Mirror Universe
Jason Rothenberg teases the final destiny for humanity in The 100
FOR THE ENTIRE SEVEN-YEAR run of The 100, the last remnants of humanity have had their asses kicked… a lot. Post-apocalyptic landscapes will often do that, but watching Clarke Griffin (Eliza Taylor) try to lead her fellow survivors, and then followers, to some semblance of peaceful existence has been a dark journey.
With the show now in its seventh and final season, executive producer/showrunner Jason Rothenberg tells Red Alert that bringing their myriad of epic sci-fi storylines to a close has really been a work in progress for three seasons. “The thematic ending of Monty [Christopher Larkin] telling Clarke and the rest of the survivors to do better, and try to find a meaning for the endless violence and death and survival drama that we’ve been unspooling for these now seven seasons, was definitely becoming clearer by the end of season five,” Rothenberg explains. “This season we find Clarke and the rest of them going, literally, to the ends of the universe to try to bring and keep their family together. So, the ending answers the question as to whether or not that’s gonna happen.”
Unabashedly ambitious with its narrative topics, this season continues to tackle religious zealotry, introduces an interstellar subway system called the Anomaly, and AI that can hijack human hosts. “I feel like that has been one of the greatest joys for me, being able to swim in all these different sci-fi arenas,” Rothenberg says. “This has always been a sci-fi show. It’s always been an adventure on some level. And we really just wanted to see how far we could take it before we jumped the shark… even though some people think we did that a long time ago,” he jokes.
Rothenberg teases that so much of what Clarke, Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), Bellamy (Bob Morley) and the rest have to traverse will come at them via the Sanctum, and a newly introduced planet led by a charismatic leader played by Neal McDonough (Agent Carter). “They’re definitely connected in a way that becomes clearer as the season unfolds. Sanctum has a big problem on its hands,” he adds. “And there’s some really interesting pickles that that puts them in. They can’t kill Sheidheda because the people still think it’s Russell. And if they kill Russell then the true believers of the Prime will revolt.” How that evolves will have a huge impact on Indra (Adina Porter), Murphy (Richard Harmon) and others.
The new players who also have a pretty unhealthy outlook on worship and control don’t make a great case for their way of life, either. “It’s sort of a cautionary tale for what
This season we find Clarke and the rest of them going, literally, to the ends of the universe
might happen writ large to all of the human race if things don’t go well by the end of the season.”
Rothenberg says what’s at the root of all of these stories playing out is an opportunity to really take a cold, hard look at ourselves. “We’re holding a mirror up to humanity and saying, ‘Here we are. This is what we will do to survive, and to protect the people that we love.’ And sometimes turning our heroes into fairly villainous characters because of the things that they’re doing to protect the people that they love. I think there’s definitely lessons to be drawn from the show as to how to get through the times that we’re living through now.”
With the rest of the 16-episode season unfolding over the summer, Rothenberg says he’s looking forward to savouring the audience reactions, and can’t help anticipating how the ending he and his writers have crafted is going to be received.
Not wanting to spoil, he only says: “In my mind, the ending of any story is really what the whole thing has been about from the beginning. The moral of the story doesn’t come until the final curtain falls. So that is really something that I think becomes clear and resonant by the way we end this thing.
“I’m just so happy that we’ll get to put a punctuation mark on the story and that it won’t just be one of those things that ended before the creators wanted it to,” he says in closing. “Endings are hard, and we’ll see where ours falls on the continuum of those shows that got to choose their own ending.
“I hope, obviously, people are satisfied by it,” he adds. “But I do need to be able to walk away from this at the end of the experience and say, ‘I told the story that I wanted to tell, come hell or high water.’” TB
The 100 season seven is airing on Wednesdays on The CW in the US; UK TX details are TBC.