The 100: 10 Of Murphy’s Most Memorable Quotes

There are a lot of characters who operate in the grey areas of morality in the CW’s The 100. The one who spends the most time there is John Murphy. A delinquent from the early days of the series, John Murphy became more than just the guy antagonizing all of the other teenagers; he became one of the heroes.

Murphy is known for his sarcasm and his desire to survive by any means necessary. Despite his knack for sarcasm, he’s got as many emotional lines as he does witty ones, and these are some of the most memorable.

10 “Camp You Is That Way.”

Murphy isn’t exactly beloved by his fellow 100 during the early seasons of the show. That’s because he makes a lot of selfish decisions that put people in danger. Of course, Murphy also holds grudges when the others accuse him of murder.

The murder he’s accused of is that of Wells Jaha. When Chancellor Jaha comes to earth, he asks Murphy to take him to his son’s grave, and Murphy tells him the whole story. Plenty of their time together in the episode “Survival Of The Fittest” should be tense, but Murphy manages to break a lot of the tension with lines like this one, directing the Chancellor to Camp Jaha.

9 “We Do What We Do To Survive.”

Characters like Raven have nicknamed Murphy “cockroach” because of his ability to find a way to survive anything. He’s not ashamed of his survival skills, though later seasons have shown that he is remorseful for some of his actions that allowed him to survive.

Murphy expresses this particular sentiment to Ontari. Of the Azgeda Nation, Ontari doesn’t have a lot of fans among those outside of her Grounder clan. Ontari, like Murphy, does whatever she has to do to ensure her survival, and he respects that. He admits as much to her when she’s surprised that he doesn’t fear her.

8 “I’M NOBODY’S SON; YOU MADE SURE OF THAT.”

Jaha has a habit of calling those men younger than him “son” instead of their name. It’s not a term Murphy appreciates.

Murphy is the king of holding grudges – even against his own allies. Though he and Jaha end up taking a journey together, Murphy doesn’t have a whole lot of love for the Chancellor. Jaha, after all, is the one who makes the decision to float Murphy’s father after the man steals medicine for his ill son. Murphy holds Jaha responsible for the downward trend of his life, and he’s not afraid to tell him.

7 “Go Float Yourself. Everything I Learned, I Learned On The Ground.”

Murphy knows how to insult someone. He also isn’t easily swayed by those who seek to grab power for themselves. Both of those aspects of his personality combine for this barb at Pike.

Pike is a zealot who believes those from the Ark should inherit the planet, and that the Grounders will only stand in their way. He even manages to get Bellamy on his side for a time. What Pike used to do on the Ark was teach the teenagers Earth skills. When he offers Murphy a little praise, Murphy immediately rejects it, knowing exactly who Pike is.

6 “Pain, Hate, Envy – Those Are The Abcs Of Me. Hey, Get Rid Of Them And There’s Nothing Left.”

While Murphy’s sentiment isn’t exactly the same as Clarke’s when others try to give her the sales pitch for the City of Light, their idea about humanity is similar. They have different approaches to life, but they aren’t all that different.

When Jaha tries to tell Murphy that he won’t experience pain in the City of Light, Murphy rejects his offer. To feel pain is a huge part of who Murphy is, and he understands that.

5 “I Don’t Want To Die Alone.”

Murphy doesn’t have much in the way of false bravado. If he and his friends are in danger, he votes for the approach that avoids the danger. That doesn’t mean he often allows himself to be vulnerable around other people.

Some of the few people who get to see him at his most vulnerable are those he forms a family with when they spend years together on what’s left of the Ark while they wait out radiation surging on Earth. Before that ever happens, however, he admits to Raven that he’s scared of dying alone – a very real possibility on a series where death lurks around every corner.

4 “Being A God Should Be More Fun Than This.”

When Murphy believes Clarke is dead, he doesn’t take the time to mourn her. Instead, he goes into survival mode, knowing that Josephine, inhabiting Clarke’s body, can be dangerous to him and his friends. She offers him the chance to be a Prime and live forever. He takes her up on her offer – until he realizes Clarke is still alive.

Acting as a Prime isn’t all Murphy thinks it will be. Instead of loving being worshipped, Murphy finds himself constantly making appearances, interacting with people he wants to stay away from, and loaded with responsibilities.

3 “I’m Sorry For Doing This To You, Raven.”

Some fans forget that in many of Murphy’s selfish actions, he did some serious damage to Raven. At the end of the first season, Murphy shoots Raven (not exactly intentionally) as he holds Bellamy hostage.

In season four, just as the world is about to end (again) Raven is prepared to let her own life end in space. She’s ready to allow the brain injury she’s suffering to take her as long as she has one last spacewalk. When she asks Murphy if he knows what it’s like to live with pain every day, Murphy seems to finally allow himself to remember that he’s responsible for her no longer having the full use of her leg. He apologizes to her for the first time in the series.

2 “Bygones.”

After Murphy is nearly executed for a murder he didn’t commit in the first season, he leaves the group for a time. In that time, he nurses his hatred for those who were willing to let him die. When he finally returns to camp, after having been tortured by the Grounders, he frequently responds “bygones” to let people know he’s over what happened.

Of course, he isn’t really. “Bygones” is also what he says when he takes the life of one of the boys who tried to kill him. Of all the characters in the series, Murphy’s grudges are the longest lasting.

1 “Welcome To The World Of Grey.”

Murphy knows he lives in the shades of grey. He knows that, despite his constant attempts to save kids being manipulated by adults and being willing to sacrifice his own life for Emori’s, there are moral lines he’s willing to cross that his friends aren’t.

When Raven makes a decision that he would make – to sacrifice some of the criminals from Eligius to radiation poisoning to save everyone else, Murphy welcomes her to his world. He knows they did what had to be done, though Raven isn’t so sure.

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