“Clarke was a fierce protector of her people,” Eliza Taylor teased, “now she’s an even fiercer protector of one person.” In three words, she’s “[a] mama, strong, and defiant.” Clarke tries to mold Madi into a badass but since Madi was trained as a nightblood, she’s ended up teaching Clarke a lot as well. Taylor loved getting to play a “mum,” and the experience made her get her puppy, Bowie, who ran around all weekend in a tiny grounder costume made by the costume department. “I’m a mum twice over!” joked Bob Morley, who has two dogs.

When asked if Clarke would have a support system to help her bear things this season, Taylor thought for a moment before saying either Bellamy or her mother are her biggest supporters — they’re “the ones that tell her everything is going to be okay.”

As for Bellamy, he “isn’t the brother or father figure so much now, and he’s gotten way smarter,” said Morley. In space, Bellamy and Raven are co-captains, and Bellamy is trying to use his head and heart to honour Clarke and is growing as a person; he’s more rational than ever (maybe too much so), although his goals and ambitions remain the same: to keep his sister safe.

Morley admits that Bellamy didn’t feel like the same guy to him this season, because for him it had only been six months instead of six years; he had a hard time wrapping his head around where they took Bellamy this season for a while, but in the end, this is the best version of him. “When you start with a character that shot the chancellor, you expect him to be wild. There have been a lot of surprises in Season 5, but I don’t think he’s done anything out of character.”

In response to a question about Bellamy and Clarke being separated for six years, Taylor said that absence “makes the heart grow sadder.” (“I’ve been radioing [Bellamy] for-f*cking-ever,” Taylor teased her co-lead, to which Morley indignantly defended, “I never check my radio!”)

As to what Clarke is thinking of saying into her radio when she pauses after saying “I just want to say—” in the Season 5 trailer, Taylor wasn’t sure. She shared that in that scene Clarke had run out of water and thought she was going to die. Morley added that he hates it when the writers leave unfinished sentences in the script, because he doesn’t always know what Bellamy is holding back in those cases.

When Bellamy and Clarke finally meet each other again, “it’s overwhelming,” said Taylor, and “the way the reunion comes about is through a different avenue than you might expect,” Morley added. Multiple cast members, including Taylor and Tasya Teles, praised the reunion scene.

After reuniting, things between Bellamy and Clarke aren’t exactly easy, however. Their relationship is “turbulent,” according to Taylor, “with lots of ups and downs.” “It’s a very raw version of the two of them,” Morley added. Fans don’t need to worry that Bellamy and Clarke have lost their trust for each other over the six years they were apart, though. According to Morley, at this point their trust is “baked into their DNA,” while Taylor said that “seeing each other again really renews their trust and love for each other.”