Cate Cameron/The CW

Oh wow! That kind of goes along with my theory based on what the Mountain Men used on the Reapers and the fact that Lincoln was captured by Reapers and the next time we see him he's in the custody of the Mountain Men, so are the Reapers and the Mountain Men working together?

Yes they are! There is a symbiotic relationship there, even more intense and deeper than it appears right now and we'll begin to really peel the layers back in episode 5. There's not much of it in episode 4. That's when you'll get the bigger answers.

That's so fascinating to me, because you teased this entire relationship and storyline way back, midway through season one when we first saw those carts of bodies in the tunnels with the Reapers. Did you have all of this mythology planned out even way back then?

Yeah, definitely! I knew what the relationship was between Grounder/Reaper/Mountain Men even back then. We refined it since then and added details this season to get into what it really means. The name Reaper is derived from the fact that they reap Grounders. They go out and collect Grounders and bring them to Mount Weather, who needs them. The people in Mount Weather can't survive on the ground without full body Haz-Mat radiation suits, and that's not the most efficient way to move around. Essentially, they got this force to do their dirty work for them. And they feed them.

The last scene of episode 3 really has a lot of answers in it if you unpack it moment by moment. You see the handoff, the Reapers bringing Grounders to the door, you see Dr. Tsing [Rekha Sharma] coming out in her Haz-Mat suit going through the line of Grounders inspecting them like cattle for either the Harvest chamber, or where Lincoln [Ricky Whittle] is headed, the Cerberus project. That's a big clue and we'll find out more about it as we follow Lincoln's storyline. Dark s--t happens to him. And then when the Reapers hand off the Grounders and have done their job, they drop to their knees to get injected with some kind of red chemical. That drug is called Red and it's insanely addictive. That's the reward Reapers get for bringing Grounders in.