If you just finished watching Wednesday’s season finale of The 100, you’re probably asking yourself three questions: Who’s that girl? What’s that ship? And what’s coming next? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

But before we dive into our chat with executive producer Jason Rothenberg, a quick recap of the episode’s big events:

* Following a few heart-to-heart talks, first with Bellamy (over the radio) and then with Indra, Octavia finally steps up as the commander — small C this time! — of her people.

* In order to get her friends into space, Clarke sacrifices herself, remaining on the ground to power the satellite Raven needs to gain entry to the Ark.

* A time jump (six years and seven days, to be exact) reveals that Clarke is alive and well on the ground — and with a sweet new haircut! She and her young companion (more on that later) are still hopeful that they’ll someday make contact with Bellamy and the gang, but instead, they’re visited by a sinister-looking ship in the episode’s final moments.

* As for everyone in the bunker, their collective status is kind of a question mark, though Clarke’s report isn’t super hopeful.

OK, time for some answers from Rothenberg…

TVLINE | First of all, I’m shocked there weren’t any confirmed deaths this week, especially considering how many casualties there have been this season. Was there talk of killing anyone else off?

Actually, no. I thought the most important thing to see in the finale was these characters working together as a team. Clarke’s choice to sacrifice herself, to me, was a very different type of choice for her. In the past, we’ve forced her to make these really awful choices where there’s no good choice. In this case, it’s self-sacrificial. She’s willing to die in that moment as she’s climbing the tower. She says, “My fight is over,” not knowing that her Nightblood is going to save her. To see her willing to sacrifice herself so her friends could go to space was, for me, really important. It was also important for me to see these characters — particularly Bellamy — to have to make decisions without her.

TVLINE | I’m also glad, if a little surprised, that they made it back to the Ark.

One of my favorite scenes in the whole episode was the little scene between Bellamy and Raven at the very end. They’re looking out and Bellamy says, “If we don’t make it, she died for nothing.” And he’s not going to let that happen. To me, that encapsulates everything this character has learned, and the change Clarke has forced in him just by the choices she made in this episode.

TVLINE | My initial thought when I saw the little girl with Clarke was “She’s way too old to be her actual daughter.” Who is she?

Well, it’s not her biological daughter, but what we’ll see in Season 5 is that this relationship is hugely important for Clarke. She’s a Nightblood named Maddie, and she’s been with her for five years. They are, for all intents and purposes, bonded the way a mother and daughter would be. So Clarke loves her, and her decision-making process has changed, just as it does for anyone who has a child. … We’ll tell the story of how they came together in Season 5, and how they’ve been surviving as the only two people on the planet — until that ship shows up.

TVLINE | Yeah, about that spaceship… Should we just assume it’s packed with angry prisoners?

We will definitely tell their story. Some of them will probably be angry. All of them will be home, alive and back on Earth. I think, in some really cool ways, it’s a rebooting of the entire story. The 100 were prisoners when they came to the ground, and they thought they were alone, but they weren’t. There were Grounders in this world, which we learned when a spear came out of the woods and impaled Jasper’s chest. Now Clarke is the Grounder, and these prisoners are the 100. We screw with people’s perspectives. Of course, the prisoners are going to start as antagonists, but we’ll probably dimensionalize them as we do with all of our bad guys.

TVLINE | Lastly, I have to know about Monty’s hands. Will they be OK?

[Laughs] They got pretty screwed up, obviously, but he’s going to be fine — long-term, I imagine. But he was willing to sacrifice himself also in order to save his friends, which is important to note. It’s funny, that moment where he loses his glove was all ad-libbed. [Christopher Larkin] really did lose his other glove. He was just so in that moment, as was Richard [Harmon], and they just went with it. Happy accidents like that are the best.

Your thoughts on The 100 finale? Grade the episode below, then drop a comment with your hopes for Season 5.

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