The 100 5×13 “Damocles, Part 2” blew up the world. For real this time. We lost some friends and picked up some new ones along the way, and headed off into the new, exciting, scary unknown. Here is our review of the season 5 finale.

It’s the end of the world. Again. What is presumably the last surviving members of the human race have taken refuge in space. Again. A new day of humanity dawns. Again. Third time’s the charm, right?!

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Related: The 100 showrunner Jason Rothenberg says goodbye to Marper and sets up “weird, different, fun” season 6

Season 5 of The 100 partially existed to prove that old habits die hard. The characters and the audience assumed that a hard reset would somehow fix the problems inherent to our species, but we were all wrong. Back on the surface, everyone fell back right into the same patterns of violence and war, and humanity once again proved to be its own worst enemy.

(If nothing else, The 100 is a powerful commentary on how much of a plague humanity is on our poor, over-encumbered planet. Good riddance that they are all gone now. The the Age of the Sand Worms can begin!)

But The 100 season 5 also existed to prove the importance of making a choice and taking a stand, and actively choosing to be better. “There are no good guys” proved true insofar as ‘good’ isn’t something you are, it’s something you choose. Every day. Every moment.

Do better than you did yesterday. Be the good guys. Choose.

Monty Green understood this. Monty, the one human who would not fight, the one who understood exactly what it would take to break cycle, chose to be good, and he chose to devote his life to goodness — for himself and Harper, and for the human race.

Monty didn’t give his people a second chance to survive. He gave them a second chance to live. Now, we just have to hope they take it.

As the old world burns away, two suns rise from the ashes to usher in the Second Dawn of humanity. Together.

Here is my review of The 100 season 5 finale “Damocles, Part 2.”

’The 100’ season 5: The season of awakening

“END BOOK 1.”

Wow. That closing title almost gave me more chills than the end scene itself. Talk about a statement!

After the season 4 finale, it felt like the end of the show as we knew it, with season 5 essentially being The 100 2.0 (from the ashes, it would rise). And sure, in some ways, season 5 really was a ‘new’ version of the show – it certainly promised new versions of the characters, and it delivered. But, significantly, nothing had actually, fundamendally changed: The 100 season 5 gave every character a new part to play in the same production. The players changed, but the story remained the same.

(Even the finale was ultimately an echo of last year’s, including many of the exact same story beats: impending fiery apocalypse; a countdown; a near-miss rocket escape; Murphy and Monty carrying each other through the woods; a bittersweet gazing out of a spaceship window; a character sacrificing themselves for their friends, etc.)

Having now seen the season in its entirety, it seems clear that the point of season 5 was to show that a hard reset simply wouldn’t work. No, all of humanity’s problems can’t be solved by unplugging the Earth and turning it back on again. There are no magic fixes on The 100, and it would be disingenuous for the show to suggest that we as a species could just stumble onto a solution for all our problems without actively addressing the inherent issues that gave us those problems in the first place.

The point of The 100 season 5 was that humanity screwed up the world, was given a second chance, and promptly screwed everything up all over again. Because that is what humanity does. The entirety of human history is proof.

But The 100 season 5 was also the season in which everyone became aware of the cycle of violence that has defined humanity so far. (Not to brag, but, called it.) Season 5 was when everyone realized that the only way to break this cycle is to actively, collectively decide to to so. You can’t break a habit until you recognize that habit. And you can’t break a habit unless you want to.

“Your mistake was liking power,” Diyoza tells Octavia in this episode. And it was. Hers, and every other leader throughout history who has incited violence in an egocentric quest for power, or greatness, or glory.

In so many ways The 100 season 5 was an echo of previous seasons, but the key difference was that the cycle of violence was finally made textual – through characters like Jasper, Monty, Kane, Indra, Clarke, Bellamy, and Madi. And they only noticed the cycle because Praimfaya should have been the launch-point for a ‘new age,’ but it wasn’t, because everyone fell right back into the same old patterns.

Throughout the season, the characters have been slowly waking up to the circularity of their own conflicts, one by one. In the finale, everyone who assembles on that bridge to determine the future of the human race have acknowledged the truth of the cycle, and have more-or-less vowed to end it and move on to something new and better. The episode literally ends with Bellamy and Clarke waking up, at the dawning of a new day.

