in return”) (s02e10, “Survival of the Fittest”). Unfortunately, Murphy has never really developed any peacetime skillsets, and so when he found himself in a peaceful community during the s4-5 time skip, he found himself with nothing of obvious value to offer them, and if he had nothing of obvious value to offer them, he believed, they would surely resent him and deny him the belonging that Murphy has always very obviously craved - boy tries to make friends with everyone before admitting things have come to a fight. Murphy hasn’t developed any peacetime skillsets in the interim, so why does he now seem to crave safety, when he knows from experience what it does for his mental health?

The answer, I think, is hell. Although Murphy has always wanted to survive (although it is sometimes unclear, due to his failure to thrive in peacetime, what for), none of his prior near-death experiences have brought about this desire for safety in him because they didn’t give him anything to compare survival to. If life is fucking shitty, but is slightly less fucking shitty when you’re at war, then what reason is there not to live fast and die young? But Murphy legitimately DIED in s06e02, and that has clearly shaken him. Whatever he saw or thinks he saw during that brief period between drowning and being revived, he apparently thinks it was even worse than the life he’s led. It was hell. He has a reason to want to live now that isn’t dependent upon the joy at belonging and being of value he feels in times of conflict (even if it is a negative rather than a positive reinforcer). And safety is the best way to ensure that he remains alive. Hence his desire to stay in Sanctum this past episode.

An even better way of ensuring you don’t die and face hell than to ensure your immediate bodily safety, however, is to become immortal. A lot of you seem to believe that Murphy is playing Josephine. I disagree. I think Murphy is seriously tempted by Josephine’s offer of immortality, and I think we’re going to see him working alongside Josephine in the coming episodes not in order to convince her that he’s on her side so he can ultimately work against her but because he really is (on her side, that is). That said, I don’t think Murphy will remain Team Josephine up through the finale. For all that he values himself and his own survival, Murphy also values his friends and family - Emori, Abby, Raven, and Bellamy. He might have second thoughts about Team Josephine if Josephine comes on to him (I pray to god they don’t put him through the paces they did with Ontari again), but  if Josephine threatens any of his loved ones (especially if she threatens Emori), I think that Murphy will ultimately decide that they are worth more to him than immortality. And that, I think, would be a key step in the journey to a commitment to develop the capacity to thrive in peacetime that I desperately want Murphy to have.

tl;dr: Murphy is genuinely siding with Josephine right now because he’s terrified of going to hell.

[waynemooney1968]

House - S02E10 - Failure to Communicate : https://trakt.tv/shows/house/seasons/2/episodes/10

[thankstothe]

aw

[thankstothe]

[thankstothe]

🔴stealing from children🔴

[thankstothe]

so polite 🕊️