The 100’s third season was a rocky one, to say the least. I don’t think it was nearly as disastrous overall as some -- as terribly handled and impossible to overlook as the circumstances of Lexa's death were -- but there were multiple examples of clumsy storytelling, even as the show still had a lot of powerful and effective elements at work as well.

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Still, the perception for many was that Season 4 needed to get the show back on track. And on that score, it did very well, delivering a year that had some trouble spots along the way, but was built on a strong spine, grew to a crescendo as it continued, and was capped off by some of the best material yet for The 100.The 100 is a series that has built a reputation for high stakes, playing for keeps and not backing down from the dark scenarios it creates. And such was the case for Season 4, with it’s main plotline, as Clarke (Eliza Taylor) learned that an impending meltdown of the Earth’s remaining nuclear power plants would cause a second nuclear-level extinction event for the planet. There was no way to even really consider stopping it, so the question became how to survive it? And how many could realistically do so?This being The 100, several possible solutions would go south in a big, terrible way, and the ticking clock element would only get worse, with the countdown to extinction getting shortened along the way. It was a suitably intense scenario and as it became clear there was simply no way to save everyone, big questions were pondered about how you decide who to protect in such a scenario and if you could differentiate between those you’d personally want to live from those you realize could actually contribute the most.Previous seasons had focused on the huge conflicts between those from the Ark and the Grounders – and then built out the conflict between the different factions of the Grounders as well. Season 4 found everyone now in the same boat, as far as an impending threat, but of course that didn’t mean they would suddenly be able to play nice. Plentiful screen time for the likes of Roan (Zach McGowan) and Indra (Adina Porter), plus the introduction of Ilian (Chai Hansen) helped to show some of these perspectives, even though the overall focus remained on the Sky People.One of the bigger issues lingering from Season 3 was the poorly handled depiction of Bellamy (Bob Morley), whose decision to help Pike and his Grounder massacre wasn’t properly motivated and incredibly difficult to come back from. Early on in Season 4, even as his horrible actions weren’t ignored and in fact a motivating factor for him, Bellamy was again given some vexing decision-making moments, in the process making a “few before the many” call that was infuriating. But as Season 4 went on, Bellamy got increasingly better material, including some poignant and important moments with Clarke, Kane (Henry Ian Cusick), Jasper (Devon Bostick) and, most notably, Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) that went a long way towards redeeming the character.As for the other Blake sibling, Octavia’s storyline started out promising (that body bag scene!) as she went as dark as possible in the wake of everything that occurred with losing Lincoln and her vengeance on Pike in Season 3. Things got murky in the middle of the season though, as her dynamic with Illian never really gelled and a half-hearted attempt to show her turning her back on violence felt like the show going through the motions.However, Octavia would be front and center in “Die All, Die Merrily”, one of the show’s best episodes ever and an installment that would kick off a final run of episodes for Season 4 that found The 100 truly on top of its game, delivering one riveting story after another. Even as it became more clear how certain characters could survive this event, the specifics of who would end up where were still in motion, which led to some wonderfully dramatic moments – both quiet ones and some more action-based.Many of The 100 characters got strong material along the way. Murphy (Richard Harmon) has come a long way since this show began, but this season put his dark history with Raven (Lindsey Morgan) back in the spotlight, in a way that managed to have a lot of emotional weight. Meanwhile, Monty (Christopher Larkin)’s love for Harper (Chelsey Reist) and Jasper fueled a lot of his storyline, as he strove to save those closest to him, even when they might not necessarily want to be saved.Ah, Jasper. There was a place where The 100 was sort of stuck in a tricky spot. His entire Season 3 storyline was about how broken he was and seeking to die… but the decision to cut his actual suicide in the Season 3 finale meant his role in Season 4 now felt like everything was being stretched out too far. Yes, his perspective changed somewhat from “This life is horrible, I want to die,” to “This life is horrible, so let’s enjoy ourselves before we embrace death,” but two seasons in a row of Jasper seeking death was one too many and couldn't help but feel redundant on some level. Thankfully though, it all led to a genuinely impactful resolution in “The Other Side."Raven in the meantime has been a character caught in a cycle of pain, though it’s led to some very compelling, varied storylines with the character. In Season 4, she had to deal with the fallout of escaping ALIE – which included, essentially, a superpowered brain, but also some very dire aspects as well. Raven’s a wonderful character, who it’s easy to root for, making it all the more difficult to see her begin to feel maybe her own time was dwindling as well, and she too got a very strong payoff in the aforementioned “The Other Side.”As is unfortunately often the case on the show, the “adult” characters felt a bit adrift or short changed much of the time. It felt off that Abby (Paige Turco) was supposedly suffering the same issues as Raven, yet it was barely mentioned or seemed to affect along the way. More interesting was Abby having to make her own decisions about how far she was willing to go for the greater good, and finding herself in the same kind of circumstances her daughter often does.Kane remained the most dependable, focused character in a lot of ways, always striving to find the least-destructive outcome, but lacking much in the way of a true storyline. As for Jaha (Isaiah Washington), his direct role in ALIE’s ascension felt overlooked and it was hard to not wonder why many might not simply cast him out (if not kill him) after all he’d done – though there was some drama to be had with the idea of this self-righteous guy still coming up with potential solutions, some of which might truly save Sky Crew. It just felt like more people should be outwardly pushing back against him from the start.Warning: Full spoilers The 100: Season 4 below, but you can skip to the verdict for a spoiler-free sum up

As mentioned earlier, those last four episodes of the season were excellent, delivering one huge and impactful scenario after another. This included several big deaths, including the fell swoop of Roan, Luna and Ilian in “Die All, Die Merrily.” While I would have liked to have seen more of Roan, at the same time, his death was part of a standout sequence in a standout episode, and most of the characters who died this season felt like they did so at the “right” time, following some Season 3’s blunders in this regard (Lexa being the most blatant) – and we even got to see Sinclair (Alessandro Juliani), one of those blunders, appear again in an emotional manner, thanks to Raven’s visions in "The Other Side."The 100 does sometime still move too quickly for its own good, and there were times where it felt like we skipped a couple of beats. Harper’s wish to die and Luna’s “everyone should die!” feelings were both set up to some extent and you can see the building blocks being put into place, but both could have used even just a scene or two more to show the full evolution to where both characters went to full sell these big switch ups.However, the strengths definitely outweighed the weaknesses here. As is usually the case, The 100 played brutally fair with the stakes it raised, even beyond that “only one survivor” Culling - where most shows would have managed to dues ex machina at least one or two others out of dying. There wasn’t going to be any way to stop the death wave, and many innocents would indeed die as a result. The introduction of Becca’s rocket was a cool way to not only save several characters -- as depicted in the nail-biting finale -- but also to bring the element of outer space back to the show, after it had fallen by the wayside after Season 1.As it all wrapped up, ending the season on that big six-year time jump felt like absolutely the right move at this time and a great way to shake up the dynamic now that the show's been on for several years - while finally letting these "teen" characters age into adulthood.