Monty. The key to hope and peace and possibility. The one who always gave all of himself to his friends (omon gon oson), who chose a happy life and who dedicated his last years to giving his friends a chance to do the same.

Monty’s goodbye message was in so many ways an extension of Jasper’s suicide note, but with one important distinction: where Jasper’s vision was one of despair, Monty’s was one of hope. He wasn’t tagging himself out of the fight because he believed it was pointless. He believed in his friends. He believed in the future. He believed in Bellamy and Clarke as the heralds of a new and better era of humanity.

Can they be the good guys? Can they break the cycle? Can they show humanity a better way?

They’ve tried and failed before. Perhaps they’ll try and fail again. Season 6 is a long hiatus away, and I’m not making promises or predictions.

But I do have hope.

Heda Madi of House Clarke, First of Her Name, Breaker of Cycles

There are so many plot threads to tie up in this episode, but let’s start with the person who is going to pick up a lot of these threads and carry them forward: Madi GRIFFIN (hashtag I cried), who is now the official Heda of Humanity.

“Damocles, Part 2” is a big episode for Madi. She takes her place as Commander, drawing on the strength of the Flame to lead and command her people, and she unlocks a new bonus feature: the ability to access certain thoughts or memories on purpose, rather than just receiving random info-dumps whenever the Flame feels like it.

With Gaia as her Seda, Madi begins her journey towards mastering the Flame, and hopefully through her, we’ll finally be able to discover what it can actually do, and what it will allow her to achieve in season 6.

But this episode also forces us to ask ourselves: who is the ‘real’ Madi, and what effect does the Flame actually have on her personality?

Standing in the village, with the Eligius prisoners on their knees, Madi orders her people to kill them all, in retaliation for the people they lost. She does not say the words “blood must have blood,” but she may as well have.

But, interestingly, when Bellamy asks her if putting her enemies to death is the Flame’s doing, she tells him it’s not. Do we believe her? At this point, I’m not sure even Madi knows who is in control of her brain (which is terrifying), and that moment seemed pure Flame for sure.

And yet, remember initial wild child Madi who caught Clarke in a bear trap and came at her with a knife? The Madi who shot two Eligius prisoners in cold blood to save SpaceKru? The Madi who refused to play meek and hide her abilities from Octavia? None of that was the Flame’s doing.

Pre-Flame Madi was brave, and kind, and compassionate. She was willing to spare the Eligius prisoners when they might be “good guys.” But she also proved herself willing and able to incapacitate and kill her enemies, when she considered them enemies, long before she got the Flame in her head. Long before she met Clarke, even.

It seems like season 5 will be a story of Madi trying to wrestle back control of her conscious from the Flame. But where does Madi end and the Flame begin? I’m not sure that answer is as clear as we might think it would be.

In the end, the person who serves as the voice of reason (and has done all season, bless) is Bellamy, Madi’s self-appointed advisor — the Kane to her insert-leader-du-jour-here — who makes good on his promise to stand by her side and protect her, even from herself.

(I found it telling that, earlier in the episode, Bellamy and Echo stood together to protect her against Octavia, but while Echo was protecting ‘Heda,’ Bellamy was protecting Madi. Like he promised Clarke he would.)

Bellamy Blake has come a long way from shooting the Chancellor and hitching a ride on the dropship to protect his sister, at the potential cost of the lives of everyone on the Ark. And as much as we’ve lamented the loss of ‘the 100,’ as a group and a concept, I like that their story is book-ended with Bellamy, whose actions in so many ways defined those early episodes and whose actions this season have been the exact inverse of that.

This is a Bellamy who, for better or worse, has broken out of his own cycle, going from being ready to burn the world to the ground for his sister in season 1 to genuinely wanting a part of her dead in season 6. This is a Bellamy who recognizes a cycle when he sees one, and is now determined for the rest of humanity to follow his lead.

