The 100 fans had really embraced the character of Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) this season, who became increasingly important in recent weeks. And there was also a lot of support for the relationship between Lexa and Clarke (Eliza Taylor), as the two young women bonded as fellow leaders, and developed a burgeoning romance…

Eliza Taylor as Clarke and Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa in The 100.

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Lexa in The 100.

…and then bam, Lexa gives up on all of Clarke’s people she was trying to rescue from Mount Weather, making a truce that would save and protect her fellow Grounders at the expense of Clarke’s “Sky People” that she had allied with.It was a gut punch for Clarke and for many The 100 fans, and left a big “What now?” feeling going into the season finale next week, given Clarke just lost nearly all of her support. The 100’s executive producer/showrunner Jason Rothenberg spoke to me about Lexa’s big choice, why she made it and the future for the character – especially given Debnam-Carey is a series regular on the upcoming Walking Dead spinoff and any appearance on The 100 would need to be worked out with them. So will we see her in the season finale? And if not, what are the chances we'll see her again next season?That’s me. Otherwise known as Satan.I feel like it’s an honor to arouse so much passion, one way or another.First of all, I think Alycia [Debnam-Carey] crushed the episode. I think she did great for us all season but this past week, in particular, I just thought she was outstanding in every scene she was in. That scene in particular, she definitely showed, in her eyes, how hard that choice was for her. I ultimately don’t think it was a surprise. She’s been saying, really since we met her, that basically love is weakness and so that’s really what she upheld in that moment. She put her people first, always – [including] letting the missile fall on Tondc. I just had a long Twitter back and forth with another critic online. She didn’t understand how someone who could let the missile fall on Tondc would then do what she did in the last episode. For me, those two moments are 100% consistent. She let the missile fall on Tondc in this sort of Churchillian, very difficult moment, which was designed to allow them to win the war. Essentially, that decision [in the last episode] was also about winning the war. She won, in that moment. It wasn’t just a retreat. I think maybe she just interpreted it as a retreat as opposed to, essentially, she struck a deal with Cage. Cage offered her a chance to end the reaping forever, because they no longer need Grounder blood because they have the 44’s bone marrow, and that’ll be enough to cure them all. So the reaping is over and they’re going to have a truce. I wouldn’t say peace because peace is hard to have with someone like Cage, but certainly a truce with their greatest enemy. All it cost her was the sky people. I don’t think ultimately it was a hard choice for her to make. It was an easy decision to make. But I think emotionally, obviously, it costs her because she does care for Clarke.Yeah, I think in that moment, she could have stormed the breech and tried to make it through that door and taken huge losses. We know essentially they had all those gunners up on the ridge. You can assume they had a similar situation inside that tunnel. There was no guarantee they would make it through that tunnel, frankly. So she made that choice. The only reason Cage offered the deal was because they got that door open. You’re right, a lot of this was played off screen, obviously by design, because we wanted it to be a surprise. But had we told the story, from a different character’s perspective, we would have seen the fact that Cage sent Emerson out with those shooters and said basically, if they get that door open, I’m authorizing you to make this deal. So their first order of business was to make sure they couldn’t get that door open in that one-minute window. When they failed, Emerson made the offer and Lexa took it.

Continue to Page 2 as Rothenberg discuses Clarke’s next move in the season finale, whether Lexa is in the episode and if there’s a potential future for the character in Season 3.