The 100: John Murphy’s Death & Transcendence Explained

How did John Murphy die in The 100 and what happened after his transcendence? John Murphy may be one of The 100’s most popular characters, but in early seasons of The CW sci-fi drama he was a self-centered figure who was all about ensuring his own survival – so much so he earned the nickname “Cockroach.” However, it soon became clear that Murphy’s focus on surviving stemmed from his fear of dying and what comes afterwards. Given how many brushes with death he had, that’s not surprising.

In season one of The 100, Murphy was nearly hanged by his fellow Delinquents after being falsely accused of murdering Wells Jaha and later survived being shot multiple times during the battle against Paxton McCreary and his men in season 5’s finale – and that’s in addition to being beaten and tortured in pretty much every season of the show. He had a particularly harrowing near-death experience in The 100’s sixth season when he was poisoned by toxic seaweed on Sanctum and brought back to life, but not before glimpsing what he believed to be Hell.

It’s little wonder he and his girlfriend Emori were seduced by the idea of becoming immortal by having their consciousnesses uploaded to Mind Drives later in season 6 given all he’d been through. But death did come for The 100’s John Murphy and ironically it was an immortality-granting Mind Drive that caused his demise. After Emori was mortally wounded in the penultimate episode of The 100, a devastated Murphy had her Mind Drive and consciousness transferred to his own head just to spend a few more hours with her despite knowing the process would kill him.

While Murphy lay dying in The 100’s finale, he and Emori were reunited in her Mindspace, which took the form of a bedroom overlooking the sand dunes of the Dead Zone where they first met in season 2. As Murphy and Emori shared what they thought would be their last dance in the Mindspace, they suddenly achieved transcendence after the alien being known as the Judge deemed that humanity was worthy of saving and joining its immortal hive mind.

However, John Murphy’s story in The 100 didn’t end with his transcendence. The very last scene of The 100 series finale revealed that Murphy and several other characters including Emori, Raven, Octavia and Echo rejected their transcendence and instead chose to return to their human forms and live out the rest of their lives on Earth alongside leader and friend Clarke Griffin. It was a bittersweet ending for Murphy, considering that he gave up immortality, but choosing to return to Earth where he would one day face a very real and final death proved how far he’d come as a character since the beginning of The 100.