And so we end at the beginning, with Bellamy telling Madi the story of the 100: “We’ve been here before. We landed in someone else’s home, and we went to war. You can execute them because they’re the enemy, or you can break the cycle. You can be better than them. You can be better than us. The choice is yours.”

Be better. Be the good guy. Choose.

Of course before she can, the Deus Ex Damocles rudely interrupts them. So, instead, Madi makes the choice to save her enemies, which really seems even more significant.

She brings them onto the dropship with her own people, and a later montage shows everyone huddled in the corridors, Wonkru and Eligius side by side with no difference but the colors of their clothes. A new apocalypse, a new Wonkru. And a new leader, for a new age.

How Madi will differ from the leaders that came before her, and how they might avoid season 6 cycling back to a new ‘us’ against Eligius III’s ‘them,’ remains to be seen.

Blodreina is dead, long live …?

The symbolic death of Blodreina in “Damocles, Part 1,” when she offered herself up to the oson on the battlefield, has left a big question mark in the place Octavia used to be.

What is she going to be now, when Blodreina is gone and the girl she used to be is ‘dead’? How will she live with herself – and how will others live with her? I’m excited to see that story. I wonder how it will compare to Jaha in season 4.

One thing is certain: Octavia is done playing Blodreina. The magic words “Wonkru is broken” shattered her illusion that Blodreina was a necessary evil that her people needed her to be.

Perhaps Octavia’s most redeemable trait is that she genuinely had convinced herself that, as she told Indra a few episodes ago, “I am what’s best for my people.” And the second she realized that this wasn’t true, that it hadn’t been true for a long time, she gave it all up without a second thought. The power, the control, the ego.

All through this episode, she is meek. Accepting. She bows to Madi without hesitation. When Indra says, “We’re all the Commander’s army now,” Octavia says nothing. When Madi says, “We charge on my command,” all she gives Madi is her deference. Because that is now what she believes is best for her people. “Take us home.”

The only stand Octavia makes in this episode is abandon her own safety to find Abby, and offer her help. Abby and Octavia’s relationship, as we learned in “The Dark Year,” is complicated beyond words, and Octavia was not necessarily the person at fault for making it so.

As she asks Abby: “So it’s okay for me to be a monster, but not you?” And that’s a fair question. Abby put that burden on Octavia, and they both know it.

Octavia doesn’t offer understanding. Neither of them offer forgiveness. But Octavia, having heard and understood Bellamy’s words, offers to help Abby save Kane’s life. It is a brief, but beautiful end to their journey this season – and who would have ever thought that The 100 would give us a meaningful Abby-Octavia storyline about them both being monsters? I am as ever in awe of where this show takes its characters.

Finally, Octavia and Diyoza (kind of) kiss and make up, saying the words that, perhaps a bit regrettably, were already revealed in the awesome thematic promo for the season: “One garden, two serpents. Eden never stood a chance.”

The fact that they’re both still around (and don’t forget about baby Hope!) certainly makes for a messier and more interesting story than if they’d just been killed off at the end of the season like this show’s (semi-)antagonists tend to be. Instead, they both get to live with what they’ve done and who they are, in a world where the means did not get justified by their intended end.

(Sidenote: I am so happy both Diyoza and Shaw made it out of this season alive!)

And, most gut-wrenchingly of all, Octavia has to live in a world where she says “I love you, big brother,” and Bellamy doesn’t say it back. He can’t. He does love her, but not the part of her that sentenced him to death. And, like Octavia says, “that’s fair.”

Probably my favorite (okay, second-favorite) scene of the episode. So much devastation. The Blake storyline has been strong all season, and ended in a beautifully incomplete, broken place.

What can they be to each other now? I don’t know. But it needs to be Octavia (fully de-Blodreina-ized, looking so much like her pilot self it’s almost unnerving) that takes steps to repair their relationship, if it is to be repaired.

Two for the road

Well. What is there to say about Monty and Harper? So much that there will be an entire article dedicated to these wonderful, brave, smart, compassionate, under-utilized characters.

They stayed awake. They chose each other. They lived happily ever after.

