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John Murphy’s journey on THE 100 has taken many twists and turns, but he has always been a survivor whether hated or beloved by those around him. He proudly embraces his “cockroach” nickname as a badge of honor. At the beginning of Season 6, Murphy died during the eclipse and was brought back to live on Sanctum. While it’s unclear to viewers what exactly happened to him during this “in between” time, it scared him.
I spoke with Richard Harmon (John Murphy) about THE 100 Season 6 Episode 6, “Memento Mori.” He discusses how the promise of immortality played into Murphy’s decision to work with Josephine (Eliza Taylor), their partnership, Murphy’s relationship with Emori, and how the relationship with Josie compares with that with Ontari.
At the end of the last episode, Murphy was willing to help Josephine in exchange for immortality. Even as the “cockroach” of Skaikru, his enthusiasm for the idea was surprising. Did his near-death, make this more appealing to him than it otherwise would have been?
Richard Harmon: I mean it definitely affects him greatly. He’s as weak as he’s ever been as far as mentally. And sort of that moral fortitude inside of him is as weak as it’s ever been and it’s been weak before. At the same token I don’t think I’d call it enthusiasm. He doesn’t like having to do this. He also doesn’t have much choice at the end of [Episode] 605 when he finds out. And she puts him in a very bad situation, which is if I say, “No,” to this she would probably just have her people killed me. So he’s in a hard place when he says, “I’m listening,” but at the same time he does want immortality. He is terrified of where he’s going. So yeah there’s a mixture of him being a very weak man currently, and yet not enthusiasm, but sort of out of necessity.
Does he give any thought to becoming immortal through the Mind Drive and that it would keep him from going to hell?
If he gets immortality then it’s something that’s gonna– I think people who are immortal end up dying anyway eventually, but it definitely is going to postpone it greatly.
How is he going to approach his partnership, if you want to call it that, with Josephine?
He’s going to approach it fairly cautiously. She holds all of the power in that relationship currently, which I’m sure is something that Murphy will try to slip at some point. But at this current stage, she definitely holds all the power. She is very similar to him actually. They are two characters that are very similar. So I think this sort of partnership has a lot of power. It is also at the same time a partnership, but also a chess match between the two of them to gain the upper hand.
Does he give any consideration to Emori at this point?
He’s definitely going to have to. Definitely going to have to. That’s going to have to come into play. I think if she ever finds out about what he’s done and the situation at hand, then that’s going to be something that he is going to need to atone. I’m very curious to see how she reacts.
Josephine seems interested in John and I’m gonna use John because it’s almost like there’s John and there’s Murphy. Is that a relationship you think he would consider if it helped him survive?
Oh, man, I mean I think he’d do most things to survive. I mean look at the Ontari situation. There was this sort of almost respect for her going for what she wanted. That’s very similar to what he was like in the beginning. He gets that even though the situation was very horrible, he understands that part in people. So I think it’s something he’d consider. I don’t think it’s something he wants for sure. And I think he’s continued to grow more and more in love with Emori than he even was in Season 3. So it’s not something he wants. But I mean if there was the threat situation and possibly but I’m not saying that’s where it’s going.
I wanted to ask about Ontari because it felt like a very similar set up in a way or potentially a similar setup.
Yeah. Josephine’s got the manipulative side down, and Ontari has the like, “I can kill you at any given time because I’m just a murdering machine.” She had a primal thing that she could just take, it’s sort of like animal. Just like, “I want this I take this,” because that’s how she was raised. Whereas, Josephine is very cunning and very manipulative somewhat similar to John Murphy.
A new episode of THE 100 airs on Tuesday, June 11 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
