You know what cracks me up? No matter what J Roth’s intentions for Bellarke are, Eliza and Bob don’t give a fuck because they know their characters. You can see it in Eliza’s eyes that she’s playing Clarke to have the most vulnerable, and caring side of herself reserved only for Bellamy. She loves Bellamy. I don’t know if she’s admitted it to herself yet that she’s in love with him but even if she’s not, she has soulmate-romantic feelings for him.
Meanwhile, Eliza plays Clarke in Polis as depressed, lifeless, and she looks at Lexa either as a crush or as a piece of meat. She cares for Lexa but not nearly at the level of how she cares for Bellamy; I’m not saying this to break anyone’s hearts but if you observe the body language, you’ll see that’s how Eliza is playing it.
When you see Clarke with Bellamy in episode 5, it’s like all of her vulnerabilities and feelings are awoken again; she looks like old Clarke—the Clarke who feels deeply for her people and the Clarke that only Bellamy could truly bring out of her—even with months of self-numbing tactics that she’s cultivated to cope.
I’m not saying that Clarke doesn’t ever have vulnerabilities with Lexa but she clearly sees Lexa as the easy way out—a way to avoid her people and to stop feeling and that just isn’t true love. I think Clarke wanted to convince herself that it was best for her people to stay in Polis but we all know that’s bullshit and deep down, she does too.
True love is painful. True love attacks you with emotions and when you look into Clarke’s eyes when she’s in Polis, they’re dead. I’m not blaming Lexa on making her feel dead inside (it’s from Mt. Weather), but I am saying that only Bellamy can reach her, can heal her, and can make her see that she was wrong for leaving. Only someone who owns your heart can reach and heal you like that.
Eliza played it that when Lexa’s at death’s door, she looks concerned but in comparison, she’s not utterly wrecked like she was with Bellamy’s near-death experience. And I know that a lot of people will react with, “What about that scene where Clarke is trying to kill Lexa?” I advise you to pay attention to that scene again because I saw that same look in Clarke’s eyes when she had to kill President Wallace.
Clarke was crying in that scene because she didn’t want to believe that she could be that savage, that bloodthirsty over a human being. Clarke NEVER thought she could become that way. That’s how Eliza is playing it.
I DON’T care what J Roth says about romantic feelings (beyond lust and a crush) and all the other bullshit he uses to pander and soften the blow of Lexa’s death; Eliza is playing her that way and no one who honestly looks at it can deny that.