I never like saying goodbye to characters, but all you can really hope for is a happy ending. Who would have thought The 100 writers had it in them? Certainly, if anyone deserved it, it was Harper and Monty, one of the best and most drama-free couples the show has ever had.

I love that it was their choice, initially, to take those 10 years for themselves. And I love that, when those 10 years were up, they chose to take responsibility for their friends by staying awake, and working on a solution, for however long it took. Even if it took their whole lives.

As far as Monty is concerned, it was the conclusion to a beautiful journey, even if he didn’t have nearly enough screen time in season 5 as I would have liked. It goes without saying that this season was not either of their best, and particularly Harper suffered for that.

I was joking earlier this season that she might as well be a ghost for all that she got to say and do; when she was on screen, she rarely interacted with anyone, and she certainly didn’t have much of a presence beyond being Monty’s moral support. And that was a shame, because she was always so much more than her romance with Monty.

I wish she’d had a story this year. I wish Harper’s final season had been one of triumph (even subtly), rather than redundancy. I wish Chelsey Reist had gotten a bit more time to shine before bowing out. I wish, I wish.

However. Everything that made Harper great before season 5 still made her great, and it all added up to her much-deserved and, frankly, epic send-off.

Her lack of storyline in season 5 doesn’t undo or even diminish the power of her ending: that Harper should be one half of the cosmic Adam and Eve predicted in the pilot, that she should be the one to get a happy ending, to grow old and die with the man who loved her by her side, is a gift to everything she fought to become, everything she went through, and everything she stood for.

I appreciate it, and treasure it, and for all our talk of characters “deserving better,” I am always going to remember Harper as the one who actually got what she ‘deserved.’

And Monty. Where to even begin? Pulled into the adventure by Finn Collins, of all people, and instantly making life better for everyone – not just because he was kind, and helpful, but because he was smart and brave. Before they had the adults, before they had Raven, they had Monty.

And they always had Monty, whenever they needed him. Whatever Monty was going through, whether it was the Mount Weather trauma, the death of his father, having to kill his mother (!) to save Octavia or killing her again (!) to save humanity, Monty always did whatever it took to help his friends. In space, he saved them all by growing algae. In the bunker, he saved Bellamy, Indra and Gaia by stepping into the ring himself to offer Octavia a better way.

And in the end, he sacrificed the rest of his life to save humanity one final time. He showed them the way – to a new home, to a new future, to a new way of defining themselves – and he led by example. He chose happiness. He devoted his life to making sure his friends had the chance to be as happy as he was.

RIP Monty. If there ever was a hero on The 100, it was you.

Bellamy and Clarke: The leaders of tomorrow?

Not many words were spoken between Bellamy and Clarke in the finale. Madi really smoothed over what could have been a long and drawn-out bitter conflict by telling Bellamy about the radio messages, and how much Clarke cares about him – leaving him to die notwithstanding – and I think Bellamy is happy to accept that consolation.

He is already processing the fact that his sister sentenced him to near-certain death; he sees a way to minimize conflict and he takes it.

We also have a neat but curiously non-committal moment between them, when Bellamy refuses to leave his friends behind to die – “not again” – and a million emotions rush over Clarke’s face as she realizes how much leaving her behind affected him.

Maybe she is also a little hurt over the fact that was able to leave her then, while he can’t leave SpaceKru now. Maybe she finally gets how he felt when Clarke left with Madi, making him an acceptable loss in the quest to save her new family.

All of that might be going on inside Clarke’s head, but we don’t know, because they don’t talk about it. We also don’t get to find out if Clarke would actually have been able to leave Bellamy behind to die again, because Monty, Emori and Murphy arrive just in the nick of time (maybe they didn’t want her to have to make that choice, because she likely would have shut the door, painful as it would have been).

I hope they will eventually get to have an actual conversation about all of this. Because the backlog of conversations they need to have is getting pretty hefty.

That said, the episode does circle back around to them at the very end, hammering home before the long hiatus that yes, this story still has Bellamy, Clarke and their dynamic at its center.

And I think the significance of this finale circling back to Bellamy and Clarke, of Monty and Harper choosing to wake only them and let them share what was initially going to be a vlog, which turned into a warning and ended up being a final goodbye, goes beyond the technical necessity of the text acknowledging their bond after a season that showed them prioritizing their bonds with other people.

Whenever someone says that Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship is central to this show, I always take it to mean that Bellamy and Clarke represent that all-important balance and unity that The 100 regularly implies that humanity needs to achieve to improve.

I’ve used metaphors like ‘two sides of the same coin’ and ‘mirror images’ before to describe what Bellamy and Clarke are to each other, which is essentially variations of the canonical ‘head and heart’ metaphor. They are two halves of a whole. They are opposites and inversions of each other, and ultimately, the push-and-pull of their characters (and the narrative upheaval that results from this) tells me that their story is about them finding a way to ‘together,’ whatever that means.

Bellamy and Clarke’s journey, to me, represents the show’s larger message: that the only way we, as a species, can find a way forward is through unity and compromise and understanding. We need each other to be the best versions of ourselves, just like them. Bellamy and Clarke’s relationship should not be reduced to its symbolic meaning, of course, but I do think that they stand for something bigger than themselves.

And Monty and Harper choosing to wake only Clarke and Bellamy, even if initially their intent was very different, tells me that, after a lifetime of reflection, they too realized that it is in the balance and cooperation between these two people that humanity might be able to find a better way.

Stepping back from the lofty symbolism, this also speaks to Monty and Harper’s specific, subjective experience. Arguably, the ‘society’ they have been a part of that functioned best was the one briefly led by Clarke and Bellamy in season 1.

The delinquents were promised a “second chance” they never actually got, but for a small moment in time, it really looked like things could be better for them on the ground than it had been on the Ark. Bellamy and Clarke united them. Bellamy and Clarke protected them. Bellamy and Clarke led them.

Over the span of a lifetime, I’m sure that memory must have stood out in their minds, as one of the few periods of genuine optimism and hopefulness and possibility that they experienced. I think Monty also understood, better than most, how much Clarke and Bellamy have needed each other by their side ever since, and how much of what went wrong could be attributed to their physical or ideological separation.

Certainly, in the context of season 5, it made very little sense to wake only Bellamy and Clarke (and for Monty and Harper, it might not have made sense to wake Clarke at all), considering they’d just spent six years with SpaceKru. At the very least, they might have also woken up Raven. And, if not Octavia, they might have considered Indra, Gaia, and of course Madi, the official leader.

But no. They woke Clarke and Bellamy. Their leaders; and later, the leaders they believe are humanity’s best option. And the leaders they trust with their child.

So Monty instructs his son to wake only them, because it is not only the act of telling them to “be the good guys” that matters — it is that they hear his message together, just the two of them. Monty’s final stand for humanity is to unite these two humans, the best humans he knows, and arm them with both knowledge and a shared moment of raw emotion that will bond them moving forward.

And that’s exactly where Bellamy and Clarke land in the finale: centering each other, holding on to each other, entering a new age of man, and show, together. Everything else can wait. All of the emotional baggage that they still haven’t sorted out can wait. This is their time to look forward, not backwards. To let Monty take the wheel, one last time. (I miss him already.)

Ultimately, what Monty and Harper leave the human race with is a legacy of peace, their own lives being proof that peace is possible. Their messages hold Bellamy and Clarke to a promise: be the good guys. Choose to be good. Together.

Monty and Harper’s legacy

But of course Monty and Harper left the human race one more gift.

JORDAN. His name is Jordan.

What is hilarious is that ever since Shannon Kook was first announced, the fans loved this ‘Lucas’ character he was supposedly playing. We knew absolutely nothing about him (not even his name!). But we loved him, and we were right to.

First of all, any child of Monty Green and Harper McIntyre would obviously be a precious cinnamon roll™. I recently interviewed Jason Rothenberg, and he describes this character as “innocent,” which feels just perfect, both based on his life experience up until now and who he must be at his core.

I mean, “I’ve never met anyone before. So I clearly suck at it.” Best. First impression. Ever.

Of course no one on The 100 is purely good, but Jordan? He might be the closest candidate since perhaps Sinclair.

And of course, speaking of good: not only is Jordan the living legacy of Monty and Harper, but he also carries on Jasper’s name, thematically linking these stories together and, maybe more importantly, serving as the physical manifestation of everything Jasper stood for. Friendship, bravery, kindness. The love of Monty and Harper; the love of Monty and Jasper. His father’s brains, his mother’s kindness, Jasper’s name. Jordan Jasper Green carries all of that forward.

Jordan is also the end result of a long chain of thematically significant events: Jasper’s suicide note to Monty calling out the cycle of violence; Monty refusing to perpetuate said cycle; Monty and Harper actively choosing peace; Monty giving his life for those 400+ people on that ship, and demanding that in turn, they choose to be the good guys. Jordan exists to remind us of all of that. And, having grown up on Harper and Monty’s stories, he probably knows it. (But, no pressure!)

I’m so excited to see more of Jordan next year. Not just as a legacy, but as a person. I wonder how he’s going to play into the group dynamic, and how much (hopefully a lot) it’s going to matter to everyone that he’s Harper and Monty’s son. Imagine the rest of SpaceKru reacting to that. Imagine Octavia reacting to that.

Seriously. Imagine Octavia’s path to redemption (or at least forgiving herself) coming through a friendship with this last link to Monty and Jasper — arguably the best friends she has ever had, and the people (aside from Bellamy) she has shared the most trauma with — the son of the man who killed his own mother to save her, who told her that she belonged because she was ‘one of the 100.’ That would be an epic long-game exploration of who ‘the 100’ continue to be to each other, and obviously track with Jordan (presumably) shepherding humanity on its road to peace.

There is just so much scope for Jordan within this show, beyond the seemingly obvious role of him being Clarke and Bellamy’s peace coach. But, aside from this Octavia theory that I just accidentally fell in love with, it almost doesn’t matter to me what he does. Shannon Kook is already a great addition to the cast, despite not technically having been in the cast until this episode, so I’m just happy he’s around.

(Also, it’s worth nothing that between Lexa literally ‘living on’ in the Flame and Jordan keeping a part of Monty, Harper and Jasper alive in season 6, we are experiencing a version of The 100 that not only rarely kills major characters but which, when it does, actually uses their deaths to as launch-points for stories about how important they were to those they left behind.)

Previewing ‘The 100’ season 6: A whole new world (and it’s about time!)

The 100 season 5 was the mirror season, in which the heroes stepped through the looking glass and became the villains of their own stories. The season was spent getting them to a point where they recognized that, and actively chose to take a stand: to break their addiction, to break the cycle, and to break away.

The time jump was a great narrative device to push certain characters further ahead in their natural development (Bellamy, Emori, Indra). It also allowed for some big character shifts that needed to be justified through the passing of time (Clarke, Octavia, Echo, Abby). It opened up for interesting stories about friends becoming strangers becoming enemies. It was an incredible season for Octavia Blake, and contained some of my all-time favorite scenes. “Eden” is my favorite episode of the series to date.

But The 100 season 5 proved, definitively, that what holds this story together is who these people are to each other. The moments I felt least connected to the story was when these characters felt least connected to each other. The moments that worked best were the ones that leaned into the tension of ‘who we were vs who we’ve become to each other’ and mined the drama and emotion of that tension.

A possibly unintended side-effect of the time jump, which I certainly could not have predicted, was that, since so much character development happened off-screen, and the first handful of (excellent) episodes were dedicated to revealing all that had changed, there was limited room to evolve characters beyond that point.

Who they had become by the time season 5 started was who they had to remain until the end, otherwise, what would have been the point of changing them in the first place? Who they had become and who they had become to each other had to matter.

For the time jump changes to resonate, some characters had to stay locked in to variations of expository “this is who I am now” posturing for most of the season (with key exceptions — the exploration of Octavia and Bellamy’s relationship was excellent, and did move forward in significant, if tragic ways), while speeding towards another world-breaking, inevitable catastrophe that they were never going to actually be able to prevent.

And, like I said at the start of this review odyssey, The 100 season 5 was necessary to get the characters to the point where they are ready and willing to actively change and be better, to break the pattern, to discover the importance of doing something new. And moving to a brand new planet with the intention of being “the good guys” (or trying to be, anyway) is certainly a good start.

My only real hope for The 100 season 6 is that this newness sticks. That we get new conflicts; new stories; new words for these characters to speak to each other. I want to see Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, Murphy, Abby, Kane, Indra, Octavia, etc look around and react to the world they’re in; react to each other, have conversations of substance, and rediscover who they are to each other and who they want to be.

And I think this is exactly what “Damocles, Part 2” set up, and why it left so many open endings and unresolved tensions. Because those tensions are going to feed right into season 6.

What I also want is to discover and explore this brave new world. I am so deeply curious and excited about this new chapter of The 100’s story. Just how different will it be from Vancouver the world we know (and/or how big is their effects budget)? Are there other inhabitable planets nearby? What is the air like? How much water is there? Are plants edible? Will there be new animals? Landscapes? Types of rocks? Are there aliens — or are our characters in fact the ‘aliens’ now?

And, of course, are the Eligius III descendants still down there? If yes, what are they like? Do they have countries? Do they have schools? Do they have jobs? What do they eat? What do they wear? How do they travel? What are their laws? Is their society one of peace? (Forget aliens; THAT would be the biggest break from the world we know!) How will our group handle that? Who will wake up first? Who will be in charge? Who will choose to be the good guys, and what does that mean? Who will enforce rules and laws, and how?

I JUST WANT TO KNOW ALL THE THINGS. And that genuine excitement I feel trying to imagine all the possibilities, above everything else, has me stoked for The 100 season 6. It also has me stoked for (dare I say it) the hiatus, where we get to wonder and imagine and project all our own wishes and ideas and creativity onto someone else’s story, as is the way of fandom.

After a season of “you are not ready,” I have to say it: I am ready. We are all ready.

Bring on Book 2 of The 100. Bring on the next chapter of humanity’s journey. Show us how to be the good guys.

For your consideration

If anyone’s counting, we are now down to four (!) delinquents: Clarke, Octavia, Murphy and Miller. There are six of the original ‘100’ left, counting Bellamy and Raven. Uhhhh, it’s fine.

In this episode, not one but THREE women ‘stayed behind’ in some capacity to die with their man. That’s three too many women, as far as I’m concerned.

Echo with the bow was super badass.

Diyoza to Clarke: “It’s hard to keep track of whose side you’re on.” It’s funny because it’s TRUE.

”A part of me will always love you.” “Does the other part still wish I was dead?” “The other part wishes a part of you was.” One of the best lines of the season.

“I won’t let my child die, will you?” That was ONE. INSANE. GAMBLE, Clarke. Holy shit. There really isn’t anything she won’t do for Madi.

“My friends, our friends! Madi!” Raven’s desperate shouting at Clarke was heartbreaking. She thought she’d be reuniting with a friend, and she finds a stranger. Clarke signalling her, and Raven knowing exactly what she needed to do to stop McCreary, was a brilliant moment to subtly re-establish their connection, but it’s not enough! I can’t wait to see what Clarke and Raven are to each other in season 6.

RIP McCreary! I will miss his sexy voice, and William Miller’s Twitter gifs. Seriously, what a great villain, and a great presence on the show.

So Gaia is fine. Murphy is fine. But Kane? In a coma, and Clarke isn’t sure why. Are we to believe that cryo fixed him? Or will his coma extend into season 6?

Remember when we were all like “lol what if The 100 goes on for 100 years?” HA HA joke’s on us!

Will we get brand new opening credits in season 6?? With planets?? PLEASE.

Two suns. Second Dawn. Seek higher things. I swear to god if Bill Cadogan is somehow on this planet…

WERE ANYONE ELSE WOKEN UP EARLY? Yes, Jordan has “never met” anyone, but technically we only know the status of Clarke, Bellamy and Madi, right?! What if Murphy is like 75? What if Baby Hope has already been born?! Anything is possible!

And that’s a wrap for The 100 season 5! The show will be back some time in 2019 for season 6 – which, by the way, is likely not the last. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

What did you think about ‘The 100’ season 5 finale?